A: Lack of vision and fatigue can occur together, combining two forms of depression: The Darkness and The Pessimism. The lack of clarity about what to do inhibits your natural power and ability to effect change. That is, when you don't know in which direction to jump, you will remain where you are. But standing still is unnatural -- everything changes -- and stagnation can make one pessimistic about future change. Pessimism blocks your vision of what's possible so you see no bright lights outside the status quo. The Pessimism reinforces the Darkness and vice-versa.
Both pessimism and optimism are one-sided views of reality; the wise are aware of both sides. The advantage of optimism is that it marshalls the resources necessary for its accomplishment, just as pessimism gathers the forces that oppose accomplishment. We steer the future down the road we see; we get more of whatever we look for. If you look for problems, you'll find more of them, but if you look for blessings you'll find more of them too.
But you cannot choose to be optimistic because it's not a free choice. Optimism requires a powerful heart; pessimism results when your heart is weak. So first build-up your available energy, then optimism will return, then you can see what a better life would be like, then that vision will empower you and you will change.
I suggest a three-prong strategy. First, tune up your meditation technique:
Second, change something about your life that you can change, like your schedule and your diet. Meditate every morning, without reason. Eat less sugar, more raw vegetable juices. Don't watch TV news, and never watch "what's on"; choose what you watch and read. Tend a plant or a pet. Avoid people who put you down; associate with people who are inspired. Open the door to friendship whenever it knocks. Choose one person to help in some way. Steadily, your available energy will return.
Third, long-term improvement can only result from (a) figuring out what event in the past, now lodged in your heart, has caused you to inhibit your natural creativity and drive, and then (b) remembering the longing of your soul. Did you cause injury to someone in your enthusiasm? Or did you suffer at the hands of someone who had great personal power? Such experiences can create paralyzing caution as a reaction. Meditation helps you to surface such events out of the subconscious that covered them. And meditation, with its high energy and high clarity, is the best process to remind you of what you've always wished to do and to become. There is an inner longing to do something great, something that is specifically for you. When you encounter it in your meditation, you'll remember it from long ago and you'll see you had hints of it throughout your life; everything has contributed to this purpose, even your problems.
By Puran Bair, author of "Living from the Heart" (Random House, 1998)
© 1998 by The Institute for Applied Meditation, Inc.
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