One of the keys to successful recovery from a period of depression is to Keep Moving.

I learned this from an spiritual teacher I had in Illinois… and I hated it while he was teaching me the lesson. There was a period of time in my life when I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do anything. It was an accomplishment when I could move from the couch to go to the bathroom.

Lately, the darkness has been nipping at my heels again. I haven’t let it take over, but it’s there in the back of my mind.

I know that if I continue to do the things that help to keep the darkness at bay, it will stay there.

Keep Moving doesn’t mean blind action. But it does mean doing the things that I know help during times like this.

One of the biggest things, as I’ve mentioned before, is simply showing up for life – keeping the commitments I’ve made, both to myself and to others. And if I’ve overcommited, admitting it, accepting it, and moving on.

It’s also ok to rest. But those of us with depressive tendencies are in a bit of a conundrum when it comes to this – am I resting, or am I wallowing? It can honestly be hard to tell sometimes. Since our minds love to beat ourselves up so much, even “I’m tired” can become “Wow, look at you, you piece of shit… laying around again.”

Related to this – we need to drop what we consider to be the judgments of others. We do enough of that ourselves. Most of the time, people mean well when they try to give us direction in our lives, and often the advice may be sound. But when we turn them into judgments of our worth as a person, we are once again on the road to the blackness.

Some days we fly, some days we walk, some days we crawl, and some days we need to rest.

And all are OK.

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