#2. Promise of Depressed Anonymous Continued. “Happiness is an elusive feeling.”

The following is a continuing excerpt from The Promises #2 of 13.

“A pill might make you feel differently 0but it will never take away the circumstances that brought you down in the first place.
The Promises here tell us that we will find a new freedom of happiness -but first work has to be done.
To be happy doesn’t mean that we are to be entirely free from problems and disquieting moments. Since we are all human we experience the pain of discouragement, remorse, anger and other assorted emotions.
Happiness is an elusive feeling -and for each of us happiness can mean something very different when I say to myself “life doesn’t get any better than this,” then I know that life is indeed good and that all is well with my soul.
What can keep us in the prison of depression is the construction that we place on events and situations that occur in the world.
To be free means to act with a degree of spontaneity. This after all is the opposite of depression.
Events of themselves are not the cause of our depression – similar events are in the lives of many folks but there are some folks that don’t experience depression because of them. So, it must be the way we think about these events and the meaning we place on these situations. Our lives and the way we look at life is composed of past and present events.

Our past life is the way we predict the future. “Since bad things happened to me in the past-bad things are bound to happen to me in the future.” How true this is.
Our prison is composed of blocks of times and situations which at one time were fluid – like a flowing river. But since these events affect our sense of self we caused the river to stop flowing and instead our painful thoughts and feelings – are the blocks that make up the walls of our personal prison. We need to restore the fluidity of our lives. Once when our self has been restored – namely our spontaneity, we will experience freedom and happiness. By having that spiritual experience and by being an active member of Depressed Anonymous is what can restore us to sanity. Happiness comes from finding loving support, and acceptance. ”

RESOURCE

(C) The Promises of Depressed Anonymous. (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Pages 4-7.

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