DEPRESSION, LIFE

Don’t let depression do the “talking”

Rebecca

Table of Contents

CONNECTING THE DOTS

 

connecting dots
connecting dots

It’s good to connect the dots of your life from morning to evening. Take a few minutes at the end of the day and reflect how you think the day went for you. Why was it a good day? Why was it a bad day? If I ask myself some questions, I can usually figure it out.

If I don’t, depression does the talking. Not a good thing. Here’s my own list for now.

lists
lists
  • Who did you spend time with?
  • How were your health habits today?
  • How often did you find yourself using defeating words?
  • If you’re a person of faith, did you practice your faith’s disciplines?
  • Did you do something you really enjoyed?  (I beat my husband on “Words with Friends by 100 points and he never loses so I really enjoyed that.)

Sometimes, we meander through our day kind of willy-nilly. We don’t deliberately choose anything. We let life just swallow us up. For me, I prefer to go to bed knowing I was a little more intentional about what I did that day. I function better with structure. Most of us do.

Tailor your questions for yourself. The above list is mine for now but it doesn’t stay static.  I change it up now and then. Like this:

do nothing
do nothing

Maybe you could write your questions out and put them on your bed stand.  How about on your phone?  Maybe they won’t even be questions. Maybe a chart or just some bullet points. It’s just a way to track your day. It’s whatever works best for you.

You might prefer just to take a minute or two and reflect. You might be a “journaler”. It’s agood thing to examine your life, not morbidly just reflectively so that tomorrow will be better than today.

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

the examined life

I agree with that. When we’re dealing with depression, it becomes even more important to not allow too much unstructured time. If you’re struggling, that’s when your thoughts can take over and run rampantly through the garden of your mind. You can grow flowers there or weeds. A “weedy” mind is not good for moi 🙂

Anyway, tonight, especially if you experience bouts of depression, look back over your day. Try and figure out why it was good or bad. (Some days, of course, are just neutral. I like those days.:)) If we don’t reflect about about some things, we’ll never change anything.

God bless and I hope you have a good day.

 

 

Published by Rebecca

Hi. I'm so glad you're here. My blog focuses on faith and mental health issues such as mood disorders like depression, anxiety, and dysthymia (chronic low moods that don't qualify as depression.) I post DIY and decorating projects when I can. My book, "Depression Has A Big Voice. Make Yours Bigger! (Expanded Edition), is on sale at all online retailers. I have a Psychology degree and post-graduate courses in Clinical Pastoral Education. I am a former hospital chaplain, Bible teacher, and retreat/conference inspirational speaker. Thank you for visiting and may you feel God's presence today.

4 thoughts on “Don’t let depression do the “talking””

    1. Absolutely. Depression’s voice gets louder the “tireder” we get. I thing fatigue is often overlooked in the discussion of depression.

      1. I saw that up close and personal. The doing, the action, the “pulling up by the boot laces” – and the tiredness of doing that at bedtime. It was my dad very late in life. I saw his face after “doing” so much and then feeling the same as the day before he didn’t do. My heart went out to him – the two sensations were so similar.

        1. How sad. It’s so hard to see someone you love suffer like that. I have a child dealing with a case of OCD right now and it’s really tough. Thanks for commenting. God bless and have a good day.

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