Anxiety and Depression are Increasing
Anxiety and depression thrive in a world of disharmony. So, if you think we’re all more anxious or depressed, it’s because we are. A new national report, published in November of 2024 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) reports that nearly one out of five adults (18.2%) reported feeling anxious over the previous two weeks. More (21.4%) reported feeling depressed over the previous two weeks. So, how do we reduce anxiety and depression in a world of disharmony? The simple but not easy answer is by living in harmony. That’s what this blog post is all about. But before we talk about living in harmony, let’s talk about living in a world of disharmony.
What is Disharmony?
Disharmony is a social phenomenon. It’s the lack of being in harmony with ourselves and others. Disharmony is a state of social discord and dissonance. It is life-denying and distresses us. Our increased social distress lowers our tolerance and increases our irritability and impatience.
Our prolonged distress also exhausts us. It weakens our immunity and increases our risk of injury and illness. It feeds anxiety and depression. Anxiety and depression often interfere with our sleep. Our lack of sleep reduces our ability to manage stress, have healthy relationships, do our work, and enjoy our free time.
The more we live in disharmony with ourselves and others, the more our anxiety and depression increase. As our anxiety and depression increase, we often start self-medicating with increased carb intake, binge scrolling on social media, binge watching TV series, alcohol consumption, illicit drugs, and either withdrawing from or overindulging in social activities.
When we keep going down the path of disharmony, we often breakdown. Breaking down can either begin our recovery if we get professional help, or it can lead to suicide.
So, how do we make our way out of disharmony and into harmony? First, let’s talk about what harmony is.
What is Harmony?
Harmony is also a social phenomenon. It’s being in harmony with ourselves and others. Harmony is a state of pleasant, pleasing concord and connection with ourselves and others. It is life-affirming and reduces our stress. It increases our tolerance and patience and decreases our irritability.
Prolonged harmony improves our energy and endurance. It strengthens our immunity, improves our sleep, and supports our health and wellbeing.
When we keep going down the path of harmony, our minds become clearer. With clearer minds, it’s easier for us to know the life-affirming desires of our hearts. Knowing the life-affirming desires of our hearts enables us to realize our dreams and joys. When we realize our dreams and joys, we make positive contributions to others and make the whole world more wonderful.
How to Live in Harmony, Reduce Anxiety and Depression, and Realize Our Dreams and Joys
To live in harmony, reduce anxiety and depression, and realize our dreams and joys in a world of disharmony is agonizing. That means it requires struggling to overcome the difficult challenges we face in this disharmonious world.
One difficult challenge is searching for and finding others with whom we naturally harmonize. Harmonizing doesn’t mean we see eye to eye on everything. That’s rare.
What Harmonizing Means
Harmonizing is like singing. It’s about singing in tune with others even when we’re singing different notes. Believe it or not, we can harmonize with others even when we have different first languages, jobs, incomes, backgrounds, religious beliefs, political affiliations, and countless other differences. We don’t even have to know each other very well.
For example, we all know that felt sense of meeting someone for the first time and liking them. We just like them and don’t know why. We harmonized. We also know that felt sense of meeting someone for the first time and not liking them. That’s disharmony. We don’t know why it happens. It just happens, and it’s no one’s fault.
However, when we find others that we mutually harmonize with, we enter that pleasing state of harmony instead of disharmony. We’re connected, safer, calmer, less anxious and depressed, and happier. That makes the whole world more wonderful.
Conclusion
So, the first step in struggling to overcome the difficult challenge of anxiety and depression in a world of disharmony is to search for and find harmonious connections. When harmonious connections happen, embrace them and refuse to let differences ruin them. Doing this reduces anxiety and depression, positively influences others, and yes, makes the whole world less disharmonious and more wonderful. How does it get better than that?
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