This sign is supposed to be about protecting your material possessions. Yet the deft work of someone’s pen has opened up a whole new meaning here…

Passion theft.

And with that notion, the one of passion thieves – and what they might look like – and how to stop them.

The whole thing reminds me of a technique which is often used in narrative therapy: externalising.

Externalising is the (strangely revolutionary) idea that you are not the problem.

That, in fact, the problem is the problem.

So what? you might think. It seems a pretty self-evident truth. Yet, initially, the field of psychology saw things differently. For a long time, the overwhelming thought was that the flaw lay within people themselves, and so it was people (not problems) that needed ‘fixing’.

Yet, as our friend with the passionate pen outlined, there are other ways of seeing this stuff. Ways that stop the blame game (and the guilt game and all that shaming and self-doubt that can come with the idea of personally being the problem).

So how does this externalising thing work?

In a recent post, I asked some questions about depression, and wondered whether it might be possible for depression to bring any hidden gifts. Whether depression might have more than the one (most obvious and painful) dimension to it. What else it might bring to the table.

These wonderings sparked a lot of passionate thoughts and responses from people, both for and against the idea.

And these responses highlighted some of the myriad ways everyone has of understanding depression and the various effects it has on our lives.

So I wonder, how would you define depression?

(Or does it sometimes feel as though depression is defining you?)

It was on a wet and windy morning that I noticed this woman in the photo making her way through the commuting crowds at the train station. Most of us had umbrellas for protection.
Sensible.
Predictable.
Adequate.

Yet she had wings…

So how do you protect yourself – especially when it comes to inclement emotional weather?

How do you find shelter from the (almost inevitable) storms in relationships?

And what about when those weather patterns have migrated inside and the clouds start to obscure your vision?