Before I start, I want you to note that these tips can help whether you are going through depression or not.
Today I am going to be talking about my number one tool to overcome depression! I have been learning about mental health for the last 10 years and I have also experienced depression during my teen years. I was struggling a lot with my mental health during that period and there wasn't a lot out there on mental health or depression at that time. After numerous years of living in an abusive household and dealing with trauma on a regular basis, my mental health was affected, which created several issues for me, preventing me from really living the life I wanted.
It was only until I started researching online, that I discovered what mental health was and what was wrong with me and how to heal myself. After doing a lot of research, I realized that I had depression, which I self-diagnosed and that it was the key component of what I was suffering. After completing my psychology degree, I can also confirm, that it was what I had, as well as probably going through my own spiritual awakening.
I also remember how much I was struggling from it, how alone I felt and how I felt like no one really understood what I was going through. People around me didn’t seem to take me seriously about how I was feeling and what I was going through, and if you feel the same, you're not alone, many people struggle with depression and mental illness.
Additionally, with everything that's been going on in the last couple of years, many people are struggling with mental health and depression, and I felt a huge calling to really talk about this topic and give you some tips from my own experiences and from what I've learned over the last 10 years.
Before we continue, please read the disclaimer below:
Disclaimer: These tips are only suggestions to help you! If you're really struggling with your mental health and in a very dark place, I do suggest you get some help from a psychologist or a healer to identify your struggles. I know it's hard to get help but it's very important to go to someone if you feel like you can't really help yourself at the moment. In the meantime, or in between your sessions allow these suggestions to help you along your way. Also, I am not a doctor or a psychologist, but I have been learning about mental health for the last ten years and I do have a degree in Psychology and Counselling Skills, and I am a ThetaHealer.
Tip 1 Identify how you feel!
Now before we get into the main thing that really helped me overcome depression, here is a tip that really started me on the right path in order to move forward, which was answering the following questions:
1. How am I feeling?
2. What am I feeling?
3. What is going on with me and in my life at the moment?
4. While thinking about these things, what is coming up for me?
5. What thoughts am I having?
Really identify the symptoms and feelings you are having within yourself to really know what's going on and to identify the following:
1. If it is something else.
2. If it is something that is not as extreme.
3. If it is something that is more seasonal
4. If it is just a bit of sadness
5. If it is just because of an event
6. If it is something that's prolonging
7. If it is that the feelings that you are having aren't going away
Identify how long you have been having the feelings you have had. Identify within your body, where in your body you're having these feelings in order to be able to release them, - by doing this it will help prevent you from keeping the feelings pent up, which if not worked on could eventually lead to them becoming suppressed. This can then result in developing problems with your health and can affect your belief systems, as well as long-term effects later in life when these feelings resurface. Furthermore, if you need to be with someone in order to have support through this that is good too. Take as much time as you need though, there is no rush, pressuring yourself won’t help either, so be kind to yourself.
Some of the symptoms from depression and that you can be aware of are:
1. Changes in appetite - eating too little, loss in appetite, eating too much or overeating.
2. Changes in sleeping patterns - insomnia or not wanting to wake up
3. Loss of interest or concentration
4. Feeling a sense of guilt
5. Feeling helplessness
6. Worthiness issues
7. Feeling hopelessness
8. Anger and irritability
9. Feeling constantly sad
10. Feeling anxious
11. Feelings of emptiness
12. Self-harm, suicidal thoughts or attempts is a warning sign that you need to see a psychiatrist or psychologist to help you.
There can be others, but these are the main ones that often come up. People can have similar feelings and symptom but remember how you are feeling is unique to you.
Another point worth mentioning is not to reject the feelings that you're having, because although we are in the season of thinking positively and focusing on changing our mindsets, which is great, what happens is that many people then bypass how they're feeling and that's not good either. If you're feeling a certain way it's important not to reject those feelings, or pretend that you're feeling a different way because those feelings are there for reason and are coming up for you to think about.
Being positive is great but you also want to make sure you are validating how you are feeling, for example - if I'm feeling sad, if I'm feeling upset and if I'm feeling angry, I look inwards and ask myself why I am feeling these things and what can I do to release these emotions and feelings. I ask my body why, for example, anger is coming up and what I can do about the anger that is coming up, what I can do about the fear that is coming up. It is essential to also, accept how you are feeing by saying to yourself - yes this is how I'm feeling, I understand you, I know this is why you're feeling this way, what can I do to help you.
This exercise will help ease what you are feeling within your body and will help overcome and release the feelings you are having. It will also give you an opportunity to take time to work on your mindset and change your thinking, for example you can say – ‘I am feeling relieved, and I am feeling a bit better and a bit more positive’. Take a minute or take a few minutes every day to look inwards to accept and validate your feelings because it can really help.
Tip 2: This is as bad as it gets!
Before we get into the big reveal about the tip that really helped me, is one other tip that is important to note, which is something that has always stuck with me. I always had concerns about how I was going to keep leveling up, how I was going to keep maintaining my mental health and really getting myself out of the state I was in. I then crossed paths with someone that gave me such powerful words of wisdom that I still use to this day whenever I'm feeling a bit down, whenever I'm concerned that I might be slipping back into something or if I haven’t been working enough on my mental health because of stress or any past events that have come up.
The special person on my path told me the following: This is only as bad as it's going to get - this is rock bottom, it is not going to get any worse than this and it can only get better from here, if you choose to do something about where you are and get better. Whenever you feel in the future that you’re stepping back into something you’re never going to get to the point you were again because you won't allow yourself to - because you will know how it feels and then that will give you the opportunity to use tools to prevent yourself from getting to that point again.
This is the reason why I told you to really consider looking into your emotions and how you're feeling. Here are a few questions to consider making a note of:
1. How are you feeling now?
2. What thoughts are you having now?
3. What emotions are you having now and where in your body are you feeling these emotions?
You can even write these answers in a journal, so whenever you're feeling like this again, it can be your warning sign for you to start looking at your mental health again. When these warning signs come up, this is your chance to say, ‘no, I don't want to get to the place I was again’ and then actually work towards improving your mental health with the tools that help you and even maybe some that have been mentioned here.
After I got these wise words from the person I mentioned before, I made a promise to myself and whenever you're ready you can make a promise to yourself, to say the following:
1. This is rock bottom for me, and I am not going to ever be where I am again because I'm going to decide to get out of the dark place I am in and work on my mental health to help me do that.
2. Whenever I slip back into anything, these words will be remembered, in order for me to never slip back into where I was again. (I have never slipped back as far as I did the first time after making this promise and saying these things.)
3. Every single time I feel like I am slipping back into something or not really taking enough time to work on my mental health, I will do things and use these tools to improve my mental health and that will help me increase my vibration.
Tip 3 Purpose:
So, the long-awaited number one tip to overcoming depression, at least for me and even for people I've talked to who also dealt with depression is – purpose!
I actually fell into my purpose when I was going through my own depression; I think that was also one of the reasons why I went through depression in the first place. It all really began, once I started looking at mental health and working through my own issues, - I surprisingly loved learning about mental health, learning about psychology and learning about how the mind works. It wasn't until years later that I realized, ‘oh wow, this is really why I actually was going through my depression’ and that's not necessarily the case for you but, it can be. Nevertheless, pursuing my purpose really helped me and did the same for many others I have talked to about overcoming depression. I have a whole blog on remembering or finding your purpose that provides tools and a step-by-step process to help you because I find it extremely important. Click here to learn more but for now I will give you a few suggestions to help you get started.
For those unsure of their purpose here are the following things to consider:
1. What are the things that you get asked about?
2. What are the things that you have been good at in the past?
3. What did you want to be as a child? - because funny enough I wanted to be a doctor when I was a child but I've always had issues around blood so I never really went down that road, but the funny thing is a doctor is classified as a healer and I actually became a healer so you can look at it like that. You might have wanted to do something when you were younger, but it might be in a different form of what you wanted to do when you were younger.
4. What are the qualities, skills or the actions that are involved in what you wanted to do when you were younger? - We were very intuitive when we were younger, and as a child, you could have really known what you actually wanted to do.
5. What were the things you were interested in before? Try and figure out if those are things that you are still interested in and that might give you a sense of purpose again.
Start thinking, even if it's just 5 minutes a day to work on remembering your purpose. You can do some research on the topic, do a course or read a book, even if it’s just one page a day - just take small steps.
I know you might not feel energized, and you may even feel drained because of the dark place you are in; you might not even feel motivated, but I’m sure you can find a few minutes a day to look at something that can really help inspire you, get your passion back, and lift your spirits and mood.
I'm telling you every single time I have felt like I've been slipping back, I always drive back into my purpose, and I always do something that I know will help me get motivated and lift my spirits and move me out of the low vibrational place I have been in.
For those who know their purpose already, drive back into working towards it even if it's 5 minutes a day. Do it and try not to think about it too much and focus on taking small steps. This will help bring you into a much better vibration and even a better mindset. That's really my number one tool and the main thing that really improved my mental health and how I overcame my depression, - including a lot of others that I will be discussing in future blogs as I'm doing a series on overcoming depression - so subscribe if you want to learn more. The tools that I have given you today are very important, and they were fundamental when I was going through my own depression and the last one is so crucial; you have no idea.
Using the tools I have suggested will really help you, but it will only help you if you want to be helped. If you want to do something about where you are at right now and if you really want to get out of where you are right now, you will do the work towards the things I've suggested. Moreover, I believe you are here because you want to get better. Again, these are just suggestions, it is your choice about what you're going to do in the end, but it really helped me, and I hope it will help you too.
If you want to learn more about how to overcome depression, step into your power, how to overcome anxiety, learn about tools for other mental health issues, learn how to deal with limiting beliefs and about what I do and even more - then stay tuned for my up and coming blogs by subscribing - the link is below.
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