Do you get depressed because you think your life will never get better and there is no way to make changes and you will always be underemployed and in debt and broke and unlovable and pathetic?
PLEASE NOTE:
You think these things because you're depressed.
They are not true.
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
"King realized that to solve the problems of human life, especially the deepest problems - like racism, poverty, and war - we have to become, in a sense, abnormal. We have to stop going along; we have to stop accepting what everyone else believes. We have to become maladjusted if we are at all to become creative...
"King knew what it meant to be maladjusted, psychologically, because he was not normal, psychiatrically. He had multiple periods of severe depression, and twice made suicide attempts as a child. Near the end of his life, some of his staff tried to get him into psychiatric treatment, but he refused."
Read the whole article from Psychology Today HERE.
Depression is not a weakness.
CLICK HERE to watch this a short, surprising and inspirational video featuring Dwayne Johnson opening up about one serious bout of depression in his life.
There is so much going on in the world – wars, major earthquakes, political unrest... For years now things have been vibrating at an extraordinarily high frequency and keeping many of us agitated.
It's crucial to regularly still your mind, even for short intervals. But it's difficult when you're on the computer at work and in your “down” time. So much information and stimulation constantly. Just breathing is wonderful!
Simple breathing exercises will do. Breathe deeply. Hold that for a few seconds. Release.
Calm your thoughts.
Repeat for a few minutes.
For over 25 years PsychCentral has been a trove of information. It's a great website!
Here's a short article from 2016: 12 Ways to Shut Off Your Brain Before Bedtime.
Simple but proven tips like to turn off all of your screens 2 hours before bedtime. If only...
“‘What do you think about self-hatred?’ I asked when it was my turn to bring up an issue for discussion. I was eager to get directly to the suffering I had seen so often in my students, a suffering I was familiar with myself. The room went quiet as all of us awaited the answer of the Dalai Lama, revered leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Looking startled, he turned to his translator and asked pointedly in Tibetan again and again for an explanation. Finally, turning back to me, the Dalai Lama tilted his head, his eyes narrowed in confusion. ‘Self-hatred?’ he repeated in English. ‘What is that?’”
- Sharon Salzberg
CLICK HERE for full a list of Sharon Salzberg's philosophical influences.