Depression, A Modern Disease.
The medical industry estimates that one in two Americans will get Depression in their lifetime. Depression itself is treated as a disease, an unavoidable condition that requires medication and therapy. I’m not making light of the issue. Having experienced it myself, I know that its a serious and debilitating problem that hampers the life of many people. Yet what isn’t discussed is that depression itself is often a consequence of modern living. This isn’t to say that people in the past didn’t get depressed. But my theory is that more people experience it now than ever.
Lets look at the factors that contribute to depression.
1. Isolation
2. A lack of exercise
3. A lack of healthy eating
4. A lack of sleep
5. Stress
6. A lack of Vitamin D from sunshine
7. Drugs and alcohol.
In the past, when people lived off the land, they got more exercise, more sunshine, ate pure food that didn’t contain hormones and harmful chemicals – and due to a healthy amount of exercise – probably were less stressed. Also, for most of history, people have lived in extended families and relied on a tight knit community for their day to day survival. Today, people either live in nuclear families (which are a modern construction) or alone. Also, in the past, living off the land meant a greater connection to nature.
There is a spiritual flow to all things and we are all part of a shared spiritual energy. The Indians call the shared God within us Krishna and the Chinese call the shared Energy Chi. Cutting ourselves away from that energy is going to create a spiritual isolation and death. Depression certainly has a neurological component, but it also has a spiritual one too. Part of depression, is the spiritual death many people in the modern world experience as a consequence of living material lives and abiding by synthetic values.
Metal Gaia 