Living and working in a big city is not an easy test. Physical and emotional overload, fatigue, stress,
overcrowding, eternal haste, insomnia, irregular unhealthy food - these are just some of the reasons to lose the former optimism and start depressing. A person cannot radiate positive around the clock, a bad mood is absolutely natural if such a state does not become habitual.
And then it was already close to depression - a psychological problem that would require a long correction under the supervision of a physician. Unfortunately, in the modern world, the word "depression" is often used as a synonym for melancholy, spleen, and simply bad mood, whereas in reality it is a mental disorder with quite definite symptoms.
Depression is often the result of chronic stress and emotional depression, which means it can be completely avoided. Here are some simple ways to improve yourself mood and cope with the impending distemper.
See also: 10 more ways to cheer yourself up
1. The magic word
Unfortunately, we often concentrate on our problems and failures, and we take all the good things that happen in our life for granted. It is worth learning to say thanks for even the smallest joys - we drove to work without traffic jams, saw a beautiful sunset, had a delicious lunch. Do not leave such seemingly insignificant events without attention. Say thank you! Better yet, get a thank-you diary and every day find at least five reasons to express gratitude to the world, to the people around you, to the circumstances, to God. This will allow you to look at your life with different eyes and attract even more reasons to say "thank you".
2. Vivifying inspiration
A great way to lift your spirits and fill with enthusiasm and burden for new challenges is to create an "inspiration board." How to do it? Collect any photos, pictures, quotes that reflect your idea of how you would like to live. Material desires, unusual ideas and just beautiful mood images that awaken the response in your soul. You can make such a gallery on a computer, in an album on photo hosting or on sites like Pinterest, Tumblr, WeHeartIt. And you can - print pictures or cut them from magazines and attach them to a corkboard or a sheet of drawing paper, so that they are always in front of your eyes and remind you of what you are striving for.
3. Dear Diary
Negative emotions necessarily require a way out, but the services of a psychotherapist or the shoulder of a faithful friend are far from being available to everyone. A good way to throw out their experiences - to start a diary. It's okay if you don’t have the habit of expressing your thoughts on paper - it’s still a personal space, and you’re free to write anything. Julia Cameron, in her book “The Path of the Artist”, devoted to creative revival, advises daily to write the so-called “morning pages” - transfer to paper the entire stream of thoughts that flashes through your head, without thinking about the deep meaning or literary merits of what was written.
4. Red pencil
Sometimes it seems to us that literally everything falls out of the hands, nothing happens and the days are wasted, monotonous and faceless. And, of course, with such thoughts, I don’t want to take on something new and radiate optimism. To destroy this illusion, you can make lists of small and simple things that occur on our way daily, and in the evening - do not forget to take a red pen or pencil and cross out everything that you safely coped with. This occupation brings a lot of satisfaction and gives faith in yourself and your strength. Only when compiling the list it is necessary to take into account your capabilities and not to forget even big things to break into small tasks, as advised by most time management gurus.
5. A few platitudes
Man is not only the soul, mind and personality, but also a living organism, the laws of whose existence cannot be ignored. No matter how badly we are told that a healthy spirit can only be in a healthy body, it is useless to deny them. If we deprive ourselves of rest, nutrition, movement and fresh air - it is hardly necessary to hope that the body will respond to us with vigor and good mood. Therefore, sleep (physiologists recommend sleeping not eight, but seven hours a day), short walks and healthy food is the foundation on which our mental state is largely based.
All these recommendations are simple to implement and, most importantly, effective enough if you want to cheer yourself up and start smiling at each new day.
