Reducing Stress / Managing Depression

This is in response to a private message that I decided to make a whole post. We all know how important lowering our stress is as we try to recover. Through avoidance it's pretty simple to minimize our external stresses but I'm going to focus on the more difficult internal stress situation.

The two acts involved in both stress reduction and getting out of or preventing Depression are thoughts and feelings. If we worry or think about something fearful that causes an anxiety and stress feeling or if we feel fearful that can set the mind off in similar thoughts. Either one can ignite the process and they both feed off each other in a negative and seemingly never ending feedback loop. Depression is similar except it involves hopelessness and despair.

The key to getting out of this downward spiral is to change from a state of reaction to control. Through self awareness, we can stop going along for the ride and suffering because of it. Mindfulness is when you "watch" your thoughts. By simply recognizing the unwanted thoughts you are regaining power over them and slowing down the feedback loop.

Our health problems often cause us to disconnect from our bodies or have a subtle feeling of unease and discomfort because of all the symptoms we're dealing with. Spend a moment and evaluate how you feel within your body. Does it feel like your sort of tip toeing and on guard waiting for bad things to happen? If so we should strive for acceptance and non reactivity. What you resist persists. Allow yourself to feel whatever discomfort you may be feeling and realize that it's nothing you can't handle. Acceptance is not welcoming bad feelings but not resisting or denying them. Let them be there by themselves with no control over you. You'll build up tolerance over time.

So once again periodically check up on yourself through self awareness. If you feel that defensive feeling then simply notice it and let acceptance wash over you. This requires honesty and sincerity. Another thing you can do that is more powerful is to hold a positive feeling. Take some time to picture yourself fully recovered then move this image into yourself in the present moment. You should notice a sort of shift. I'm fully aware that people in our situation are somewhat numb but you should notice something when you do this. It may not necessarily be a feeling but a sensation in how you feel in your body. All this process requires is to hold this feeling as much as you can. Make it as light as possible so you are relaxed and have more stamina but not too light where you lose it. You will still feel predominantly negative feelings for awhile, I'm sure, but trust the process. You are communicating to your subconscious mind to feel better. You are also preventing yourself from unintentionally signalling fear.

Now there are going to be times when we get triggered, alarming our sympathetic nervous system and making these methods almost completely ineffective. You can't go from 100 miles per hour to a screeching halt. In these situations you just have to allow your nervous system to calm down first. I like to do something visual. I've found that mindlessly watching t.v. works great for this. It gets your attention out of your head. When you're triggered your attention gets pulled into your head which will cause your mind to race. When I say watch mindlessly I mean try to limit the amount of analysis you do that will suck you back into your head. Just lose yourself in something visual until you calm down. This may take hours depending on how badly you were triggered.

Another recommendation I have is to be aware of what subjects tend to have power over your thoughts. This often includes things that are emotionally charged (money, relationships, past conversations or altercations). Make an attempt to cut these threads right away. They will snowball and become much harder to stop after 5 minutes rather than 5 seconds.

These skills are useful even when we are fully healthy but are a necessity for people in our situation. The more stabilized we become the less we need to constantly check ourselves but generally speaking, in my opinion, the more the better. Once stabilized then we can start making decisions about what changes to make in our life to get fully recovered but until we get centered again, it's best to take it one step at a time. Tweet