Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Depressed? Get up!

This is going to be short, simple advice, but it's perhaps the most important advice I can give to depressed people. Unfortunately, though, this advice is sometimes the most difficult for affected people to follow. My advice? Get up!

While I was depressed--really depressed--I faced a difficult decision every morning. I knew I had to get up and face the day, but every fiber of my being was telling me to stay put. I felt heavy and foggy, and the prospect of a new day was more than I thought I could handle. The real tough mornings were waking up where other people were also around. To say I was irritable would be a grand understatement. Every thing they did bugged the living you know what out of me.

If you have suffered from Depression, I can almost see you nodding your heads in agreement.

I knew I had to do something, and I was out of ideas. One day though, while surfing some web sites, I came across some pieces of information written (of all people), by Anthony Robbins, the TV self-help icon. Now I must admit, in the past I never gave much credence to the things he said(or wrote), but the advice I discovered that morning proved not only relevant, but quite useful as well.

In this article, Robbins urged me to do two things every morning without fail. They worked for me so I will pass them on to you:

1. Get up, start moving and breathe.

I know what you're saying, "wow, what a revelation," but please hear me out. He says the brain will respond in a positive way in accordance with healthy movement, combined with deep breathing. He was right! Since that day, I get up and walk around my block every morning, focusing on my breathing. I feel better and I no longer dread the mornings. In fact, I often look forward to the AM now. My "power" time gives me a chance to organize my thoughts and prepare for the day.

2. Be grateful.

If you're me, you find it quite easy to complain in the midst of your symptoms. When depressed, I would curse this disease and I was convinced that nobody could possibly understand what I was going through. Now, whether that's true or not is insignificant. The truth is everybody has concerns of their own, and the time they have set aside for dealing with yours is probably quite minimal, if it exists at all. I came to understand that complaining was a waste of energy I could be spending elsewhere. So I followed Tony Robbins' second piece of advice--be grateful.

I started scheduling 10 minutes every morning dedicated solely to gratitude. I thought of all the things and people in my life to be thankful for and discovered there were quite a bit. These thoughts became mantras for me, and I soon found it hard to complain at all. I had so many things going for me, and when I actively considered these thoughts, I could feel the transformation in both my mind and body. The best way to describe it: it felt like I had put on my favorite pair of jeans. The mood was comfortable and reassuring.

So there it is. Give it a try if you want, and remember to follow through. Make it a habit and you too can look forward to the mornings.

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