Good morning…
Yesterday’s blog post shared practical tips for slogging through a season of depression. Summarizing Dave’s list, these things may be helpful:
- Shower, hot or cold, as long as you’d like, as often as you need. (I personally prefer a long hot bath to candlelight.)
- Moisturize everything with your favorite lotion – tactile touch can help so much.
- Don your favorite pair of underwear and put on clean, comfortable clothes.
- Drink cold water, adding ice, mint or lemon.
- Clean something – a drawer, a few dishes, laundry, the bathroom sink.
- Blast upbeat music – sing and dance along.
- Take time to make food and to savor it slowly.
- Create something – a poem, a picture, knit, sculpt or crochet.
- Go outside – walk, sit in the grass, look at clouds, smell flowers, feel the soil.
- Reach out to someone, call, text or email, and listen closely to another person’s voice.
- Enjoy pets – cuddle, take pictures, share your feelings with them.
- Personally I added: interact with the voice of God, reading, praying, pondering eternal promises.
- Remember, at your best you won’t be good enough for the wrong people, but at your worst, you’re still worth it for the right ones.
- You are loved by God and your own important people, so be kind to yourself and keep pushing on.
“Loved your post today,” one reader wrote. “It offered such wonderful advice. My mom always told me that when you don’t feel good (whether it be physical or mental) if you just get up and get dressed, fix you hair, tidy your room and then get out of the house (even if just briefly) you will feel better almost immediately. It’s so true! I think it signals your brain the same way a smile does. Studies show that if you smile – even forcing a smile when you don’t feel like it – your brain chemistry changes instantly. I would also add to the list: Do something for someone else.”
When I was slogging through my season of deepest depression, my personal list was short and simple: Do whatever helps you live through this day. Sometimes just getting through is the best gift we can give ourselves and our loved ones. The alternative, not getting through, passes along way too much pain.
“I called out your name, O God, called from the bottom of the pit. You listened when I called out, ‘Don’t shut your ears! Get me out of here! Save me!’ You came close when I called out. You said, ‘It’s going to be all right’” (Lamentations 3:55-57, MSG).
…Sue…
