is now. Don’t wait until you feel better or your situation has improved. The perfect time to start is this moment. It doesn’t take much to get going, in fact just making up your mind to start taking care of yourself is the first step.

Start by doing one new thing a week, that way you’re less likely to feel overwhelmed.

I started with a concerted effort to counter my ruminating thoughts. Those obsessive, negative, endless thoughts where you relive problems and losses, real and imagined. All ruminating does is keep you stuck in the past, interfers with rational thought and so keeps you from making good decisions. Like the grooves on a record ruminating thoughts cuts grooves ever deeper in your mind so that it becomes a habit to think negatively. You can’t afford the luxury of a negative thought. No one can.

Remember your body doesn’t know the difference between reality and imagination. If you are constantly going over sad or anxious thoughts, your body will start to react as though it was really in a threatening situation. So lets take a look at stopping them.

You didn’t get depressed overnight and you’re not going to get out of it overnight either, so just tell yourself this is an ongoing process. Like the 12 steps program just take it one day at a time.

Get yourself a notebook and start keeping track of when your thoughts start turning negative. You may find that you tend to ruminate more at certain times of the day. When you notice your thoughts turning down a dark path, stop it. Don’t let yourself dwell on past hurts or problems, rather switch to something not related and preferably pleasant. After thinking negatively for so long there is something odldy comforting in continuing to think that way; it may be painful but it’s familiar. Remind yourself that it’s not helping you move on and it’s time to let go. Your mind will probably keep going back to the negative. That’s okay, just keep acknowledging it and redirecting your attention. There’s an old Japanese saying, “If you’re knocked down 9 times, get up 10!”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 8:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.