Avoiding the Downward Spiral…

I caught myself doing a neat cognitive trick to defeat depression today. As a trained professional, I would like to share it with the millions of amateurs being putting under stress by the multiple catastrophes plaguing the world.

First, you need to find a point of stillness. This can be reached by Yoga, or deep breathing, or walks in the woods, or Sailor Moon anime. The choice is yours. You need to access that point of stillness on command for this simple trick to work. That may take years for you to master, but, hey, who has much of anything to do even now?

When the depressing thought crosses your mind, it needs to be triaged as an invalid assessment of you and your life. “You are not good enough”, “Nobody loves you”, or “You’re a pathetic specimen if you can’t be up on your feet two weeks after abdominal surgery” are common examples. There are as many kernels of a depressive spiral as there are conscious minds, plus three.

Once you target the invalid thought, you need to step away from it, convince yourself that it is only a brain fart produced by a bit of poor digestion in your emotional life.

Afterwards, go immediately to that point of stillness. Wade into it and think of nothing for several seconds. It will do you a world of good.

Or as the great philosopher P!nk once said “Let it go, ’cause you’re f#@%&in perfect.”

This may not be of any immediate help, until you get some practice in, but it’s much cheaper than a few weeks of Cognitive Therapy.