It's Depression that is killing us. he said to me.

An Imam from the mosque  i usually pray at in Sungai Pinang sat at the table where i was having lunch and in a brief conversation stated that 'murong' or depression in Malay is at a worrisome level in our community.  Coming form a man who does not see me eye to eye to begin with was quite a wake up call, he was serious and concerned and it was written all over his face. What do i say to such a person? Hey open the mosque doors air it out let the community come in and out at any time they like and  provide more positive entertainment for old and young! Stop the heavy of brimstone and hell fire, share more stories that are uplifting and those that inspire and promote good health and spirits. Provide food and refreshments to attract the poor and needy to the mosque yard so that the mosque is always alive! No! Not at our mosque as i see it, it always locked up except when comes the prayer times and as soon as the prayer is over wham! bam! The mosque becomes a tomb again!   

The causes of depression is very easy to discern, what makes a man depressed is primarily because he has no connection to or a good companionship with the community in the form of friends that he can sit and listen or talk to. He is isolated even from God when he runs out of things to ask for or words to praise His Maker and most often getting no response whatsoever. He can only hide behind the belief that it is all a test from the All Mighty of his faith and so forth before his common sense kicks in and say, Bullshit! Depression is an illness that inflicts itself upon those who have run out of ideas and imaginations, those who has very little or no understanding in their inherent nature of being a productive and awakened spirit; depression finds victims in those who have spent their lives entirely self centered and self serving for when there is no more to crave for or to hoard for the self, there is only an sense of dissatisfaction or incomplete, like something is always lacking. Have I earned enough, accumulated enough, accomplished enough, what am I missing? Depression is a by product of loneliness, of the desire for a sense of belonging, of feeling having wasted time in life and not being able to change one's lot. Depression is a self inflicted illness that we all suffer from off and on and it is better to keep it off than on as much as possible. 

Join a dance club even if you cannot dance worth a dime or become a traveller and leave your home, get out there and see what the world has to offer, take up fishing or volunteer as a substitute teacher sharing your hard earned expertise while at the same time enjoying a relationship with other,s. In essence, throw open your doors and windows and step outside and invite into your life the world out there and share life for better or worse. You were not created to become a self serving self aggrandizing entity, while at your later wallowing in self pity or feeling not appreciated for what you have achieved all your life. We are being conditioned by society to live in such a way as to go through certain stages like schooling, working and retirement, primarily, after which we are to fill up the empty spaces in between and at the end and so what do we have to do this with is what we create out of the conditioned state or out of the box we have been bred into. What we create for ourselves that has no intention for profit or gain is what will sustain us through our times of need spiritually , psychologically and physically; so take up Yoga!Take up Tai Chi, take up Karate or Kung Fu, take up Art! It is never too late nor too early to do so.