Research brings us a bigger picture all the time of how thoroughly mirror neurons in our brains re-create in us the feelings of those around us (Rifkin: Ted.Com).  Despite their potential and general adorableness (generally speaking), everyone around us is emerging from a rough thousand years of history.  We can protect the great things we dream about and reach for from the impact of that history and from the struggles of those around us. Depression is the “leading cause of disability in the United States for individuals ages 15 to 44″ (NMHA.Org/go/state-ranking).

Via our mirror neurons, our inbred empathy for all of those around us, that depression slows down our hard work.

It seeps into us. We feel like it is us, but it’s not. Everyone we know has struggles– Their families survived WWI, the Great Depression, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, wars in the Middle East, immigration, prejudice — and continue to survive the pressures of every day.  The psychological stress from all that has flowed into most of our culture and entertainment (TV shows, PS3 games, websites…) and will not inspire our best work.

You cannot be alone in your head because of these neurons “mirroring” what those around you feel, so make sure the company in your head is world-class, like your world-class dreams.  Modern technologies allow us to stand in the stream of the best work on the planet.  The one in ten thousand: Keep their company in your head, their struggles and successes, the dreams they failed at and reached.

Almost all of us come pretty directly from fifteen generations of field and factory workers. Their brilliance and passion interested no one. That history makes it hard for us to believe in our own passion sometimes. Believe. Keep Mother Theresa, Yo-Yo Ma, Frederick Douglass, Jane Addams pouring down on you to help you believe. From the perspective of the change and beauty they created you can enjoy your friends, family, coworkers with a greater sense of possibility.

Geneticists now know that all living humans’ direct family line from East Africa has survived two hundred thousand years.  Your grandmother 500 generations back out-survived the sabre tooth tiger; and helped hunt down and eat woolly mammoths. Our wars, injustice, materialism and environmental damage come from individuals still programmed with that history’s pain and fear.

Internal human challenges — in our heads — are the only real challenge left on our globe. When we deliberately protect and nurture our brilliance, kindness and passion we can meet our world’s challenges.  We’ll meet them school by school, family by family, client by client, child by child and make the intelligent, Basic Changes throughout humanity’s institutions that we need to flourish.

Much of America’s news reporting about changing institutions is depressing, so keep Sunitha Krishnan in your head, who’s personally rescued 1500 children from prostitution and runs 17 schools in Hyderabad (Ted.Com).  Study the Grameen bank’s provision of loans the the poorest people in more than 70,000 villages in Bangladesh, and their 99% rate of return on loans to formerly poor business owners in the U.S. (Time.Com 2009).  Listen to Bono sing “It’s a Beautiful Day”  as you read about how he “charmed and bullied and morally blackmailed the leaders of the world’s richest countries into forgiving $40 billion in debt owed by the poorest” (Time.Com 2005).