It might shock you to know that even very positive people go thru Ups Downs, slumps and frumps now and again. I have to work at staying on course. It’s not easy but there are some things I do. Here are a few. I offer them because I know that I am not alone.
1. Get face to face with someone. Get off Facebook. It’s a drug and doesn’t help.
2. Avoid the JOY SUCKERS. Find and cultivate those who lift you up. Sadly many wives and or Husbands can be the worst Joy Suckers. Keep your boundaries up.
3. Do things socially even if you don’t feel like it.. act as if
4. Find someone to help out, not with money, with time and energy. There is more joy in giving, find it.
5. Go for a long walk or long drive alone. A 3 hour vacation. You need self time too. Sit by a body of water.
6. Get some sun in your eyes. You need sunshine to survive and SADS is real
7. Find an oldies station that plays music that was the soundtrack of your life. Remember the good times.
8. Take on a project you can complete, and then do it. Anything. A sense of I’m DONE.
9. Do something (even exercise) that exhausts you. Endorphins are a wonderful thing.
10. Get enough sleep. If you wake frequently, do a sleep test for Apnea.
11. Stay off drugs, booze and excess sweets.
12. B-12 and Fish Oil are two I use to help me stay steady. I get the ones coated so I don’t have reflux of the skunk.
DON’T LET ANYONE SHOULD ON YOU including YOU
‘Shoulds’ and ‘should-nots’ – Holding yourself to a strict list of what you should and shouldn’t do, and beating yourself up if you don’t live up to your rules. “You Should” is a depression driver.. if others do it to you, make them stop.
WATCH OUT FOR STINKING THINKING
All-or-nothing thinking – Looking at things in black-or-white categories, with no middle ground (“If I fall short of perfection, I’m a total failure.”)
Overgeneralization – Generalizing from a single negative experience, expecting it to hold true forever (“I can’t do anything right.”)
The mental filter – Ignoring positive events and focusing on the negative. Noticing the one thing that went wrong, rather than all the things that went right.
Diminishing the positive – Coming up with reasons why positive events don’t count
Jumping to conclusions – Making negative interpretations without actual evidence. You act like a mind reader (“He must think I’m pathetic”) or a fortune teller (“I’ll be stuck in this job forever.”)
Emotional reasoning – Believing that the way you feel reflects reality (“I feel like such a loser. I really am no good!”)
Labeling – Labeling yourself based on mistakes and perceived shortcomings (“I’m a failure; an idiot; a loser.”)
