Taking action against mid-life depression

My friend Madison sent me this interesting article about middle age and depression. Seems that there appears to be a real correlation worldwide between mid-life and the doldrums.

I think I was definitely going through a period of it in 2007... so glad that last year's over! I went through months of doing little more than questioning what I was going to do with the rest of my life.

In the end, I think there is one thing that makes a difference: taking action.

And by that I mean two things.

Firstly, I've long been fascinated by the mind-body duality of being human. What a miraculous, mysterious creature we are: a conscious being existing inside a body which is essentially that of an animal, subject to all of the primitive drives of survival and reproduction.

Something that occurred to me when I was down (depressed?) last year is the notion that it's only the mind that questions and doubts itself. The body just wants to live. And if you wait it out long enough, the body has the capacity to pull the mind back from the brink, to re-infuse our consciousness with the will and desire to move forward again.

And secondly I mean taking action on the mental front: choosing a path, even if it is simply getting out of the house. Choosing to be around people. Choosing to remain open to moment when the universe comes knocking again at our doors, offering up the next opportunity for us to grow beyond who we knew ourselves to be.

Joan B. who leads Landmark's Wisdom Course once said, "The universe is knocking at your door. You don't have to answer it, but it's not going to stop knocking."

It's a good reminder that when we are at our lowest and the world seems most bleak, we always have the choice to unlock the door and escape our cage... or let the fresh air of the world back in.