Helping yourself.

I hope your Christmas was a happy one! It certainly does help to make the decision to have a happy time, it makes you look for the happiness in everything. That is what I do, and it works for me.

I feel the need to share some recent experiences with you. I have suffered with hayfever and sinisitus for a long time. Whilst it is by no means life threatening, it can really make you feel disgusting and limit your social life! This year, I decided that I'd had enough of hibernating during this season, it was time to take action. For some, this may seem difficult, but if you focus on getting well in your physical self, it can really improve your mental state.

I began certain affirmations that I knew would help, I avoided dairy, I avoided as much as possible being exposed to outdoors. All this helped to a small degree, but I found I still needed to take medication- my last resort. When that didn't even help, I was fairly desparate.
I then went to try something that I've never before tried...... Acupuncture!  You can't have a fear of needles and go there!
Anyway, this has been life altering in that I have felt clear and more focused than I have in years.
The point of this story? Well, it is this:
Always be open to new ideas and new ways of thinking if you are wanting to improve your well being. You are always in control of where you want your life to go and how you are feeling. There may be times you need outside help, that's ok. The important thing is that you do what you can to help yourself.
I hope this motivates you to try something new this week to improve your well being.
Take care
Deb

Whole body health

I've found that a very real problem in trying to keep the spirits up is taking care of your whole body.
So, what I mean is, slotting in some exercise, sleeping adequately and balancing time with friends.
Are you one of those people who constantly says or thinks: "I"m too busy".....  It is some peoples standard response when invited to things or when comments are made about enjoying yourself.
Well, you are only as busy as you think you are!!
A suggestion is this: Don't decide that you 're going to exercise every day- that is just unrealistic. Think seriously about your life and see if you can make 2 or 3 times a week. Now that sounds a bit more doable! When you bring it down to smaller amounts, it's suddenly not as over whelming. The thing to remember is that even if you manage only twice in the week, that is two more times than you would have done in the past- so , celebrate.
When it comes to sleeping, this cannot be over emphasized. If you lack sleep, it directly affects your cognitive abilities as well as your emotions. You become much more susceptible to slipping into a depressive state when you are constantly tired. This is why, new parents are at such a risk. Sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your general health and well being. Try to set a sleep time and stick to it as much as possible. You will be really glad you did when you awaken in the morning and feel great.
During the week, try to do these 2 things to assist you towards a healthy 2012.
Remember, although this is the silly season, you don't have to be hurried and rushed - you can choose to have a fun week.
I hope you do!
Take care
Deb

Setting Goals and Achieving them, Part 1.

Setting goals is  a very important part of healing yourself from depression. By setting one goal at a time, you are learning to take yourself in a positive direction. Often, we don't really know what we want, so it's important to think about and write down all that we'd like to achieve first. Here are some tips:

1. Visualize your goal: Focus on what you intend to receive when you've achieved your goal. Take your thoughts into the right direction. Notice that your life will move towards what you think about, so be aware of your thoughts.
2. Don't focus on obstacles. Identify any potential conflicts surrounding this goal. You can't move forward successfully until these conflicts have been resolved.
3. Write your ideas of what you'd like to achieve down. This process is not planned but more brainstormed. The reason for this step is to build enthusiasm and bring energy and motivation into the idea that you have.
4. Once you've got a list of ideas and great enthusiasm, now you can put your actual , specific goals down in writing.
5. Set a deadline for your goal. For Example, as soon as you decide to visit the mountains, and you've booked your accomadation- guess what happens? From then on, everything and anything to do with the mountains will start to show itself to you. It is like this for a goal. The goal comes first, and then we see how to achieve it. Sometimes we only see ahead a little bit at a time, but we're going in the right direction towards achieving it.

I have 5 more points to add to this, so next week I'll add onto this goal setting  post. It is really important in helping you towards positive change. In the meantime, think about where you are going and where you'd like to be. Put some of these ideas into action.
Until next week,
Take care
Deb