Based on their observation of human behavior the ancient Greeks defined four fundamental personality types; sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic.

Being melancholy means that you’re overcome in sorrow,  that is wrapped up in sorrowful thoughts.  Your behavior conveys a powerful sense of thoughtful sadness.

Singing the Blues

Being depressed can become a state of being.   In the deep south of the U.S., the negro population was well known for creating the popular music format called the blues.

This naming of the musical genre was derived from the steady plodding of the melody coupled with lyrics that often told stories about hard lives filled with desperation and despair

This ethnic group was labeled (stereotypically) with hardships that led them to sing the blues.  Over time the stereotype has been broken and being a negro living in the United States does not mean a melancholy life is in store.

Changing Your Life

Singing the blues does not need to be, nor should it be a permanent state.  From time to time depressing circumstances arise or in some cases like the aforementioned prejudicial attitudes applied to an ethnic group getting out of the state of melancholy seems insurmountable.

It is not.  You can overcome.  Work to embrace life to its fullest and bathe in the splendor of the universe.  Each of us can rise above our self inflicted or even externally forced melancholy.

The power to do so is within you.  If you feel like you have the blues, shake it off and get up and boogie (a musical form that rose out of the blues).