Benjamin Franklin, and thousands of other writers & philosophers, said: “One day is worth a thousand tomorrows.” It seems to be a common problem of the human condition to stay in the present moment. The research is mixed on “Holiday Syndrome”, whether there is a higher incidence of emotional disturbance from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day. What is clear is that people struggle daily with feelings of depression and anxiety, especially connected to holi/holy-days and family gatherings. This is not a modern problem, it has existed for centuries.
Somewhere between the sixth and fourth centuries before the common era, Laozi, the person or persons we have come to know as Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote: “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. To be happy, live in the present.” At another time and in another culture Furston Oursler said: “Most of us crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for the past and fear of the future.” It is impossible to have a better tomorrow if you spend today, worrying about tomorrow. What to do, what to do? Engage the Chinese GPS. It involves “recalculating”: changing our thought and behavior patterns to achieve a different outcome.
Sounds simple. It is. Simple, however, can be very hard to accomplish. The structure for this simplicity is to use “the 4 A’s” (see archived articles from August 2014 “Awake” and October 2014 “4 A’s”) to be awake to new input, to analyze alternative options, to act on the best possibility. A significant part of the new input is to look at internalized anger as a major factor underlying depression, and that anxiety is basically diffused fear. More information will be coming in the next two months’ blogs (Depression in December and Anxiety in January).
In the meantime, we can work on the new awareness part, with help from a magical cat and dog and Janis Joplin: “there is no yesterday, no tomorrow. There is only today. They are all the same day.” (J.J.)
Washington Post (Sat, Oct 28, 2017)