In my previous post, I promised to illustrate the importance of planning your day. So, here it is:

Let me introduce a fictional character called Maggie. She is suffering with depression. She is in her mid-thirties, married to James and has an 8 years-old son Dillon. Maggie is a housewife, as she does not feel she is fit to go back to work since having her first episode of depression 6 years ago. She still drives and sees her old school friend Sally on occasion.

Take 1
Maggie’s alarm clock rings at 7:30am. She remembers the first item on her 'To Do' list:

While it is common to blame inability to plan on depression, I would like you to consider the possible costs of not planning your day in advance:

1. You may believe there are no reasons to get out of bed and follow your morning routine.
2. You may see no point and/or feel no urgency in doing anything during the day.
3. You may engage yourself in negative self-talk and feeling sorry for yourself as soon as you are awake, as your mind is free of tasks, responsibilities and any excitement.

Gwyneth Lewis in her book ‘Sunbathing in the rain’, which describes her experience of depression, writes ”Depression itself can’t harm you, only what you do about it can”.

Way too often we choose behaviours to harm ourselves when we feel depressed. Here are a few examples how you might be hurting yourself:

May is here! What can we do differently this month to alleviate our depression and start enjoying life again? Small changes followed consistently go a long way.

Here is my list of suggestions to implement in May:

1. Eat outside (alfresco) whenever weather is permitting. Eat by the open window, if it’s raining or windy.

We all make mistakes throughout our lives. It’s normal. It’s human. If you try to avoid making mistakes, you will run into all kinds of trouble, ranging from indecisiveness and stagnation to severe depression.

Allowing yourself to live fully would inevitably lead to a few mistakes being made by you and that’s ok. Learn from your mistakes and cherish this knowledge. It is yours to help you recognise the same mistakes in advance and to make the right choices in the future.

Six weeks ago, I started my decluttering experiment. Although I made some progress, the results that excite me most lay not in the renewed order of my personal environment but the knowledge I gained during these past weeks.

Allow me to share this knowledge with you, as some of my insights may be of value to your life too.

Lesson #1: Knowing what and how to do is not enough. Nothing gets done without taking action.

Judging by the comments left on depression forums and blogs, many people would like to find food that can cure depression fast. Last weekend, I stumbled across a list of food that really lifted up my spirit, ignited my creativity and imagination, and reminded me that my future is full of excitement and joy.

Do you remember the last time you felt fascinated? Did you ever feel fascinated by a form or a colour, a reflection of the light or a natural phenomenon? What about by an intricacy of design? Or by people and their behaviour? It is probably not too hard to recall moments of total absorption before you got unwell. But what fascinates you these days?

What is one of the most common things any psychiatrist or mental health professional asks during your first meeting? I think it’s ‘Tell me about your childhood’.

So, you tell your ‘story’ and it gets written down and filed in your notes. The next professional comes along and asks you to tell it again. Some of them will try to ‘dig in’ deeper and deeper to find a cause of your depression.

If you happened to have had a great childhood, you are likely to be taken on a historic dig of your past to find out the someone or something that could be to blame for you current dysfunctional life.

How often do you smile? Do you naturally greet people with a smile or are you saving your smiles for better times?

In case you are wondering ‘What is there to smile about?’, ‘Why smile when I am feeling pain or numbness inside?’ or ‘Why deceive everyone with my false smile?’, I hope I can encourage you to review your attitude.

Smiling is good for you! Here is why: