So the Anti-Crisis Week ended on the MIF blog : the whole week they talked about how to resist insidious economic cataclysms – to study, work, have fun and just live during a crisis.
But the most important thing we want to say is that everything will be fine, despite the fact that everything in the world is stably unstable. What will be the new day depends only on ourselves. And to make sure everything is great, here are some tips from psychotherapist and author of Depression Canceled, Richard O’Connor . Be positive!
feel it
Depression forces us to think, feel and behave in a way that becomes so natural to us that it is difficult to imagine an alternative. These habits eat into the brain, become mainstream neural pathways, and dictate what we see, think, feel, and do.
However, diligent focused practice can change the brain in a different direction and teach an even more constructive way of life than we knew before. Below, we’ll look at a few ways to help you feel better if things get tough.
Everything has a reason
If our mood changes, there are always reasons for it. Something happens and makes us feel this way and not otherwise. Even when we slide into an episode of deep depression and know that its depth is disproportionate to the event that changed our mood, it can be reassuring to know that the event actually took place. We have a reason to feel this way. We haven’t gone crazy.
If you don’t believe this or can’t identify the factors that cause your mood swings, keep a regular mood journal. Very soon you will begin to penetrate into the depths of the defensive reactions and notice, in particular, that the depression that hit you like a bolt from the blue last night probably has something to do with a difficult conversation with your mother yesterday morning. By evening, you “forgot” about the conversation, but the mood journal will remind you of this.
Sometimes events are obvious to you: loss, disappointment, difficulties. Sometimes the event is obvious to other people. Sometimes an event is a memory, a dream, an association, something read or heard.
Knowing what makes us feel bad is the first step to recovery. When you understand the cause of grief, remember that you have only three options: change, avoid, accept. First of all, try to change the situation or avoid it, and if this is not possible, work on accepting it.
Do mindfulness meditation
Regular mindfulness meditation can rewire the brain, remove obsessive anxiety, and help you focus on yourself. It can reset your “emotional thermostat” and you’ll be happier than ever.
Learning the skills of conscious living means mindfully, purposefully controlling yourself, and this is not a false control that depends only on obsessive thinking. Your mind, brain, and body can work together to help you stop and pay attention to the joys of life you’ve been missing out on.
We spend too much time trying to control what we have no control over, and through mindfulness we can understand when we are working in vain.
If we find ourselves in a stressful situation and feel irritated, we need to ask ourselves two questions: how important is this in the context of my life and what can I realistically do about it. It may turn out that many of the things that bother us are not really that important – we just fall into the trap of an emotional infection and become disoriented or start to feel sorry for trying to change what we cannot change.
Take off your dark glasses
Learn to recognize when your own judgments about life and yourself are blacked out. Take off your dark glasses and enjoy the variety of colors. If you believe that bad events are permanent, revealing, and your fault, while good events are temporary, limited in scope, and just the result of coincidence, you need to keep in mind that this is depressive thinking. He needs to be fought.
The most tragic thing is that you probably turn this depressive thinking on yourself. Remember all your failures and other people’s successes. The self-confidence you envy may be just a cover for weakness; the skill you so desire to acquire is forged by training and hard work; the success you crave may have come at a heavy cost.
This way of thinking is just a bad habit, and it can be changed.
But changing any habit is hard work. Use a thought diary to control yourself. Find your inner critic and silence him. Every time you hear his voice, remind yourself: these are bad connections in my brain, this is an imposed thought, this is from childhood. It’s not me, it’s not true about me.
Take care of yourself
Learn to enjoy yourself. Most of us do not experience much happiness, and when we periodically encounter it, we even get scared. You have to approach it with caution. The only way to get used to enjoying yourself is to work on your sense of pride.
Take a few minutes each day to write down a list of your three most likable accomplishments in your notebook. It could be things you thought you couldn’t do, or difficult tasks you forced yourself to do, or just spontaneous generosity, or a show of intimacy.
After a week, review your list of things that have brought you satisfaction. You will feel proud. With practice, you’ll soon start to feel a little better about yourself.
Another way is to pay attention to small pleasures. Cultivate an awareness of how the mind takes you out of the present. If you notice this, bring yourself back. Pay more attention to your feelings rather than thoughts. Watch the taste of food, the sounds of the evening when the TV is off, the colors around you. Do whatever you can to make life more enjoyable.