| It may seem Pollyannaish to view depression | | | | stopped and turned around, it might have |
| as a gift. The gift of depression is its | | | | noticed the other window offered an easy |
| ability to wake you up and make you do | | | | escape into freedom. |
| something different and change your life. | | | | |
| | | | Depression, which often leads to a withdrawal |
| Fly Metaphor | | | | of life energy from current life situations, |
| | | | may be a gift in reorienting you to finding |
| One time I saw a fly inside a car banging its | | | | an alternative strategy for your life's |
| head over and over again against a car | | | | problems. Unlike the fly, you can turn around |
| window. It seemed as if it would injure | | | | and re-evaluate your situation. |
| itself as it repeatedly tried to escape the | | | | |
| car by flying into the window, bouncing back | | | | Navigation Metaphor |
| and trying again. The irony was that the | | | | |
| window on the other side of the car was open, | | | | When a plane flies across the country it is |
| and all it had to do was stop trying to move | | | | given a navigation system to help it stay on |
| forward, turn around, and fly out the other | | | | its flight path so it will get where it is |
| side. Similarly, there are times when if you | | | | supposed to go and so it will not interfere |
| force yourself to try to move forward and | | | | with other airplanes in flight. If the plane |
| overcome obstacles by sheer force of will you | | | | deviates even slightly off of its trajectory, |
| may cause yourself great injury, to no avail. | | | | the navigation system alerts the pilot and |
| There are times when the most effective | | | | the corrective changes are made so that |
| strategy is to stop in your tracks and to | | | | airplane stays on course. Similarly, |
| contemplate your situation rather than | | | | depression can be a signal alerting you to |
| bulldozing ahead. For example, if the fly had | | | | the fact that you have gone off course. |