Downtime

It’s been said that a person’s emotional side is one of aspect of the self that is so difficult to conquer. Emotions seem to be involuntary, spontaneous. Thus, we think that we don’t have, and never will have, control over our feelings.

With most people, their emotional life is the most common field of failures. Even highly intelligent people are often rendered powerless by their emotions. A king abdicated his throne for love. Another ruler was blinded by hatred into his own perdition.

There’s no problem when it comes to positive emotions, like love as well as feelings of kindness, enthusiasm, happiness and all others that make our experience of life beautiful. It’s with the negative emotions of hate, anger, jealousy, sadness, fear, pride and worthlessness where we sadly waste away most of our precious energies on.

Perhaps the most insidious of negative emotions is depression, so because it involves a myriad of other contributory negative emotions. What’s worse, depression is a progressive emotional condition. It develops undetected until it has already taken hold of its victims and its ugly symptoms have begun to show.

Fortunately, modern medicine has recently made considerable progress in identifying physical and physiological bases of depression. It has identified the cold and rainy months as being the usual ‘season’ for depression. It’s been found, too, that a lack of certain enzymes in the brain, called amines, triggers the onset of a depressive state; giving a patient medication containing amines can get him out of his depression, albeit temporarily.

The problem with amines, as with any other chemical treatment for depression, is that it can encourage dependency on the part of the patient. The feeling of harrowing emptiness that is one of the main symptoms of depression makes the patient seek instantaneous relief through the drug. Therefore, the patient does not take as much initiative in actively participating in his own healing process, which is absolutely necessary in getting him out of the dark for good.

Many therapists have come to believe that the true medication for depression is not chemical but spiritual. There have been people who had once completely lost their zest for life, but triumphantly come out of the pit as soon as they become involved in some religious or spiritual cause. Medical science recognizes this phenomenon.

Legendary psychologist William James taught that true religious experiences have a common denominator of pain, suffering, tragedy, and complete hopelessness. A deep feeling of resignation had to come, said James, before any man could be ready for God’s medicine. James was referring to a state of emotional depression.

Religious involvement seems to bring about an attitude of humility and acceptance in the depressive person, a kind of surrender in acknowledgment of one’s fundamental nothingness in the universal scheme of things. From this, healing occurs as a rebound effect. When one accepts that being nothing he deserves nothing – he tends to develop consciousness of the divine; he becomes spiritually aware and is no longer as badly beaten by worldly woes.

When a person comes to realize that everything that comes his way comes only by the will of God, the idea will humble him. Religious faith can flourish when the heart is cleared of pride. For it takes humility for one to surrender and say, “Thy will, O Lord – not mine – be done.” And from this faithful submission, everything else tends to fall in its proper place.

Every life has its downtime. But interruption is not necessarily meant to crush one’s spirit – but test his faith. It may be a reminder that life does not operate according to one’s will – but by the will of the One who has the ultimate power to allow things to happen.