Out of the Pit

We’ve been told that one of our best defences against illness is positive attitude.  It seems so easy and simple an idea. And yet so few among us are able to consistently practice it.

Attitude is largely an emotional matter. And many of us think that we don’t have – never will have – control over the way we feel. We know emotions to be an involuntary, spontaneous matter; we can only acknowledge them when they occur, often to our own surprise.

This is probably the reason why for many of us our emotional life is the most common field of failures. There’s no problem when it comes to positive emotions, like love as well as feelings of kindness, enthusiasm, happiness and all others that make us respond positively. It’s the negative emotions of hate, anger, jealousy, sadness, fear, worthlessness and the like that we constantly need to brace ourselves against and where we waste away most of our energies on.

Perhaps the ugliest of our emotional strife is depression. So because it involves a myriad of other contributory negative emotions. What’s worse, depression is a progressive emotional affliction; it develops undetected until it has already taken hold of its victims and its ugly symptoms have begun to show. 

Modern medicine has recently made considerable progress in identifying physical and physiological bases of depression. It has been discovered that a lack of certain enzymes in the brain, called amines, triggers the onset of a depressive state. Giving a patient medication containing amines can get him out of his depressive state, albeit temporarily.

The problem with this drug, as with any other chemical treatment for depression, is that it can encourage dependency on the part of the patient. The feeling of harrowing emptiness that is one of the main symptoms of depression makes the patient seek instantaneous relief through drugs. Thus, the patient does not take as much initiative in actively participating in his own healing process, which is absolutely necessary in getting him “out of the pit” for good.

Many therapists have come to believe that the true medication for depression is not chemical but spiritual. We have seen people who had once completely lost their zest for life, but triumphantly returned from the doldrums as soon as they become involved in some religious or spiritual cause. Medical science recognizes this phenomenon.

Renowned psychologist William James taught that true religious experiences have a common denominator of pain, suffering, tragedy, and complete desperation. A deep feeling of resignation had to come, said James, before any man could be ready for God’s medicine. James was referring to a state of emotional depression.

Religious involvement seems to bring about humility and acceptance in the person, a kind of surrender in acknowledgment of one’s fundamental nothingness in the universal scheme of things. From this, healing occurs as a rebound effect. When one accepts that being nothing he deserves nothing — he tends to develop consciousness of the divine; he becomes spiritually aware and no longer as badly beaten by worldly woes.

When a person believes that everything that comes his way comes only by the grace of God, his faith will necessarily humble him. Religious faith cannot flourish in the soil of pride. Only with humility can a person sincerely say, “Thy will, not mine, O Lord, be done.” And from this faithful surrender, everything else tends to fall in its proper place.

Time and again, we have heard of the term “faith healing.” Faith can affect our physical and physiological processes as well as mental and emotional states. It also enables us to face up to the hurdles that would otherwise crush us or knock us out, by giving us hope of a final victory. Without such hope, the burdens of living are terribly heavy. Faith heals, indeed.

Faith in God definitely contributes to our well-being, in the practical as well as spiritual sense. The person who has faith in God is likely to have faith in other people too. And faith in himself, as well. His self-esteem will grow, but without making him arrogant or conceited. He will, instead, rejoice in being able to tame his pride.

Life has its down moments, for all. Life does not operate according to our will but by the will of the One who has the ultimate power to allow things to happen.

Others may appear to be luckier than us. Yet they may be luckier only in areas where we are deficient. Conversely, we may be luckier than them in other ways. No one has the total advantage, or disadvantage, in life.

And luck is not something we find and pick up and get away with. Rather, luck – like life itself –  is something we create for ourselves. Only that it is easier to come by with faith.

Sometimes it is to one’s advantage that he is not lucky, because then he will be prompted to tap the drive and the fighting spirit that would otherwise, under better conditions, remain sleeping idly within him. And then, by his own making, life becomes more fun for him.

God’s blessings pour, all the time, although not always on us. Yet we can partake of others’ blessings by feeling happy for them. In times when we are the ones reaping the favors, we can make our experience fuller by extending our hand to those hole up in their pits.

When we reach out to others in distress, we veer our attention away from our own misery. Our load becomes lighter, and handy enough to carry. And we find it easier to get out of our own pit.

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