How to Think Up When Your Feeling Down

First, it is sometimes difficult to acknowledge that we are depressed. We don't always immediately grasp that depression has taken over our thinking unless it is a major depressive attack which is extremely painful. For the less painful "blues" we usually don't immediately leap to our own aid.

I sometimes use the following device when I FINALLLY acknowledge that I'm not feeling all that great. I decide that every single time that I think a bad thought or notice I'm feeling bad I will immediately look at some small thing and be grateful for it. It's surprising that you can actually be grateful as a matter of will over any depressive feeling. You don't have to have any goal of how much gratitude or what kinds of things to be grateful for--a tree branch, a glass, a bit of sunlight coming through the window.This morning I even found the fringe of one of my rugs was sufficient for me to source a thought/feeling of gratitude. (Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish a thought from a feeling--there is something truly wonderful and mysterious about the power of thought, the great gift for which we need to be reverentially responsible.) . There didn't seem to be any words about how great the fringe was or anything like that--just conjured up a grateful thought/feeling and directed it to the fringe. It's so interesting that this is possible to do.

After doing this for a while during the morning, my mood changed entirely. And heck, even if my mood didn't change, I would consider that sourcing and putting out into the world vague feelings of gratitude is a whole lot better than sourcing and putting out in the world vague feelings of sadness.