Summary: Concluding our blog series about the brain challenges that depression brings, today I share with you 3 easy ways to change negative brain chemistry and re-focus your communication skills when you need to most.
Depression seriously hinders your ability to communicate clearly. In fact, it even affects your ability to think clearly, so that often when you're down, you may not know what it is you really mean to say. Consider this scenario:
You oversleep (a common symptom of depression) and find yourself running late to an important work meeting. Because of the negative outlook you have during depressed states, you can't stop thinking about how many times you've been late before and the dire consequences it will have on your career this time. You even focus on a mental list you make of your negative traits, including "laziness" for oversleeping again. Because your brain is preoccupied with all of this, you have a hard time focusing on your routine and wind up running even further behind. To make matters worse, you walk out the door without the important report you need for the meeting!
By the time you get to the meeting—late, of course—and realize your mistake, you know you'll have some explaining to do. But the only thoughts you can muster sound something like: "I'm such a failure. I'm probably going to get fired from this project, and I deserve it, too." And when you're confronted by your supervisor at the meeting's end, it's pretty much those sentiments you share, only even less intelligibly.
Here are three techniques that can help you think more clearly to lessen depression's hold on your tongue and your outlook this winter:
Exercise - Studies have shown that regular exercise changes brain chemistry, promoting "feel good" chemicals like endorphins that can provide a euphoric feeling. (Ever hear of "runner's high?" It's not just a myth!) During depression, these chemicals are generally lacking; so boosting them can restore balance. Start small if you must: The simple act of walking around the block counts.
Meditation - Similarly, meditation promotes harmony in brain chemistry and harmony in the body, too. Pain is another common symptom of the disease, but calming your worry and negativity will help to alleviate some of that. If you've already been exercising, a good time to meditate is right after your workout, when you are experiencing some positivity. Start by focusing on your body first—how it feels as you sit or lie down; what your breath feels like in your chest, lungs, belly, nostrils; any other sensations you notice. Then move into noticing your thoughts. If you practice observing them without judgment, you may further lessen depression's grip on your thinking. This may be hard to start with, but it does get easier. To help, picture thoughts like buses or trains that you watch but choose not to enter.
Affirmations - If you're able to exercise at least three times a week (mornings are best if you're suffering from depression, because you can start your day off with a little clarity) and are meditating at least once a week after you exercise, you're certainly ready to tackle the rest of that negative thinking with some conscious counter-thinking. Affirmations are excellent tools for this. A good, simple affirmation for depression is: "I feel good. I intentionally create my life today."
I've mentioned that I'm prone to seasonal depression, myself. (For more on the different types of depression, click here.) I like to combine affirmations and exercise together by dancing around to music on my earbuds: a mix of songs with "happy" and "feel good" that are upbeat. My favorite mix includes four different versions of James Brown's "I Feel Good!" And it makes me feel just that. Try some of these techniques for yourself and tell me how it makes you feel.
© KiKi Productions, Inc. 2010
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Jan 8, 2010
WEEKLY UPDATE: A New Way to Set New Goals
Summary: Here's an exercise that works to make a solid declaration—to yourself—about your goals and resolutions any time of any year.
Last week, I got a little surprise in the mail: A nondescript envelope scrawled in my own handwriting and containing a 3-by-5 card with just a couple of bullet points. It took me a second to recognize what I was looking at, but when I did, I smiled.
You see, last year, I participated in an exercise around the new year. A group of us gathered to write down everything we wanted to get rid of in our lives and everything we wanted to be open to in 2009. We burned the card that listed the negatives in a symbolic gesture of release. Then, to signify invitation, we put the card with the positives—those things we wanted to bring into our lives—in an envelope that we addressed to ourselves. The cards were mailed to us at the start of 2010 to let us review how far we'd come in embracing what we wanted to embrace.
This is the second time I've participated in such an exercise, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested. ... How are your goals coming along this first week of the new year?
© KiKi Productions, Inc. 2010
Last week, I got a little surprise in the mail: A nondescript envelope scrawled in my own handwriting and containing a 3-by-5 card with just a couple of bullet points. It took me a second to recognize what I was looking at, but when I did, I smiled.
You see, last year, I participated in an exercise around the new year. A group of us gathered to write down everything we wanted to get rid of in our lives and everything we wanted to be open to in 2009. We burned the card that listed the negatives in a symbolic gesture of release. Then, to signify invitation, we put the card with the positives—those things we wanted to bring into our lives—in an envelope that we addressed to ourselves. The cards were mailed to us at the start of 2010 to let us review how far we'd come in embracing what we wanted to embrace.
This is the second time I've participated in such an exercise, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested. ... How are your goals coming along this first week of the new year?
© KiKi Productions, Inc. 2010
Oct 23, 2009
WEEKLY UPDATE: Fighting the Fall Funk
Summary: Fall is beautiful! But it can also be a sad time of year as the sunshine recedes—especially for those of us who fight seasonal depression. I share two strategies (physical and emotional) that have helped me cope in today's post.
It's that time of year again: Crisp apples baked into pies, fuzzy sweaters wrapped around us for warmth, bright hues of burnt orange, fiery red and golden brown blazing on the treetops. It's fall!
When I was a kid, fall was my favorite time of year. I loved jumping into piles of leaves from my swing set, and carving pumpkins with my family. But as I progressed through elementary school, fall become a less and less happy time for me.
It wasn't until I was in high school that I started hearing about Seasonal Affective Disorder, or seasonal depression. That really resonated with me, so I began to study a little about it—and then a little about how to treat it. Depending on what's going on in my life, I've had years with almost no affect and years with pretty debilitating depression. And I've had years that I would categorize as somewhere between those two ends of the spectrum. Luckily, this year and last have both fallen (so far) into the lighter, happier category.
What's responsible for that?
The last two years have not been without their challenges: Last year, my home was hit with severe flooding after Hurricane Ike remnants raged across the Midwest; I was later hospitalized twice for illness. This year, my grandmother has been (successfully!) battling heart problems, and I recently lost an uncle to an accidental fire. The state of the global economy is no laughing matter, either. Yet my perspective remains grounded and relatively positive.
The reasons are two-fold:
(1) I've been focusing on physical strategies—like taking my vitamins (especially Vitamin D, which is often in depletion in the less sunny months across much of the U.S.), exercising and eating organically as regularly as possible, and getting at least 7 hours of sleep at night as often as I can.
(2) I've been practicing GRATITUDE.
Someone once told me that negativity and gratitude cannot easily coexist. Since that day, I've made a practice of counteracting pervasive negativity by thinking of something for which I'm thankful. It's easy! And it only gets easier the more I do it.
When our cognitive functions are impaired for any reason, we lose the ability to communicate what and how we really want to communicate. Making strides to shift our perspectives can help us reorient to get back on track and say what we need to say (no matter what the weather does!). Today, I'm thankful that you're reading this. And to you, I say, "Happy fall!"
© KiKi Productions, Inc. 2009
It's that time of year again: Crisp apples baked into pies, fuzzy sweaters wrapped around us for warmth, bright hues of burnt orange, fiery red and golden brown blazing on the treetops. It's fall!
When I was a kid, fall was my favorite time of year. I loved jumping into piles of leaves from my swing set, and carving pumpkins with my family. But as I progressed through elementary school, fall become a less and less happy time for me.
It wasn't until I was in high school that I started hearing about Seasonal Affective Disorder, or seasonal depression. That really resonated with me, so I began to study a little about it—and then a little about how to treat it. Depending on what's going on in my life, I've had years with almost no affect and years with pretty debilitating depression. And I've had years that I would categorize as somewhere between those two ends of the spectrum. Luckily, this year and last have both fallen (so far) into the lighter, happier category.
What's responsible for that?
The last two years have not been without their challenges: Last year, my home was hit with severe flooding after Hurricane Ike remnants raged across the Midwest; I was later hospitalized twice for illness. This year, my grandmother has been (successfully!) battling heart problems, and I recently lost an uncle to an accidental fire. The state of the global economy is no laughing matter, either. Yet my perspective remains grounded and relatively positive.
The reasons are two-fold:
(1) I've been focusing on physical strategies—like taking my vitamins (especially Vitamin D, which is often in depletion in the less sunny months across much of the U.S.), exercising and eating organically as regularly as possible, and getting at least 7 hours of sleep at night as often as I can.
(2) I've been practicing GRATITUDE.
Someone once told me that negativity and gratitude cannot easily coexist. Since that day, I've made a practice of counteracting pervasive negativity by thinking of something for which I'm thankful. It's easy! And it only gets easier the more I do it.
When our cognitive functions are impaired for any reason, we lose the ability to communicate what and how we really want to communicate. Making strides to shift our perspectives can help us reorient to get back on track and say what we need to say (no matter what the weather does!). Today, I'm thankful that you're reading this. And to you, I say, "Happy fall!"
© KiKi Productions, Inc. 2009
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