Depression and Choosing Joy

 Many people myself included suffer from Severe Clinical Depression. This is a disease. It is not related to sadness. One cannot snap out of it. It saps your energy and drowns out the better angels of your nature. It is a chemical imbalance that cannot be cured alone without medical help. However, medicines alone are not the silver bullet. My psychiatrist has told me I too must fight this illness. Many of us who are struggling may be suffering from some form of this but do not know it. We are not without hope. So what advice do I have to offer?


Never believe that your life is without hope. This week I want you to focus on hope and action. Many people out there have overcome astonishing odds to achieve amazing things. Many of them suffer from depression or illness and disease. Do not let the disease define you.

So this week I want you to set some goals. Things that you want to accomplish. Little things. For me it will be to clean my living room so it is I am able to have people into it without being ashamed. This to most would not seem like a big goal. For me it seems daunting. With my seizures I have to crawl a lot to do chores. I need to vacuum and move things and I don’t have much energy.


Pick a small goal. Split the goal into 5 tasks. Make sure you can accomplish these tasks within reason but they will stretch you some. Do one task each day. Getting help is allowed and encouraged if you have a loved one or partner. Share this burden and goal with them. When you begin the goal may seem daunting but do not let this stop you.

Concentrate on the daily goal. When you finish your daily goal, rejoice in the fact that you finished it. If you do not finish your daily goal, Rejoice in what you did accomplish. Do not let negative self-talk ruin your hard work. You overcame a lot to work toward your overall goal.

At the end of the week look at what you have accomplished and rejoice and CHOOSE JOY! You have overcome. You have done something to improve your life. Even if you have not finished your overall goal you can continue working next week as we will have no working homework next week. You still need to CHOOSE JOY. You have overcome something. You have decided to do something that makes you feel better about your situation. Big or small this is an accomplishment.

Love yourself for you are worthy. 

My Scripture verse this week comes from 1 Corinthians 13: 4-5 “4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

Do not keep record of what you see as your failings or wrongs. Rejoice in what you did right, Heavenly Father will be proud of you as I am Proud of you for trying.

Choosing Joy each day is not easy. This path is hard. But it is a path you can and will be able to follow as I am following it. You are not alone. I at least am travelling with you and

 I CHOOSE JOY

Reap What You Sew

Reap What You Sew!

Welcome to week one of our journey together. Let me explain how this will work. Each Monday I will post a new blog for you to reflect upon and hopefully learn something. Sometimes there will be homework. Now I am not a school teacher so you will not have to send me your assignments or feel like you are bad if you don’t do them. They usually are just tools to help you employ that posts ideas. So don’t panic or stop reading. I promise they are not write a 5 page paper on the importance of American manufacturing during the pre-war period or something equally as snooze worthy.

Now onto the actual meat of this week’s post. One of the things that brings people the most joy is to make someone else happy. Seeing a smile on another person’s face that you put there warms the heart. It also lets us forget for just a little while our own problems and focus on someone else. This has been called many things by many people I simple call it service to others.

We must now find a way to apply this to our lives for the next week. This is what I did. I picked 4 people that made a difference in my life and thanked them in a meaningful fashion. Then I picked one person who I had a difficult experience with and tried to find something I could say to them that would be truthful and yet compassionate and heartfelt. (Oh, no homework on weekends. Sorry this is a five day a week program if you want extra credit you can work on the weekend.) I wrote each of them a note every day for a week and saved the hardest for last. Some of them I wrote the note first but thanked them by talking to them. The first person I thanked was my wife. I made her cry but in a good way.  I still thank her at least once a week and I write myself a note about what she has done for me in the last week that is above and beyond. Those notes tend to turn into novels if I am not careful.

This simple act benefits 5 people and you an untold number of times as the memory of that happiness begins to grow. I am sure many of you have heard the saying you reap what you sew. This comes from scripture actually and is very practical advice. But I think without one of the follow on verses much of the benefit of this idea is lost. The following quote is from Galatians Chapter 6 Verses 7 and 9 from the NIV version of the bible.

A man reaps what he sows. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

I truly believe this. I believe that if you treat others around you with love and compassion you will be treated the same way. If you sew joy into their lives they will return the favor. By starting this cycle with a few simple words of thanks you can begin a new phase in your journey. This is certainly not going to end all of your troubles, worries, fears, etc. It is just a beginning. But it is an excellent place to start.

Your homework this week is the same as mine was. Pick 4 people in your life that make a difference in your daily struggle. Pick one person who you have had a difficult experience with. Do not pick someone you cannot say anything nice to in good conscience. Just someone you had a disagreement with and want to maybe mend a fence or something similar. I will share a note I wrote to a friend my first week below. (To all of the Ken’s in my life. This is not you I did not send you this letter week 1 so do not write me indignant emails. HAHAHAHA)

Ken,

I just wanted to take some time out to thank you for coming by this week to help me get my books moved up into the attic. Not being able to do it myself is frustrating and your cheerful willingness to help was appreciated. I also appreciated that you sensed my frustration and allowed me to help in a small way and joked with me and made me smile. I also want to thank you for stopping by and visiting me. I know that for you just stopping by and visiting a friend seems like no big deal. For me it is a huge deal because I get to talk to someone else who shares my love of history and it takes my mind off of other things. You are such a great friend and your visits bring sunshine into a dark a gloomy place in my life. I want to thank you for being such a great support to me. Someone who doesn’t judge me by my disability but sees me as just a regular guy. This is a huge loving example of true friendship. I love you brother.

That is just an example. I am not Shakespeare. So it is your turn to try.

Now go out and Choose Joy and do your Home Work.