Conquering Depression

What is Depression?

There are normal ups and downs in life.

Everyone feels sad or has "the blues" from time to time.

Sadness or downswings in mood are normal reactions to life’s struggles, setbacks, and disappointments.

Depression is much more than just sadness.

If emptiness and despair have taken hold of your life and won't go away, you may have depression.

Depression makes it tough to function and enjoy life like you once did.

Just getting through the day can be overwhelming.

Some people describe depression as “living in a black hole” or having a feeling of impending doom.

Fear gives Power

This is a Moorish proverb: "He who is afraid of a thing gives it power over him." The Moors were the medieval Muslim inhabitants of Morocco, Western Algeria, Western Sahara, Mauritania, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta.

This is an old wisdom that a minority keeps in mind to resist fear. They are the successful minority.

Why do lions roar? The roaring sound of the lion sends a chill into the heart of weaker animals. The roar of lions announces their presence in and around. The bigger the sound nearer they are. The ancient Kings in war used this tactics to defeat their enemies even before the war actually begin. They scared the enemies by a show of their might.

Fear is the strongest emotion of 21 century.

What is fear?

Fear is an apprehension of sufferings and loss. Fear is an emotion over something unpleasant which may occur in future. Fear is an unwelcome anticipation of pain, hunger, sickness, torture, dishonor etc. We are afraid of loss of property, income, time, health, power, honour and life itself.

Fear is caused by the belief in the existence of other personalities or powers that is against our life.

These personalities and powers are evil people and evil supernatural powers. Fear may have its base in our past life/the life of other people.

Fear has positive side too. It effects self restraint on us. Since we are afraid of suffering and loss, we try to avoid thoughts, words and action that may cause suffering and loss to us.

Fear as a negative emotion always has an enemy on the other side. It tells us always that we will be proven impotent against the enemy at any time in our life.

So we try to keep away the fearsome suffering and loss.

HOW

1.       By trying to please the enemy/fear

2.       Entering into a compromise/treaty with the enemy

3.       By avoiding a confrontation with the enemy

4.       By joining hands with a more powerful personality

The first three methods are that are of a coward.

We are acknowledging that you are afraid of the enemy.

We acknowledge:

His existence

His power to harm you

Your inability to stand against him.

By acknowledging the above three means we agree to remain subservient to fear.

That is what the Moorish proverb says. We are giving power and authority over us to fear. Hence fear rules over you.

Fear has many arrows in his quiver to keep us servile. Once we have subdued to him, it is difficult to escape. He is a relentless enemy who follows us to the grave. He will never bless us. He will try to ruin those who are disobedient to his authority.

He will try to convince us that:

We have no authority or no free will over our life

Everything in our life is controlled by fate or by some supernatural enemy power

Every happening is predestined and hence it will happen whatever we may do

The only way of escape is to live in fear of fear and subservient to fear.

The last option to escape fear of unexpected suffering and loss is to join a more powerful personality. People call Him GOD. God is almighty, omnipotent and omnipresent. Those who have joined hands with God have decided to fight against fear.

They believe that:

God is almighty – there none more powerful than God and hence more powerful than the enemy.

God is beneficent

God does not want us to live in subservience

With God we can overcome all enemies

Their decision is to:

Fight against fear

Defeat fear

Live a life of victory

The only option available to those who wish to live a life of victory is to fight and defeat fear.

Those who do not believe in the existence of God may try to depend on the power of their mind to defeat fear.

Let us conclude:

If you are afraid of fear, you live a defeated live, subservient to fear

Those who live a victorious life over fear live resisting, fighting, defeating and overcoming fear.

Professor Jacob Abraham

Fewer mistakes; fewer regrets

I do not decry mistakes. It is human to err.

Mistakes are synonymous with failures.

But failures are not always mistakes. Right decisions and right actions also may result in failures. So failures are not always the product of mistakes.

Mistakes are always failures. Rarely even a mistake may bring forth success. But that is never counted as success. That happens often in war. Very rarely mistakes committed by a sergeant or a military general may lead to victory. But in the ensuing analysis of the event, the action is always run down as fatal mistake and never rewarded. It is because a mistake is fatal in war whatever the accidental outcome is.

So mistakes are mistakes in spite of the nature of its outcome.

Mistakes are judged not by its outcome. Mistakes are defined by rules that govern the action. These rules are not written and not fixed. Every race has rules, every game has rules and every action has rules. Victory is not just the outcome but the successful outcome of an action completed according to its rules.

Mistakes are not always a purposeful action towards it. Many sincere attempts may also end as mistakes. Our life is not always our own life; it is the life of some others too. We cannot stand alone or without action on this great stage of life. We are born to this stage and from thence we are acting our role. There are some others always on the stage. We are to act with them and along with them.

Mistakes are harbingers of regrets. A mistake we commit is sure to lead us to failure. Every failure caused by a mistake takes us to regret.

Regrets are painful, discouraging and often disastrous. It murders our life force that helps us to move forward. It is a personal emotional crisis. It demands recoveries beyond our capability. Since time, money and health that are lost will never come back, causes incurable wounds.

I am afraid of regrets. I have had enough of it in my life. Nothing happened can be retrieved. Hence no wounds can be healed.

The only possible way to escape from regrets is to make fewer mistakes. I am not recommending a secluded life. Live the life in the midst of the crowd.

Life has given me certain lessons to help me to make fewer mistakes. They are personal. Every experience in life is personal and has a personal message to us. It leaves personal impressions on our mind that effect individual responses.

So what I have learned may remain very personal. Hence they are not general theories that can be applied to all and all problems I refrain from scribbling it here.

My only advice is to make fewer mistakes and less regrets.

Professor Jacob Abraham

Like this?

Leave a comment below

Subscribe to my blogs

Tell your friend

Two bears in the stomach

This story happened in a recent period, on a day I still remember. This is not a messy story of heroes and villains; not a fanciful description of fairies and magic world. This is real, a flesh and blood happening; a conversation between a grandpa and his grandchild. As we all aware, Grandpas are full of wisdom. They have their own way to impart it into their descendents. Children should grow learning from Grandparents otherwise they will miss the wisdom to live.

The Child in our story, like all other children around the world had many doubts about life and its needs. He had only doubts that were never answered. One of the irritating things about this life was hunger. He felt hungry often. He felt hungry when he woke up from sleep; he felt hungry after playing with his friends; and he felt hungry and hungry so that he could not continue with any work from morn till the end of the day without a break for a snack. He dreamed of a life without hunger.

Like a great philosopher unwinding the mysterious knots of life, he meditated on hunger and its causes. He was sure that a cause preceded an effect. Hunger was an effect; the cause was a mystery for him. Though he spent many days meditating on the subject, he was not enlightened about the cause. So he deiced to approach his grandpa with the question.

His grandpa was his father’s father, a man with white beard, bald head, shining eyes and wrinkled skin. He knew many things, many mysteries and knew how to convey them in simple manner to his grandchildren. Children felt often that there is nothing hidden from him. But they had heard their father speaking different at many times. Grandpa was not worried about it. He seemed to be sure of the truth he spoke.

The boy approached the Grandpa with his big question on life: “What is the cause of hunger?”

The grandpa smiled at him and his question. Then he assumed a serious appearance. He thought for a while before he started to speak.

“There are two bears in your stomach. They constantly fight with each other. Their fight causes hunger” said the Grandpa to his Grandchild. “The first bear”, he continued, “is covetousness, treachery, falsehood, cruelty, murder, jealousy, despair, frustration, intolerance and other characteristics that can be grouped together. The second bear is kindness, generosity, truthfulness, happiness, hope, lovingness, sympathy, tolerance and other characteristics that can be grouped together.”

The Grandpa attributed evil to the first bear and good to the second bear. He shortened his list of evil for the sake of the boy. They boy may not be familiar with names of other evils that man practice.

The boy had one more doubt. The Grandpa was ready to answer more questions.

“Who is the victor?”

“The one you feed”, answered the Grandpa.

Professor Jacob Abraham

Like this?

Leave a comment below

Subscribe to my blogs

Tell your friend

Run towards the roar

I have read the following narration somewhere I do not remember now. But it is sure that I have read it in some book of inspiring thoughts. It is about a trick used by African lions to catch innocent lambs. I believe this behavior of African lions is true and reliable.

As lions grow old, it is natural to them to become weak physically. Their sound is distorted, their limbs become weak, tooth falls and body becomes lean. The whole appearance announces their old age. They cannot run fast as they used to, they cannot roar as they did in their young days and they cannot pounce upon their prey as they could before. They sleep most of the times and roar with hunger while they are awake. Hunger does not give space to old age and its weakness. They feel hungry but cannot catch prey as before.

However we should not assume that old lions lay idle waiting for death. It is not so. They run after animals and try to jump over them with all their strength. But often, the animals are faster and nimble than the old lions. Always, in 99 out of 100 cases, animals escape. This adds to the frustration of old lions.

Hunger, frustration, anger and physical weakness - they live with memories of young days and the realities of the present day. 

Fortunately for them, their younger ones used to come for their help. They have a trick played from their ancestors to this day to catch animals for the old weak lions. They roam together, though the old ones cannot keep their pace with the young ones, till they spot innocent animals grazing in open fields or drinking at a shallow stream. Once they find their prey, they part in two groups, the young ones go in one direction and the old weak lions go in the opposite direction. This places their prey in between the two groups. There is wisdom in selecting the places where the two group stand for the prey. The old lions are expert in analyzing the direction of the wind. They lift their head, listen with their ears and see with their eyes and finally declare the direction of the wind – from where it comes and where it goes. The old lions go against the wind and stays in the direction of the wind so that the scent of lions and the harsh though weak roar of the old lions reach the grazing animals with the wind. The young lions go in the direction of the wind and stays with the wind so that the scent of the young lions will be carried by the wind away from the animals.

Once they position themselves, they get ready for the game. The old lions stand in the direction of the wind letting the wind to carry the scent of lions to the animals. The animals in between the two groups smell the scent of lions. Through the scent they sense the presence of lions somewhere near. They are wise enough to decide to run for their life. Their practice is to run away from the direction from which the scent of lions comes. Then comes the roar of lions. The old lions roar with all their strength. The wind carries the roar to the animals. A shiver passes through the body of animals. They decide to run. Which direction? Surely, away from the roaring lions.

They run, holding life in their hands, with a throbbing heart, death just following them. They run away from the scent of lions and the roar of lions. They run in the opposite direction. They are running for their life.

But what awaits them in the opposite direction? The young lions have placed themselves in that direction, opposite to the roaring old lions. Poor animals, they run fast into the mouth of the young lions. There is no escape from them. They fall into their trap. The young lions are quick and strong in action. No animal can escape their paws. The young lions paunch upon the innocent animals, kill them and prepares a feast for the whole group of young and old lions.

What went wrong with the animals? Their action was wise and correct. They should run for life. They should run away from the enemies.

Still the fact is that, if they would have run towards the roaring lions, they could escape from death. The roaring lions were old and weak. They could not run after animals. Hence, the animals could run away from the old lions. The young ones did not roar, but were strong and nimble. None could escape from them.

What should we learn?

RUN TOWARDS THE ROAR.

This is the secret of success. Face the roaring lions and do your best to defeat them.

There is risk. But there is no success without risk.

You need courage to run towards the roar. Success is not for the coward.

It is a life or death fight. Only the positive result of such a fight is called success.

We may die, may be defeated. Death by fighting is glorious. Death of a defeated person is the most inglorious happening in this world. Remember, one may be defeated, but cannot be destroyed.

Professor Jacob Abraham

Like this?

Leave a comment below

Subscribe to my blogs

Tell your friend