Is Passion a Solution For Depression?

Do you live with depression?

Looking for a light at the end of the tunnel?

Maybe you know the reason that you are depressed.  Maybe you don’t know why you are depressed. You just are. Clinical depression doesn’t have to have reasons.

It feels like falling in a bottomless hole.

Whether depression comes with understandable circumstances, or creeps up on it’s victims for no apparent reason, depression hurts.

Physical pain accompanies the emotional pain.  The pain is a stresser that literally erodes your health.

While teaching cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation to 100’s of patients over a decade, I always looked for ideas that would help depression without resorting to drugs.

The drug inserts you get, are not nearly so alarming as the drug information that is available to your physician.

The side effects of anti depressant drugs are worrisome to say the least.  For the aging patient with compromised health, they could be deadly.

It is best to try many natural methods before risking these drugs.  There were three side effects I repeatedly observed.

• The families often reported an INCREASE in moody-dark behavior.
• I cared for many senior patients who experienced dizzy spells shortly after starting this type of medication.  Three of those patients suffered devastating falls.
• Patients routinely complained of thick, hard to expel mucous only days after starting these drugs.  If you have lung disease, you want to avoid anything that increases your work of breathing.

So what are some natural anti depressants?

• Good old fashioned SUNSHINE is the best possible anti-depressant available!  It doesn’t matter if it is filtered through a cloud covered sky, either!
• Many well respected studies have been done using “Smiling Therapy”.  Participants smiled at themselves in a mirror for 10 minutes a day.  Smiling is serious medicine for the blues.
• Laughter is after all the very best medicine!
• Passion can ignite a love of life so strong that all signs of depression are burned away.

I took care of a patient for many years who was drowning in depression when I first met her.  Her business partner had left her with a debt what was eating up her entire retirement income.

“It is my responsibility”, she said.

Ka iwi was living on noodles, hotdogs, and coffee.  She couldn’t breathe, and she couldn’t afford her electric bill if she used her home oxygen machine.

I bluntly told her that she wouldn’t last long living like that, and she better do something to change it.

She confided in me and told me the whole story.  I encouraged her to swallow her pride and humble herself to bankruptcy if that is what it took.

“After all, you won’t live long enough to pay that debt at this rate, anyway”, I said.  “What do you want to do with the time you have left?  Do you have any other passions that might be worth living for?”

Ka iwi never told me how she resolved her financial issues, but I watched her regain her spark almost overnight.  She bought several ukuleles and now teaches the ancient Hawaiian culture to kids in her community.

She is passionate about life again.

The kids are blessed to have her in their lives, passing along what her elders taught to her.

Passion most definitely has been the solution to depression for many people.

Find your talents and share them with the world.  You may find that there is still passion living within you.

Your passion could be the light at the end of your tunnel of depression.

Share your passion with us!  We’d love to hear about it!

Many blessings,

Carrie

PS- I’d love to stay in touch!  Subscribe in the box on the upper right side of this page!

PPS– Remember everyday:

1. Relax and Release tension
2. Take deeep breaths
3. Be active in a way that adds joy to your life

Plus pure water ~whole foods~sunshine~and laughter

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