beyond depression ...

It is my intention to reflect insights and share the challenges in life through writing.  What I write is fairly eclectic and I try to express parts of life that resonate with others.  Below is a poem that was written as an example of journaling.  It was discovered while I was presenting a seminar on JOURNALING, The Path To Self Discovery.  The source of the poem is unknown to me.

Depression is a normal part of our cycle.  We are very confident and secure, then slip into feeling some what secure, down to feeling negative and lack luster, and finally into a depressive state.  This is a cycle that we can visit within an hour, a day, a month or a year.  We generally become aware of this emotional rotation early on when we begin our menstruation cycle.  This same cycle, if we pay attention, can rotate emotionally throughout our lives.  Clearly, this experience with depression is not the same as clinical depression.  Nevertheless, all of us at some time or another feels the darkness of the descent into depression. 

Journaling is an excellent way to release pent up fears and anxiety, a way to express the loss of personal power and the feelings of invisibility.  Once written, a poem can be thrown away, burned, or kept as a reminder that you can and will survive.

depression

hovers and hangs

over me like a living thing.

it swallows me

it starts at my

edges and takes

small bites -

then keeps eating

away in my

head - til i

am no more.

i am consumed

by this thing.

i want to fight back

but

i let it take me -

it's so easy to be

eaten alive -

bit by bit

by words

by anger

by resentment

till there is

nothing

author unknown

WRITING FROM LIFE by author Susan Wittig Albert suggests how to Tell Your Soul's Story.  Within this  wonderful book there is a writing by a woman who came to the end of one part of her journey, but eventually found the beginning of another.

"Today, a year later, I feel that I am on another journey, one that has shown me glimpses of adventures ahead.  I am finding new friends to travel with and am learning to trust myself to do what needs doing.  I venture daily into unknown territory both physically and spiritually.  No one walks so closely with death without being forever changed, but I find I am moving forward more easily every day.  Like Robert Frost, I have miles to go before I sleep.  ---Marjorie C.

A journal can be your best companion while walking through your darkest hour and later for sharing your climb into a promising light.  The importance is found in the release of deep feelings rather than retaining them within where physcial illness can grow.