Archive for year: 2017

According to Kevin Loria in the Business Insider Thursday 16 February 2017 Depression may be our brain’s way of telling us to stop and solve a problem

There is a theory that suggests that rather than being a problem depression might be a specific behavioural strategy that we have evolved as a biological adaptation that serves a purpose. As Matthew Hutson explains in a Nautilus feature on the potential evolutionary roots of depression and suicidal behaviour , that the purpose of depressions might be to make us…

…stop, understand, and deal with an important problem.

Figures for the USA, which are probably reflected in Europe, suggest that at any given time, about 5% of people report symptoms of moderate or severe depression. Major depressive disorder is now so common that at some point in life, one in six people will suffer from it.

So why does such a debilitating condition strike so many people?

The traditional understanding is that depression is just a breakdown in the normally working of the brain. This is seen as a chemical imbalance that is treated by chemical medication designed to balance chemistry, change mood and create shifts in behaviours.

Could depression have developed to help us?

Evolutionary psychologist Paul Andrews and psychiatrist J. Anderson Thomson first elaborated on this idea, called the “analytical rumination hypothesis,” in an article published in Psychological Review in 2009.

Their idea is that what we think of as a disorder is actually a way for our brains to analyse and dwell on a problem in the hopes of coming up with a way to deal with it. The researchers suggest it’s possible that a difficult or complex problem triggers a “depressive” reaction in some people that sends them into a sort of analytical mode.

This intrigues me greatly because in the Ayurevedic model, my original training, depression was seen as a gift, as a way of our system telling us that something was wrong and giving us the chance to sort it out. This would explain the increased rumination that arises in depressive episodes. Along side this is an increase in dream sleep. The two phases of sleep are deep sleep (NREM) and dream sleep (REM). It is assumed that deep sleep is the resting phase concerned with repair of the body and dream sleep is an active phase concerned with processing experience and emotion. In depression the dream sleep eats into the deep sleep so that despite sleeping for long periods of time the person does not experience rest and may become progressively more tired.

The concept that depression might be an evolutionary adaptation rather than a mental disorder is not the main consensus of the mental health community. In reality it cannot be true for all depression. It would be true for those who suffered with reactive depression in response to a trauma or traumatic stimulus. Even so this could still account for around 80% of depressive episodes.

The problem is that in most cases depression is not the cause it is the symptomatic response to the cause. In western medicine we tend to treat the symptom and pay little or no attention to the cause.

It could be that if we accepted depression as a gift and took the opportunity to undertake a self-audit to enable us to get our lives back on track. Instead we treat depression negatively as a problem and medicate the symptoms and fail to deal with the cause. It would make sense that if alongside medication we engaged in mindful therapy so we could speed up treatment and help to dissolve depressive episodes.

MBCT
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is designed to deal with and overcome issues of reactive or repetitive depression. MBCT, is recommended by the United Kingdom’s National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) for the prevention of recurrent and reactive depression and has also been shown to be effective in treating the symptoms of anxiety.

Take care and be happy

Sean x

This is a tough blog and very much embedded in our time and the very things that are happening around us. Across the world there is a political lurch to the right that, in many cases, is becoming fascistic. The last world war happened because, at that time, the fascist, totalitarian, dictators in Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and eventually Russia all came out to play. The war lasted six years and encompassed the world. The estimates vary between a death toll of 60 to 80 million people during the war, including the 6 million in the holocaust.

Are we about to do it again? And, if we are why?

We did have a fascist who was coming to talk on the podcast and defend right wing xenophobic philosophy but he became scared that he could be identified and decided to withdraw.

We have a very human problem and it is the lack of awareness or lack of awareness in the vast majority of people. This allows for headless chicken syndrome where short-term objectives override the long-term effects of our decisions.

I have worked for many years with thousands of people and my work would suggest that what I was taught in my Ayurvedic training about human awareness, when I was novice, is true. This understanding was as follows. In my awareness pyramid the percentages are arbitrary but I think you will get the point.

Deep asleep – about 50% of the population
In the darkest state, the human consciousness is only aware of its limited self, only aware of the importance of the individual ego. Here it is too dark to see anything or anyone else, this is isolated aloneness. Therefore the deep asleep person treats everyone and everything around them with total insensitivity, oblivious to the damage that they are causing, they simply cannot see it or feel it and do not understand. It is only when things become lighter and brighter that we begin to see what is around us. In the darkness, we are all blind and alone.

If as I suggest that half of all humanity are deep asleep then levels of social and political awareness will be low and the decisions made only have a small chance of serving us well.

Dream sleep – about 20% of the population
In this stage the level of awareness is the realisation that there is strength in numbers, the individual realises the benefits of co-operation with other individuals. This may be the simple realisation that sleeping with another person is warmer than sleeping alone. Or there may be a benefit from mutual security and support or help with hunting bigger animals and so on. The problem is that once we have a group based on common interest we have those inside the group and those outside the group. We have ‘us’ and ‘them’ and all the prejudice and bigotry that comes with not, not understanding or being fearful of ‘them’. This is what is currently playing out with the migrant issues across Europe and the USA and the fears of other religions.

The Waking State – about 12% of the population
In this state people want to be different, they no longer want to comply with the norms of the group they have new ways of looking at things that threaten the group rules. When we close down and confine our support to only those of our group, say on the immigration issue, it is these people in the waking state that question and fight for the rights of those not in ‘our’ group. But these people are not yet truly awake and their demands may be made in ignorance and be unrealistic. It is only when human consciousness awakes that we see the ability to make things different, because the currency of awareness is power.

Awake-ness – about 8% of the population
Power is often seen as a dirty word. In reality those that are awake exercise power over those that remain asleep. The asleep people are referred to in politics as ‘the silent majority’. The sleeping people hold the ability to dictate the outcomes in human evolution but they do not realise it so those that have the power manipulate them to achieve desired outcomes.

Power is like a knife, it is neutral. A knife can be used to create a work of art, a wonderful meal or death and destruction. The knife is neutral. It is the holder of the knife who dictates what it will do. It is exactly the same with power. Often, money or influence and power go together. In the case of politics it is power, influence and money that get people elected.

It is easier for a rich person to wreck the world
than it is…
For a poor person to become president

People that use power negatively use those that are asleep as the cannon fodder in the market place and in wars.

Objective Consciousness – about 5% of the population
Those that can see the effects of the power brokers can see things objectively and will work to control a restrain the unfettered use of power. These may be parents attempting to moderate the behaviours of their adolescent children or it may be the judiciary attempting to hold back the power of the despot or dictator as we now see in the battles between the president and the courts in the USA. Objectivity is often the only control that can have an effect on the excesses of power, However, sometimes objectivity can easily become a set of rules and dogma that become fixed and immutable laws that do not bend, this is when “the law is an ass’.

Intuitive Consciousness – about 3% of the population
This level of awareness is above thought and above word. The currency of intuition is meaning. This is direct knowledge without knowing. Those that have a deep intuitive function have long sight that realises outcomes that those who are less awake fail to see. Those that are in deep sleep see everything in terms of the immediate effect. Those in intuitive consciousness do not focus the effect of things today, next month or next year, they are seeing ten, twenty and a hundred years ahead.

Creative Consciousness – about 2% of the population
The currency of creativity is in images. Advertisers spend their lives attempting to manipulate those in asleep-ness to buy into ever changing images of what they now definitely need. But this is at a low level of awareness the truly creative image makers give humanity inspirational images that last for decades or entire eras. The images shared but Moses, Jesus and Mohamed have inspired millions of people and many hundred of years after the events are still active and alive.

There is also a negative side of imaginative inspiration. Hitler’s managed to persuade hundreds of thousands of people to go around the world, to kill and to die, all for this cause that he managed to inspire other people to enact. At all levels of consciousness we have a choice to act positively or negatively.

Current Social Cycle
The goodwill and drive for co-operation that developed after the Second World War is now coming to a close. Right wing xenophobia is in the ascendant. It is happening at all levels in all countries and in most cases it is being driven by fear. The fear that is felt by the majority who are, in my estimation, are asleep. I suspect that we are collectively blundering into future crisis that is not yet in focus. The effects of Brexit will not become truly apparent for five to ten years and if other countries in the EU follow suit the effects will be greater. We do not know what will happen in the USA and whether or not President Trump will survive without impeachment. If he is impeached then the lurch to the right might be held back. If not, and more so if he were to get a second term, the closing down of co-operation and the breakdown of the existing world order is probably assured.

I say these things from my position…

If we all look after each other we will all be ok

My concern is that we blunder into another global war and turn the cycle again before we return to a more caring and sharing world order.

If you are voting for social, economic and political change please take some time and consider the long-term consequences of what ever you decide.

Take care

Sean x

Human beings tend to be acquisitive. They gather and collect. Part of this has to be based in our evolutionary past. Most animals survive by the gathering and hoarding of necessary staple supplies. I guess there is little difference between a squirrel burying nuts, a spider trapping a live wasp in its nest and the human being pushing a shopping trolley from the supermarket to increase the stores in their larder.

We do the same with money. While we only need to spend on our needs of the moment yet we store and hoard money in the belief that it will keep us safe at some future date. We say things like…

…save you money for a rainy day!

Probably better to save your money for a sunny day and enjoy it, but I get the idea. It is true that we never know what will happen in the future or around the corner and so we attempt to overcome the worst that can beset us with insurance and pensions, mortgages and credit.

A while ago I viewed a news broadcast about a couple living in the US who at the age of 74 were pulling pumps in a gas station because the company providing their pension had just gone bankrupt. I read reports about the traders jumping out of windows to their deaths having just heard they had lost all their money in the Wall Street Crash. Or the story of the man in Germany just before the Second World War, when inflation had become so great that when he was taken a wheel barrow full of money to the bank he was mugged. The mugger tipped the money out and stole the wheel barrow because it was worth so much more than the money. It would appear that however much money you have, even if you think you have enough it can become worthless just like that.

So people said…

…”put your money in bricks and mortar”

That is great advice as long as property prices either stay the same or, as we all expect, increase. At the end of the 1980’s property prices crashed. Many properties halved in value and people ended up with negative equity. This is when you suddenly owe more money than the property is worth. I lived on the Isle of Wight at the time. A person I knew sold a £200,000 house for £95,000 and another who held a £90,000 mortgage on a property now valued at £45,000.

I could go on in this vein but it seems that when we invest our time and energy into collecting physical things or money we are vulnerable to the fluctuations in social changes, politics and economics and in that case perhaps enough is never enough. For many the more insecure they feel the more they need. That could be money, houses, people, position, status and so on. When is enough enough? When are we able to be thankful and grateful for what we have right now?

I have known many monks whose possessions amounted to a change of clothes a food bowl and a bed roll perhaps a few books and bits and pieces. These people with the least possessions were amongst the happiest I have ever known.

I have had three big houses that were all seen as grand. They all taught me the same lesson. You can only use one bedroom at a time, one lounge at a time, one bathroom at a time and the big grounds or gardens just created more upkeep. In the end I worked to earn money to maintain these houses. I was working for them they were not working for me.

Trying to make up for our emotional deficits

In most cases, most of the time, people seek to accumulate stuff or people to make up for their own deficits. The need to have thousands of ‘friends’ on Facebook, even people that you will never know, suggests a need to be recognised, to be special or seen in a special way. The sound behind the music, the motivation behind this action, would suggest someone who feels very small and needs external feedback to make them feel good. I see people investing so much time and effort into creating or getting more or whatever to make up for their own fears, anxieties and deficits. The worst one is power!

In many organisations I see managers who are actually not very good at their jobs who use their position to gain power. They believe that the more power they can get, can provide the status that they need, because they actually feel that they are not really worth it or up to the job. A loud, draconian or bullying voice often makes up for a bad or even useless manager. The same happens in politics. The best examples on the current stage are Trump and Blair who are good at making a lot of noise but lack the substance. It is like the shop with the amazing shop window that looks so enticing until you enter the shop to find that the stockroom is empty. A lot of show but no back up.

Living the simple uncluttered life

When we live with confidence and inner security we do not need shows of power, material shows of wealth, we do not need more and more money. Simple life’s are stressless. There is nothing to keep up, nothing to maintain. No weight to loose, no boobs to be enhanced, no lips to be filled, no faces to be lifted.

Enough is enough when we are happy with who we are and what we have

When we look at the other side of this as perhaps ‘when is not enough, not enough?’, and consider all those who do not have enough of anything. Those that are starving, living through disasters and wars. Those that are facing famine and drought, disease and poverty. I suspect that is often the case in a global environment that the only reason that we can have more than enough is because other people in the world are living with not enough.

The crazy thing is that there is enough for all if we would only just learn to share.

If we all look after each other then we will all be ok

I keep saying this but it is the simply truth.

One reality that we need to be mindful of is that the poorest people in our society that are on benefits are still in the top ten percent of the richest people on the planet.

The bottom line for me is that as long as we do not share our land, money, energy, love and compassion there will be many others who will suffer as a result or our insecure need to have and hold and not share.

Enough is to be warm, secure and to go to bed with a full belly.

I am reminded of Rehman who came on the show a few episodes ago telling us about his experience of Islam. One of the principles that he explained to us was ‘to go to bed with a full belly while knowing that the people next door were starving is wrong’. I get that entirely. Until we learn to care and share the world will be full of haves and have nots.

I am warm, sheltered, I have enough food and enough love, I have enough. In fact I have more than enough and that allows for charitable giving.

Be happy and enjoy what you have – enough is enough.

Take care

Sean x

In the work that I do in both private and public organisations the issues of purpose and direction are strongly associated with stress. Those that feel that they do have a clear direction are more energised and even dynamic. Those that feel that they have a direction suffer less from stress related conditions.

Having a direction is having a purpose.

Question: What is the purpose of your life?

That is a big question and is the one that can create a lot of stress along with…

Why are we here? What’s is life all about? What happens when we die?

The deal is that we all need to fill in space in between birth and death. We can either find a meaningful way to do that or we can blunder, try to cope and survive this thing called ‘life’.

I have travelled the world attempting to discover the purpose of life, to understand why I am alive and what I am supposed to be doing with my life. Biologists tell me that my role is to reproduce. Some scientist tell me that this is all a chance mistake and that I should just put up with it. The religious lobby tells me generally that life is hard and life is earnest and that we are here to learn and grow in a spiritual way and, that if I am a good chap, I will get my reward in heaven. One priest told that we all have “our own cross to bear” and that we should see suffering as a good thing. Hey ho.

In the early 1980s I was at a cross roads in life that was about making the decision about what I should do with life. I spoke with the great and the good and decided, perhaps in my arrogance, that they were all wrong. I came to the conclusion that life was supposed to be happy, that each of us was entitled to our own fulfilment and that suffering was for those who believed that we all had to suffer. Suffering is a bad deal, I don’t like and don’t want it, you can keep it.

So, my thinking went this way. If I am going to live a happy life then I would need to devote the time that I had left to me in doing things that made me happy. The question was what is it that makes me happy? I guess this is another question point.

Question: What is it that would make you happy?

It took me a long time, as in many months, to gradually be honest enough with myself to truly answer the question. I went through the wealth and materialism, the power, recognition, status and position and let it all go in favour of two simple things that I knew made me happy. I began to realise that whenever I did either of these things I had a smile on my face and a skip in my step. That I got easily out of bed with a positive expectation of the day ahead. Then I realised that whenever I did either of these things I came home with a smile on my face feeling good about my life and about who I was and what I was doing. Those two things were…

Playing music and working with people

The playing music has taken me all over the place. I have played and recorded music in my own right, I have backed some amazing people. I have created backing recordings for my own meditation, relaxation recording and apps and even wrote and recorded the music that Rie walked down the isle to when we got married. I play music everyday and keep a small travel guitar in my consulting rooms so that I can distress at anytime during the day when I get the opportunity.

Working with people is my life, it is the only thing that makes any sense to me out of this mad thing called life…

If we all look after each other we will all be ok

However, the point is that I work with other people because it makes me feel good, it makes me smile and it gives my life purpose. If I got more joy from collecting stamps, being in the army or being a mortician I would be doing those things instead.

The extensions of joy
The weird thing is that when you do connect with your purpose it really is just a beginning. Now that you are on your path it leads you to other places, ideas and things? My music world has taken me to so many places and been such a joy and an inspiration and it continues to do so. Working with other people has taken me through various areas of academia to writing books and appearing at conferences, working all around the world and doing the podcast and this blog.

But even now I play with the idea of what will I do when I grow up. Hopefully I never will grow up and will carry on enjoying this thing called life.

Whatever you decide to do with your life, let it be joyful.

Take care and be happy.

Sean x