#spread the positivity
Something I’ve always wanted to do…is to create a small clothing boutique with my own designs. But the twist would be that each collection would be based off of an original story prompt written to show the various beauties of how our humanity can be expressed alongside the elements of nature and different places and time periods, and to empower those who wear the outfits with their stories in mind.
A way to further spread positive magick and influence through collaborative creativity, if you will!
Always remember: the main three enemies of dealing with depression are Stillness, Darkness, and Stagnation!
For stillness, try to keep active. On days where you’re struggling and have low-energy, try sitting on the exercise ball or doing some stretches in bed. Even just rolling around or kicking your legs can help!
For darkness, get ample sunshine by sitting near a window or going outside, even if it’s just to lie down in the grass! Even just turning a light on so you aren’t sitting in the dark can have a positive effect. This is necessary because without adequate light, your brain will continue to release hormones telling you to sleep, which saps your energy and increases depression. Getting more light will naturally increase the amount of energy you have!
And for stagnation, make sure to get fresh air and try to switch up your routine! Doing the same things over and over again can cause your brain to become complacent and bored. This can also increase depression, as well as anxiety and many other disorders. Breathing stale air all the time triggers a similar effect. So even if it’s something as small as walking a slightly different route than usual or showering at a different time than you typically would, throwing a curve ball at your sense of normalcy from time to time is incredibly efficient in handling the symptoms of depression. My favorite way to do this is learn a new daily word and what it means, or try to name one object/place/name/etc per letter. It gets your brain moving and keeps you on your toes, in a sense!
Sometimes it can be difficult to know exactly where your headspace is at when you’ve been dealing with mental health issues for a long time. Eventually, you begin to become numb to a lot of the symptoms and it ends up harder and harder to know if you’re actually having a good day or not, or even to just pinpoint what’s actually doing the damage to you in the first place.
When I’ve struggled with this in the past, the first thing I check is what direction my daydreams are heading in.
And I know, that probably sounds a bit strange. But seriously, your daydreams (or more specifically, what you daydream about) can tell you a lot about your subconscious state!
If you tend to dream about far-off things like dragons and castles or storylines way removed from reality, you’re probably untethered because something in your everyday life is stressing you out. It’s most likely either a habit or a repetitive event that you feel trapped by and crave escape from. In this case, it’s good to figure out what that thing is so you can better manage it or, in some cases, weed it out entirely.
If you tend to have in-depth dreams about a perfect future where all the things you wish for are a reality, you’re probably anxious about what your real future will hold for you. Something about the direction you’re currently heading in is making you worried, for whatever reason, and it might benefit you to stop and observe your current life to find out what exactly is making you so nervous. Once you find it, a good exercise would be to think of what the absolute worst-case scenario might be, then brainstorm the absolute best-case scenario in turn. By finding these two unrealistic polar ends of “best” versus “worst” outcomes, it’ll be easier for you to become centered on a more realistic playthrough of what’s most likely to actually occur, therefore lessening some of that anxiety.
If you tend to romanticize a place, person, or time in your life that has already passed, there’s probably something about that thing that you are craving in your current life. It might do you some good to think about what exactly you miss about it and in what ways that something is absent from your present. Then you’ll know what categories of your life probably need more attention paid to them so you feel more comfortable.
Daydreams and a drifting conscious aren’t always bad things. They can aid you in being more creative, thinking outside the box, and other forms of problem-solving. However when you find yourself in that dreaming state more often than not, it could be beneficial to understand where those dreams are coming from since daydreaming is, in essence, a coping mechanism that distances you from what is currently harming or negatively affecting your current life.
I hope this helps!
Even if it’s difficult to uphold at first, the best habit I’ve ever gotten myself into is that while I’m lying in bed at night about to fall asleep, I’ll think of at least one thing that’ll happen the next day, no matter how seemingly small, that I can be excited about.
Even if it’s just “I wonder what’ll happen in the next episode of the show I’m watching??” or “It’s supposed to be a few degrees warmer tomorrow!”
Findsomething that makes you want to get up the next day. Hype yourself up about it the night before, and you’ll be shocked at just how much easier it is to leave your bed the next morning and face the day.
gentle reminders in case you need it:
- it’s ok to start “late”
- drink water if you haven’t for hours
- it’s ok if u need more time than other people
- it’s ok to feel what you’re feeling
- you have a cute smile
- you make people happy
- you have plenty of good traits
- you are loved
- you deserve all the good things
- it’s ok if you relapse, it doesn’t make u weak
- bad days are just temporary
- tomorrow is a new day
- you can heal again
- I’m proud of you
