Those who walk with a black dog are not alone. Here’s a few articles on Abraham Lincoln and his depression. In spite of his suffering he did great things. So can you.

Lincoln’s Depression

How His Melancholy Changed History 

The Real Lincoln

Interesting story about the genes and worry.

I stumbled upon another Ted.com video and want to share this wonderful video with you. Enjoy.

I once read about something called ‘impostor syndrome‘ where outwardly successful people feel that if others only knew the truth about them, they would be sunk, their life would be over. All of their success in life was just a fluke and had nothing to do with their intelligence, creativity, work ethic or the type of person they were. They don’t feel successful on the inside and don’t feel good about who they are.

Now imagine feeling like this with a black dog too. That’s a double whammy and we fear if others only knew, we’d be done for. We feel bad about feeling bad. It’s like compound interest with our emotions.

A friend of mine sent me this before Christmas. He didn’t know it but I’d been feeling very down. This made my day. It’s things like this that make me believe there really is no such thing as ‘coincidence’.

So this is from me, to you.

I decided to try and sell the paintings I posted the other day. Today I discovered the koi painting actually has some bids. In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, “WOO-HOO!” So if any of my readers would like to bid on it, you can go here.

Note to self. It’s a good idea to heed your own advice. Don’t listen to sad music.

I made the mistake of listening to iTunes today, specifically some country songs I’d downloaded last year. My favorite kind of music is the blues and they say country music is just the blues for white boys and that would be me. Over the years I’ve developed a taste for just about all kinds of music and since I hadn’t played these in a while I started the playlist.

Years ago I came across the book Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn. I liked it so much I followed it up with another of his books, Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. Well written and easy to understand, both books deal with the practice of mindfulness and how it can enhance out lives.

Before my mom died I had started painting again. I had to force myself to at first but then the interest came back and I was painting for an hour in the morning, again over lunch and then again after work. After her death I stopped and found it difficult to start again. It was as if my black dog thought this habit was a meaty bone and decided to bury it in the back yard.

An eloquent little exercise to help break anxiety by my friend at Devyou.com