{"id":1,"date":"2012-05-22T10:36:16","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T10:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acceleratingevolution.info\/CS\/?p=1"},"modified":"2016-03-30T20:08:57","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T20:08:57","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartersmith.net\/?p=1","title":{"rendered":"Blog 1. POSITIVE ANTIDOTES TO DEPRESSIVE THINKING."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Grandson Logan at 3<\/p><\/div>\n

POSITIVE ANTIDOTES TO DEPRESSIVE THINKING.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>A friend of mine, who is outwardly a successful\u00a0 family man has been “waylaid” by depression.\u00a0 Bad enough to make life miserable. \u00a0Bad enough to contemplate suicide. I wrote him the following letter and then copied it to another friend who \u00a0is in depression and agony over a difficult relationship:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Living in depression<\/span> \"\"<\/a>is like living in some kind of never ending low grade hell.\u00a0 I suffered from 20 years of minor to suicidal depression because I constantly indulged in negative thinking — how terrible my parents or wife was — how screwed up I was — how unyielding the world was.\u00a0 I was obsessed with the idea that if I only dug a little deeper in the shit, I would find a path to happiness.<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If there is one thing I know today, it is how much of my own and other folk’s suffering is caused by this unskillful indulgent obsessive negative thinking.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology<\/span> says that depression is primarily caused by indulging in negative thinking\u00a0 — that the problem is “out there”somewhere with bad parents, bad circumstances, a bad body or psyche, bad luck, bad karma, a bad god.\u00a0 Buddhism and AA have likewise said for years that we need to drop this delusion that the problem is “out there”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0I tried for many years to blame and fix things\u00a0 “out-there” — and beat others and myself into submission– into doing it “my way”.\u00a0 I sometimes had brief tantalizing successes, but eventually (since “out there ” is uncontrollable) it led to repeated failure and then suicidal alcoholism. \u00a0But even after a \u00a0very successful 12 step recovery, I would sink into negative thinking and depression.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Today, when I notice I am indulging in negative thinking,<\/span> \"\"when I feel negative emotions — anger-fear – depression, when I feel up-tight or helpless or depressed, an alarm sounds AYOOGA! AYOOGA! AYOOGA!\u00a0 Emergency!\u00a0 For I know from bitter experience that if I continue on this negative track I will start attracting other negative thoughts in a swirling sewer of negative thoughts and feelings — and then find other people to support my swirling sewer of negativity.<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And this will trigger my egoic habitual patterns of behavior (long time character defects) — striking out, hiding in the corner, running, hiding, yelling, sulking.\u00a0 These behaviors may have worked as a child, but as an adult they damaged or destroyed my career, my children, and my relationships. An ego attack<\/span>, I have learned is a greater emergency that a diarrhea attack<\/span>. Stop everything and get myself to the bath–<\/span> breath.<\/span><\/p>\n

Emergency!<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 Take one conscious breath.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0 Let go off all thoughts and bring all my awareness to the feeling of the life giving breath as it comes in and as it goes out.\u00a0 NOW.\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\ufffd<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Take another – let go of thoughts and just feel the breath.\u00a0<\/span> And one more. Just feel the breath.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Breathe space into the uptight negativity.\u00a0 Breathe in life and possibility — even hope.\u00a0 Take another conscious breath and start coming back into balance — start connecting with the peace and power deep within.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\ufffd<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Take another deep conscious breath and connect with those negative feelings and sensations.\u00a0 Don’t indulge them and don’t run from them.<\/span> Don’t hide from them. FEEL them deeply — while connecting to my breath – to my own center.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As I come back into balance – I can remember – “Oh, this is my beloved wife, not the monster enemy from Mars.”\u00a0 And from a place of balance, perhaps even of compassion or respect or love — I can take action.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\ufffd<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I find that just coming into balance myself, can change the dynamics.\u00a0 I also find that by breathing space into a situation, I start to breath in new possibilities I never thought of when I felt under attack.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Personally, I find I am doing much better with short term ego attacks<\/span> – flashes of anger of fear.\u00a0 But slower fuse situations — depression or procrastination — are tougher.<\/span>\u00a0 They are less of an emergency it seems — even though they cause just as much trouble.\u00a0 What’s another five minutes, when I’ve already wasted an hour or two or ten?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well the rule is that when I notice any negative thinking, I need to take action. NOW.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Breathe.\u00a0 Breathe in peace.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Breathe in life.\u00a0 Breathe in possibility. Breathe in better feelings. Then consider one small thing I can do that will help me stay feeling better.\u00a0 Call a friend.\u00a0 Meditate. Go for a run.\u00a0 Pay one bill. Write one paragraph.\u00a0 Cuddle my child.<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then repeat the breathing process as indicated. Open my mind to an intuitive thought or inspiration.\u00a0 And repeat this process every time I start indulging in negative thinking — building my positive thinking muscle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A teacher recently said (rather harshly, I thought) \u00a0that the cause of depression was laziness.\u00a0 I continue to indulge in the old familiar smelly negative thoughts instead of breathing and shifting to neutral or positive new thoughts.\ufffd<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is similar to the meditation instructions — focus on the breath, and when you notice that you have lost connection — pat the distracting thought on its little head and bring your attention back to the breath.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0There are some books from positive psychology that can help support these ideas:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n