Many of us find ourselves down in the dumps at one time or another. It’s just a natural part of being human. In life we have ups and downs. Events that make us happy and others that make us sick.
Some of us are better at hiding or regulating our moods than others. While I’ve been known to wear my heart on my sleeve, my friends around me are much better at hiding their feelings.
For those of you feeling blue, this article is written for you.
I’ll start by saying these things are a natural cycle of life. The earth goes through seasons of summer, fall, winter then spring, and so the same happens in our own lives.
We can feel this way when we don’t have anything going on in our lives as well. This makes us feel lonely or bored and that’s okay. Luckily it’s easy to fix.
Sometimes we fall into depressive moods with a legitimate reason for it. We may not be happy with our circumstances or where we are in life.
But our current life situation has nothing to do with where we end up unless we let it! So we can make the change.
We have that choice.
We have the power to act on our own lives in any way we please, and make the needed changes to end up exactly where we want.
How to Get Out of the Rut and Get Your Life Back on Track:
If you don’t know what to do or how to start – follow this guide. These are some of the things I’ve done that’s helped me.
1. Clean Your Home
You’ll be surprised at how it makes you feel when you clean your immediate surrounding areas. A person’s environment mirrors what’s going on inside. If we work from the result instead of the cause we can make a change.
When you clean or declutter your environment, you begin to clean yourself out inside. Your inner world has to follow naturally as a result.
You might feel like you can finally breathe. That you can finally find whatever you’re looking for or that you don’t have to stumble over piles of things wherever you walk.
I used to own a lot of junk. When I needed to clean up, I would quickly fill my arms and toss everything into a drawer. But I was just running from the work and stashing it away for later. I was really just sweeping it under the rug, instead of addressing the problem directly.
2. Go and Work Out
Exercise has been known to be the best natural anti-depressant for decades. It can also boost your social life when you see new people at the gym and socialize with them from time to time. It may even give you a sense of ‘community’.
Get your body moving! This is exactly what got me through when I was depressed. So I decided to make a change and began working out. Action Jackson initially motivated me to start working out years ago. I felt so lost that I told myself that if I did nothing else but work out that winter, it was a victory. And I did.
You can’t be depressed when you move your body because you’re too busy thinking about finishing that set or run. You’re sweating and focused on that feeling of discomfort as you push through to finish.
We were designed to move and when we do feel good hormones like endorphins give us an incredible reward!
3. Shut Off All Dopamine or Hypnotic Devices
This is one of the most important steps you need to take! I recommend you start with the others first because it can be really hard especially at first and might cause you to feel even more blue.
Sometimes people call this a dopamine fast but we’ll just stick to anything that immerses you into another world causing you to run from this reality. Reading of any kind is an exception to this rule because it’s slow paced and activates your brain in many positive ways.
Turn off your TV, video games and put away your phone! STAY AWAY FROM ALL SOCIAL MEDIA AND SCROLLING OF ANY KIND. If you want to read use a physical book to avoid all digital distractions and then go outside.
Try something creative and productive, do something different from what you’re used to. Anything that will cause you to completely forget your problems will be a “problem.” You may call your friends, meet new people, or start a hobby. You’ll really start to feel different, I promise.
I remember partying every single night. I’d often stay out until 7AM, go to sleep and then wake up at 2 or 3PM. By the time I woke up half the day had already passed me by.
It felt like I was behind in life and out of sync, with a pounding headache from oversleeping. By the time I was ready to finally do something, the sun started to set. The depression kicked in again, and I barely ever saw the light of day.
So I’d stay inside and defaulted to binging shows on Netflix or playing Grand Theft Auto for hours. But it didn’t help! I was chasing an escape from my boredom and lack of direction in life. I was unproductive and it didn’t make me feel good. My life felt like it was wasting away. I was enjoying myself too much and I turned into a dull and sad person, a slave to pleasure.
We need to get out of the hypnotic state caused by television, social media, or video games and do something productive. Something that gives us meaning, a chance to be creative and the ability to help or make a positive change in the lives of others.
4. Forget About Yourself for a Minute and Help Someone Else
A great thing you can do is go out and focus on somebody else. Help them with their problems. Knock on your neighbour’s door and ask if they need help with anything. You could even help a charity, help a friend move or help family.
Spending time helping others takes your attention away from yourself and can make you feel great about creating meaningful change. It’s nice to forget about your problems and remember you aren’t the only person with them. You might even develop a friendship that will last a lifetime.
5. Go and Do Something That Scares You or Makes You Uncomfortable
Depression is a lack of expression. The opposite of the word express is depress. When you depress you act internally and when you express you act externally.
Do something that scares you and it will surely put a shock to your system. I guarantee that you will “feel something” and begin to express yourself externally. The fear kicking in will make you feel alive!
Sometimes I like to take a cold shower for this reason. I start with hot water and quickly bring it down to as cold as I can bare. This will kick your body into crisis mode and will really wake up your system. There are also a ton of health benefits to doing this, so everyone should experience this at least once in their life.
6. Take it Easy and Recharge
I heard Jim Carrey once say that depressed means deep-rest. Sometimes life can burn us out and we just need to recharge. Reflecting, reading or working on ourselves silently any way we can think of is a great start. Winter is the perfect time for this because life naturally slows down. We can’t feel guilty for staying indoors when it’s cold outside so get comfortable and relax.
You can show the world your new self when the the summer rolls around again.
There you have it.
The blues are just a normal part of life. Everyone goes through it but it doesn’t mean anything is necessarily wrong with you.
Is there a change you need to make in life? Whether that means to change direction or you’re too comfortable and need to get your a** moving.
You could be burned out and need to take it easy for a while.
Try these out and you’ll begin to get your life and mood back in order.
Your friend,
Jamie.
