A recent study discovered that the numbers of people on antideprressents has more than doubled in the last nine years: “About 6 percent of people were prescribed an antidepressant in 1996 -- 13 million people. This rose to...27 million people by 2005…”
Any guesses about how many people are on antidepressants this year? Any guesses about how many people would be on them if they could afford, or were more inclined, to seek professional care?
Today, most people see human reactions as either good or bad – constructive, or something to suppress. We all know that there are underlying causes, but there’s no time to think much about that. We have goals and responsibilities. So, we push on pretending we’re more machine than human.
The report goes on to say: “The rise in antidepressant prescriptions also is seen despite a series of public health warnings on use of antidepressant drugs beginning in 2003 after clinical trials showed they increased the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children and teens.”
So, more people are depressed than ever before, and more people are turning to suicide as their final recourse. Sadly, this trend is most prevalent among children and teens. Is that the legacy we want to be remembered for?
We live in a world of individualists. We each have our own path, and for the most part we’re all walking it alone. Sure, we work and walk along with others, but when one falls by the wayside, we just focus harder on our goals. We have to! We have rent and mortgages – and suicidal kids to take care of.
We’ve all had some great successes! Yet lately, life just isn’t working the way it used to. At some point before antidepressant usage reaches 100% (of those who don’t opt out via suicide), we’re going to have to wake up to the shift back to the old, simpler priorities of really caring about those around us enough to stop what we’re doing and help – or at least show them that they’re not alone.
This may not seem relevant to those of us who are scrambling for survival right now. Everyone has important, personal reasons to keep doing their absolute best to make a way in this world! Still, while we do what we have to do, we also need to learn to shift our priorities and expand our awareness to the needs of others around us. When we do that, others might do the same and for us and we just may be on our way to building the world we all want.
Humans weren’t made to do everything all by themselves. Yet, that’s how we live. Communities break up and scatter as people move on to “better opportunities” elsewhere. Extended families split up, and lately most of our isolated little core families break up too! People grow apart and go their own ways and then need therapy, or at least antidepressants to keep on going.
Isn’t it maybe time to rethink this system? The problem is partly solving itself as kids move back in with their parents after they lose their jobs and/or marriages. Still, others aren’t so lucky and end up under overpasses. These are the humans that the system has used up and spit out, and it’s depressing to live in a world that does that no matter how we’re personally doing!
As we move into the 2012 era of endings and new beginnings, many of us are very aware of what we don’t want in our world anymore. Still, it may seem like a big leap of faith to begin building the foundation of our new world by taking our attention off of our personal priorities and giving it to those around us.
Yet, as we each do what we have to every day, it might be worth investing a little conscious attention on the needs of others. It doesn’t take any time at all to really look into the eyes of the person who’s talking to you. It just takes a minute to really listen and care.
Community is built one conversation and one concern at a time. It’s not really that hard, and reaching out is a proven cure for depression. Besides, those caring conversations may very well end up saving lives – maybe even your own.
Hunt Henion
www.shiftawareness.com
Showing posts with label success. Show all posts
Showing posts with label success. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
The Source of Karma
I sold my business many years ago to a man who kept my wife on as an employee until he squeezed every possible concession out me. Then, he fired my wife. It was a horrible experience, which I contemplated until discovered a past life with him. He was just as devious and unscrupulous hundreds of years ago. However back then, people handled their own affairs rather than relying on attorneys.
In that previous life, I killed him, took his possessions, and no one blamed me. Still, as I the pondered how this present life must be payback for that past one, a message came to me: “The problem isn’t that you killed him in the past. It’s that you want to do it again now.”
I didn’t think that was a problem as long as I restrained myself. However, that’s when I learned that karma doesn’t work that way. It’s the attitudes we carry with us that determine our future, not our past actions. Actions build attitudes, but our whole linear dualistic thinking about the justification of punishments for crimes is childishly innocent in the real world.
Actions are just motion in a dream world. Thoughts and attitudes, which most people think of as existing only in their own private world, aren’t private at all. They touch others and change our world in ways we can’t imagine. So, the invisible is what really matters, and the visible, which is what most people think matters most, is mostly just dead images, smoke and mirrors.
We all work with exterior circumstances and people, and we tend to think our exterior goals are the only ones. Still, successes pale and failures disappear when we realize that all we see in this world are just tools, and that we are all but actors trying out various roles and attitudes -- until we find one that really works.
In that previous life, I killed him, took his possessions, and no one blamed me. Still, as I the pondered how this present life must be payback for that past one, a message came to me: “The problem isn’t that you killed him in the past. It’s that you want to do it again now.”
I didn’t think that was a problem as long as I restrained myself. However, that’s when I learned that karma doesn’t work that way. It’s the attitudes we carry with us that determine our future, not our past actions. Actions build attitudes, but our whole linear dualistic thinking about the justification of punishments for crimes is childishly innocent in the real world.
Actions are just motion in a dream world. Thoughts and attitudes, which most people think of as existing only in their own private world, aren’t private at all. They touch others and change our world in ways we can’t imagine. So, the invisible is what really matters, and the visible, which is what most people think matters most, is mostly just dead images, smoke and mirrors.
We all work with exterior circumstances and people, and we tend to think our exterior goals are the only ones. Still, successes pale and failures disappear when we realize that all we see in this world are just tools, and that we are all but actors trying out various roles and attitudes -- until we find one that really works.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Rant of "The Secret"
“Ever since we first took on selfish goals and priorities 5000 years ago in Babylon and built that temple to ego, we’ve been laboring under the illusion that the only essential thing in life is our own desires and will power. This has made the one real thing invisible to us.” I discuss this reality behind all that we perceive in my new book, “Looking, Seeing & Knowing.” And, I have to say, that what I describe as The One Real Thing in life seems to be in direct opposition to what some of the world's most famous motivational gurus have so successfully promoted as “The Secret” to all life.
True, they have been tremendously successful, and so far I haven’t. They’ve amassed an army to saturate the media with their message. I’m just whispering my messsage in what is, so far, an almost unknown little blog: The real secret to life has to do with our harmonious connection to all things.
True, we have a lot of power over the events that come into our lives, and people should generally take more responsibility for their own circumstances. However, because of our connection to all things, our own desire and will power are not the only influences in our lives! That would seem fairly intuitive to most people. However, the world of motivational speakers is selling a different theory.
I was in sales for many years, and I appreciate a good pep talk as much as the next guy. However, the authors of this book go so far with their “secret” principle as to say that those who were tortured and murdered in the WWII concentration camps must have set that condition up for themselves. The writers reach this conclusion because they only recognize one principle as the cause of all reality in the world. The problem is that these motivational gurus picked the wrong one thing in which to put all their faith.
Speaking biblically, you could say that their teachings promote a false god. They preach that without exception, we personally create everything that happens to us. This exclusive philosophy sets up human ego above the one real thing. It leads readers away from compassion for others, and thus away from their own heart, which would otherwise lead them to knowing what's real behind all that we see or perceive. Hearts connect us; egos divide us.
This idea that we personally create everything that happens to us by our own thought forms also drives a wedge into unity consciousness. If the only cause in our life is an internal one, who needs everyone else, except, of course, as targets for our marketing campaigns? According to this all-encompassing principle, if we don’t meet our quota, the ONLY reason could be that we must not have tried hard enough or held onto the right thought forms tightly enough.
This failure leaves no room for looking for other doors to open, or wondering about the universal plan. We simply failed; and failure, of course, is a bad thing, even though that’s how most of us learn best, AND even though learning is the whole point to being on Earth in the first place.
The only solution for this detestable failure is to cut ourselves off from any distracting outside influences even more, and get right back out on the streets and sell, sell, sell! Sales managers love this delusion, but it does the rest of us a tremendous disservice.
So… this egotistical “secret” of success cuts us off from our own heart center; it separates us from acknowledgement of our connection to others and how they influence us; and it furthers the illusion of duality by promoting verifiable goal-oriented “success” as the only good influence in our lives.
Years ago, when I was laid off, and my marriage fell apart, and I couldn’t get a job, and my little bit of life savings all disappeared, my best friends said it must be because of my karma. They said that somehow I must have brought this on myself. Because of their little bit knowledge into how karma and life worked, they had absolutely no compassion for my situation.
That was right before I picked up and moved to the far corner of Montana and resolved to be done with this world as soon as possible. Things got better after my life contract expired, and I started all over (The story of how and why I discovered that my prelife contract had actually run out even tho I still lived and breathed on Earth is also told in Looking, Seeing & Knowing.) Still, as I looked around and saw that I wasn't alone in having my life fall apart, I had to wonder what’s going on.
The simple answer is that our higher selves are finding a way for many, if not most, of us to face our worst fears in order to help us move past them before this historical human cycle ends in a few years. The egotistical illusion that we alone created our present circumstances through our utter failure just adds insult to injury. It totally negates the influence of our connection with an intelligent universe or anyone around us. Personal ego, perspective and preferences are important, but they are by no means The One Real Thing!
I’m not sure what a happy ending to all my predicaments would look like anymore. I’m sure I’ll be fine. In fact, I constantly work on happy expectations for the outcome of my situations. However, I don’t know what that outcome will be yet because I don’t know exactly what Spirit has in mind for me.
There’s always more going on than we can possibly know. Things may result in realizing the opposite of my goals (which I work on for about 15 hours every day). That’s obviously not my first choice. Yet THE Secret is that it doesn’t matter!
Our willingness to do the work of the One Thing, with all the love and creative hope in the universe, instead of trying to wield the power of the gods over it for our own petty preferences, is where the real magic for our future lies. The benevolent universe won’t deny us what we need, but THE Secret is learning to work with It, rather trying to control It. Measuring ourselves by how well we attain our personal goals is ONLY the secret to entirely missing the whole point of life.
True, they have been tremendously successful, and so far I haven’t. They’ve amassed an army to saturate the media with their message. I’m just whispering my messsage in what is, so far, an almost unknown little blog: The real secret to life has to do with our harmonious connection to all things.
True, we have a lot of power over the events that come into our lives, and people should generally take more responsibility for their own circumstances. However, because of our connection to all things, our own desire and will power are not the only influences in our lives! That would seem fairly intuitive to most people. However, the world of motivational speakers is selling a different theory.
I was in sales for many years, and I appreciate a good pep talk as much as the next guy. However, the authors of this book go so far with their “secret” principle as to say that those who were tortured and murdered in the WWII concentration camps must have set that condition up for themselves. The writers reach this conclusion because they only recognize one principle as the cause of all reality in the world. The problem is that these motivational gurus picked the wrong one thing in which to put all their faith.
Speaking biblically, you could say that their teachings promote a false god. They preach that without exception, we personally create everything that happens to us. This exclusive philosophy sets up human ego above the one real thing. It leads readers away from compassion for others, and thus away from their own heart, which would otherwise lead them to knowing what's real behind all that we see or perceive. Hearts connect us; egos divide us.
This idea that we personally create everything that happens to us by our own thought forms also drives a wedge into unity consciousness. If the only cause in our life is an internal one, who needs everyone else, except, of course, as targets for our marketing campaigns? According to this all-encompassing principle, if we don’t meet our quota, the ONLY reason could be that we must not have tried hard enough or held onto the right thought forms tightly enough.
This failure leaves no room for looking for other doors to open, or wondering about the universal plan. We simply failed; and failure, of course, is a bad thing, even though that’s how most of us learn best, AND even though learning is the whole point to being on Earth in the first place.
The only solution for this detestable failure is to cut ourselves off from any distracting outside influences even more, and get right back out on the streets and sell, sell, sell! Sales managers love this delusion, but it does the rest of us a tremendous disservice.
So… this egotistical “secret” of success cuts us off from our own heart center; it separates us from acknowledgement of our connection to others and how they influence us; and it furthers the illusion of duality by promoting verifiable goal-oriented “success” as the only good influence in our lives.
Years ago, when I was laid off, and my marriage fell apart, and I couldn’t get a job, and my little bit of life savings all disappeared, my best friends said it must be because of my karma. They said that somehow I must have brought this on myself. Because of their little bit knowledge into how karma and life worked, they had absolutely no compassion for my situation.
That was right before I picked up and moved to the far corner of Montana and resolved to be done with this world as soon as possible. Things got better after my life contract expired, and I started all over (The story of how and why I discovered that my prelife contract had actually run out even tho I still lived and breathed on Earth is also told in Looking, Seeing & Knowing.) Still, as I looked around and saw that I wasn't alone in having my life fall apart, I had to wonder what’s going on.
The simple answer is that our higher selves are finding a way for many, if not most, of us to face our worst fears in order to help us move past them before this historical human cycle ends in a few years. The egotistical illusion that we alone created our present circumstances through our utter failure just adds insult to injury. It totally negates the influence of our connection with an intelligent universe or anyone around us. Personal ego, perspective and preferences are important, but they are by no means The One Real Thing!
I’m not sure what a happy ending to all my predicaments would look like anymore. I’m sure I’ll be fine. In fact, I constantly work on happy expectations for the outcome of my situations. However, I don’t know what that outcome will be yet because I don’t know exactly what Spirit has in mind for me.
There’s always more going on than we can possibly know. Things may result in realizing the opposite of my goals (which I work on for about 15 hours every day). That’s obviously not my first choice. Yet THE Secret is that it doesn’t matter!
Our willingness to do the work of the One Thing, with all the love and creative hope in the universe, instead of trying to wield the power of the gods over it for our own petty preferences, is where the real magic for our future lies. The benevolent universe won’t deny us what we need, but THE Secret is learning to work with It, rather trying to control It. Measuring ourselves by how well we attain our personal goals is ONLY the secret to entirely missing the whole point of life.
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