If you’re one of the 20 million Americans diagnosed with depression, you know how fruitless it is to tell someone one the low end of a downward spiral to just “cheer up.” Trust me. I’ve been there. I suffered for many years with severe depression at times and just your every day blues (otherwise known as Dysthymia) on “good” days. The truth is that I got to the point where I was sick and tired of being sick and tired and was blessed with a moment of clarity in which I realized that the missing ingredient of my internal search for happiness was “action.”
I had to take responsibility for my happiness. One thing I did for a very long time was blame my parents’ lousy parenting techniques for my miserable state of mind. Even if I had good reason for resentment, it really didn’t matter in the scheme of my happiness. Blaming my parents for my less-than-wonderful childhood kept me locked in the past and wasn’t contributing anything positive to my quality of life in the present. In my search free myself from the chains of the past, I read countless self-help books about “letting go” and “overcoming anger” but nothing worked. You know why? Because I didn’t put any of the things I learned into action. Knowledge is only half the battle. Having a blueprint to build a house is of no use unless a you pick up the hammer and nails and gets to work.
