Daniel  Sampayo

It is said that the poorest person in the world is a person without a dream. Many a time, we talk about travelling the next holiday, picking a place where to eat out, working out for a summer body, and achieving financial freedom. 

It is very rare for us to talk about achieving our mental and emotional freedom. Yet it is this kind of freedom (mental and emotional) we need to achieve first before anything else. We are living in a world filled with so much pleasure, influence, and inevitable depressing episodes. 

Keeping our mental environments clean is vitally important. However, with a high suicide rate in society, knowing how to do so seems to be nothing but a concept. 

Nonetheless, here is one natural way that may help us when going through depression. 

When going through a tough time, does not mean it is the end of the world. It only means life is giving you a half-time, which is basic in football. 

Two teams may compete, and one may score first, and everyone including spectators may get excited. Let us say one team scores two goals in the first half while the opponent team scores nothing. 

At half-time, both teams go into the changing room. 

While in the changing rooms, the team with two goals may talk about doing what they did to score the two goals, but the coach of the losing team may think of correcting their mistakes and play the game differently in the second half. 

When the second half begins, the losing team will implement their new techniques, and eventually go on to win the match. 

It is the same with life. When tough times strike, it is nothing but half-time for you to reflect and learn new ways to do things differently. 

Vision

Depression is simply the state of not knowing what the future will look like. Hence, to beat depression you need to have a clear vision that sees beyond sight. Because sight is the function of the eye, and vision is the function of the heart. 

When we see beyond our life’s circumstances, we can always see more than what we are going through in the current state. 

Myles Munroe did put it this way; “Vision makes suffering and disappointments bearable. Vision generates hope in the midst of despair and provides endurance in tribulation. Vision inspires the depressed and motivates the discouraged.”  

Tough times do not last. 

There are two most crucial qualities that we develop when we go through tough times; character and responsibility. 

Tough times build our characters to endure and prepare us to do great things. 

There are many people throughout the world who have gone through challenging times. 

Some of them are Thomas Edison who failed over a thousand times to invent the electric light bulb, Nelson Mandela who served 27 years in prison, Colonel Sanders whose delicious recipe was rejected 1,009 times and Viktor Frankl (author of Man’s Search for Meaning) who faced horrible horrors in a holocaust concentration camp. 

While the above people faced failure and adversities repeatedly, they were in the right state to be depressed, give up, or worse commit suicide. Yet all of them had one thing in common, which made them see that life was worth living even through their storms. 

That one common thing they had was “vision.” They believed they had to endure failure or whatever to accomplish their vision or purpose. 

It is the same with all of us. If we can have a clear vision in our hearts, depression cannot override it even if we experience flashes of suicidal thoughts. Tough times exist to build our character not ruin it. 

Responsibility

When going through tough times, it raises an urge of responsibility for us not to disadvantage others from using or benefiting from our God-given purpose for our existence. Imagine what would happen if the above people gave up. What does not kill you makes you stronger. 

Other popular ways to go around depression are speaking out (to trusted people), counselling, and various medications. Yet, all these ways have side effects – those we trust are the first to hurt us by sharing our secrets or gossip about us, counselling may fail as some tips may not help, and medications may have more health problems. 

However, having a clear vision for our lives is a natural way that does not have any side effects. Therefore, thorough soul-searching is essential to figure out the vision in your heart. 

In summary, the happiest were first broken-hearted, remarkable people first failed again and again, the rich were first poor, and the born-again were once sinners. This is the law of life. 

Patience is a virtue, hang in there and absorb the lessons in your storm. There are lessons we can only learn when in the storm. It is okay to learn from success, but to learn best we need to learn from failure and tough times. 

So, when going through hell, keep going. For those stuck in a storm, look with your heart in it rather than with your eyes. Taking our lives is never an option because the life you take is never yours!

* Daniel Sampayo is a freelance teacher and writer.