- Michael Dahdal
Seeing The Light
Updated: Jan 3, 2020

If you simply look up the definition of depressed, you’ll get something that resembles ‘a state of unhappiness or despondency’.
Like everything, there are levels to this thing.
There’s feeling depressed and then there’s being depressed, with 'being' striking much deeper at your core, hijacking your entire identity.
To feel depressed is to carry with you a great despair
A sadness
A heaviness
A dark cloud
A sense of oppression
A sense of helplessness
You see no beauty when feeling depressed, nothing seems meaningful
You’re more inclined to just go through the motions;
doing the bare minimum - if you do anything at all.
It’s a spiral downwards that suggests no end in sight,
Getting out seems like a mountain to climb, there's that complete loss of will, a kind of death to your human spirit.
It begins consuming your entire being, very soon becoming enslaved to it, like living in bondage.
Reality is, like joy, sadness is a part of the human experience, so rather than fighting it, it may actually be worthwhile recognising it, and learning to appreciate it for what it is.
Instead of trying so hard to overcome it, you may be better served reaching for the good, clawing your way back into life, inch by inch.
You don’t try and defeat depression, you instead try to fill your life with meaning, some light.
Because it’s the light which drives out the darkness, nothing else can do it.
So it's not so much about how you feel, it's more so about what you do, despite of how you feel.
So the antithesis to despond, is to respond
as the antithesis to death, is life
and the antithesis to dark, is light
Just as the antithesis to passivity, is activity
and the antithesis to oppression, is freedom
Joy is not something to be pursued; it’s something that ensues as a result of doing the little things.
Learning to Love again
Learning to trust again
Being productive
Delivering on your promise to yourself and to others
Awakening possibility and realising potential
Overcoming fear and having the courage to face up to the world
Step by step, inch by inch
It’s saying yes to life and breaking out of your comforts to grow and flourish
It's being more present, more connected
Watching closely and being able to see beauty in the smallest things
In being grateful, humble,
In not wanting for things you don’t have and instead learning to appreciate the things you do
Happiness isn’t something you pursue, it the kind of thing that dawns on you when you break down all the walls you've built up against it
Letting the light in
It’s alike moment of grace that’s bestowed upon you, when you’re living the fullness of your humanity.
That deep sense of contentment, that knowing that everything is as its meant to be, and you’re giving all you can, in every situation.
True to your promise.
Just because you may not be able to see the light right now, it does not mean that it’s not there.