There has been a lot of buzz about ‘Gratitude being the best attitude.’ I totally agree, but, yea, there is a ‘but’. What if you are so depress that finding the way to feel any gratitude is not possible? What if you are so depress that you do not even want to ever get out of bed? What if you are so depress that you just do not want to live?

If you have never been in such a place, you would never understand. But for someone who is so depress that feeling any gratitude is out of question, then what?

I have a friend who was so depressed because she had a falling-out with her sister. She spent most of her times in bed crying and eating. She had no contact with anyone. She never picked up her phone whenever anyone called.

She told me that she was so depress that she did not want to have anything to do with anyone. She tried following the advice given in the book the ‘Secret’ about gratitude, but she could not find anything to be thankful for. I was really concerned that she might contemplate suicide.

When you are so down and out and depress like she was, what should you do? When you cannot even be thankful for being alive then what? Depression is an emotion that is of such a low vibrational frequencies as compared to gratitude which has the high vibrational frequencies. Trying to reach for the feeling of gratitude from where she stood was impossible. It was like trying to get from point ‘a’ to point ‘z’ without going through point ‘b, c, d, e, …..y’.

Remembering what I read in the book ‘Ask and it is Given’ by Esther (and Abraham) Hicks, I advised my friend to try to find some kind of thought that would make her feel a little better. I told her to get angry with her sister. I will admit that anger is not good, but being angry is better than being depress. There is much more energy in anger than in depression. You want to move up the energy level so that you would not feel so helpless.

She took my advice. It was difficult for her, but she tried. After a while she felt a little better. She started getting out of bed and started meeting friends. She was not contemplating suicide anymore. After a while she moved up the emotional scale to the feeling of blame, then frustration, and finally feeling hopeful. It took months of trying to move up the emotional scale. From the feeling of hopefulness, she was finally able to reach for some thought that would make her feel grateful.

I am not saying that all her troubles are gone, but now amidst all her trouble she could manage to be optimistic and hopeful. She is not suicidal anymore.

Gratitude is really the best attitude, but if no matter how hard you tried you still cannot feel any gratitude, do not despair. All you have to do is try to find some thought that feels better than what you are feeling. Strive for a better feeling thought and move up the emotional scale. You will eventually find yourself feeling hopeful and joy.

This may not work for everyone. Some people may need to seek medical help because sometimes depression resulted from chemical imbalance in the brain. I am just relating to you an experience of a dear friend.

No related posts.