Do You Get Depressed?

Do you get depressed easily?

If you do, why don't you ask yourself, not why are you depressed, but how are you depressed.

Now, don't look at me like I'm crazy. I just happen to think it's interesting to know how a person gets depressed.

I would just like to know, if I were in your body, how would I get depressed.

What would I be seeing in my mind? Everything going wrong, no doubt?

What would I be saying to myself? That everything IS going wrong?

Would my shoulders be slumped, and would I speak in a low and dejected tone of voice?

Now, pretend you can see me. I'm seeing everything in my mind that's going wrong in my life right now. I'm backing that up by what I'm saying to myself. Yep, everything IS wrong. I look very depressed, my posture is slumped, my eyes are down, my expression is terrible.

Yep. That's depressing all right.

Then, I realize I am very depressed! What the heck am I doing? Watch as I stand up and shake it off. I put one foot a little ahead of the other, stand on the balls of my feet and bounce, I shake my arms and body to get rid of the depressing situation I had found myself in, I clench my fist and feel the power. Yes!!!

Hey, what happened here? Am I depressed? Not anymore. I am solution oriented!

Now, it's time for you to do that, too. Realize what you are doing to yourself by sitting that way and thinking those thoughts. It's time for you to make an intelligent decision. Time for you to do something -- anything that isn't sitting in that same posture and thinking those thoughts. Try the power stance mentioned above.

Depression is caused by many things, but you enable that depression by staying in a depressed posture, by seeing depressing things in your mind, and by saying depressing things to yourself in a way that KEEPS you depressed. Once you know that, you can change.

Once you change one thing, the rest tends to change too. Just for the heck of it, start by speeding up your tone of voice and raising the pitch. Already you're not as depressed as you were, are you? Straighten up your posture, raise your head and look around, and put a smile on your face. Feel the difference? It may not change the situation, but it sure as heck changes your outlook. Sometimes, that's all you need. Remember this and use it.

Save this article and show it to your friends. Be a friend, tell them to call you whenever they feel depressed and that the very act of calling will change their physiology -- body language, which starts off other changes. Set some rules if you must. Tell them to just call up and say "Hi!" And to only tell you something good that has happened to them in the last week. This will get them to focus on good things.

This isn't meant to be a cure all for depression that runs deep. That type of depression would probably need one on one professional help. But for most people, this is all they need. A friend and a direction to go. Continue to direct them to the good, and soon they'll be able to find their own way.