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

Finding the positives in your depression

When you are trying to win your battle against depression, you need to be aware of the people you've surrounded yourself with. Look around. Are your friends and family positive or negative people? Do they make you feel happy and energized when you're with them or do they make you feel angry, depressed and lacking in motivation?
It's time to be honest with yourself.
I remember a time when I had a couple of friends who were constantly negative. When I finally became aware of this, I decided to distance myself from them and focus on friends who were positive and good for me. It isn't always easy to dstance yourself from certain people as some will constantly phone or pop over. You need to use strategies like this:
On the phone, you need to cut off their conversation and tell them that you're really busy right now and could they possibly email you as then you can get to it later. Repitition is really important here. They will eventually stop calling and you can then send short replies to the emails.
In person, it's important that you tell the person that you've been taking time out for yourself lately and so won't always be available to sit down and chat. Tell them, it's not them, it's just that you're changing your life and need to do things for yourself. I'm sure they will respect that even if they need repitition!!
These are important things to do in your effort to improve your state of mind. It's all about taking the control of your life and who you surround yourself with. If you've married a negative person, you will need to put other strategies in place that allow you to develop your self esteem so you can feel good about yourself and not let them affect you.
Well , I'll leave you to it. Surround yourself with love this week.
Take care
          Deb