Party Crashers: Anxiety and Depression
Anxiety and depression are like kissing cousins. They share a lot of symptomatology and often show up together. Anxiety and depression are party crashers. They bring the unwelcome gifts of worry; insomnia; gastro-intestinal disorders; trouble concentrating and avoidance behaviors.
Anxiety and depression can be driven by illness, injury, developmental disorders, traumatic events and or brain chemical imbalances (neurotransmitters). Most often, anxiety and depression is driven by the mind.
“Everything is nothing but mind”
states Koun Yamada (2009).
Indeed, we can see from our own life experience that out of nomena comes phenomena. In other words, from out of nothing comes something.
“How can this be?”
you may protest—let me show you.
Have you ever had a pleasant thought or engaged in pleasant reverie and noticed how light and airy you felt when you were done? Have you ever thought about a situation where somebody gypped or hurt or took away something you loved? Did you notice a tightness in your gut, whitening of your knuckles and perhaps even the urgings of a nascent ulcer?
Medical institutions and scientists (VA, 2009) have run tests on human subjects in controlled situations to test for changes in heartbeat, immunological response, blood pressure and cortisol levels.
Arron Beck (1976) demonstrated via his Cognitive Triad theory that positive cognition affects positive emotion which affects positive behavior. The reverse is also true. When you are unconscious you are oblivious to everything that goes on around you. When you are conscious your discriminating mind chooses how to act or react.
Shakespeare (1599) said:
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
The Chinese philosophy of Wu Wei posits that:
“Good and bad arrive together.”
What then shall we do? Is it possible that we can gain control over the way we think? Aren’t we slaves to circumstance? Don’t we live at the whim of fate?
Action and reaction are not the same. The former takes agency, the latter takes the crumbs.
Here at OLO, Inc., we believe that every person has the innate ability to harness the vigorous horse of their mind. We believe it is every sentient being’s right to access and cultivate an internal locus of control. We do not live at the whim of external forces. We can choose our own destiny. We can choose to live well, with dignity even in the most dire circumstance and if need be, die well.
Albert Einstein (1952) said:
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Here at OLO, Inc., we believe that happiness is an inside job. We believe that all life, like a seed of corn, starts from within. That is why we stand on the shoulders of giants from Eastern and Western philosophies, to teach the principles of the Soto Zen schools of meditation, Taoism, Stoicism and Jungian psychology. Life is change. To change thought patterns that lead us to anxiety and depression; to identify triggers for hurtful behavior, for living a more full and joyous life; that’s what we're here for.
Check out our schedule to practice with Paul.
