As I was driving to work this morning, I heard the song “Get Up” from Shine Down. It’s a powerful, extremely motivating song. I believe it was written about depression, and the video appears to be about a woman who lost her husband in the service. She struggles to overcome her grief of losing her loved one. The singer himself has struggled with depression and substance abuse, therefore he himself has dealt with these dark emotions. In fact, this latest recording may have been his first sober one.
For all of us, this song wings true. Life is not rainbows and unicorns, life may be a series of loses and dark abysses where our minds wonder-off to. Although we can’t control situations we are thrown into, we can control our responses to them. Maybe the difference between people who let things break them down and those who use things to make them stronger is their perception and their perseverance. They never give up, they keep trying.
I got a divorce, my daughter suffered an injury that halted her sports career, and I lost my dad to a stroke- all of this within the same year. Life, dating, and just day-to-day activities seemed overwhelming. I have always been an optimistic person, so this new experience of unwelcome depression hit me hard. I had never been that low, and didn’t know how deep rock bottom could go until then.
Even with all the negatives going on in my life, I still had to keep going. Get up day after day and work on myself, and work for the outcome I wanted from this. I gained the realization that tough things will happen, but we still have the ability to recreate our lives and build ladders out of our lowest trenches. But this is only if we choose to. It is not a question of “if,” it is the question of “when.” And when these obstacles present themselves, and they will, how will you choose to handle it? Will you reframe the situation to be helpful, or hurtful, in your journey? Will you let these barriers block you, or will you hurdle over them? The only real question is, will you choose to Get Up?