I read something today about melancholy in Tom Hodgkinson’s book How To Be Free. It made me smile and, as everyone has found themselves a little blue at one time or another, I thought you’d all enjoy this passage.
“It may be true that, aside from external factors, melancholy is just a fact of life. So, instead of rejecting it, a useful way to deal with melancholy would be to embrace it… A very simple trick for those looking for an antidote to melancholy is to engage in some physical work. Baking bread, gardening, carpentry: all these things are productive, creative and use the body. They unite the body and soul; they are acts of harmony.
Keats, in his ‘Ode on Melancholy’ (1820), suggests going for a walk and gazing at the flowers and recognising that melancholy is a sister to joy and must be embraced.”
Love to Melinda Webster for the image.
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