Can We Dance Through Depression?

The past weeks have brought me a new revelation. That in itself is not new. I regularly discover things previously unknown to me; it’s one of the joys of life. I’m sure all of you have enlightening things bubbling to the surface for you to ponder. If that were not so, then life would be boring enough to crush you with depression.

I know depression is common, but this kind of depression focuses on the pointlessness of life, and that is not true. Life is not futile.

My revelation may be nonconsequential to you, as yours might seem meaningless to me.

Do any of us need to know everything? No. Is that even possible?

Do you fight with the insignificance of your life? Could that be because you haven’t discovered anything new about yourself or the world? If so, you should focus on something new to you. It doesn’t matter what it is.

Perhaps you are upset that what you learned in the past was negative. Was it something that you didn’t want to know? That happens to everyone, but it could appear overwhelming to you.

It might surprise you that in my experience, learning something starts as zero, neither positive nor negative—just nil. Only after learning does it move to the left and negative or right and positive. The left or right movement is not to be confused with the political left and right positions. I intend to follow the number line approach taught in math.

But you may ask, why zero? It is because, to me, all knowledge is neither good nor evil. It is neutral, and only its interpretation moves that knowledge one way or the other.  But there is more. Whenever we move knowledge from the neutral zero, it doesn’t simply move in one direction. It moves like calipers focused on zero. One side moves away from zero, which causes the other side to move an equal amount in the opposite direction — opening the calipers like mirror images to each other.

Let’s say someone tells you something — ah … you have bad breath. That knowledge is neutral. But it can have negative connotations; it can be offensive to others. But where is the opposite? At times, the positive isn’t clear. Not many people enjoy halitosis in others, so that wouldn’t be it. The positive to this is that by learning the neutral idea, you can correct it with mouthwash, brushing, etcetera, some sort of corrective action.

That knowledge you gained gave you a choice. It is simple. You can either focus on the negative and slide down into meaninglessness or find the positive and then choose further on how you want to handle it.

I know this is a simplification, but with everything presented to you there is always a choice, ā la that old silver lining thing.

Can it go the other way, too? Certainly, as before, the knowledge is neutral.

Let me pick something different. After a horrible breakup from a relationship, you realize you might be able to love again. The choice might go positive, and you try again, or negatively, and you wallow in defeatism. Of course, this scenario depends on your current inner needs. You may need to lick your wounds and sit back a little longer. Or you can open yourself to growth again,

Anyway, life is full of learning and acquiring knowledge. Whatever you do, you will make decisions, consciously or not, and walk the path determined by what you have decided.

There are some serious depressions where trauma has pounded you so hard that life becomes distorted, and your view might incline in one direction or another. Let me tell you I have first-hand knowledge before you say I have no idea of what I write. I live it daily.

This debilitating blend of emotions is hard to sort out and can be dangerous. However, a key that might be useful is accepting life as it has happened. It will not change. That is neutral.

Admittedly, that morsel of knowledge is tough to swallow. That’s the whole point. No one can change it, so acceptance needs to happen. It doesn’t mean you agree with that trauma or that whatever it was made you happy. But the starting point must be realizing that no one can alter it. No one can alter that fact. Once that comes into focus, the task now becomes recognizing the positive and negative sides of that trauma, regardless of how gut-wrenching the catastrophe was.

What helps me is knowing music can relax me or at least dull the edge of what happened to help keep it from lacerating into or stabbing through you. The music will differ on different days — a soft country ballad, acid rock, classical, rap, or different sounds. Hell, it could be the sound of the trees blown by the wind. Let the harmony of life caress you. Anything that strikes your fancy has the best chance of relaxing you enough to let you choose between going positive or negative. The key is to listen.

Choose Music as your Tribe. It is wonderful, and we are in t that tribe continuously throughout life, whether we realize it or not. What is left is to recognize it. You can soften or heighten your mood with it, relax through difficult torments, or raise the heartbeat of anticipation. There is much that music can accomplish, all on its own. However, if one couples it with a problem, it will untangle the ugly and unwanted.

The magic thing about music is that it uses both harmony and dissonance. It naturally untangles the most devious knots of life simply by listening to or feeling it. The resolutions from dissonance to harmony found in music translate easily to help unwind entanglements of the mind and psyche, whether related to trauma or not.

It sounds like gobbledygook, but it’s not. Let me say that music works—not just in this but in most things. It is the great non-violent equalizer.

Life can be revitalized by choosing which side of information to use and listening to music with its attributes. We have a magic key to living through trauma. All we need to do is recognize it.

 

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