A biological imbalance and several life imbalances

 

With luck, I stumbled across this video. It was phenomenal. Just when I was starting to see depression and anxiety from a biological perspective, I was again invited to look at it holistically. I was reminded that depression and anxiety are possible signals that alert me when I have needs that are not met. 

It is not exactly easy to know right away what those needs are, since it's almost always complex. However, I can try to slowly digest and figure out my deeper needs as I continue doing what I am doing now:

1. Living healthily through daily routines, eating well, being with nature, and sleeping on time.

2. Anchoring my decisions and activities on values that meet my spiritual and moral needs. 

3. Deepen my connection with others through engaging of daily meager conversations with friends, or deep conversations with my spiritual group, director, and family. Anything that keeps me truly connected. 

4. Spending time to pray, and the other half to process my thoughts, and experiences, even if it sometimes poses me to feel anxious and depressed. 

I still experience the pain even if I anchor myself on these strategies, but I can honestly say that I feel the pain much less when I fully commit to these solutions. I will admit they require physical efforts and commitments that in most days, I do not feel like doing, but with a little nudging from my support system, I get up, do them, and I have no regrets.

Number 2 on the list is really important too, especially that we live in a society that feeds us wrong values. Watch the video to understand what I mean. Perhaps I can talk about this in the future. 

As I try to meet the needs that are unknown to me yet. Whenever I feel the pain, I will start asking myself, "What do you need, Joi?" and perhaps I can try evaluating my life to see if there is something I can do to solve it. 

If not,

the video recommended social prescription as a nonchemical antidepressant. To be with others who are experiencing the same things, and do something together, like trying to attain a goal together. Hmm.. Perhaps, the reason I started feeling depressed again this year was that I was disconnected from society because of COVID. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for the connections offered by the technology, but they are in no way at par with real connections. 

While I am still surrounded by the uncontrollable factors that affect my access to meeting my psychological needs, I will make the most with what I have. I will continue to try to live each day grateful even for the little things like, oh I dont know, surviving the day? Greeting at least 2 people? Brushing my teeth? Get kissed by my cat? The little things. 

So, what is it that you need right now?