December 9, 2014
When we feel despondent, we can either choose to feel desperate or feel challenged. If you choose to feel desperate, it is hard to move on. You really need to accept the challenge to deal with your despondent feelings. You should also question whether your thoughts truly reflect the situation. Is your mind making things look worse than they really are? It is important to understand that by challenging yourself you can control the outcome. In my earlier years when I felt despondent, I felt trapped. I got to a point where there here was not an ounce on my being that could make me feel that living was worth it. The graduate degrees that I had earned meant nothing. I have always been good at martial arts but that also meant nothing. I was physically fit and could practice many sports but that was nothing to me. I had published studies in peer reviewed journals that were meaningful and had been cited by other scientists in their own studies. Again, that meant nothing. It was really a hopeless state of mind.
However, even when I felt that way, there was something in the back of my mind that was telling me that I could challenge myself to deal with such feelings. In essence, in the back of my mind I felt that those despondent feelings were not realistic. All I had to do was to look around and see how many people were doing worse than I was but enjoyed their lives to the fullest. It is unfortunate that I was not able to accept that reality until I reached rock bottom and unsuccessfully attempted to take my own life. It is unfortunate because I would have missed living a very rewarding life. I was just lucky to have survived my attempt. However, I could have just listened to my instincts and refuse to dwell on self-defeating thoughts.
I am saying this because if you ever feel despondent, I want you to know that it is important to take action and refuse to fall victim to such thoughts. As I have described in previous posts, many people have had to deal with hopeless experiences but instead of falling victim of their despondent feelings, they chose instead to challenge themselves and fought back. They took action to improve their situation. I have given several examples of that in my previous posts and if you read them, you will realize that people can achieve great success even when they find themselves hitting rock bottom. The do it by challenging themselves.
Many times what you have to do to challenge yourself is read about people that have achieved great success after hitting rock bottom. You will be surprised with how many people may have had worse experiences than you but chose not to fall victims to their situation. You can also challenge yourself to let go of the thoughts that make you entertain your despondent feelings. By letting go you can achieve a sense of peace. You can say, yes the situation is bad but it is either not as bad as other people have it or there is nothing to be gained by dwelling on it. It is best to spend time on your options than on self-defeating thoughts. I have mentioned before that your subconscious can pull your mind away from objective and realistic thinking. It is up to you to consciously take charge and modify your thoughts in an objective/constructive way. The goal is to do whatever you need to do to live another day.