Life Has Many Chapters

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“Life has many chapters; one bad chapter doesn’t mean it’s the end of the book.”

There is one death by suicide in the US every 13 minutes, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports; and according to the World Health Organization, there is one death by suicide in the world every 40 seconds. One of the leading causes of suicide is none other than depression.

Many people who suffer from depression report feeling as though they could no longer envision a happy future, or recall a happy past. Although chemical imbalance is certainly part of the problem, it has been found that having an “unhealthy” attachment to an unpleasant past also takes the cake.

Dr. Gail Brenner, author of “The End of Self Help: Discovering Peace and Happiness Right at the Heart of Your Messy, Scary, Brilliant Life,” says that there’s really no such as thing as the past. Everything that you feel right now, whether it be hurt or anger about the past, all belongs to the present; and you’re spending it by keeping the past alive. This means that you can also end your suffering by changing your perspective right now.

By overthrowing the reign of the past, you also take away the power of memories. Memories after all are just thoughts, Dr. Brenner adds. Once you lose interest in them, healing can occur and the past becomes powerless, like any other thoughts in your head.

To quote Billy Crystal: “What’s so fascinating and frustrating and great about life is that you’re constantly starting over, all the time, and I love that.”