Never felt better !!…… did you just say that?

“Never felt better” is used as part of common parlance while reciprocating a greeting upon being questioned after one’s health. The phrase flows upon impulse, however, to feel the same, necessitates an attitude which includes a range of optimistic and constructive sentiments wrapped around an idea of life and not just living.
 
No matter how optimistic one is in life, there are times when one is struck by the blues, which results in a feeling of despondency or depression. Despondency can be defined as a pessimistic and a cynical state of mind which encourages feelings and thoughts of sadness, grief, sorrow and utter helplessness.
 
Despondency is held unlawful in Islam. The Qur’an is explicit on this point: ‘No one despairs of God’s mercy except those who have no faith’ (12:87). Even in the Gita, it is mentioned: at the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Arjun was despondent just before the battle bugle was sounded. It was Krishna who reminded him that his loyalties were not towards his kith and kin but towards the greater glory of humanity, to stand for right which precedes all relations. The very thought of despondency is against humanity, because humanity stands on the pillars of hope and optimism.
 
The moment a person takes a stands for what he believes to be right, there will never be a feeling of despair. But when the result fails him, he feels he has failed, little realizing that it is not his failure but an opportunity to broach the subject from another perspective thereby granting him or her a totally unexpected paradigm to yield the desired if not a better outcome.
 
Depression is like the ego’s last stand. It is actually a barrier thrown up by the ego in a desperate attempt to make you feel so hopelessly blocked, that you run scared back to your old, insecure self. Depression is an opportunity for spiritual growth and personal acceptance At first sight it may seem odd to couple such a grim experience as depression to spiritual growth, yet the fact is that as one emerges from the clutches of these conditions; one finds incentives and catalysts for the development of greater spiritual depth. One finds that great spiritual growth ultimately reaps incalculable benefits from them. This crisis of depression changes a person’s view of the world radically so that his or her life now opens out on breathtaking vistas which one never before knew existed.
 
I shall end with the words of Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield “Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.”