Happiness Runs, Happiness Runs…

“Happiness runs in a circular motion, thought  is like a little boat upon the sea…you can have everything if you let yourself be…la la la la… ”  by Donovan Leitch

I read an incredibly interesting article in Newsweek magazine, this weekend.  Apparently, Dr. Weil is everywhere, promoting his new book, Spontaneous Happiness.  I love the way he thinks, love the idea that we can create spontaneous happiness and very much in agreement with his ideas that 1) many of us are suffering from “nature-deficit disorder,” and 2) that depression is very often a “disease of affluence.”  Between the fact that we are drowning in information overload and over stimulated by the Internet, email, cellphones, text messages, etc., and the fact that we, as a society, have reduced physical activity, reduced human contact and are more and more disconnected from nature, depression is more common and more prevalent than ever.

Ironically, people who live in poorer countries have less depression than those that live in industrialized nations.  In general, the less people have, the lower the rates of depression.  Even right here in the US of A, depression rates are much, much lower amongst members of the Old Order Amish, than their surrounding, modernized, communities.

Putting all this information together, Psychologist Martin Seligman concludes that “there seems to be something about modern life that creates fertile soil for depression.”  Makes perfect sense to me.

I am choosing to end my entry right here and right now.  More about how we can combat this, to come.  For now, let’s consider getting up and if possible, getting OUTSIDE.  Take 3 deep breaths.  Let your ribs really expand and contract fully.  Use your senses to smell, see, touch and hear.  Grab a few minutes of the all important vitamin D in the best form there is, sunshine. Take those few minutes to detach from the computer, phone and other forms of modern technology.

Spontaneous Happiness.  We all have much more control over ourselves than we might believe. Happiness happens. Wishing you much of it, today and every day.