I’ve been knocked down by life many times.  I’ve had lows that felt like a chasm so deep there was no way out.  I’ve even hit the proverbial rock bottom.  It started early and kept on happening.  Still here I stand, moving forward, always getting back up from being knocked down.

I am a believer that, no matter what happens in life, I will always land on my feet.  I believe it because it has happened every time after I’ve been knocked down.  I lost my hearing at the age of three.  Had an operation when I was four and started wearing hearing aids.  I had to have three years of speech therapy which helped me not sound like most hard of hearing people do.  I speak noticeably well for someone with profound hearing loss.

However, during the time I was relearning to talk, I became a target of the other kids and teased mercilessly.  The teasing went on for years and had long lasting effect upon me.  I still learned to speak well and even worked in radio broadcasting, as an air personality, for the better part of ten years.  I overcame the teasing and became who I am today.  I like who I am today.  I overcame the teasing by starting to believe in myself and not listening to those who didn’t believe in me.

When I decided to quit drinking in 1991, I was hitting a low point in life that would last for three years.  All I really did was stay home, after work, and just vegetate in front of the TV watching movies over and over again.  I had been dumped by a girlfriend of nearly 5 years, survived a serious car accident that gave me a broken neck (I didn’t know about it at the time and found out about it in 2008), a concussion with short term memory loss, and had my first and only serious time of depression.

During that time, I took myself out of the depression by getting active again.  I took to climbing cliffs without using rope.  There was the thrill of knowing that a mistake could potentially, almost certainly, kill me.  It was how I started to really feel alive.  I went from that point to getting myself out of the house more often.  It also helped that I accepted myself as an imperfect man.  I didn’t have to hold on to being perfect for anyone.  I learned to like myself before anyone else.

In 2000, I started practicing Buddhism.  I learned that “suffering is life” meant, in my case, that having difficult times is useful for appreciating the good times. I also learned that life is meant to have ups and downs as a normal function of life.  I grew to believing that the difficult periods in my life contributed to my becoming the person I like today.

I’m not perfect, nor am I imperfect.  I live life balanced in the belief that there will be good times and bad times to go through.  In fact, I believe in the maxim, “Keep moving forward.”  I will get knocked down from time to time but I will always get back up and continue moving forward.  There’s really no great secret to this.  You just have to begin with believing in yourself no matter what anyone else says.

Now if you have severe depression and have been reading this.  What I’ve described is something that worked for me that I did on my own.  I would suggest that anyone with severe depression go see a professional and let them help you develop what works for you.  There are many ways you can help yourself and a professional will assist you in finding the best way for you.  Just be sure to keep moving forward since the past will always be in the past and the future will always be the future.  Being in the moment is always a good place to be.