5 Tips to Reduce Holiday Depression
While war and poor economic conditions begin to affect people all
over the world, more and more people suffer with depression. The more
we focus on news events and the business climate, the more we are
depressed. Whatever the reason you feel is the cause of your
depression, the following five simple tips guarantee you reduce it
significantly.
1. Do not read newspapers.
Newspapers publish negative stories most of the time. Even in
peaceful periods, newspapers will find the worst in humanity and
place negative stories on display in order to promote sales and
subscribers. Stories focused on War, rebellion, death, destruction,
doom and despair abound in the newspapers.
Stop reading the newspaper and reduce the negative input to your
brain.
2. Turn off your television.
Watching and listening about the horrible economy and the losses
associated with War will add to depression. In fact, you guarantee
the feeling of helplessness. Helplessness allows depression to
nurture. If you really need to watch or listen to these kinds of news
stories, promise yourself you will bury yourself in the documentaries
that are sure to follow in the next 5 or 10 years. A way you can
eliminate most of the negative input to your brain is by setting it
aside for a date somewhere in the future. I guarantee in the future,
you will not find it very interesting.
When visitors come to your home, make sure you turn off your
television and keep it off. News television broadcasters are fighting
for your guests' attention as they promote despair, war, death, and
destruction with many headline news interruptions. Those little
banners that run across the bottom of the screen achieve your
attention and they take hold of your consciousness. Television will
diminish your positive spirit.
3. Say good things about others
My Mother always says, "if you can't say anything nice about others,
don't say anything at all." However, when you find yourself in a
conversation and a relative says, "Remember Uncle Phil?" " He was an
alcoholic" Respond with " yes, Uncle Phil was an alcoholic and he was
the most charitable person, I have ever met."
Connect your friend's negative statement about Phil with a positive
one. Set yourself up to find the positive in anyone's statement and
you will keep negative thoughts and depression from overtaking your
life.
4. Get physical exercise
Adults forget about exercise when suffering from depression. Make
sure you are exercising daily and sending more oxygen to your brain
cells. The result of exercise will improve your health as well as
your attitude.
5. Breathe deep and relax.
Practice the following breathing exercise to relax your body and mind.
Breathe deeply and relax. For 3 minutes each hour take a short mental
vacation.
You can engage in this exercise while you are standing in the
checkout line at the supermarket or when listening to others while
talking on a telephone. You can complete the exercise at home or at
work.
Take three deep breathes and relax. As you inhale, concentrate on
calm and peaceful thoughts. You may think about relaxing by a
mountain, by the ocean or comfortably in your favorite room at home.
As you exhale, concentrate on pushing any tension out of your lungs.
Focus on positive images in your life. Focus on laughter, love,
excitement, and hope.
Keep breathing in and out in this pattern until you feel better. If
you practice the exercise often, you will notice wonderful changes in
your outlook and in other aspects of your life.
Reduce your depression now! Enjoy your family, your friends, and your
life.
--Wayne F. Perkins
Resource Box
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Wayne F. Perkins is a clinical hypnotherapist and author of "How to
Hypnotize Yourself Without Losing Your Mind." offers hypnosis scripts
for a variety of problems.
http://www.wayneperkins.net/hypnosis/scripts.html"My mission in life is to help you achieve your mission in life."
