Simple Ways On How To Overcome Depression

„What‘s broken can be mended.

What hurts can be healed.

And no matter how dark it gets,

the sun is going to rise again.“

The following, personally selected collection, of simple ways on how to overcome depression, which are also used in psychology and have proven to be effective strategies when it comes to battling depression. They can be seen as inspirational guidelines – as addition to counseling or addition to your self-help journey.

• Change Your Surroundings: Change who you surround yourself with. Get away from those who constantly critizized, have put you down or made you feel bad about yourself. Surround yourself with people who embrace your true being and love you for who you are. Surround yourself with people who make you feel good.

• Listen To Upbeat Music And Watch “Light-Hearted” Movies/ Comedies: There is just something about watching people smile and listening to happy songs. In certain moods we tend to go into a more darker sphere so that is why it‘s important to work with light against it.

• Adopt A Pet Or Spend Time With The One You Have: Pets give you unconditional love and a new meaning and responsibility in life.

• Change Your Diet: Eat healthy. Take your vitamins/ supplements/ medication. And don’t forget to stay hydrated and drink enough water throughout the day.

• Get Back To Nature: Nature is a cure for mental health. It has helped my depression, it has helped my anxiety, it has made me feel more happy every time i spend time in the forest. Start by talking walks or just sitting outside. Fun Fact: Being outside increases your vitamin d levels – vitamin d deficiency is also related to depression. See the beauty all nature has to offer.

• Find A (New) Hobby: Find new activities you enjoy. Learn something new/ Learn a new skill. Challenge yourself “out of the comfort zone”. Enhance your talents and embrace them. Expand your horizons. express your creativity and share your passion.

• Start Doing A Checklist Each Day To Re-Train Your Mind: Everyday can be a battle if you have depression. So it is important to have a simple checklist of things you must absolutely get done that day, whether you feel like it or not. This checklist will help retrain your mind. For example: Take a shower, take a walk outside for 20 minutes, one small goal, 3 things you love about life, cook dinner, daily housekeeping tasks, practicing yoga etc.. – This is important to do everyday.

• Keep Up On Hygiene: People who don‘t have depression won‘t understand this, but stying on top of hygiene is hard when you are depressed. You don’t care and you don’t have the energy. So get up and force yourself to. You will feel a little boost in confidence when you are clean and smell nice. Plus, it makes you feel good. I for myself like to get „dolled up“ with makeup and do selfies to remind myself how beautiful and worthy i am.

• Prep Cook: One day a week (usually the day after grocery shopping), wash all your produce and chop. Use storage containers. Make a meal plan every week and prep ahead to help on bad days.. making cooking much easier and faster.

• Find Purpose: If you are depressed, try new things until you find your purpose.

• Help Others: This also helps improve your relationships and social interactions, which increases your serotonin even more. Give someone a compliment. Showing you care is the ultimate mood booster because you know you did something good.

• Declutter And Donate Your Stuff: There are people who need our stuff, and there is nothing quite like knowing you helped them out. Serotonin boost inclusive. Plus, by creating a less cluttered – more organized/minimalistic and clean environment – you will automatically start to feel lighter and much better in your heart. You’ll begin to feel more comfortable while being in your own four walls.

• Be Thankful And Grateful: Take time out to reflect on the positive things. Turn out the negative things and focus on the positive things happening around you.

• Create A Vision-Board: It not only gives you a project to do to occupy your mind, but it gives you something hopeful to look forward to in the future. Studies have shown that a vision board gives you extra motivation and reduces anxiety while helping you concentrate on your future achievement.

• Change your routine: Routine can lead to boredom, which then can create anxiety. The body tends to lack motivation when stuck in a routine. It may at first feel like you have lost control of your day, but don‘t panic. Just change your routine for a few days and see if it makes a difference.

• Do Not Be So Hard On Yourself. Relax: Do not waste any moment living in regret, find your happiness again.

• Take A Nap: Sometimes all you need to feel better is to take a good nap and wake up feeling refresed. If you ever feel down or overwhelmed, shut everything down, put your phone away, relax your mind with breathing exercises, and take a good nap. You‘ll feel much better with clarity.

• Talk To Someone: Reach out to people. Talk it over/ talk it out. Vent.

• Dance. Shake It Off: Get your bloodflow going. Turn the music up and dance – dance like nobody is watching. Move your body and go with the flow. Feel the music – feel the beat – feel the lyrics – feel the emotions.

„Life isn‘t about waiting for the storm to pass,

it‘s about learning how to dance in the rain.“