Posts tagged: purpose

Depression – Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth

Depression has become a household name – everyone knows someone who is depressed or who uses medication to function and transcend the debilitating effects of severe depression or even mild but prolonged depression.

When psychological conditions become common in a society, it becomes difficut to objectively ask the important questions as to what the symptoms and experience might really represent.  The tendency to accept that depression is the reason why one’s life not be ok,  encourages a focus on removing  symptoms rather than uncovering the gift that depression might offer.  What if depression was a warning that you are not living a life on your terms or fully and meaningfully? It might sound as if I am trivialising the tremendous pain faced by individuals who are depressed.  This is not my intention.  Suffering is very real but assuming  depression causes the problem as opposed to it being a symptom of underlying issues means we avoid listening  carefully to what is not working in our lives.

There are many reasons for depression as there are sufferers.  Exploring your depression with a skilled psychologist, open to uncovering meanings of your personal plight, is a courageous but essential process if you are to create a life of meaing and purpose rather than desperation and dread.

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categories Depression | clare | datetime October 5, 2009 7:45 am | comments Comments (0)

The Meaning of Life?

The Meaning of Life is an area which many clients either wish to explore or ending up exploring through the process of psychological counselling.  The importance of finding meaning differs for people as they go about their daily lives – and often it isn’t until they experience unexpected changes or changes imposed by different life stages, that they ask ‘What is my life all about and What is the Meaning of Life?’

Whilst societies, religions and spiritual paths tend to provide answers that many might follow without question,  a time arises in most people’s lives when collectively accepted solutions appear meaningless.  For many people they become depressed or resentful, blaming other people or circumstances for their predicament and sense of meaninglessness.  Others may develop symptoms like anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorders, dis-associative responses or chronic depression which remove them even further from seeking personalised answers to the important questions of ‘What is life all about?’ and more importantly I would suggest ‘What is MY life all about?’

Films like Monty Python’s Meaning of Life or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy offer light-hearted reflections on the seeming chaos of life.  However, if you are experiencing more regular questioning of life’s meaning, then I would encourage you to embrace it – for it is an opportunity to find out what is important to you, what you want to do with the rest of your life and put in place now ways to avoid the inevitable regret that results from a life that hasn’t been lived with choice and direction – even if that direction is one that is counter to society’s expectations of what is is to be successful and live life well. The important thing is that you make time to prepare to have a well-lived life on your terms.

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categories Psychology | clare | datetime July 4, 2009 2:59 pm | comments Comments (0)

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