Meals to fight depression.

Greatist has a great list of things to eat that help lift your mood and links to the science to back it up.  I think the brown rice and black beans and the turkey burger and sweet potato fries seem most tasty and most doable, but go on over there and check it out for yourself.


Meals that Boost Your Mood

Ooh, on further reading I found trail mix with nuts and dark chocolate.   Yum.  It might be a good idea to keep some of that near you at all times and nosh a little bit now and then.

Kindness.

A simple, proven way to make you feel better.

Reach out to others.   Random acts of kindness are fun and make you feel good inside and they don't have to be that complicated.  For example, you could get a dollar bill and some quarters, go to Walmart and put a quarter in each of the gumball machines or the drink machines, hide a dollar in the toy section for a child to find and on your way out, if there's a donation machine for a local children's hospital, put whatever you have left in there.  It's fun! 

Here's the best list of random acts of kindness I have seen, it has 83 different ones!  

http://www.bradaronson.com/acts-of-kindness/

Or just be kind to someone who lives in your home.  Do their chore before they get a chance to, leave a note for them under their pillow, to let them know you love them.  Pet your dog or cat.  Get a bunch of fun things for your family, put them on the front porch, ring the doorbell, then run around and come in the back door as if nothing has happened.  An act of kindness for yourself might be giving yourself a break on something, taking it easy one day or buying yourself some flowers.  Just having flowers in your home has been proven to help with depression. 

 

Try it.

On this blog, I try to be encouraging and I know that when you are depressed and just overwhelmingly sad, it is very difficult to think that anything will help but some of these things really, really do.  It's crazy, but as I have journeyed to the place I am now, off meds and coping better than I was on the meds, there are a few of the things that have been really helpful to me.  One is needlework, in the form of crocheting, the second is the art journaling/doodling stuff that I do and the third which may actually be the most helpful because it is portable and easy, is, believe it or not, the fake-it-till-you-make-it, fake smiling.

One of my art journal pages.  Drawing these big flowers is relaxing to me.

It's seems crazy, I know, but it is true.

Forbes on fake smiling.

For resources on the art journaling if you don't know where to start, you can try some happiness journals.


The Happy Book

How to Be Happy

For needleworking here's a video on how to crochet.

How to Crochet

How to Knit

Try anything that will help you feel happier, within reason.  Don't hurt yourself or anyone else.  That doesn't work.

Take care of yourself.  I know the holidays can be hard and seriously, (because it looks kind of creepy) every time you go into the bathroom, give yourself the biggest smile you can and hold it for as long as you can.  Crinkle up your eyes.  Get all into it.  Seriously.  It does help.