Posts tagged Guess
How Much Stuff is Enough?
Sep 3rd
The stereotypical person wants more. Being satisfied has been out for a long time. The prevalent mindset has been to long for what you don’t have. Unfortunately, happiness is now based on obtaining more of what you want rather than being satisfied with what you have.
Almost eighteen months ago my wife and I sold our dream home, gave away or sold a good percentage of our furniture, put our stuff into a storage unit and moved our family (including four young children) into the basement of another family with four children.
About a year ago we made the move from the midwest to the far south to assist with the startup of a new church campus in the central Florida area. Since our rental home is furnished, we brought with us only two packed cars and a twelve foot trailer for a family of six.
Fast forward to later this week. After almost a year in Florida we’re going to be moving from our furnished rental home into another home that is unfurnished. It’s time to have our remaining stuff extracted from our storage unit and shipped down to be reunited with us.
However, after being without our things for almost a year and a half, my wife and I question how much of our stuff do we really need? Quite frankly, only a little bit of our stuff and no mortgage have been nice. Part of me wants to send the stuff directly to a charitable organization.
With four children (soon to be five!), we are not quite at the level of being able to commit to purchasing and living in a Tiny House designed by Jay Shafer. However, I must say that the thought of reducing our living quarters to nearly the same size as the trailer that I used to move us to Florida last year is enticing. I guess it will have to wait until we are empty nesters.
Help I’m Depressed – How to Fight Depression and Win
Sep 1st
“I’m depressed” – till this day I remember how I realized that depression came to my life, and that it was there to stay. All life’s colors suddenly dimmed, and I was left alone with cold, black void that consumed my soul and feelings.
God, I was only a teenager back then – and that made things were even more complicated. Then, as the years passed, I learned how to cope and finally defeat that condition, and now I want to share my knowledge with you.
Please, don’t think I’m one of those that say “oh, it’ll pass. I remember when I was your age, I felt just the same”. No, I won’t be telling you that. Although I can pretty much guess how you feel, depression is a personal tragedy. Nobody really knows how horrible it is, especially the people who have never been depressed. To them, your “I’m depressed” sounds more like “Oh, I have a bad mood today”.
Don’t blame them, especially if it’s your loved ones. I’d bet they would be really shocked to find out how grey and hopeless your world has become. However, one of our life’s basic rules states that the only man that can truly help yourself is you.
Of course, I don’t mean you don’t have to look for outside help. There are plenty of things out there that can help you right away, beginning from vitamins and up to psychiatrists and antidepressants. However, the key is not to rely on those methods completely. You are the one who will have to walk the last mile.
Seen “The Matrix”? Remember how Morpheus said Neo “I can only show you the door, but you’re the one who have to walk through it”? That’s exactly what I’m talking about!
So, instead of saying yourself “I’m depressed”, you should better ask a different question, namely “am I depressed?” Are you experiencing long periods of bad mood? Have you stopped believing that anything good will ever come out of your life? Do you have panic, anxiety, or simply find it difficult to concentrate?
If you answered all of the questions above positively – most of the chances you have clinical depression. So, what exactly do we do with it?
That’s a tricky question, really, as there’s no one universal solution. Some psychiatrists will offer you to start taking pills, while others will try and help you by identifying and removing the causes of depression from your life.
I strongly believe that in order to truly fight the depression, you need to root out the things that are causing it. Is it your job? Is it your family? Is there something else that literally drives you nuts? Whatever it is, you need to identify that and make it stop, and Prozac can’t really help you here.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you should never use antidepressants. There are situations like suicidal depression when those medications are absolutely necessary! However, I like to compare those drugs with analgesics.
They will make the pain go away long enough for you to do something about it, but you can’t take them forever. It’s like when you have a wounded arm that needs a surgery; you can barely do without a good dose of pain relievers, but you definitely need to treat the arm so that the pain goes away!
Once you’ve found and fixed the problems with your life, you will never have to say “I’m depressed” again. You will see how quickly your depression will fade to none, and the life will shine with the whole new colors. Good luck with that, and remember – there’s always a cause for depression!
