Any truth in this? Why?

just me

just me

Well-known member
MBTI
infj
Is there any truth in this quote I copied today?
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I find myself so much more peaceful when home with my wife and pets. I find peace fishing, walking, walking my dogs, sitting in a tree, sitting in a boat; doing the things I love that have brought me peace before.

Being anxious for tomorrow could mean one is not currently happy with what tomorrow is bringing. We can have delusions of how happy we will be, only to find ourselves trapped once again in situations we tried to avoid learning from the past. What we hope for is change: someone seeing what is going on and offering us solace.

Problem is, there are not a lot of folk out there conditioned for this. Heck, many don't even recognize it. Hence, I see untruth to a certain extent. We can be depressed with tomorrow before it gets here, because we spend so much time thinking about it. The depression can knock on the door today, taking away from the peaceful day. Why not just think about today? We can't, because we must prepare for it(tomorrow).

Preparing for tomorrow doesn't have to be depressive or anxious. We may need to find something new for tomorrow. People that bring up the past in a detrimental way are not our friends. They are jealous, self-centered, and care about nobody but their own butt. Biggest thing they are is in the darkness of something they may have been told by someone else that does not understand. That makes them predators, in a sense. Heck: maybe they are victims of today's world and the way it clicks. Maybe they are not suited for where they are?

I, personally, must find something or somewhere to spend tomorrow without having to live in the past. I've learned a lot of people push away at or try to agitate someone they fear: someone they have misunderstood from half truths and misconceptions.

Ignoring others can help, but having to ignore them every day never works. Just need somewhere else to be tomorrow to pay the bills. Please feel free to chime in with your own thoughts and feelings.
 
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it's true on a very basic level, but depression and anxiety are both a lot more than just the way you think or your mindset. It's something you live with.

Scratch that, I don't think the bit about depression is necessarily true at all. it's just a feel-good quote that only does good for stressed soccer moms on facebook. In fact, the way these conditions are described in the picture can be pretty harmful to someone actually dealing with depression or anxiety, and doesn't know better.
 
That being said, I think it's important to look to the past as well as the future. You can learn a lot from both of them. For me personally, The past reminds me who I am and why I'm still alive. The future helps me keep up hope in life, and continue pushing forward.

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding the point of your thread.
 
just me said:
Preparing for tomorrow doesn't have to be depressive or anxious. We may need to find something new for tomorrow. People that bring up the past in a detrimental way are not our friends. They are jealous, self-centered, and care about nobody but their own butt. Biggest thing they are is in the darkness of something they may have been told by someone else that does not understand. That makes them predators, in a sense. Heck: maybe they are victims of today's world and the way it clicks. Maybe they are not suited for where they are?
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The way I understand the quote, it suggests that you can attain peace by presence to self, and presence to what's around you. When you prepare for tomorrow you are still very much in the present--only that by getting too absorbed by the delineation of future plans, or in the contemplation of past events, you may lose the sense of that presence to self. That's when it can become a source of anxiety/depressive melancholy.

What is not-present is always a source of potential alienation if you let it sweep you up, but this potential for alienation, or otherness, is also what makes the present exciting when you connect it to the future and the past.
 
Icedream said:
Scratch that, I don't think the bit about depression is necessarily true at all. it's just a feel-good quote that only does good for stressed soccer moms on facebook. In fact, the way these conditions are described in the picture can be pretty harmful to someone actually dealing with depression or anxiety, and doesn't know better.
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On the surface it's definitely a feel-good quote, but I figured that since Lao Tzu said it... there might be more under the surface ;)
 
Whoever wrote that probably struggles when it comes to real emotions especially anything perceived as being negative or unsociable basically the all to typical toxic positivity which is not only unhealthy but deeply invalidating. Plus such who think that way probably doesn't live like most of us here do because life isn't a happy fantasy experience for everyone.

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Those sentiments may be true, for those with a negative outlook.

My rework:
If you are contented, you're living in the past. If you're excited, you're living in the future. If you're working, you're living in the present.
 
just me said:
Is there any truth in this quote I copied today?
images


I find myself so much more peaceful when home with my wife and pets. I find peace fishing, walking, walking my dogs, sitting in a tree, sitting in a boat; doing the things I love that have brought me peace before.

Being anxious for tomorrow could mean one is not currently happy with what tomorrow is bringing. We can have delusions of how happy we will be, only to find ourselves trapped once again in situations we tried to avoid learning from the past. What we hope for is change: someone seeing what is going on and offering us solace.

Problem is, there are not a lot of folk out there conditioned for this. Heck, many don't even recognize it. Hence, I see untruth to a certain extent. We can be depressed with tomorrow before it gets here, because we spend so much time thinking about it. The depression can knock on the door today, taking away from the peaceful day. Why not just think about today? We can't, because we must prepare for it(tomorrow).

Preparing for tomorrow doesn't have to be depressive or anxious. We may need to find something new for tomorrow. People that bring up the past in a detrimental way are not our friends. They are jealous, self-centered, and care about nobody but their own butt. Biggest thing they are is in the darkness of something they may have been told by someone else that does not understand. That makes them predators, in a sense. Heck: maybe they are victims of today's world and the way it clicks. Maybe they are not suited for where they are?

I, personally, must find something or somewhere to spend tomorrow without having to live in the past. I've learned a lot of people push away at or try to agitate someone they fear: someone they have misunderstood from half truths and misconceptions.

Ignoring others can help, but having to ignore them every day never works. Just need somewhere else to be tomorrow to pay the bills. Please feel free to chime in with your own thoughts and feelings.
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To me, there's some truth to this. I like @Sometimes Yeah 's rework, though it doesn't necessarily work for me. This could be construed as toxic positivity, and just because Lao Tzu said it, doesn't mean it wouldn't be.

If we take it to mean "all people living in the past are depressed", then it's not true.
As a generalisation it functions okay - like many 'wise sayings'. That's not necessarily a fault against his quote, because life is too multifaceted to address each scenario's particulars. Generalisations reach a broader audience who (hopefully) interpret it in a meaningful way that's helpful to their lives.
If we pick it apart then yes it won't function, but that's like judging an Impressionist painting by Renaissance standards.
 
Ren said:
Now that I think of it, the quote sounds more like Stoicism than anything else.

@John K Do you think it is authentically Lao Tzu's?
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This is very unlikely to be a quote directly from Lao Tsu. For a start, I doubt whether there are language equivalents of the terms anxiety and depression in the Chinese of 2,500 years ago. My impression is that at best it's a modern interpretation of how his thought might be applied to a particular situation, but it's not a complete expression of Taoist thought on such a topic. Lao Tsu is far more likely to have held both the OP quote and @Sometimes Yeah 's really good antithesis of it as attempts at interpreting a single deeper Taoist insight, but even then neither as they stand are more than a particular expression for particular circumstances and not pure expressions of the Tao. I just had a quick scan through the Tao Te Ching and can't find any actual quote from Lao Tsu that refers to time in a way relevant to this discussion.

My own take on what @just me is saying is that he himself can feed his own feelings of depression by dwelling on the past and his anxiety by dwelling on the future. He does extend that experience to others but I don't get the feeling myself that he intended this to be an exclusive definition or source of depression and anxiety - rather it's just an experience that some people can have sometimes. I have certainly experienced what he describes, but at other times I have experienced what Sometimes Yeah proposed too.

The idea that the Present is the healthiest place in time for us to live is pretty common - it's there in most Eastern philosophy which is expressed most familiarly to the Western world in Mindfulness, or in Buddhism and Yoga. It's there too in Christian and Sufi mystical thinking. I don't think this means that we should reject past and future though - temperamentally some of us are drawn to these and may spend a lot of time in our heads living in one or the other of them - happily, sadly, or indifferently. The trap is when we stop living firmly in the present at the same time as past or future - the present is the only concrete reality we can experience at first hand and without it we stop being fully present to ourselves, which is a sort of 'loss of soul'. The problems we get from that are not limited to the possibility of anxiety and depression.
 
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I do rather understand what was quoted. Didn't agree with those three moods being placed only in separate places or timeframes.

I believe, for me, being depressed can happen almost anytime dwelling on most anything. In other words, I can get depressed thinking about the future. Depression does not live in the past or emanate from it. I can be depressed today dwelling on today: the present. Depression, for me, can be present in all three times and sometimes at the same time. Depression has been labeled a mood disorder. I read somewhere where the author compared it as Not being the blues. They said we have bouts of depression. I question if a short bout with depression is a mood disorder. I feel it unfair to a normal person who has a short bout with depression, to say they have a disorder. I feel anyone, and possibly more than who will admit it, get depressed. However, it would be wise to try a visit to the doctor if it doesn't go away. Depression can be treated by a doctor with meds sometimes, and we take meds for all kinds of things. The mind is part of the body, and I do not like doctors calling a bout with depression a mental disorder. Mood disorder sounds better, yet a pinch or two may be normal in my humble opinion. Get help if you need it, because it may not go away by itself.

Same with happiness. Depression and happiness can both be present temporally in the past, the present, and thinking about the future. I see a big difference in anxiety and depression.
copied..."Anxiety is a normal and often healthy emotion. However, when a person regularly feels disproportionate levels of anxiety, it might become a medical disorder. Anxiety disorders form a category of mental health diagnoses that lead to excessive nervousness, fear, apprehension, and worry." uncopied So then, if I have anxiety, there could be absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is when we dwell in, or drink of it too much, we can have difficulties and problems. I know when I have a problem with it. Most should be able to tell. A sip of it is not bad.

Is anxiety only tied to the future? I do not think it is with me.

My take on the quote, whether misquoted or not, is for me to live in the present and enjoy living. Do not dwell in the past, though we must learn from it.

Quote: "
Philippians 4:6-7
New King James Version

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." unquote

In other words, even for you non-Christians, there are formats in how to deal with anxiety. We choose our own way. Maybe we should know better than to let it grow into something unhealthy. There are many ways to turn from it, and there is nothing wrong with a little of it if we do not allow it to cause us problems. I pray....with thanksgiving.


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Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for. the morrow shall take thought for the things of. itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:34

I feel the saying is as guidance, rather than informative.

"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" is an aphorism which appears in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 — Matthew 6:34. It implies that we should not worry about the future, since each day contains an ample burden of evils and suffering.
Peace.

I must add, certain meds help tremendously with depression for people who cannot just turn a blind eye to those experiences.
 
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Are there guidelines we could use or try to use to keep us in present thought, while away from depression and anxiety?
 
Maikl Jexocuha said:
Very true. It's hard to understand depression, imo, if you've never had it. Real depression is in the present. I best describe it as being a walking "dead" person. You are done, spent, empty; you have no motivation, no energy, no useful thoughts, no real "life" in you. You are physically heavy, aches and pains in your muscles. You forget to eat, sleep, even hydrate your thirst. You can probably get up and only do the most basic of necessary tasks. Depression, imo, is a chemical disorder. I don't think you can simply "think" your way out of it. A lot of people with depression "live with it" as best they can. You need an environment that can sustain you while you gradually heal. Drugs also help...
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Exactly. How I think of it isn't someone stuck in the past, it's like a black hole that consumed you, and you're just walking around empty
 
Icedream said:
Exactly. How I think of it isn't someone stuck in the past, it's like a black hole that consumed you, and you're just walking around empty
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Maikl Jexocuha said:
Very true. It's hard to understand depression, imo, if you've never had it. Real depression is in the present. I best describe it as being a walking "dead" person. You are done, spent, empty; you have no motivation, no energy, no useful thoughts, no real "life" in you. You are physically heavy, aches and pains in your muscles. You forget to eat, sleep, even hydrate your thirst. You can probably get up and only do the most basic of necessary tasks. Depression, imo, is a chemical disorder. I don't think you can simply "think" your way out of it. A lot of people with depression "live with it" as best they can. You need an environment that can sustain you while you gradually heal. Drugs also help...
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I agree too. There's no real 'light at the end of the tunnel'.
 
If you are depressed you are living in the past. (I disagree, cause that is assuming you had a blast in the past and you don't find yourself having that much fun in the present)
If you are anxious. You are living in the future. (I disagree, unless you have the things you can control in order, the future will always be anxiety inducing)
If you are at peace. You are living in the present. (I agree. But only after you have given up thinking about past or future and not too many people can do that.)
So for me the quote has some partial truth but cannot be applied to everyone.
 
InfernoMink said:
the quote has some partial truth but cannot be applied to everyone.
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I think any kind of philosophy would work that way. Application is the difficult part which would tie this thought back to our natural imperfection of our bodies. Not just any genetic “disorder” from what is considered “normal”, but our natural limitations physically. Environmental factors will definitely make way in this situation and it’s lively to see so many people caring so deeply about this. Developing people isn’t a job as much as it’s a pleasure just as much as it is a real burden that everyone experiences from time to time. In which way isn’t as simple impo.

Found this today about personal development, though.
https://www.verywellmind.com/erik-eriksons-stages-of-psychosocial-development-2795740
 
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