Ever notice that when things are going well all of the "good for you" things, such as reading, writing, eating healthy, taking vitamins, counting calories, exercising, etc. are really easy to do? But then when things are "going bad" you have a really hard time keeping up with your normal good habits? This keeps happening to me... When times are easy, it is easy to take care of myself mentally and physically, but as times get hard then I let go of some of those things that I should do all the time. This is sort of one of those things that makes me spiral downward out of control and into a crazy depression of sorts.
Not that I am a depressed person, don't get me wrong! It's also not that being a depressed person is something I frown upon because I don't... Depression is a very tough battle but I have found my own way to fight through it; cling to the things that help me the most. When I get stressed out, I need to keep better track of what I eat just so I can KNOW without a doubt that I am avoiding things that might make me sick or depressed. I also need to read more, especially read inspirational and self-help items, so I can find the inspiration in them. I need to write more, so I can get all of my thoughts out and sorted and look at them with a resh perspective instead of just seeing them all jumbled up in my head. I am also a HUGE culprit of allowing myself to miss out on sleep to get work done... That's the number one no-no in dealing with stress and battling depression! A friend of mine recently imparted this story to me concerning the amount we take care of ourselves and I would like to also share it with you. There was a man who needed to cut down five large trees before it got dark outside. He pulled out his saw, cut down the first tree, and it only took him about five minutes. The second tree was a little bit more difficult, it took closer to twenty minutes to cut down because the saw was growing dull. After the third tree took nearly an hour, the man thought about stopping to sharpen his saw, but with darkness approaching quickly he decided he didn't have the time to stop so he continued onto the fourth tree. After an hour, darkness was well upon the land and the man had only sawed about halfway through. His wife came outside looking for him and found him fruitlessly rubbing the dull blade against the tree and stopped him to come in for dinner. He reluctantly agreed, and while he was eating, the wife took five minutes to sharpen his saw blade. When the man returned to the tree the next morning, he finished the fourth tree and the fifth tree in a total of seven minutes. The moral of the story; don't sacrifice efficiency for amount of work! J.M. Hope