Q.(9) I tend to get depressed. What do I do?
ANSWER by Dr Maddy
Staying in a depressed state causes confused thinking and nothing is bright
or fun anymore. Listen to my CD on Celebrating Life, read pages 54-55 of
Phenomenal Women: That’s Us! And learn how to step out again and enjoy life.
A Feel Good List
Make a list of 300 things you are grateful for:
100 things you have
100 qualities you possess
100 things you have done in your life
Put this list on your bathroom mirror, and on your refrigerator. Scanning it is a great pick-me-up. You get a chance to realize what a treasure chest your life is.
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Questioning the underlying patterns of personal dissatisfaction and discovering what is limiting our achievements are more efficient than looking for answers to specific problems. Deep questioning gets us to the root causes rather than the symptoms. What we learn also influences the way we think, and work, the quality of our lives and our definition of success and happiness. Education can help us make better choices in our lives if it is coupled with experience can we develop the wisdom to stabilize our lives and recognize our paths to satisfaction.
So many times we repeat old patterns hoping for different results, however,
without new approaches, the outcomes will be the same as in the past. With
the development of more effective insights, we can speed our learning
through experience and quickly convert what we learn into new applications.
In midlife, we have a wealth of resources to draw upon.
Les Brown, the great motivator, says, "Each of us has something good to
offer. We must learn to balance fun with work, and freedom with
responsibilities. When you pursue greatness, you are taking responsibility
for your life. You are choosing to accept the consequences of your actions.
You may not be able to control what life puts in your path, but you can
control who you are." Fear drives us back into the past to think and
ultimately to act the same way we did before-and yet we expect different
results. We tend to do this because those are familiar thoughts that once
may have worked, and they still feel comfortable to us-like a security
blanket. Stretching our boundaries allows us to break the hold from the
inhibiting and self-limiting influences of the past.
