- Life is a drag.
- What’s the point of anything?
- I’ll never be happy.
Do any of these gloomy thoughts sound familiar? It’s likely they do. The occasional case of the blues is perfectly normal, but that doesn’t make dealing with it any easier. If you allow them to, negative thoughts can fester and lead to serious depression. That’s why it’s important to take action early to bust yourself out of a slump.
While these suggestions won’t eliminate your problems, they can help you break a negative thought pattern and stop feeling depressed. If you think you might have a serious mental health problem, don’t hesitate to see a medical professional.
1. Understand the emotional cycle - Life is an emotional roller coaster. Some days you feel like nothing can stop you. Other days you feel utterly hopeless. Most of the time you’re somewhere in between. Understanding the pattern of positive and negative emotions will help you put your feelings in perspective. Next time you feel down, just remember that it’s a natural emotion that will inevitably pass. Knowing that a feeling of depression is only temporary makes it less dreadful.
2. Spend time with positive people - Nothing affects the way you think and feel more than the people you interact with. Thoughts (both positive and negative) are contagious. If you are surrounded by negative people, it’s only natural that you’ll start to think and feel the same way. To improve your outlook on life, spend time with positive people. Search them out and try to understand the way they see the world. Chances are their happiness will rub off.
3. Reflect on past success - In the wake of a colossal failure, it’s easy to forget everything you’ve ever done right. Take a few minutes to remember your past accomplishments and build yourself up. What made you successful before? What are your strengths? Frequently, this exercise will build self confidence, help you figure out what went wrong, and generate ideas for success in the future.
4. Focus on gratitude - It’s human nature to measure ourselves against those ahead of us on the social ladder. Studies have shown that people care more about being richer than their friends than actually making more money. When you consider everything good in your life and compare it to the problems of less fortunate people, the issue that’s making you depressed won’t seem as serious.
5. Change of scenery - One of the best ways to change the way you feel is to change your environment. When you get in a slump, you start to associate your problems with everything around you. It can get to the point where your environment is a constant reminder of your problems. This can be a dangerous cycle. The solution is to change things. Change doesn’t have to be radical. Cleaning up, adding more lights, or including pleasant decorations can completely change the mood of a room.
6. Break your routine - Going through the same routine, day after day, can be monotonous and depressing. It often leads to getting caught in a rut. To get out of it you need to temporarily change your routine. If you can, take a day off from work. Do something you don’t normally have time for or something you’ve never tried. In the long run, taking a day off every now and then to get out of slump will make you happier and more productive.
7. Interact with animals and nature - It’s funny when you consider how humans put so much importance on their own tiny problems. Animals don’t think this way. A little bird doesn’t mope around because it isn’t an eagle or because another bird beat it to a tasty seed. Animals live in the present moment and they show love unconditionally. Observing and interacting with them will help you get over your problems.
8. Get moving - As Johnny Cash famously suggested, “Get a rhythm, when you get the blues.” Moving to a beat makes everyone feel better. The same is true for movement in general. Hitting the gym or going for a walk will help you shed the lethargy that comes with feeling depressed. The more enthusiastic your moments, the better you will start to feel.
9. Think about the big picture - As Carl Sagan made evident with the Pale Blue Dot, we’re insignificant creatures living in a vast universe on a tiny planet. In the long run, everything we do will probably be forgotten. Some might find this depressing, but it shouldn’t be. It means that all our problems are illusory. In a million years no one will remember what you did or didn’t do. What matters is the present moment and enjoying every second of life that we’re blessed with.
10. Do something to help yourself - Above all, the best way to stop feeling depressed is to take action. What is your biggest problem? How can you alleviate it? Once you decide to stop moping and start moving forward you won’t have time to feel depressed. Action will occupy your mind and give you something to look forward to. Once you get some results, you’ll build momentum and positive thinking will keep getting easier.
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Nice John - I can relate to No.4.
I’ve been taking some advice from author and speaker James Arthur Ray, namely - to use the power of gratitude every morning when I’m going through my routine.
I’ve found it really powerful to get me through the emotional bumps and grooves that occur during the day.
All the best,
Stephen Martile
Personal Development Made Simple
www.stephenmartile.com
Thanks, Steven. I’m not surprised that James Ray is big on gratitude at all. It seems to be a big part of personal development.
What about doing something for someone else?
LW — That’s a good suggestion. I think it fits in with #4 and #2, especially if you help someone with a good attitude.
[…] | veiw article | Share This . . […]
[…] More Ways To Boost Your Mood Jump to Comments John Wesley at Pick the Brain has 10 all-natural ways for you to deal with your depression. While not so much relevant for those with serious cases, […]
[…] events have left me feeling a bit lower in the dumps than usual, so this evening when I ran across 10 All Natural Ways to Stop Feeling Depressed by John Wesley, it captured my attention instantly. Good heavens, I thought to myself. Here’s […]
Hey, great article! I especially agree with number 7 and 8 - interacting with animals to make you feel better, and ‘Get a rhythm when you get the blues’! In fact, ‘Get a rythm’ is set as my mobile ringtone currently!
Great post!
[…] At one point or another we are all hit by the waves of depression and we want to know how to cope with it. We instinctively want to survive and even though depression pulls us downwards, try to reach out to people, change the surrounding, visit other places, read motivational stuff, and basically, do everything that can break the strings of depressing thoughts. Some depressions are clinical and they need immediate medical attention, but most of it is circumstantial and is triggered by a particular frame of mind, for instance, not getting that phone call, not getting the project we’d been trying to get, or a breakup, or even not being able to shit, for that matter. Coping with such depression is just a matter of doing some basic things as mentioned in 10 All Natural Ways to Stop Feeling Depression. […]
Best solutions for breaking up negative thoughts and building up confidence! All the 10 suggestions given by John Wesley helps to develop positive attitude within the human mind. Putting a ‘Reflect on the Past Success’, the 3rd suggestion, really will help to build self-confidence. The 8 and 9 article will help to start of the present day with enthusiasm.
Excellent tips..
The best one that i ever liked is the one on Number 6. You see many of us always want a routine life cycle thinking that it will solve all our problems and that everything will be fine and dandy. But it is not so. In fact when you do not get any change with your life on a daily basis… then you obviously go into depression automatically.Keep up the good work..!
“Depression” is an oft-misused word. This article would more accurately be entitled “Stop Feeling Down” or “Stop Feeling Blue”.
Depression is a serious medical condition and while these suggestions would be help to a person with actual depression, it’s important to make the distinction.
Craig is correct. Serious major depression will respond to none of these things exclusively. Medication and psychotherapy is an absolute necessity. I must say though that these suggestions would be effective as a supplement to normal treatments.
Craig,
You have a good point. I think that depression has more than one definition–it can be used to refer to a serious medical condition or a general feeling of unhappiness. In this article I intended to use in the more general sense so I hope that didn’t confuse anyone.
[…] out of my daily routine plan. What do you do to break your rut? Let’s hear in the comments. Stop Feeling Depressed [Pick the […]
[…] out of my daily routine plan. What do you do to break your rut? Let’s hear in the comments. Stop Feeling Depressed [Pick the […]
[…] Stop Feeling Depressed [Pick the Brain] […]
Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I have found that “physiology trumps psychology” in cases with an underlying biochemical cause. Something worth checking out of the problem is impacting your life…
[…] is important, especially when you are down in your emotional cycle. Depression is dangerous, negative thoughts are contagious, and souce of positivity is precious. Most recently, due to unknown reasons, I feel […]
[…] 10 All Natural Ways to Stop Feeling Depressed […]
[…] Pick the Brain, National Institutes of Mental Health: […]
I am feeling very depressed becuase I have a lot of problems at home.I stay with very old parents and they don’t understand me at all.I am trying hard to stay with them but it is not working at all.Please advise.
Amarjeet, I read the following everyday at least twice. I am so relieved.
As I let go and let God, I become a part of a divine solution.
When I have what seems to be an unsolvable problem, I give it to God for a solution.
As I do, I imagine laying it on God’s altar, giving thanks for the positive outcome that
will happen, and then walking away. I know not to take the problem back by starting to
worry about it again. I have let it go! I give thanks that, through God’s guidance,
all will be handled in the best possible way.
I can and do let go of concerns, large and small, because I trust God. One day at a time,
I let God’s plan unfold, and I feel at peace about what is happening. Certainly, I honor
the commitments I have made, but I am open to a divine change of plans.
As I become more comfortable with letting go of trying to control my life, I discover
how fulfilling it is to let God lead me. By letting go and letting God, I am part of
a divine solution that is taking place.
[…] 10 All Natural Ways to Stop Feeling Depressed “The Blues” would be a better term than “Depressed” but there are still some helpful lifestyle ideas. Emotional cycle, being with positive people, reflecting on past successes, gratitude, change of scenery, break in routine, animals and nature, get up and at it, find perspective, take action to help yourself. […]
[…] 原文：10 All Natural Ways to Stop Feeling Depressed - PickTheBrain […]
There are so many thing we can do to change our state of mind. Pick up a book, a newspaper, or a magazine that doesn’t have yet another celebrity’s drinking problem on the cover. Go to a museum, a gallery, an exhibit, a film festival, a theatrical production, a classical concert, or a jazz concert. Take a dance class, a cooking class, or even an investment class. Do a crossword puzzle. Do a jigsaw puzzle. Learn a language, learn an instrument, or plan an exotic holiday just for fun. Phew! I’m sure you get the idea.
but sometimes people can not make actions to solve their problems an sometimes they just feel depressed and that nothiing worth not even living worth…sometimes u be depressed just for no reason u feeel so much down and that u cant hear or say or do anything and neeed to sit with urself….and i think that it’s a goood way because u will get bored from sittting alone and u loook from ur wndw and seee how life is runing fast while u r sittting alone so u start thinking abot what u r doing in that rooom why u r doing alll that?does anything worth in front of fun …. loook at people ..happy people..why they r happy and u r not?arent u jealous?come on!move ur ass and go out enjoy ur time and forget everything around u !when u die of depression no one will..only u and u’ll be the one who will looose the opportunity of being alive and to have fun!sooooo moooooooooooveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee smileeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee think about ur self!say i wannna feeel happpy!and when any of u read my post and he/she depresssed and u felt better pray for me and let me know:P:) :):):):) smilllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee be happpppyyyyyy……. remember always that u deserve to be happpy and if u dont than no one does!
[…] Ten All Natural Ways to Stop Feeling Depressed. If you allow them to, negative thoughts can fester and lead to serious depression. That’s why […]
[…] as human beings consider ourselves the most intelligent species on the planet and attribute this to the evolutionary development of the human brain. Given the advanced state of our technology we would without a doubt concede this as the […]
This “article” is a load! The suggestions are so over used that I was surprised to see this crap parroted here again. This is the same stuff they were telling people over 20 years ago! It didn’t work then….it won’t work now! And #9 sure is an “Uplifter”! That one will convince some people to go ahead and stick the gun in their mouth! With no more TRUE help that is out there (Like this article), for those who are depressed. Is it any wonder we lose so many to this problem?
[…] be overwhelmed at the simple thought of picking up a phone. If you are close to this person, simply stop over and begin to help. People need this but don’t think to […]
[…] Stop Feeling Depressed If you allow them to, negative thoughts can fester and lead to serious depression. That’s why it’s important to take action early to bust yourself out of a slump. (tags: self-improvement motivation inspiration happiness depression personal-development lifehacks mlf) […]
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What should i do im feeling really depressed and i feel like dieing and that i am always feeling queezyy and i dont know what to do.
Yah…i can definitely relate to alot of these things. I needed this! thanks for posting it…