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The term clinical depression finds its way into too many conversations these days. One has a sense that a catastrophe has occurred in the psychic landscape. – Leonard Cohen

Depression is rage spread thin. – George Santayana

Depression is nourished by a lifetime of ungrieved and unforgiven hurts. – Penelope Sweet

Remember sadness is always temporary. This, too, shall pass. – Chuck T. Falcon

Depression is the inability to construct a future. – Rollo May

Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings. – Elie Weisel

Concern should drive us into action, not depression. – Karen Horney

I cry a lot. My emotions are very close to my surface. I don’t want to hold anything in so it it festers and turns into pus – a pustule of emotion that explodes into a festering cesspool of depression. – Nicolas Cage

If I had not been already been meditating, I would certainly have had to start. I’ve treated my own depression for many years with exercise and meditation, and I’ve found that to be a tremendous help. – Judy Collins

Trials give you strength, sorrows give understanding and wisdom. – Chuck T. Falcon

Just like other illnesses, depression can be treated so that people can live happy, active lives. – Tom Bosley

For me being depressed means you can spend all day in bed, and still not get a good night’s rest. – Unknown

Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment. – Greenville Kleiser

A lot of what passes for depression these days is nothing more than a body saying that it needs work. – Geoffrey Norman

That’s the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily, that it’s impossible to ever see the end. The fog is like a cage without a key. – Elizabeth Wurtzel

Depression is a prison where you are both the suffering prisoner and the cruel jailer. – Dorothy Rowe

If depression is creeping up and must be faced, learn something about the nature of the beast: You may escape without a mauling. – Dr. R. W. Shepherd

In a strange way, I had fallen in love with my depression. Dr. Sterling was right about that. I loved it because I thought it was all I had. I thought depression was the part of my character that made me worthwhile. I thought so little of myself, felt that I had such scant offerings to give to the world, that the one thing that justified my existence at all was my agony. – Elizabeth Wurtzel

Hope is grief’s best music. – Anonymous

Depression is a treatable medical illness like cancer and heart disease. – Judith Peacock

Fall seven times, stand up eight. – Japanese proverb

I’m a strong believer in affirmations and motivational quotes. I have quotes written on everything but my cats. My husband and I were having lunch in a restaurant on Kentucky Lake a few days ago when I saw a quote hanging near the register. I grabbed a pen and copied it on a napkin. Ironically, enough, it fits very well with the topic we’re focusing on this week: Depression. It’s the quote you see in the yellow box below.

“Better keep yourself clean and bright, you’re the window through which you must see the world.” – George Bernard Shaw

My shelves are filled with motivational and inspirational writings and quotes, from the pens and lips of the most brilliant men and women to ever live. I have volumes of biographies, historical textbooks, encyclopedias, novels, etc. Yet one of the most profound, genuinely true, and beautiful quotes I’ve ever read was hanging by a register in a bayside grill.

The lesson this quote teaches and the sermon it preaches is powerfully simplistic. If we want our world to be more beautiful, we have to do something about the way we look at it. It’s like having a dirty kitchen window. The world outside isn’t the problem – the trees are as green as they ever were, the birds are as colorfully beautiful as ever, and the sky? Still blue.

But if the window is dirty, the outside world looks gray and unattractive. Action…proactive efforts… have to be made to clean the window. Once clean, the beauty of the world will, literally, come shining through.

These efforts may include meditation, prayer, exercise, talking it out with a family member or friend, walking in the fresh air (But not during the hottest part of the day, please!), gardening, taking up a great new hobby, adopting a pet or showering yours with more attention, watching an uplifting movie or television show, etc. Keep in mind, also, that if the suggestions above, or similar efforts, don’t make a difference in your condition – you may need medication, even if it’s just for a short period of time.

If that’s what it takes for you to be able to see the world as the beautiful place that it is (the one you remember it as) rather than the gray, dismal space that it’s become – it’s more than worth it. You have NOTHING to be ashamed of. Clinical Depression is a physical illness just like diabetes, asthma, heart disease, etc. If you had any of those, you wouldn’t hesitate to go to the doctor, right? Of course not! After all, going to the doctor would make you feel better, no eed suffering when you don’t have to. Heck it might even save your life.

You can say the same exact things about going to the doctor for depression. After all, going to the doctor would make you feel better, no eed suffering when you don’t have to. Heck it might even save your life.

Make each day count double,
~Joi