Depression.
Life has ups and downs but sometimes a set of circumstances can culminate in a state of constant depression. What do you do? Why not visit your doctor, who after a set of questions, will be in a position to know if you are clinically depressed and if so can prescribe suitable medication? The doctor may schedule a counsellor but that may take weeks of waiting and for some, after a lengthy wait, delays or restrictions could mean nobody becomes available to see them when they need it the most.
In a study half the patients found there were troubling side effects of the medication taken to combat depression and stopped taking it. Could there be something else that might be done? How about self awareness, often the two important areas of diet and medication can cause chemical imbalances and thus promote depression. It can be that by checking your nutrition is good and ensuring if taking any medication that this is right for you, depression can be lessened or eradicated. One of the fundamental props of good health is proper sleep and rest. It may sound obvious but how sleep is started can affect the quality and length of the duration. What I mean is to allow the mind to wonder and repeat thoughts of depression will pave the way for a long period of not sleeping and nightmare filled dreams. Of course that is not restful and can be the basis for a negatively seen outlook.
I find that I can positively promote well-being by checking all my body is relaxed. Slowing my breathing and repeating the same word in my mind such as falling, falling. I reinforce the word by feeling the sensation of falling without any care and anxiety. This usually works. The purpose is to allow the mind to rest without any reoccurring nightmares.
Why sleep is so important? It is only at that time when the body is in rest mode, the brain clears the build up of detritus and other important biological processes take place in the rest of the body. I can not overstress the importance of sleep to well-being.
One of the greatest tools man posses is thought and controlling that thought may be the answer to depression. How I view and see myself is triggered by memories and feelings about past events. Although the past can not be changed how I feel about it can be altered. Reframing a past event can be achieved by recalling the memory with there being the difference of no sound and then a fade out of colour. Alter the speed, like a film being shown frame by frame, at the end there is a puff of smoke and it fades away. From this point onwards whenever this memory is recalled it will be in movie form and not cause troubling emotions.
With thought and imagination why stop at past events when feelings of positivity can be created with a little effort. Daydreaming can be a positive activity. A useful way of doing this is to build on past happy memoires, for example as a young boy I visited the seaside and use this as my base for a daydream relaxation trigger. In reality the journey took ages, half the children suffered from travel sickness, the smell was awful, the coach broke down and so we arrived late at the beach. On the real life trip there was a steady drizzle of rain, I got lost and drenched through before eventually finding the smelly coach. I had a not so positive experience and was told off before I returned home. Contrast that with the version where I close my eyes and feel myself floating on my back in the warm shallow clear sea while the warm sun rays bathe the whole of my body. Next to me there is a burst of clicks as a dolphin is swimming alongside me. I deliberately sink below the water surface to see a giant turtle lazily swimming underwater in front of a beautiful pink, ornate, coral wall. Small brightly coloured fish slip between long strands of sea anemones. I rise to the surface feeling so glad to be alive. This is a very useful technique to combat certain forms of depression.
There is no limit to the number of imaginary scenarios I can create but the emphasis is on altering a negative memory into a positive stress relieving experience.
In a study half the patients found there were troubling side effects of the medication taken to combat depression and stopped taking it. Could there be something else that might be done? How about self awareness, often the two important areas of diet and medication can cause chemical imbalances and thus promote depression. It can be that by checking your nutrition is good and ensuring if taking any medication that this is right for you, depression can be lessened or eradicated. One of the fundamental props of good health is proper sleep and rest. It may sound obvious but how sleep is started can affect the quality and length of the duration. What I mean is to allow the mind to wonder and repeat thoughts of depression will pave the way for a long period of not sleeping and nightmare filled dreams. Of course that is not restful and can be the basis for a negatively seen outlook.
I find that I can positively promote well-being by checking all my body is relaxed. Slowing my breathing and repeating the same word in my mind such as falling, falling. I reinforce the word by feeling the sensation of falling without any care and anxiety. This usually works. The purpose is to allow the mind to rest without any reoccurring nightmares.
Why sleep is so important? It is only at that time when the body is in rest mode, the brain clears the build up of detritus and other important biological processes take place in the rest of the body. I can not overstress the importance of sleep to well-being.
One of the greatest tools man posses is thought and controlling that thought may be the answer to depression. How I view and see myself is triggered by memories and feelings about past events. Although the past can not be changed how I feel about it can be altered. Reframing a past event can be achieved by recalling the memory with there being the difference of no sound and then a fade out of colour. Alter the speed, like a film being shown frame by frame, at the end there is a puff of smoke and it fades away. From this point onwards whenever this memory is recalled it will be in movie form and not cause troubling emotions.
With thought and imagination why stop at past events when feelings of positivity can be created with a little effort. Daydreaming can be a positive activity. A useful way of doing this is to build on past happy memoires, for example as a young boy I visited the seaside and use this as my base for a daydream relaxation trigger. In reality the journey took ages, half the children suffered from travel sickness, the smell was awful, the coach broke down and so we arrived late at the beach. On the real life trip there was a steady drizzle of rain, I got lost and drenched through before eventually finding the smelly coach. I had a not so positive experience and was told off before I returned home. Contrast that with the version where I close my eyes and feel myself floating on my back in the warm shallow clear sea while the warm sun rays bathe the whole of my body. Next to me there is a burst of clicks as a dolphin is swimming alongside me. I deliberately sink below the water surface to see a giant turtle lazily swimming underwater in front of a beautiful pink, ornate, coral wall. Small brightly coloured fish slip between long strands of sea anemones. I rise to the surface feeling so glad to be alive. This is a very useful technique to combat certain forms of depression.
There is no limit to the number of imaginary scenarios I can create but the emphasis is on altering a negative memory into a positive stress relieving experience.
No comments have been added yet.
