Collection: DEPRESSION
Do not kill yourself. It will never get easier by dying.
Now, first take a slow, deep breath,
Read the words written here.
These words have great power to save you from suffering.
From the teachings of Master Ryuho Okawa, I have selected a prescription for the mind that is effective against depression.
Finding your good qualities
If you think you are inferior to others or if you think of yourself as a failure unless you achieve a certain result, then you will end up defining yourself as no good. But you can shift your perspective of yourself.
You, at present, must have developed greatly compared to when you were in grade school. You may complain that your wife is no good, but when you were a teenager, your main worry might have been that you would never be able to marry. At least you have managed to marry. Compared to how you would be if you had not, you deserve to be praised. You can also think of yourself worthy of praise for continuing to support such a wife.
People who worry that their children are no good can realize how laudable they are for having managed to bring them up. People who still remain rank-and-file employees at the age of 60 can compliment themselves on their enthusiasm for continuous work; they can be proud of the fact that they have not suffered from any serious illnesses during the course of their career.
People who worry about baldness can tell themselves that while there are many others with no hair at all, like the great missionary, Xavier, at least they still have some hair left on the sides. People who worry about having gone grey can tell themselves that it looks sophisticated and that it suits them. In this way, there are various ways of looking at things, so if others do not compliment you, try complimenting yourself once in a while instead.
When complimenting, I advise you not to go around telling others that you are great. There are occasionally people who criticize others while praising themselves, saying, “You're no good but I'm great.” If they do this as a form of self-defense, then I suppose it cannot be helped, but if they do it all the time, others will eventually shun them. There is no need to praise yourself in front of others; just do it when you are alone.
Praising yourself every day may be too much, so once a week you can say to yourself, “I'm feeling rather depressed, so I should compliment myself for a change.” Ask yourself if there is something about you that deserves praise. At the very least, compared to the way you were in the past, you must have made some kind of progress. No one fails at everything or becomes worse at everything than before. There has to be something in which you made progress.
from "The Laws of Hope" by Ryuho Okawa
Causes of and ways to overcome depression
When depression lasts for a long time, there is possession by evil spirits
"If the state of depression lasts for a long time, at least three months or more, I think it is safe to assume that there is some kind of evil spirit possession. The compass needle (thoughts) of the mind, like the hand of a clock, can point 360 degrees in any direction, either to the heavenly world or to the hellish world, but in the state of depression, it just points to a certain point in the hellish world and stops. As a result, beings in the hell realms in that direction are in sync with the person's mind. Therefore, similar companions will come to the person. It becomes possible for a lost spirit to come and possess the person. For example, a person who has committed suicide due to depression cannot easily ascend to the heavenly realm. Usually, they cannot ascend to the heavenly realm until their natural lifespan comes. Until then, they look for someone who is similar to them among the living, and when they find such a person, they possess that person and try to do to that person what they did to themselves before their death. And then they try to drag the person into the world of hell."
Make yourself shine through "self- power generation"
So what is the fundamental treatment? There is a term "self-generation." It means to generate electricity in one's own home, rather than having it sent from a power plant. The treatment of depression requires this "self-generation. In short, it is very important for the person to turn the generator in his or her own mind and have the power to generate energy. Therefore, the question is, "How do we turn on the generator? How do we let energy overflow from within ourselves? How do we make ourselves bright? How do we make ourselves shine?" is the key.
1) Have a heart of gratitude toward others
The first thing I would like to state is that a person in a state of depression does not have a sense of gratitude toward others. Therefore, the first thing to do is to say, "I have received a lot of help from other people." You should start with a heart of gratitude for the fact that your life up to the present time has existed as a result of the efforts of many people. It is important to discover, through that grateful heart, that you have actually been blessed.
2) Have a strong feeling that "I am a child of God"
The second point is to have a strong feeling that you are a child of God. I really want to encourage reflection, but if you are in a state of depression, and if you enter into reflection too soon, you may torment yourself even more, and you may end up in a more painful state. It is better to have a strong feeling that "I am a child of God. I am a child of light, created by God," and to have a sense of importance toward oneself. I think Christianity is wonderful, and Catholicism is also good, but because of the strong belief in "original sin" and "human beings are children of sin," there are some Christians who accept it too seriously and cannot see the bright side of it. However, if you look at it from a different perspective, the world is full of wonderful things.
A driver saw a lot of dirty trash on the side of the highway in Brazil, but eventually he started driving where there was no trash. Do you look at the garbage? Do you look at the road ahead instead of the garbage? Depending on the direction you look, you will see different things. Therefore, it is important to think, "What is it that I am looking at?" If your eyes are always looking in a dark direction, it is important to make an effort to look in a brighter direction in the world. This can be done simply by changing the direction of your mind. For example, there are many people who think that they are useless and have nothing to offer. Many depression sufferers are like that. However, if you think about yourself carefully, you will find that this is not the case. If you ask others, "What good things do I have about myself? Tthey will instantaneously count five or six of good points aboutonyour self. We know what is good about others. However, people who blame themselves for their own bad points have a hard time understanding them. To honestly acknowledge one's good points is also energy for self-generation.
3) Accumulate small successes
Once the direction of your life has taken a brighter turn and you are beginning to get back on track, it is important to accumulate small successes. First of all, don't aim for big successes, but accumulate small successes and build up your confidence. When you accumulate small successes and gain confidence, only then will you have the strength to humbly reflect on what you did wrong. I believe these steps are important.
Consider how much is "given to you."
Some may think that being "born human" is a bad thing.
However, compared to animals, humans are really happy. We can do many things freely. I am truly grateful for that.
Most animals cannot speak. Also, they do not even get paid for working. Police dogs may work, but they are not paid. Humans, if they work, get paid, even if it is not much, and thereby have economic freedom.
Being a human being is a very precious thing.
In this way, it is important to change our perspective and consider how much we have been given. We should not easily fall into drugs or alcohol.
We also need to not be so obsessed with comparisons with others. There are so many people in the world that there is no end to looking up or down.
If you have a tendency to think "I am not good enough" when you see someone who is better than you in something you are interested in, you should change that.
Instead of thinking that way, when you see someone who is more successful than you in your area of interest, congratulate them on their greatness and say, "I want to be like that person. That person is ideal for me," and try to think of that person in a complimentary way. In this way, you, too, can become more like that person.
From “The Moment of Truth” by Ryuho Okawa
Believe in yourself and wait for the time when your strength fills up, as if you were storing water drop by drop in a water bottle
But at a time like this, you need to have faith in yourself. Believe strongly that you are a child of God and that you have divine nature within you. Even if you have no energy right now, the time will come when you will feel recharged again—just as there are different seasons in a year and after we go through fall and winter, spring is sure to come. You simply have to believe this. It is best not to try to force your way out of the difficult periods. The key is to wait patiently as if filling a barrel with water one drop at a time. You will gradually be able to fill yourself with energy if you patiently restore your strength little by little. These periods of stagnation usually last six months, a year, or maybe even three years. And desperate struggle will only add to your suffering. So remain still and patient, and wait as if to fill a barrel with raindrops. The time will come when you find yourself full of energy again.
from "The Strong Mind" by Ryuho Okawa
Putting your problems down on paper will give you a better idea of what you need to do
You may have a lot of problems and wonder, "What is causing me to be confused and suffering from a state of depression? Why do I feel so unmotivated, have no prospects for the future, and feel so dark?" What you should do in such cases, and I have mentioned this several times in the past, is to "write down your problems on paper." This is also a method I have actually practiced. Take a sheet of paper and write down your problems. "What on earth is the problem? What is it that is bothering me?" How many can you write? It is very difficult to write down as many as a hundred problems. No matter how much you think about it, it is hard to come up with a hundred problems. When I was a young trading company employee, I once tried to write down my problems, but no matter how much I thought about it, I could not come up with more than 20. After writing down my problems on paper, the next step is to look at them for a while and put them in order. I rearranged the problems according to their importance and rewrote the table. If you look at the table more closely, you will notice that there are worries that can be erased by your efforts and others that cannot be erased. Some problems will not disappear no matter how hard you try, while others will disappear if you work hard enough. This is the process of discerning these problems. If there is a problem that you feel you just can't get rid of, you put it on the shelf. You can mark them with a triangle or a cross, but you mark the ones you want to shelve and select the ones that you think you can solve. Then, you think, "Which of these problems can I solve?" Then, you should make an effort to eliminate the solvable ones one by one, starting with the ones with the highest priority.
From "Super Absolute Method for Health" by Ryuho Okawa
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Book, The Truth about Spiritual Phenomena: Life’s Q&A with El Cantare, Ryuho Okawa, English
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Book, The Moment of Truth : Become a Living Angel Today, Ryuho Okawa, French
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Book, The Moment of Truth : Become a Living Angel Today,Ryuho Okawa, German
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The Strong Mind : The Art of Building the Inner Strength to Overcome Life's Difficulties, Ryuho Okawa, Arabic
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The Strong Mind : The Art of Building the Inner Strength to Overcome Life's Difficulties, Ryuho Okawa, English
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The Moment of Truth : Become a Living Angel Today,Ryuho Okawa, English
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Book, The Moment of Truth : Become a Living Angel Today,Ryuho Okawa, Portuguese
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Book, The Laws of Hope : The Light is Here, Ryuho Okawa, Thai
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Book, The Laws of Hope : The Light is Here, Ryuho Okawa, Spanish
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Book, The Laws of Hope : The Light is Here, Ryuho Okawa, Nepali
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Book, The Laws of Hope : The Light is Here, Ryuho Okawa, German
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Book, The Laws of Hope : The Light is Here, Ryuho Okawa, English
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