Really Down in the Dumps

Depression, Unhappiness, and a Bunch of other Negative Emotions

By Rev. Andrea Favro

Ok. So you’re depressed. Now what?

If you are reading this article it means that you might be searching for a way to deal better with your emotions, which is very cool. So relax and take a listen.

I’m no psychiatrist or what-have-you – I’m a simple man, sometimes even a complete moron. But having had to dabble with depression from time to time, I’ve learnt a thing or two and I want to share them with you. Obviously, you are strongly advised to seek professional help if you really need it.

Now, provided that you are not one of those few people who have an hormonal dysfunction, and we could say that it can be due to mind’s influence, or mental illnesses, if you feel depressed there is only one real reason:

YOU HAVE LOST YOUR HAPPY THOUGHTS.

I know, I know, there are plenty of reasons with different names, but at the end you are depressed or unhappy because you don’t have happy thoughts, that is you have lost them.

Instead your mind is stuck on bad thoughts, unhappy thoughts who simply are played again, and again, and again.

And if you are thinking what I’m talking about sounds like Peter Pan and Neverland, well, you’re perfectly right.

If you have happy thoughts you can fly. It is as simple as that. Now, there are many reasons why you’ve lost them, and maybe good reasons. The problem is that if you feel down for a while it’s okay, but if this goes on for a long time then you really should do something. That is, unless you like feeling depressed and having everyone you know worried about you or looking after you.

So, how can we handle depression, unhappiness and negative emotions?

First, work as much as you can until you fall asleep, then when you wake up start working again until you fall asleep again. Depression is something that grows quite well with laziness. I’m a deep lover of laziness, but I’m not as good as someone else at being probably the most lazy man on Earth. Anyhow, in this particular case laziness is the father of depression.

Dudeism, after all, isn’t against work – it’s against work that you hate to do. The kind of work advocated here is the kind of work talked about in Zen and Taoist parables – tying your room together by rearranging the furniture, throwing out old shit, painting your garage, or maybe cleaning up your hard drive, or volunteering or building something with your hands.

DO SOMETHING. IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT, BUT DO SOMETHING!

If you don’t know what to do, start digging a hole, then fill it and start over again. Totally pointless, right? Not so. Maybe you’ll find some buried treasure. Or just work until midnight on trying to learn another language. Do whatever you want but keep as occupied as you can until you have no time left for being depressed. Do not stay under the covers crying while life goes on, man.

I know, this advice isn’t so fancy and it is too simple to be worthy of an entire self-help book. But it definitely works if you try it. The choice is completely up to you.

Second, after you did step one, buy a copy of Peter Pan and study it. Then, if you don’t get the hint, read it again.

I know it is a book for child, not a self-help classic or a self-improvement course or what have you, but it has some very deep insights and advices. And, aren’t we all child inside?

Everything in life has two sides, ups and downs, strikes and gutters and so on. So, when you are happy if you look at it from a different point of view maybe you could find a bad side too. But you simply don’t see it because what makes you happy seems more important. We could say that you see what you want to see. Obviously this can be reversed and looking at bad things from a different point of view it is possible to find a positive side. Happy thoughts are simply that, trying to look always at the positive side of things. Of course this is not always easily done; there are things which are quite hard to see as positive. I’ve lost a father, and a dog which for me was like a daughter. How is it possible to find a positive side? Well, that’s the moment to apply point one until it is possible to see things from a different perspective. Even if it takes a while, that moment always arrives eventually. It’s only a matter of time. Death is part of life, it’s what gives life its value and the only way to deal with it is accepting it, as it is one of the things common to every living being.

So find again your happy thoughts and do not let them go away. Never. And if you find it difficult, try to remember when you were a child, amazed at the world and happy about nothing. Try to think like a child in the middle of life, enjoying the world as the wisest, most stupefyin’ story unfolding before you.

READ PETER PAN!

Now, there’s a simple thing that you can to help prevent bad feelings. Every morning, after you wake up, DANCE. Think about the Dude on his beloved rug, or the Blues Brothers, or whatever kind of dance makes you happy, possibly laughing to the ground. Come on, you love life! Dance to express your love for this beautiful life. Remember there are always millions of people with lives worse than yours, who would trade places with you in a second. So DANCE! Invent the most stupid, funny dance that you can and do it. And if you laugh while doing it it’s only better. DANCE!

One last word:

This innerduces an important question Dudes. There are a lot of questions that each one of us asks or gets asked all the time like: do you have a good job, do I have enough money, what should I do with my life and so on. But there is another question Dudes, which is the Tao of all questions; The Question which contains all the other questions, and this question is:

ARE YOU HAPPY, YOU CRAZY FUCK?