Channelling, meaning directing, steering. A ship without a rudder needs direction. A partner can point you towards recovery but then without that rudder soon it wanders.Unlike those without a mental illness who remain within the tracks that take them where their mind has to go and does go without any effort, we dont have train tracks. Our mind drifts. Various traditional methods assist us to move our ship towards the port called "average" but it never seems to get there.

I knew an intellectually disabled young man once. I was in charge of him at a sheltered workshop. His job was cleaning the toilets. No one else wanted the job. Ask him why he likes cleaning the toilets he would always reply "because no else can clean those toilets as good as me". He had his golden trade because he was the best at it. And those toilets were pristine. Once I had to tell him to wait a moment while I tightened my belt...he was in there so quick to clean !!I

I love poetry. I written it for 25 years. The first 15 years they mounted up in a folder serving no purpose. Try publishing poems. Near impossible. They were written during times of chronic sadness when I had no medication. My sadness was so extreme any topic on TV like starving children, cruelty to animals and the like would reduce me to tears. No wonder suicide them days was lurking. One solution was "channelling".Turning this incredibly hurtful feeling into a positive action. Sadness-how can you turn that around? Is it the same channelling you do after a few weeks of grieving for the death of a loved one? When we start thinking of the good deeds that person did in their lifetime? Instead of the death itself? I sent a poem to a victim of crime. The death of that persons two daughters through murder. 9 years later for me to walk into her dining room and every inch of every wall is my framed poems. I'm not telling you this for praise it is a good example

So channelling can become an art. Some form of depression will have such levels of sadness, others sleepiness.You'll need to find your own goal and with your own natural ability. My cousins wife is good at making her own birthday cards with the sweetest words inside for example. My wife suffers depression and she makes quilts to give to others.An indviduals art that provides half a rudder to help steer you towards your destination the port of "average". And anyone can strive to succeed. Be positive, find your own gift and run with it.

Tony WK

Hello Tony, I've been trying to master this art for years. It's a very tough one, and I know others can do it very well. For me personally, things are what they are. Hurt is what it is, anger the same.

I've realised recently that my way of 'channelling' these negative feelings is to accept that they are there, for better or worse, and that the only way out is through. 

If I'm feeling useless or inadequate, for example, at a particular thing, then the only way to overcome those feelings is to keep trying and getting better. You can't get better at something by giving up and feeling sorry for yourself. 

I have thrown myself into creative endeavours over the years too, and it's funny because at the time I didn't consciouosly think that I was channelling, but during those years I was hurting a lot. As I started to become more stable in recent years, my desire to do creative things dropped away, and at first that made me very upset and out of sorts. It was at that point that I realised that perhaps I had been channelling all that time, and that maybe the reason I didn't feel the need to be creative anymore was because that had served its purpose in my life.

Thanks for provoking good thoughts!