How Do You Beat The Blues?

From the mrW Water Cooler

Q: How do you beat the blues? – Ann

In my opinion, you don’t “beat the blues,” you listen to them.

I assume you’re not talking about depression. That’s controversial to say the least, and I have no advice on how to handle a feeling that some consider to be a disease.

I do however, believe it’s naive to try and rush away or minimize a feeling of grief or sadness that may exist in your mind for a very good reason. What if, like physical pain, the blues are there to help us? What if our moods are trying to tell us something about the way we’re living our lives?

Not to oversimplify, but standing too close to a fire hurts. And that’s a good thing. It’s the pain that reminds you to move away, and it’s the moving away that will save your life. Ignoring that pain, or trying to get over it without actually stepping back from the flames is hazardous to your health.

Sooner or later, we all find ourselves “too close to a fire.” And too often, we try to remedy the situation by doing everything but dealing with the root cause, and stepping away from the real source of the pain. When I get the blues, I figure my body is trying to tell me something, like maybe I’m not dealing with something that needs dealing with. Like maybe, I’m too close to an open flame.

Sometimes though, the blues are just the natural consequence of life. Regret, guilt, grief – most sadness has a logical root cause, and is nothing more than the consequence of an event or occurrence. Can you hurry healing process? Sure. There is a tendency though, to think that certain activities have an inherent power to make us feel better. Obviously, there is nothing universally curative about a particular song or show – if there were, the key to satisfaction and contentment would be the same for everyone. Alas, that is not the case. We are way to complicated for a universal panacea, and we must all find our own way.

Toward that end, I recommend 12 hours of hard, manual labor. if you have an IPod, listen to Dvorak while you work, loudly. I also find it helps to always remember that the world is full of happy people with very little, and sad people with very much.

Mike

PS Wine and Friends are helpful as well.

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