Getting Over Depression Through Actions
Overcoming depression was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. It was like I was trying to do everything in my power to change how I thought, but a shadow was always following me, telling me that I wasn’t happy. I tried desperately to change my thoughts, but after I stopped changing my thoughts and tried changing my actions, something happened–I stopped projecting my feelings as truth and started taking action. One of the most important things I did was learning about Cognitive Behavior Therapy and making sure I followed their exercises everyday by writing down and analyzing how I thought from an outside perspective. If you are trying to overcome depression, the best thing to do would not be to change your thoughts, but your actions.
Actions are easier to change than your thoughts. Your thoughts are much more part of who you are than your actions, so it’s gonna be harder for you to switch your thinking, for instance, denying your depression to yourself is pretty difficult. But it’s not as difficult to spend 15 minutes a day writing how you feel vs. what triggered your feelings. It’s not as difficult to go for a brief walk, and it’s not as hard to say hi to one stranger a day. I’ve done all of these, which helped me overcome my depression bit by bit.
Feelings are more difficult to change than actions. You can’t really change how you feel about something, especially when you feel that you were wronged. However, when you’re first getting out of depression, you won’t be immediately changing how you feel about something, but you will be working towards changing what you do and seeing what things make you sad v. happy.
Being judgmental about yourself will also not help you as much as changing your actions. Don’t blame yourself for too much, we are only human, we make mistakes, learn, and grow from these experiences. Remember something stupid you did when you were younger? You probably remembered more of those when you were younger, or cared less about them. Once you start doing more things, you will realize that we’re pretty much all the same.
You might think that being depressed is horrible, but it’s really part of the human experience–depression is just a word for being sad for a longer time than you want. Your depression is serving the purpose of helping you figure out your life goal, and if you beat it, you will only come out stronger. But first, you need to find your strength through action.
Want to learn how to truly get over depression through action? Learn more at How to Overcome Depression Naturally