Believe: Choose 2 See Light in the Face of Depression

From the VLOG

Historical Words of Inspiration

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.
Anatole France

Believe: What Pulls at the Foundation of Your Soul?

I am often posed with questions regarding the need to find hope—that spirit that seems to elude many in the daily quest to create existential bliss out of the angst so commonly seen. This leads me to wonder, what pulls at the foundation of your soul as you seek to believe in the journey well lived?

This question is rhetorical. It is meant to get your mind thinking in the right direction. Look at the picture above. Where does it lead? I see elements of beauty blended in a chorus of color and balance. But what did it take to create?

If we look only at the dock, it likely took a few weeks of labor, the work from one’s precious time to create a launching place to see a beautiful sunrise. Now, let us look at the majesty behind the dock. We need only fathom the millennia it took to create the shimmering reflective mirror of the lake or the gentle upsurge of the mountains in the background. Our time pales compared to the Earth’s patience in its endeavors for beauty.

A mystic poet once said,

Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth, ‘You owe me.’ Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.
Hafez

What could we do with just a little patience like that?

While there is beauty to be found at each moment, there appears to be an ever-present clock ticking that distracts the soul from its grounding force. Medication, joylessness, meditation, and mindfulness are prevalent these days. But why? The answer may be simpler than the complexity that buys our attention daily.

The ego is that sense of I that is grounded in the now. It does not see the sky’s light beyond the shadow it casts. However, once it realizes that it overshadows itself, this realization creates the pathway needed to re-engage the light of a life-giving force. This force is simply more significant than the feeble creation the ego grasps to secure itself in its uncertain reality.

The Earth and the Sun take part in a cosmic dance. When we visit this symbolically, we shouldn’t see one being of greater importance than the other. They are collectively linked to the foundation of life that sustains us in our journey to undertake those shadowy yet beautiful paths that open us to the nature of our dreams.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” What a beautiful concept. Dream, act, believe, receive. I don’t know of any other way to create beauty, such as the mountains and lake in the background of the dock built from the labor of one or many who chose to undertake that pathway to beauty.

“If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.” Here is the trick. Even in the shadow, it is up to us to find the silver lining of the loving light present that casts its gaze upon us. With patience and persistence, we can realize the beauty of a journey undertaken, not the destination achieved.

Believe: Find 3 Good Things to Engage Hope

Depression can be inundating. It can tax us at the foundational level of hope. Here is an exercise to focus the mind away from depression, believe in yourself, and re-engage hope.

Journal one good thing that happened to you today.
What was your contribution to creating it?
Write a prayer, poem, or paragraph of gratitude and thanks.
Repeat 3 times.

You have now engaged in three steps to create a little hope in your life.

May blessings find you, my friends, on your journey to advance confidently down the beautiful pathways that lead to your dreams.

A Sacred Journey Podcast

Filling Your Cup: The Discipline of Loving-Kindness – A Sacred Journey: Where Myths Unfold and Potential Awakens

How do we maintain our emotional viability when the demands of daily life start to drain us?In this episode of A Sacred Journey, we dive deep into "Filling Your Cup: The Discipline of Loving-Kindness." We stand at the crossroads of love and self-compassion, exploring how these two forces are not just passive feelings, but active, daily disciplines that create lasting meaning in our lives.Join us as we discuss how to navigate those daunting, mundane, and stressful day-to-day events by shifting our internal dialogue. By learning to actively pour back into ourselves first, we build the emotional resilience needed to show up fully for the world.In this episode, we explore:The Anatomy of Emotional Viability: What it means to be emotionally sustainable in a demanding world.Loving-Kindness as a Discipline: Why self-compassion is a practice of strength, not softness.The Daily Crossroads: Practical ways to inject love into the moments that feel the most daunting.Filling Your Cup First: Moving past the guilt of self-care to cultivate genuine, lasting meaning.Grab a warm drink, settle in, and let's take this sacred step together.

Dr. Thomas Maples