A colleague of mine published a blog today on “Surviving Depression” and encouraged his readers to keep looking for the light. He summarized depression as "… just one more broken opportunity to watch for the light around you and the light within you.” It’s hard to read the words “broken opportunity” because to me it reinforces the disconnect. With my therapeutic orientation being Gestalt, depression is explained as a hopelessness and collapse around getting our needs met from our environment - it is the absence of feeling connected in a meaningful or fulfilling way. Maybe I would say that depression is a way to feel the ground and search for the light from within and without you. One of my favorite quotes is, “Don’t bandage the wound too tightly, that is where the light gets out." The darkness helps us open our eyes differently and see the world in a new way. Just like nighttime and winter, it is a necessary rhythm of fallowness or mystery that allows us to appreciate the light and colors when they return to our awareness.

My friend also published a blog today on choosing discomfort.  As a therapist I support my clients in going to the edge of uncomfortable, and coming back to comfortable--repeatedly.

"When you choose to view your stress response as helpful, you create the biology of courage. and when you choose to connect with others under stress, you create resilience.... Stress gives us access to our heart.... the compassionate heart that finds joy and meaning in connecting with others....

"....when you choose to view stress in this way, you're not just getting better at stress, you are saying that you can trust yourself to handle life's challenges, and you're remembering that you don't have to face them alone. "

Favorite Quote: "When we get curious we step out of our old fear based reactive patterns and we step into being."