What was once only in the realm of hypotheses and theory, with just a semblance of evidence to back, has now been proven by overwhelming empirical data. Entertainment recommendation website TheFilter.Com says a good many Americans are now tuning in to depressing music these days: perhaps a reflection of the depressing news that is bombarding them and all of us 24X7.
The conclusion from the empirical observation is this: that when we have the blues, our natural propensity is to reinforce it by some more sad, soulful, melancholy music. And we actually enjoy going deeper down the spiral of self-pity and wallow-of-depression.
Sia's "Breathe Me" song has just the sort of lyrics to help you reach there. The haunting music and that melodious voice soothes, but ironically the song as a whole is just the right, poignant setting for our mood of doom and gloom. Sia's "Breathe Me" incidentally tops the most popular depressing song in the list compiled by TheFilter.com website.
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[* Image of Sia Furler, who crooned the "Breathe Me" song that brought her international fame. ]
Help, I have done it again I have been here many times before Hurt myself again today And, the worst part is there's no-one else to blame
How true. There is no one else to blame, but me. It is in my hands to uplift my moods from the morass. It is my choice entirely to be happy.
Be my friend Hold me, wrap me up Unfold me I am small and needy Warm me up And breathe me
Yes, we need the nourishing support of understanding hearts and the warm touch of healing hands to bring us back to life. But what if there aren't any around? Oh, we summon the inner nourishment and the inner love for self to provide the support and the healing.
Ouch I have lost myself again Lost myself and I am nowhere to be found, Yeah I think that I might break Lost myself again and I feel unsafe
It is an ongoing game of life. Losing oneself again and again in the wilderness of negative thoughts and dark self-pity. Does take an effort, considerable effort in fact, to come out of the wilderness and into the light. To make an effort itself requires some effort. But it comes automatically, once we make up our mind to beat it all.
Be my friend Hold me, wrap me up Unfold me I am small and needy Warm me up And breathe me
It is the "I am small and needy" that needs to be re-spun, rewoven, and reshaped into something that is more self-enhancing. What the new words should be, depends on our particular set of circumstances. But to banish such negative thoughts is a must, and if we have to beat the blues and the depressive moods, let's turn towards more uplifting tracks.
Here is the song. This time, listen to it with the full knowledge that it is meant to uplift you!
We aren't talking escapism here. We are simply taking a decision to be happy, and remain happy, whatever be the circumstances around us. Here is another post about another beautiful song - it never fails to uplift!
Price They Pay For Their Special Position In The Universe
Whatever the outward poses and postures of men, it is of course agreed that women do have a special position in the universe. Everything would come to a standstill, wouldn't it, without them? Nature must not have had any hesitation deciding on which amongst the two genders be given the onerous task of carrying the race forward. And so Nature bestowed upon woman all the biological paraphernalia required to bring forth Life, and then rear it. And along with it, a liberal dosage of the right chemicals with which to execute the job smoothly.
Indeed, their strength it turns out becomes their vulnerability. The way she is structured, it is oh very easy for the woman to multi-task. And to assume more and more responsibilities with a smile. A job where the boss has set impossible deadlines, or which simply sucks but there is no alternative but to stay put. A spouse or partner who is looking for the next opportunity to bark and spite. Kids, if they are around, who demand their needs be met _now_, her own needs be damned. In the process of balancing everybody's wants and needs, in the process of tip-toeing through life without upsetting anybody's sense of comfort either physically or emotionally --- somewhere along the way, she begins to lose her own sense of identity. Her own sense of balance begins to vertigo. Her own sense of comfort - at both the physical and emotional level - begins to get compromised. The sad part is that all this happens silently in the background, without her becoming aware of it.
The result? NAMI, the "nation's largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness", has recently brought out an e-brochure that gives facts that startle, but shouldn't be unexpected really. Women, it says, "experience twice the rate of depression as men, regardless of race or ethnic background." The document lists the causes for depression very lucidly: genetic, biological, psychosocial, victimization and poverty.
Of the different intervention methods that the brochure outlines, the positive spin given to anti-depressants is disturbing. Wish the authors of the brochure were more aware of the side-effects of antidepressant medications. Here is one post where I have dwelt on the sense of unease amongst the researchers themselves about the drugs doing more harm than good.
As self-developer, the only solution that I can offer to anyone who is willing to pay heed, is to try the free-of-cost technique of auto-suggestion. This blog and my other blog have scores of posts about this technique. I guarantee that there are no side-effects whatsoever. And it works, if persevered with consistently.
Perhaps the authors of the NAMI e-brochure might consider devoting, in their next version of the publication, a paragraph or two on auto-suggestion as one very good CBT under the section of "Psychotherapy".
Depression: The Wide-Spread Malady It is not the ordinary guy in the next cubicle who might be suffering from Depression. The rich, the famous and the mighty too have faced this malady. Whether it was impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh...
... Or the Nobel Laureate Sir Winston Churchill...
... they have all gone through the dark swings in their moods at some time or the other in their life, in some cases ending it due to depression.
They Are From Mars, You See Men are supposed to be the strong, silent types - who can endure whatever stress and strain come their way. They tend to align their personality with this image of manhood in society, and put on camouflages that hide the stress and the strain gnawing at their innards. The final manifestation? Depression.
Sadly, this depression manifests itself not as depression, but in the form of one or the other defense mechanisms, such as compensation (displaying some other behavior because they are not supposed to let their true reality be revealed: alcoholism, wife-abuse, continuous irritability, and the like), or substitution, or even denial. And when the depression becomes chronic enough, it somatizes into diseases such as heart attacks and strokes.
Solutions After a person is diagnosed as depressive, one from a range of solutions may be administered to him: stress-chemical blockers, De-Hydro-Epi-Andro-sterone (DHEA) hormone therapy, stimulating the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) with the help of electrodes, and the like.
One solution that offers a lot of promise is the psychotherapy technique of self-hypnosis. The way a self-hypnosis session works is as follows:
1. For the first five to fifteen minutes, the subject is made to relax his body and mind with the help of some soothing background music. A soft voice takes his attention to the different parts of his body, from the toes to the head, progressively relaxing them.
2. This progressive relaxation makes the body go limp. The mind too relaxes, and becomes receptive to further suggestions from the recorded voice.
3. The suggestions form the meat of the session. It is these suggestions that address the core issues that a depressive person faces: emotions bottled up, with no valve to release; negative thought patterns, ingrained deep in the psyche, with no respite or let; and frustrations, which keep eating into his sense of well-being and happiness. The suggestions are positive in nature, and help the person in releasing the emotions, create new and positive thought patterns, and dissolve away the frustrations.
4. At the end of the session, the person is brought back to the "physical world", by regaining alertness about his body and his surroundings.
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