If you're feeling depressed...When I'm depressed, I sometimes try to think differently, or maybe feel differently about what I'm thinking about. But other times, I just do something. I bypass the thinking and feeling stuff and go right to the doing. If I'm stuck in bed, then there's often a lot of inertia and so "just do it" can feel insurmountable. But practicing has made it easier. I've actually gotten pretty good at not thinking or feeling at all. I just send an almost thoughtless message to my muscles and up I get. If that doesn't work, I accept it as a good try. I give myself an attaboy and vow to try again. But when I am able to do it, that feels great. Being able to do it once out of ten times still counts as a success in my book.
At the other end of the wires that're connected to that blue button over there is a fairly silly list of things you can force yourself to do—just as an experiment. Hey, if doing one or more of them doesn't make you less depressed, well at worst you can tell yourself you tried. At best, you can say, "I feel better!" I didn't write this list. If you wrote it, I'm sorry I called it "silly." |
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