1) Get up early in the morning 2) Be passionate
3) Identify Depression Triggers
4) Make your mental associations more current
5) Slow and deep breathing
1) Get up in the morning
Two reasons to get up early in the morning are: 1) Ithelps with depression. 2) It makes you feel more alert.
1) The human endocrine systems are in "wakingmode" between 3am and noon. Your hormones tell your body to be active, alert, and notresting or sleeping. You will be able toaccess more vital energy than if you wake up at night, in the morning, orevening, if you get up during this time. Itcan be very depressing to wake up with low energy.
2) People are happier, more optimistic, and kinderbecause they have more energy in mornings than those who have slept in thenight. If you wakeup at this time, your worldview will be brighter. Most people feel tired, stressed and burdened in theafternoons or evenings. You will wake upto a more difficult and challenging world, regardless of whether or not you areable to see it. This can cause you to feel overwhelmed.
How we see the world can make or break depression. It doesn't matter how youview life, it is only half of the story. Youcan choose to be more positive by getting up each morning. It can make a huge difference. It's worth it!
2) Get Passionate
Although I may owe you your visit to this site forsearching the internet for help with depression, we need to stop focusing on itso much. No matterour reasons for feeling down, we will not move on until we find somethingbetter. Our chances of experiencingdepression increase the more we think about it.
Now is the time to be passionate. Nearly 90% of thosesuffering from depression feel relief when they do something they love. It is my belief that the best way to overcome depression isto be passionate about something and give your all. It is as simple as taking the first step towards yourpassion. Nature and God will take care of the rest.
3) Identify Depression Triggers
These are the little things, places or people that causedepression in you. Thesetriggers could be completely unrelated to your daily life or not relevant atall. One example: When I first adopted apuppy, she was incredibly messy and pooped all over the place for many months. I didn't know how toilet train her and she started eatingthings that would upset her stomach. Icleaned up after her every night with Lizol (disinfectant). Because of all the time I spent cleaning the place, my workwas affected. I had no time to relax and was always embarrassed when peoplevisited. It was very hard for me.
However, a year later and even after the nightmare wasover I began to feel depressed whenever I smelled Lizol or saw a Lizolcontainer. It was not myfault that I went from feeling happy to feeling depressed and hopeless. This isthe same feeling I felt when I realized I wasn't able to properly toilet trainmy dog.
The smell of Lizol caused me depression. I was aware ofthis immediately and it has since stopped. It's funny to me that a disinfectant bottle could have suchan effect on me.
It is important to recognize the triggers that cause usdepression. We can theneither eliminate them or face them, work it out, or laugh about them. It is important to address the problem in our hearts andmove forward with our lives.
These triggers can cause depression in the future, so weend up carrying umbrellas even if it isn't raining anymore. Isn't this a waste?
4) Refresh your mental associations
Our brains begin to compile information about relatedtopics as soon as we are born. We associate sunshine with happiness, church with God, andhospitals with sickness or pain. Theseassociations are under the majority of our sub-conscious reactions in life,long after we have grown up. They cansometimes become meaningless and less helpful than they are.
Many of these associations can also be inherited from ourancestors and parents. For instance, most homes still made fresh bread daily intheir home up until a few decades back. Freshbread was a wonderful smell that made people feel safe and well. Although the bread was sold at the market in the years thatfollowed, we still associate fresh bread with peace and well-being. It's an inherited association. Agents report that houses that smell like fresh bread sellfaster than other homes.
Similar to depression, we can also have mentalassociations. A person whohas had an unpleasant experience, the scent of a cologne they wore, a trainstation or bus stop where we said goodbye to a loved-one, or items likepencils, books and furniture.
As a teenager, I was devastated when a friend that Iadored and cared about stopped calling me. I tried calling several times, but no one answered. Ibelieve it was my home number. I was so hurtby it that I became stressed and angry around phones for many years.
It all stopped when I realized how my phone was causingpain and trauma. I don't feeldepressed anymore by phones. It's amazingthat I was once so affected and influenced by an electronic device.
Grab a piece of paper or a blank computer document andstart writing. Take a listof the things that really upset you. Findout what causes them. You will be relievedto laugh at how insignificant and small things have been bothering you all along.
5) Slow and deep breathing
Our bodies assume we are stressed if we breathe fast andshallow. This is because we do it naturally in times of stress. Our bodies assume we areat rest when we breathe slowly and deeply.
If you have a tendency to breathe fast and shallow, yourbody is likely to be in stress mode. We are naturally depressed. If our nervous system is constantly on alert, how can weexpect our nervous systems to relax and feel good? If our bodies still believe we are fighting, how can we expectto sleep peacefully?
Its just a simple little thing, and the No.1 causeof that is a long term hormone imbalance. Breathe deep and slowly. It's a good idea to do this every time you watch TV,especially if it's a news channel. Do itwhile you're walking, working, cooking, or sleeping. It is possible to heal almost any stress-related conditionby learning to breathe deeply and slowly.
Because that was how we breathed when we were children,it really is a return back to childhood. We breathed in large amounts of air and felt it in ourstomachs. We were able to sleep well, eatwell, and learn, play and grow.
