The Bi-Weekly Ezine from Gurdy.Net - Each Monday the FREE "5Minute" Self-Help Video Seminar

Issue No: 116 - July 26, 2010

This Week's FREE Self-Help Seminar

Today's Reflection

DEPRESSION? PROBLEM SOLVED

HAPPINESS

Depression is not something that you suffer from - it's something that you create yourself. Depression is a reaction based on your subconscious mind's obsession with deeply embedded useless thought. The way your subconscious mind behaves is normal - the useless thoughts, though, may be worse than normal. You've got to take control of your mental energy to steer it away from those thoughts and direct into the here and now - the place where life is wonderful...

The purpose of life is to be happy – so says the Dalai Lama. Unfortunately, most people aren’t quite sure what happiness actually means. Does it mean having lots of nice things – nice home, second home, nice cars, nice clothes, nice holidays? Because, certainly over the last few years, many people fell into the trap of judging their happiness based on these kinds of things – and of judging their happiness by comparison to what others had. I actually had a client call me at one point to tell me that his wife was threatening to leave him because she said and I quote ‘The neighbours go on better holidays!’ Let her go, I said!

Happiness isn’t about having lots of nice things – it doesn’t exclude them, but they’re not a prerequisite. Happiness is about having happy times or, as I say to my clients, ‘being gurdy!’ It’s a feeling that you have that all is well with the world and your place in it. It is a feeling of wanting for nothing – not not wanting to travel further on the wonderful adventure of life’s rollercoaster – but simply of note wanting for anything right here right now.

Happiness is a now thing. Unfortunately, the normal mind is not present now, so it’s unable to experience happiness. Psychology tells us that the normal mind is focused in the past (in particular on the childhood experiences that have made us who we are) and focused in the future (either looking forward to something good, wanting for something that we don’t have or worrying about something that we don’t want to happen). Under these circumstances it’s pretty much impossible to be happy.

To be happy, you’ve got to turn up to now – the only place and time that life is lived. It takes a focused and attentive mind to be present and there are many different ways of developing your focus and ability to pay attention. But, once you do, you won’t have to go in search of happiness – it will simply find you.

This Week's Recommended Read - Depression: an Emotion not an Illness

Personal Development Article

by Dr. Michael Corry and Dr. Aine Tubridy

ISBN 1-856354-79-2

Is there any end to the cycle of relapse, hospitalisation and medication for sufferers of depression? Drs. Michael Corry and Aine Tubridy believe there is. In this hard-hitting new book, Corry and Tubridy present a revolutionary new perspective in which they assert that depression is an emotion, just like fear, anger or love, that can be consciously influenced, rather than a disease which can only be suffered. This new theory has enormous implications for the traditional treatment of depression. It puts the sufferer back at the centre of a more individual and tailored approach to healing and raises serious questions about the medical community’s focus on medication as a primary treatment. This book speaks both to those experiencing depression and to their families. It aims to: offer hope and understanding; equip sufferers with the resources to buffer them against future setbacks; end the cycle of relapse and remedicate and provide effective ways to create a new identity for the sufferer, rooted in self-acceptance and empowerment.

first published April 6 2009

HOW TO COPE WHEN THINGS GO WRONG

by Willie Horton

Life is full of ups and downs. Too often, the "downs" overwhelm us. We react and make things worse instead of calming down, seeing what is really happening and taking real action to sort things out. We must understand that, in fact, there's only one thing in life that we can control - our own state of mind. If we do, we can positively influence everything else that's going on around us and, when the wheels do come off, take real action...

Read the full article on coping with life's ups and downs...

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