Re-thinking…

Have you ever wondered about the meaning of your life?
Would you say we are “creating” it, or do you rather refer to it as a “search” or quest?
In the face of the vastness (and the disasters) of this universe how do you deal with the realization of  how small and fragile and insignificant we seem?

After being hit on the head gently by Dr. Dyer’s “The Shift, from ambition to meaning” it was perhaps no coincident that I was reading the book “Re-Thinking Depression: How to Shed Mental Health Labels and Create Personal Meaning” by Eric Maisel as part of a blog tour. It felt like here were the tools of how to create “meaning”.

I had already read two of Eric’s books. “The Van Gogh Blues; The Creative Person’s Path through Depression” which helped me a lot to understand (and use) my “mood” as part of a creative process instead of against it. And my humble blog had been part of a blog tour for his book “Ten Zen Seconds“, which is a wonderful tool to stay mindful in your daily life if you don’t have much time to meditate.

Still I was struggling with the term “making meaning” at that point in time. I mean, how do you “make” meaning if there is non, and if there is one shouldn’t it just become apparent? Yet I also know that I am at my happiest when I feel that there is meaning in what I do or that I am needed, otherwise I do tend to get depressed or shall we rather say unhappy as Eric Maisel suggests in his newest book…

“Re-Thinking Depression: How to Shed Mental Health Labels and Create Personal Meaning” has a very down to earth approach of the facts of our human experience, which even the Buddha declares as the first nobel truth:

“Life means suffering”.

Eric Maisel writes, “With the rise of four powerful constituencies — the pharmaceutical industry, the psychotherapy industry, the social work industry, and the pastoral industry — and their handmaidens — advertising, the media, and the political establishment — it has become increasingly difficult for people to consider that unhappiness might be a normal reaction to unpleasant facts and circumstances. Cultural forces have transformed almost all sadness into the mental disorder of depression.

“Fighting the ego dog” 20 x 24 inch (51 x 61 cm) acrylic, mixed media on canvas, ready to hang (painted around the edges)

That is, even if our sadness is rooted in our circumstances, social forces cause us to name that sadness “depression” and to look for “help with our depression.” We are seduced by the medical model, in which psychiatrists dispense pills and psychotherapists dispense talk. It is very hard for the average person, who suffers and feels pain because she is a human being but who has been trained to call her unhappiness depression, to see through this manipulation.

Nothing could be more natural. What sort of creature do we think we are? A kind of wishful thinking has washed over the developed world that life has become simple and settled. Aside from the occasional economic downturn, natural disaster, and unfortunate “disorder,” modern life is like a good supermarket: abundant, orderly, unblemished, and brought to you with a smile. Your child would be as happy as a clam if only it weren’t for her pesky attention deficit disorder and childhood depression. Your mother would be a happy old lady if only she didn’t suffer from “nursing home syndrome” and “seasonal affective disorder.” If only we could shed the rough coat of this or that disorder, this new story goes, we would find ourselves wearing silk pajamas.

This is a false view of life. Life is a project. The moment they are born people are dropped into a world that makes many demands and certain allowances. Either you equip yourself to deal with human unhappiness and the rigors of living, or you will find yourself dealing with them in ways that make you even unhappier. One excellent way to deal with your life-as-project is the way that I’ve been describing: by following an existential program that focuses on your ability to create the psychological experience of meaning.”

His program outlined in the book emphasizes the existential, the cognitive, and the behavioral. “You take as much control as possible of your thoughts, your attitudes, your moods, your behaviors, and your very orientation toward life and you turn your innate freedom into a virtue and a blessing. Living authentically means organizing your life around your answers to three fundamental questions:

1. What matters to you?
2. Are your thoughts aligned with what matters to you?
3. Are your behaviors aligned with what matters to you?”

The book is quite extensive and detailed and covers a lot of ground. Starting with the way how mental disease labels are created and how the “health industry” benefits from it.  Finally showing us practical ways how to go about to make meaning. It is also very realistic about some of the pitfalls and obstacles that indadvertedly will come up and shows ways how to deal with them. And it reminds us that sometimes its time to take a “meaning vacation” also 😉

I really liked Alison Gresic’s excellent blog post “10 signs of Walking Depression” and “10 Ways to Walk away from Depression“. Her blog is addressing especially (but not exclusively) creative people… and aren’t we all creative 🙂

What are your thoughts about the way we deal with un-happiness or depression?
Do you think meaning is important, and if so can it be created or has it to be searched for?
Is happiness overrated?

Please leave a comment. I’d like to hear from you…