In the course of my life, the most crucial remedy for me has become the medicine for melancholy. Yes, melancholy often assails me, unfortunately. The losses I've experienced, the problems that fill my life - sometimes it feels like they are overflowing, other times - simply overwhelming!

That's why I'm always searching for this very medicine, the necessary words to repeat to myself, so as they say, "not to get overwhelmed." And with God's help, I sometimes find it. With those who, like me, tend to experience this state, I will try to share the recipes.

Today, I'll share one that delighted me; let it be the first. I've been living between two cities for several years now: Moscow, where my children are, where I work, and a provincial town near Lake Seliger, where my husband lives, where many friends, guests, and tranquility are found. I go there to unwind and relax after the hectic, noisy Moscow life.

I was on my way to the capital again. When I'm alone in the car, I don't listen to music. I don't even listen to lectures. I don't talk on the phone. The car is practically the only place where I can be alone. To be silent and think. The rest of the time - family, colleagues, friends, all our dogs and cats - everything revolves around me, and I am very happy and grateful for it. But! On the road, almost five hours, I can be silent; it's like I open a portal for prayer, and thoughts come to my mind. I mean, special thoughts. My thoughts in my silence.

I travel through vast spaces, fields, and forests, cross rivers and streams, lakes and plowed lands, cities and villages. I travel - and worry as usual (don't ask about what; I can feel melancholic and anxious at any time of day and in any quantity). And here it comes - that very bright and unexpected thought. It fills my soul with warmth and joy. It washes away my sorrows and fears. This thought is profound and yet incredibly simple.

These forests, these fields, green or snow-covered, blazing with autumn colors or blooming towards spring... it's all MY domain! Yes, that's how it is: these are my domains. I can stop and step into my vastness, listen to the wind's voice and birds singing, enter any temple in any city or village I pass in my contemplative silence. I can even enter any of these rivers. All these boundless beauties by some incredible grace are gifted to me by My God. The Lord has given me everything: the blazing sunsets on my vast Seliger. And this cliff above the Volga where I love to stop and have tea. And this gas station on the road where I've been watching a herd of horses grazing in a nearby village for years. And many, many other treasures. Yes, Lord, I allow other people to swim in MY lake. And listen to MY birds. But You and I know that all this is mine! That all this is given to me in lifelong possession.

So suddenly I became joyful and unafraid of this thrilling fantasy - about my boundless wealth.

"I'm dying of thirst by the brook," I remembered. And I didn't want to die anymore.

Program "Personal Opinion" on Radio Vera: https://radiovera.ru/lekarstvo-ot-unynija.html