Look Up!

There must be millions of songs about loneliness, depression and despair. Just thinking about loneliness brings up a couple of phrases, when you’re feelin’ sad and lonely, da de da de da, I’ll be there I’ll BE there… And then there is that line, my friends don’t get rowdy any more. That’s from country singer Willie Nelson, I think. Yes, All the lonely people, where do they all come from?. The Beatles right? And more importantly, where do they all go too?

I’ve been writing to somebody who is desperately alone, fearing for her long term survival. It’s been a steady downward slope to drugs and alcohol to relieve the wrap-around pain. Social isolation and physical neglect are all part of the on going picture. What is to be done? How can somebody help themselves, let alone their fast dissolving friends and family. What can they do? What can anybody do?

Somebody told me the other day of a psychiatrist who, instead of prescribing drugs to a selected group of patients, sent them off with a task. And it seemed a weird task too, on the face of it.

For two weeks the patients were ask to keep on returning there gaze to roof tops, tops of trees, the horizon, the sky. In fact anywhere that was up, as against down. Obviously we hope they didn’t do this while crossing the road or on a busy pavement, or while driving. The results were impressive, very many of the people looking up, for just two weeks, did not need the professional services of the psychiatrist any more. It is important to note though, that these people were already working with a psychiatrist and certain levels of mental distress do need informed help and guidance.

Moods fluctuate and daily life incidents can bring about an inner world which is dark and devoid of the necessary energy to find a way out. So next time you notice your eyeballs dragging along the ground, raise them up. Works for me.

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2 thoughts on “Look Up!”

  1. This is something I learned at an outdoor museum here in Germany…it is a museum where you go to experience different aspects of the arts and being outside as well as a tiny little “palace” which they have slowly renovated in very creative ways…in one of the walk through exhibits, it’s called “Aufwärts” “Upwards and as you walk through you are to keep looking up and they have put all sorts of fun things in the trees…and the last image is a happy face seeming to float in the sky and at the end you feel as if you are floating a bit as well. Looking up is good advice! Thanks for the reminder! Hopefully, my comment will appear after the switch to Beta!

    All the best…Jack

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