The valuable words of Qui Gon from Star Wars, episode 1. I'm not a big fan of the new prequels to the original Star Wars trilogy, but this phrase stuck with me the other day when I was talking to my friend Brandon.
I remember telling someone years ago (which I mentioned to Brandon a couple days ago) that, in my opinion, someone who is clinically depressed is usually more aware of the true state of his environment. The environment is that person's "world", or what he perceives as his "world", and is everything that surrounds him or has an affect on him. I know some people would disagree, but I still cling to that theory.
A problem with depressed individuals, beyond the fact that many have neurotransmitter imbalances, is that they are not focusing on the issues that they have control over. In Cabo Verde, I remember Senhor Pond telling us to make two lists. The first list should include all the problems we had no control over, while the second should contain all the problems we could control. He then told us that we should cross out the first list and focus only on the aspects of life that we had control over. Very insightful and memorable - that was over 10 years ago.
While talking to Brandon, he agreed with me about depressed people being more aware of their world's problems, and he reiterated basically the same thing Senhor Pond had said, but then he added the quote from Star Wars. It all makes sense to me, and I'd like to combine these ideas together.
Being more aware of the state of your world is a good thing, but you have to take into account a little thing called "perspective". Yes, you can be aware of things as they truly are, and this can be mind-opening, but at the same time, you can choose to focus on those things that are important, productive, and able to be controlled - by you. If you spend your time focusing on things you can't control, you will only make yourself more miserable, because your perceived reality will include all those unproductive, depressing and uncontrollable aspects of your life. The point here is - Being aware of something is different from being emotionally and psychologically attached to it.
The - what is real, and what is not - depends largely on perspective, and if you can just acquire a proper perspective on your world, and if you can choose to focus on those things that YOU can control, you'll be in a much more contented place.
