Antidepressants

natural antidepressants eyore

Try one of these antidepressants when you’re feeling down.

We all get down sometimes.

Especially at this time of year, when it’s dark so much.

If you are struggling with depression this time of year, you’re not alone.

But you don’t have to suffer, and you don’t have to medicate.

The next time you feel the doldrums coming on, try any one of these, or several in combination:

  1. Mindfulness
  2. Self-Compassion
  3. Go Out and Play

I gleaned these from Elisha Goldstein’s book, Uncovering Happiness.

Feel free to look all 3 over in more detail or just go to the one that interests you below.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness basically means paying attention.

The difference between a mindful person eating dinner and a person who is not practicing mindfulness is that the mindful person knows he is eating dinner, while the unmindful person is suddenly done without noticing the cutting, chewing and swallowing.

The great thing about mindfulness is that it helps you:

  • become more flexible in your decision making
  • develop a stronger focus at work and at home
  • communicate more effectively

— All because you are paying attention.

Self-Compassion

Self-compassion does not come naturally to most men.

We are more likely to call ourselves out as f*cking idiots than think kind, sympathetic thoughts about ourselves.

But ask yourself:

  • where does the inner critic pop up? At work? in relationships?
  • when things get tough, do you compare yourself with others?
  • what would your day be like with less negativity?

Use these and other similar questions to uncover what you really need.

Go Out and Play

When was the last time you let yourself go out and play?

Do you even remember what it means to play?

Look at children.

Without anyone showing them how to do it, they just do it.

Stuart Brown, who founded the National Institute for Play, says this:

“Play is an ancient, voluntary, inherently pleasurable, apparently purposeless activity or process that is undertaken for its own sake, and that strengthens our muscles and our social skills, fertilizes brain activity, tempers and deepens our emotions, takes us out of time, and enables a state of balance and poise.”

That’s all for now.

Gotta go play:-)