Fear Depression? 5 ways to fight it Without Medicines #WorldMentalHealthDay

As we celebrate the #WorldMentalHealthDay on October 10, 2018, I have the wonderful health & fitness blogger, Shilpa Gupte to talk about avoiding depression & negativity in life.

While playing a game of cards, have you noticed how you impatiently await your turn to be dealt your cards? And, on receiving them, how excited you are until you check them out one by one? There are some really good cards and some mediocre ones that don’t excite you much, and then some that make you wish you had received better ones. You do your best to play with whatever you have been dealt with, coming up with some or the other brilliant idea at the nick of time to save yourself from losing.

I might come across as someone who knows zilch about cards, because, yes, I have no knowledge about a single card game. But, what I do know is that Life is a lot like a game of cards. You wait impatiently for Life to deal you your fate at every turn. More often than not, you don’t receive what you were hoping for. And, if you do, then there is a twist to the tale! You get what you want but there is a price to pay. Well, that’s Life! You can’t have your cake & eat it, too, can you?

So, how do you deal with the difficulties that Life brings at your doorstep? Are you made of sterner stuff & face it all boldly or do you crumble under the pressure? Do you dare Life, or do you beg Her to have mercy on you and work up a miracle to drive away the critical moments that seem like bringing depression along? Well, if you belong to the former category, then hats off to you! But, if you belong to the latter one, like yours truly, then it’s time you pulled up your socks and changed the way you deal with stuff.

Depression & Mind matters

Our mind is a weird mechanism, you see. It is precisely in a difficult situation that it conjures up the worst of scenarios and frightens the hell out of us. Every kind of negativity consumes us & we foresee ourselves sinking to the bottom of the ocean, unable to swim & reach the shore. It is precisely this kind of thinking that we need to change. For, it is all in our mind. And, if we learn to control our mind & change our thoughts, I am sure we will fair better in every exam.

Today, on account of World Mental Health Day, I am sharing some tips to overcome  negativity & save ourselves from the depression that threatens to drive us over the edge in a difficult situation. No, I do not consider myself brave, or an authority on the subject, but it is just something I learned precisely during certain crucial moments when I had no one to support me or handle the situation for me. Well, in short, Life taught me how to deal with a tough card & save myself.

1.  Live in the moment

This has become my mantra since some time now, for the simple reason that THIS MOMENT IS LIFE. We know not what awaits us at every turn & neither can we change something that has occurred. The past is gone & the future is uncertain. Heck, Life is uncertain, so what’s the point thinking about what we might do tomorrow? So, whenever you find yourself in a tough spot, stay there, in that very moment. Think about what you can do NOW, not what you should have done yesterday or what you might like to do tomorrow to avoid getting into such a situation. And, frankly, Life never deals us the same cards. Life is pretty smart like that! 🙂

2. Escape depression: It’s Okay to be scared

Yes, it is absolutely fine if you are trembling with fear from within!

Keep that fear. Don’t fight it.

For it is this very fear that will act as an impetus to push you out of your zombie-like state you might find yourself in. I have found myself unable to breathe, unable to swallow food, unable to even think. I still do. But, I realized that our fear is our No.1 ally in disguise in a difficult situation. So, do not consider yourself timid. Ever.

Your fear does not define you.

3. Remember that this, too, shall pass.

Life changes. It may not change overnight, but eventually, it will. Nothing is permanent. Not Life, not the weather, not the people, not the feelings or the emotions and, certainly, not the problems. It’s all a phase, here for a particular period, after which it will be gone only to be replaced by another. Repeat to yourself these words until it becomes your second nature to take Life lightly.

4. Seek support

We all have a few people in our lives we trust implicitly. Seek their help.

Talk to them; share with them your worries and your anxieties. However much we may have confidence in our capabilities, we need our people, our support system. You never know, but just talking things out with them could help you find solutions to your problems, the ones that eluded you all along. Or, they could come up with better ways of dealing with a situation.

5. Stay occupied:

Our mind is such, if we give in to its demands, it could ruin us completely. It is so necessary that we keep it busy all the time. Feed your mind positive thoughts right from the moment you wake up to the time you hit the bed at night. It is really not so easy, considering we have always handed over the controls to our mind & fed it rotten thoughts all the time.

It is also not easy to stay positive when all around us we see chaos. But, the one thing we can do to take our mind off the chaos is to stay busy. It is something I learned from my mother. The more busy you stay, the more occupied will your mind be & the less you’ll be tortured by thoughts that seem like depression.

And, finally, if you feel that the depression & negativity still persist, seek therapy. There is really no shame in meeting a counselor who is better equipped to help you deal with your state of mind. The way we need a doctor to heal our physical aches, we need a doctor to heal our psychological & emotional wounds.

Life has an uncanny habit of giving us problems when we least expect them. These test our patience, our spirit and our character. How we face it is what will decide what we learned from our experience. Most of all, how we face it all is what will make us confident of ourselves. Well, that is precisely the reward we crave for going through the miserable stuff despite all the uncertainties.

Wish you all the very best, and take care!

Have you ever battled the hardest lows of your life? How did you overcome that? Do share your experiences, as they lift the spirits of those who are doing so.

Author bio:

Shilpa Gupte writes at Metanoia, the health and wellness blog. It’s a place where she shares her experiences on matters related to health & fitness, food & nutrition. It’s the need to change our outlook towards life & embrace it with its flaws that inspires her to write. Her pets are her writing companions & she gains a lot of insights from these creatures who have a lot more to teach about Life than one could ever learn.

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