Having a painful thought?
Question it – is it true? Can you absolutely know it’s true? etc (Byron Katie – The Work) Question it – what cognitive distortion is at play here? Bookmark0
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Emotional Processing
Use NVC Find Peace (my free online tool for getting to clarity and peace) Questions If this was the first time this had ever happened, would you be reacting this way? What would i have to do to make things worse? (Or, To feel worse?) What if the opposite was true? What if I focused
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Noticing
There are always a million things I could be grateful for. My happiness depends on me noticing them. Bookmark0
Play with focus
Try this exercise: focus on something really close; then focus on something far away. Focus on the whole room, and then just the tiniest detail, and back to the whole room. Think about your experience in this very moment … then what it could look like in 5 years … and how it was 5
Focus wheel
An online interactive thing for moving to better thoughts (“vibrations”). Focus wheel process by Abraham-Hicks … website by Jeff Tretsven Video about it here. Bookmark0
Catch a thought
It’s hard for me to catch a thought when I’m depressed. I’m so identified with them that they don’t even seem like thoughts, more like “lived realities”. But if I can notice a thought I’m having (like “it’s too hard”, or “no-one cares anyway”) then I can do something with it, like processing it with
Work out what’s wrong
Sometimes, depression is just depression. Other times, there’s something going on. I usually have no idea which is which, and when it IS something actually going on, I have no idea what that is. I seem to be very good at hiding that from myself. So here’s a method I’ve come up with for helping
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Reach out
Talk with someone before it gets so bad that I can’t talk to someone! Well self: make a list of people you can turn to when you’re at your worst. Write them a letter (now) to let them know how best to help you when you’re like this. Here’s a sample: Dear [awesome person], Can
Be with it
Focusing {link} “I’m sensing something in me that feels depressed … and I’m saying hello to it … “ “I’m sensing something in me that doesn’t want to feel depressed, and I’m saying hello to that too … “ Bookmark0
Don’t be fooled
Those who love you are not fooled by the mistakes you have made or the dark images that you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; or your purpose when you are confused. ~ Alan Cohen Bookmark0
Eat good food
Having breakfast, with complex carbs and protein, within an hour of waking up, can make all the difference to my day. I discovered that by following the diet in a book called “Potatoes Not Prozac”, which stabilized my moods amazingly (when no other food-based approach had ever helped). I massively recommend it. Your well-self can
Can’t. Even. (the basics)
There’s lots of basic things that can make a difference when I’m feeling awful, that simply don’t occur to me at the time, or just seem too hard to do. The following list can help. I’ve found it really hard work to do the things on the list, and when I’ve been able to, they
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Notice the positive
There’s plenty of evidence to show how gratitude makes us SO much happier … but when we’re depressed, it’s hard to go there!! Instead, try to think of some things that give you just a tiny smile … a particular colour, a certain type of art, a particular piece of comedy, a song? It’s been
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Your brain is lying to you
Look around the room. Notice 5 things. Do it before reading on. What did you notice? The un-vacuumed carpet? The mess on the table? The dog you haven’t taken for a walk today? I don’t know about you, but that’s what I notice, and then I conclude that my life sux right now. And you
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Maybe this is ok
Having negative events happen to you, the study found, decreases your happiness but increases the amount of meaning you have in life. Another study from 2011 confirmed this, finding that people who have meaning in their lives, in the form of a clearly defined purpose, rate their satisfaction with life higher even when they were