This week my mood has been absolutely amazing. I have been thinking a lot about why I have been so happy this week, and wanted to pick it apart a little bit. Here are 5 steps I believe led to a week without depression.
Stop managing apartments
It was very stressful to say the least. Other appropriate interchangeable phrases are:
- Stop doing things you hate
- Quit your soul-sucking corporate job
- Make necessary changes in your life to cut out overly stressful parts of your life
- Honor yourself – if you’re too tender hearted to fulfill your job description without emotional pain, then honor that tender part of you and quit.
Leave the Bay Area. If possible, move to Johnson City, Tennessee.
Yes, part of being happy is the honeymoon phase of moving somewhere new. But it surely doesn’t hurt to move somewhere beautiful, surrounded by rolling green hills and fireflies. Also, the Bay Area is stressful and filled with grumpy, stressed out people.
Meet so many nice people.
Our first two weeks here have been filled with lunch dates, outdoor concerts with new friends, home-cooked meals that were delivered warm, used (free) furniture, lists of hikes to do, extra biscuits, texts from new people just to check in and see how we’re doing, and more. From waitresses to people at church, everyone we meet here is kind and nice and wonderful.
We went to a restaurant that someone at the mall had recommended (thanks LeAnn for asking around). The waitress was SO nice! She was just so warm and kind. We ordered brussel sprouts that were amazing, fried green tomatoes with grits, and fried chicken with waffles. Holy crap, those brussel sprouts were so yummy!! Anyways, the waitress was just SO kind! Just the way she spoke, her demeanor.. it’s hard to describe. When she found out we were new, she gave us a list of hikes she enjoys, extra biscuits for our running around town, and $20 off coupon so we’d come back and tell her about how we liked the hikes. To me, this was totally above and beyond kind. And this kindness, in my experience, has been totally normal.
Swim your little heart out
Exercising is the first thing doctors say to do if you’re depressed. I have tried yoga, power yoga, running (ugh, I hate running), cycling, dancing, ab workouts, walking, hiking, climbing. And I did not see any mood results from any of these activities. Then I found out that cardio is the best thing to do from my last therapist. On Monday this week I was having a rough day mood-wise and decided to go to our apartment complex’s pool and swim laps. I’ve never swam laps in my life but after feeling better from steps 1-3 above, I was determined that I actually COULD feel good. I wound up swimming laps for a whole hour and I felt AMAZING! It’s become an amazing thing for me to do every night this week. Jeremy comes home, we all eat dinner, then I head down to the pool. No one else uses the pool, partially because it’s slightly colder that time of night. But I get to be totally alone, surrounded by trees and green grass (see photo). The cardio just makes me feel sooooo amazing, it’s insane. I have seen a drastic change in my mood from this. The nice thing is that the pool isn’t super long, so I can just swim to each side, take a break if needed, then turn around and swim back. I don’t get side aches like I do when I run. And I’ve already seen myself get stronger in just a few days of swimming. I am seriously loving it! Also, as a kid I didn’t love swimming although I took many a summer swimming lesson.
I think a big part of it is that I was so cold in the water! I recently got on a thyroid medication when I found out my TSH levels were in the normal range but not in the exact spot they should be. I’m on a small dose of a thyroid medication which has cleared up my tiredness, a little bit of my depression (obviously not all), my chronic dry skin, being cold all the time, and a bunch of other symptoms. So long story short, being warm in the pool also helps me enjoy swimming WAY more.
Do things on your to-do list
My last therapist also suggested a book called “Getting Things Done While You’re Depressed.” I was having a pretty good day that day and decided to just browse through it some more. One chapter talked about how when you’re depressed you want to do things that aren’t on your to-do list. Like checking your email, or cleaning your house instead of meeting a deadline. But just buckling down and doing things on your to-do list make you feel so much better. I did this on Monday after leaving Lowes; our front room doesn’t have any overhead lights and after lots of effort I had to return a lamp. (Long story not worth telling.) JJ and I sat in the car and I felt horrible. So I just opened up my to-do list app and knocked off two or three items while sitting there. And I felt better!!
unearth and discover 