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How to Cure Your Own Depression - 7 Tips and Steps
Depression is Not a Choice
People don't choose to be depressed. They don't decide that it is how they want to feel, yet somewhere along the way they stop being happy and hopeful. Depression has many faces and not all experiences are the same, however there are certain remedies that can help no matter what type of depression someone is dealing with.
If it is you that is depressed, just know one thing: you are not alone. Millions of people world-wide suffer from depression from time to time, whether it is chronic or occasional. Follow these tips to help yourself out (because not everyone can afford or muster up the energy to get to a professional).
Exercise
You might feel like exercise is the last thing you want to do or think about. You are probably suffering from lack of energy or insomnia and exercise would be difficult for you. However, if you want to get back to your healthy self, you will need to get active. Even if it is light exercise, it will loosen up your body and help lift your mood a little.
Serious exercise will release endorphins and stress. A physical outlet may, in fact, be exactly what you need. Much of the time depression is a result of uncontrolled anxiety or repressed anger and exercise helps to relive both feelings of anxiety and anger.
Give up Junk Food
Whether you are eating excessively or eating very little, cutting junk food from your diet will help you tremendously. Sugars and fats will only tire your body and make you feel worse, both physically and emotionally. Sugars are particularly known to have an effect on mood swings, so eliminating them can help you reach some stability.
Make sure to replace the junk food with highly nutritious snacks and meals. Try foods that are high in vitamin C such as tomatoes and citrus fruits. B vitamins will improve your energy levels as well. Try to get your 7 servings of fruits and vegetables every day and pair this with your work out. This will, in itself, begin to make a difference.
Stop All Judgement
If you don't want to be depressed anymore you have to stop beating yourself up. Every morning when you wake up, make a resolution to abstain from judging yourself and others. Extend this to others so that it opens greater channels of compassion within you, which will be benefited by you. The kinder you are to others the kinder you will be to yourself, and the kinder you are to yourself the kinder you will be to others (it's a beautiful cycle).
Start by accepting yourself completely just as you are. Make an effort to forgive yourself and let yourself off the hook more often. Most importantly, learn to love yourself. It is the single most healing thing you can do for yourself and those around you.
Create a Schedule
When you are depressed, you often feel like everything is falling apart around you and the days can seem to meld together. To stop this feeling, create a schedule that you can stick to so that you can assure yourself that you are getting everything done that needs to be. Creating this schedule will give you a sense of security and it will provide you with a plan to follow to make your way out of the depression.
This schedule should address the important things that you do not want to neglect, your eating patterns, and your sleep cycle. To avoid overeating, try to set it up so that you eat at certain times of the day. You also want to try to go to sleep and wake up at the same times every day in order to regulate your body and prevent fatigue.
Do Something You Love
It may be easier said than done sometimes, but if there is anything that takes you away from your anger or guilt you should spend as much time on it as you can. If music or art makes you feel better, take the time to indulge. You have to take care of yourself and learn not to worry about what anyone thinks of you or what you do with your time.
Try Something New
You may not be in the mood for it, but you have nothing to lose. You can only go up when you are feeling low, so try doing something that you have always wanted to do. You can pick up a new hobby alone or sign up for a class. Either way it would be good for you to stimulate your brain with some new activity.
You can even get into a new style of music or film, or pick up a new author and start reading. The point is that you are doing something enjoyable that is slightly different to break up the monotony of what you already know. This will get you interested in things again and it may even pull you out of your depression altogether.
Just Be
Allowing yourself to just be as you are and accepting yourself as you are will not make it worse, it will make it better. Acknowledging that you are human and that you do not need to be perfect is a form of self-love and self-acceptance and it will release you from feelings of not being good enough. You will make your way out of it eventually, but you have to be patient with yourself and love yourself all the way to happiness.
Just tell yourself that no matter what is going on or what you have done, you will love yourself through it. Telling yourself every day, "I will love myself through this" has healing powers that can begin to transform your thoughts and life in an instant. You don't need to be hard on yourself. What you need most from yourself when you are depressed is love, especially love that comes from within.