Depression, anxiety. Some of it is biological, some of it is chemistry, much is caused by life events and our perception of them. It all begins and ends in your mind.
For example the other day I posted that due to my anxiety I paced and ended up getting 2,000 steps toward my goal of 10,000 steps. Exercise is always good and I saw this as a positive since I am working on weight loss, and walking is good for weight loss and other health issues. Some people thought “Oh, no, anxiety. That’s bad.” Anxiety is neither good nor bad. It is how you perceive it. If you put it to use and harness the energy that it can provide you can channel it to achieve certain goals such as walking. You can also use walking and other forms of physical exercise as “coping skills” to deal with things on your mind.
The winter weather with cloudy days can be disheartening but even with this weather you can find things to do. Stay warm, work on goals. Do things like writing, expressing your ideas on paper or elsewhere, because there are others who may be thinking as you do or would appreciate a new perspective on things.
When spring and summer come, you can do such things as to get outside in nature, walk in the green grass, through the forests. It definitely clears one’s mind of the turmoil. It is when I am in such an environment as the great outdoors that I feel closest to God.
Never give up as what you give power to has power over you. Whatever it is that you magnify, will certainly be magnified. Don’t accept what negative people say because they have a problem for every solution. Listening to them and just being around them can drain your energy. I call them energy vampires. I have unfortunately been in both the position of being one but in a continual process of getting out of this pattern and also been in the presence of people who are themselves such “energy vampires.” In the presence of such people smile and give them the best of a positive outlook.
Galatians 5:22-26 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Sometimes God doesn’t stop you from being thrown into the furnace of affliction because He has a point to prove to those that threw you in there! Your response, to being thrown in the furnace, says EVERYTHING about YOUR CHARACTER… not theirs!
I am in no way perfect and I have my struggles but trying to remember these things mentioned here help guide me in being more cheerful and caring and thinking outside of myself and my selfish desires.
Thanks to Scott Bland and Barb Motto Canale for some of the material I have incorporated into this.