Pop the handsfree in your tiny ears and let’s begin this journey of inner peace!

 

I was driving rashly at about 7000 km/h when suddenly my truck of depression crashed into the lorry of happiness. I flew out of the windscreen and flew high in the air because of the jerk. The collision resulted into a magical sight. I was suspended into the air for fine 5 minutes, apparently breathing my last. All the broken shards and pieces suspended into the air like twinkling stars scattered around me. I touched one with my fingertip and there I went straight down to the road. I was saved due to the crash landing on one of the finest cushions that the happiness lorry was loaded with.

This is depression! It is no more than a situation you have in your mind. It is no less than this depression truck that is loaded with bundles of struggling emotions, strangled thoughts and packagings of confusions and distress driven by you. You are the only one who is creating this scenario and only you can make a better picture. We are all overspeeding with our depression loaders and we never know when we might crash into this same happiness truck. Well, we can not wait for such a fantasy to happen to us, so let’s move toward some practical ideas that might help us in improving our melancholic little brains 🙂

Having depression is as natural as anybody having a habit of eating! 

Funny isn’t it? But actually, it is not. People never make this choice to be depressed. It is as if you got addicted to nail biting and can’t resist it anymore. So you try different methods to avoid it. Don’t worry soft hearted creampies, we are up with you on this voyage to beat depression. Remember! It is difficult to get rid of depression completely but you can increase the amount of sunshine in your life by stepping out of that tiny room of darkness you reside in. Here are some of the well-researched tips that you can definitely give a try in order to beat the depression! Let’s depress the depression 😀

 

1. Go for a prescribed anti-depressant:

“Depression is the single largest contributor to global disability that we have – a massive challenge for humankind,” said John Geddes, professor of epidemiological psychiatry at Oxford University. It affects around 350 million people worldwide and instances rose almost 20% from 2005-2015.

Millions of more people around the world should be prescribed pills or offered talking therapies, which work equally well for moderate to severe depression, say the doctors, noting that just one in six people receive proper treatment in the rich world – and one in 27 in the developing world. 

“Antidepressants are an effective tool for depression. Untreated depression is a huge problem because of the burden to society,” said Andrea Cipriani of the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre, who led the study. 

https://interactive.guim.co.uk/charts/embed/feb/2018-02-21T15:35:09/embed.html

In a commentary in the journal, Sagar Parikh from the University of Michigan in the USA and Sidney Kennedy from the University of Toronto in Canada pointed out that three drugs scored best for efficacy and tolerability: agomelatine, escitalopram, and vortioxetine. Three others scored particularly poorly: fluvoxamine, reboxetine, and trazodone. The first three “might be considered the first choice” by doctors, they write, although the two most effective drugs – amitriptyline and venlafaxine – might still be the first choice for severe depression.

 

2. Switch to natural anti-depressants:

It’s estimated that 1 in 10 adults now takes a prescription antidepressant. But these antidepressants can have rather unacceptable side effects and work for less than half of those who take them. Such a situation needs an urgent alternate. Before starting to take the anti-depressants, give these natural antidepressants a try as research shows that they work as well or even better than the usual drugs prescribed for depression — with fewer side effects.

1. Curcumin:

 

Curcumin, the primary active ingredient of the Indian spice turmeric, is best-known in natural medicine circles for its anti-inflammatory effects. But researchers discovered how curcumin supplements can also act as effective an effective herbal antidepressant. The study involved 60 patients with the major depressive disorder who were randomly divided into three groups: one group received curcumin only in the form of 500 mg standardized curcumin extract twice daily, another group received the standard daily dose of 20 mg fluoxetine, and the third group received a combination of the two treatments.

The severity of depression was assessed before and after the six-week treatment using a well-researched test for depression known as the Hamilton Rating Scale. The HAM-D, as it’s called, evaluates mood, feelings of guilt, suicidal ideation, insomnia, agitation or motor retardation (slowed movements), anxiety, weight loss and other common depression symptoms.

Overall, the average change in the HAM-D scores was similar for curcumin and fluoxetine. In other words, as a natural antidepressant, curcumin worked as well as the prescription drug fluoxetine in terms of improvements in depression severity.

Curcumin could be taken as it is, with milk, in your regular meals or in the form of ayurvedic and homoeopathic medications that are more natural and healthier than the allopathic medicines.

Curopep capsules are available at Amazon. 

 

2. Saffron:

 

Extracts made from the popular Middle Eastern spice saffron have also recently been shown to be effective natural antidepressants in several small clinical trials. The petals and the stigmas of the Crocus sativus plant contain crocin and safranal, believed to be saffron’s active components and natural antidepressants.

One double-blind, randomized, controlled trial compared the effects of saffron with fluoxetine (generic form of Prozac) in 40 people with major depression. For eight weeks, half the participants took a supplement containing petal of Crocus sativus (15 mg morning and evening) and the other half took fluoxetine (10 mg morning and evening). Depression symptoms and severity were rated using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression.

At the end of the study, both the saffron and fluoxetine treatments resulted in significant improvements in depression symptoms and severity, with no difference in the amount of improvement between the two groups. At least two previous studies also found that both the stigmas and petals of saffron (30 mg per day) act as natural antidepressants with effectiveness equal to generic Prozac.

Saffron 20 20 capsules are available at amazon.

Take either of these natural antidepressants for at least six to eight weeks before making any decisions about their effectiveness. And if you continue to struggle with depression, remember that all depression medications, whether synthetic pharmaceuticals or the best natural antidepressant, work best in conjunction with diet and lifestyle changes, treatment for nutritional deficiencies, and other natural therapies.

 

 3. Lively hobbies for combating existential thoughts:

 

A depressed soul, at the time of depression, gets this continuous thought of uselessness. Existential questions are flooded inside its mind as streams of tears flow down the florid cheeks. Such thoughts can only be defeated by sticking to its counter. By proving yourself to be capable of doing many good things will depress the depression ultimately.

Hobbies like book reading and hanging out with friends are not going to help you in any way. They will only increase the stress and melancholy level of yours. You have to search for something that appeals to you in the phase of depression. For this, you have to work out a little by investigating your attitude and desires during your depressed state. Observe what appeals to you and what offends you meanwhile. Write all the dos and not to dos on a notebook and always keep it with you. Lively hobbies include gardening, cooking, painting, colouring and helping others, feeding pets and animals, teaching kids and telling stories are the best hobbies to stick to during the depression phase as they all have a healthy and useful output.

I am sowing fresh seeds of blackberry in the soil with my bare hands. This tree will grow into a big shady tree with a cool shelter. Hundreds and thousands of people a day will sit under this shade in hot summer noons when there will be no other place to stand by or take a nap. Would I still get this thought of uselessness?

Remember! Your mind is depressed, it is confused not retarded.

 

4. Self-help books as a precaution:

 

Self-help books are just the precautions that you have to take beforehand. Read good self-help books when you are in an anti-depressed phase and note down the important points that you feel like might be helping you in your depression phase.

Always go for good self-help books as every writer has his own writing style and explanations. Some are welcoming while others are a bit critical and straightforward in nature. Always have a sneaky-peak of the synopsis before purchasing it.

I like Dale Carnegie, Cleo Wade, James Allen and Mark Manson personally. Both Carnegie and Manson are the direct counter of each other. Dale Carnegie has soft stylistics features while Mark Manson is a straightforward and a rational writer. Cleo wade writes beautiful poetic wisdom in her book Heart Talk while James Allen gives philosophical solutions for living a better life in his book 

 

 

5.  Get a good reason to cry:

 

I spent a beautiful night with my boyfriend in the fairy meadows and for the time being, I felt as if everything is going perfect in my life, life is beautiful and this delight is eternal. A month later, I found out that I was already late. This made me and my boyfriend curious that maybe I got pregnant accidentally. I watched a lot of videos about early symptoms of pregnancy and methods of abortion. While I was looking for the videos, I was so lost in the ocean of my pessimism that somehow a video of childbirth opened up and I was watching it unintentionally. I was so depressed and the things around me were like shattering into million shards of glass while each fragment was piercing me and entering into my body with excessive blood loss and pain. I was just staring at the screen of my mobile phone when the scenario of that baby coming out of his mother’s womb captured my mind. It was horrific! Suddenly that baby cried for the first time and with him, I cried too! Tears were streaming down my cheeks and to my surprise they were the tears of joy. It was beautiful! I never ever felt that way before. It was something special. That day I realized that there are a good face and a bad face of every picture. As you cry in sadness, so can the good things make you cry harder and trust me crying for the good is the best favour you can do to you. It offers you binaries. And binaries are always beautiful when in harmony 🙂

During the depression phase, rather than watching depressed videos showing pain and sorrow, watch videos like one of your parent’s marriage or of random people’s, romance movies, childbirth videos, victorious moments of your favourite football player or random award ceremonies. It will fulfil your urge to cry while sending a secret signal to your brain that it is beautiful to cry for good reasons. This will be very helpful!

 

6. Dance:

 

Meditation is a good shot when it comes to treating your inner self with pease and prosperity. But a person who is burning inside already can get no fruit from meditation because he is not calm and cannot be in any way until he doesn’t come out of depression phase. Meditation is a good idea in your good mood when you are calm and peaceful. But, in the depression phase, dance is the best thing you can ever do.

A depressed person frequently gets this thought of hurting himself and doing self-harm. Force yourself to dance and dance until you feel like you are punishing yourself until you don’t feel like being a victim of dancing 😀 Turn on the music loud, jump, push, get high, get low, run, breathe and shoot for the stars! Dance as your body allows you to move, twist, and break meanwhile speaking out its language of aggression. Don’t stop until there is a smile on your face.

“While I dance I can not judge, I can not hate, I can not separate myself from life.  I can only be joyful and whole. This is why I dance.”

– Hans Bos

 

7. Anti-depressant lifestyle:

 

Remember! However hard you try to beat this depression, you cannot succeed if you are not willing to do it. Willpower and trying to be as normal as you can is the main thing while other efforts are the subdomains. A healthy lifestyle is one of the essentials to live a better life. Now, if we talk about antidepressant lifestyle, keep a few points in mind that research says are required to be adopted in order to escape from depression at the lowest level. 

1. Meditate
2. Use virgin olive oil or coconut oil in place of canola oil
3. Morning walk
4. 20 minutes workout or cardio in the morning
5. Healthy and a proper breakfast (even if you don’t feel like having it)
6. Head and body massage
7. Proper rest is very important (in case you suffer from insomnia, take proper rest from work)
8. Eat more veggies
9. Drink plenty of water
10. Smile, communicate and travel

 

8. Good Music:

 

Music is not only the food for the soul but it is also being used to combat depression. Research has shown that patients who listen to healing music and tunes are more likely to combat and reduce the depression intensity. Whenever you feel like depression is knocking at your door, open up your healing music playlist and turn the volume up. 

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

-Plato

Modern music therapy originated in the 1940s after World War II. Thousands of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were institutionalized, unable to function in society. Community musicians began to visit veteran hospitals to play for those suffering from physical and emotional trauma. Nurses and doctors noted the positive physical and emotional response—how the hymns and melodies reached patients in ways that traditional therapies were unable to — and began to hire musicians for the hospitals.

Rave nights and concerts are the best ideas when it comes to good music. Fall in love and dance the night away. Also, there are many healing kinds of music available on youtube.

 

9. Bringing plants and pot flowers:

 

Like we bring gifts for children, presents for loved ones, similarly, we should never forget to give flowers to people suffering from depression. The best thing to combat depression is Nature. Fresh flowers and soothing green plants defeat depression with flying colours. Depressed souls should always have them nice and exotic flowers that they like, in their bedroom and lounges, balconies and toilets. Fresh flowers should be put in each flower pot every morning and soothing indoor plants must be watered every morning as per their requirement.

Research proves that many plants and flowers decrease stress levels based on their calming and cleansing effects. Not only do they look great and bring vitality and life to your living spaces, but they can have fantastic relaxing and purifying benefits – which in turn can promote a healthy sleeping pattern.

With stress and anxiety causing half of all insomnia issues, it’s a good idea to fill your home and bedroom with a variety of plants that have a calming effect. After all, studies clearly show that spending time in nature reduces stress levels, so why not simply bring nature indoors?

 The good news is there are a variety of plants that can purify the air while you sleep – in fact NASA did a whole study on it! Some of these cleansing plants are:

• Jasmine
• Lavender
• Snake Plant (Mother-in-Law’s Tongue) 
• Aloe Vera
• Gardenia 
• Spider Plant
• Valerian
• English Ivy

 

10. Find the right person and call:

 

Remember! You should always have that one number in fast dials list for quick depression retreat. You have no idea how worse your depression might get. So, whenever you feel like having a severe panic attack, just call that person and say it all. Tell him or her how you feel and how much dumb you have been in the past. Cry! Ask for help and say whatever comes to your mind. 

Crying and sharing your fears and sadness is always the best thing to do because it is an instant cure for stress and depression. If you inflate a balloon more than its capacity, it will rupture. But if you make a tiny hole in the other side of the balloon, it will not burst and the pressure will never build. Same is the case with a human mind.

 

11. Surroundings and environment:

 

An environment is the soul of life. From your birth to your death, everything is based upon our surroundings. With your birth, the ambience changes into blooming colours, sparkling toys, exotic dresses, colourful walls and merry music. While, when you die, the environment is turned into dull and white. That soft twinkling music changes into sobs and cries with no hint of gaiety anymore.

Our surrounding affects directly on our mood and soul. It is a hidden factor that keeps on affecting us without us even knowing. The setting of our room, wallpaper designs, the colour scheme of the walls, furniture designs and the dress colour that we wear are the prime factors that affect our mood and stress levels. Surroundings are made up of different colours. Let’s see what colour therapy says about colours we should surround ourselves with for cleansing effect and positive energies.

The different colours used to evoke positive emotional responses generally include orange, blue, indigo, and violet. Others colours like red or yellow also trigger emotions, but those tend to be higher energy feelings and so are not used therapeutically very often.

• Orange – Symbolizing the sun, the colour orange is said to treat depression by increasing alertness and concentration, and by decreasing feelings of dread.
• Blue – The most common colour used in colour therapy, blue is used to reduce tension throughout the body, helping with both anxiety and depression. It may also benefit a regular sleep cycle.
• Indigo – The calming effect of indigo makes it a good choice for people with depression or anxiety.
• Violet – Like indigo, violet relaxes the mind and body. Proponents of colour therapy claim that it can relax muscles and encourage meditation.
• Red- Promotes energy, strength, motivation, confidence, will-power, courage, initiative, focus on attention to detail. It is good for depression, negativity, shyness (avoid in anger, irritability)
• Gold- Promotes enthusiasm, balancing thoughts and feelings, wisdom. It is good for depression (especially during menopause), stress, anxiety.
• Green- Promotes balance, harmony, personal development, self-acceptance, compassion for self and others, renewal. It is good for stress, anxiety, self-pity, confusion.
• Turquoise- Promotes calm, cleansing, healing, personal relationships, sharing, friendship, resilience. It is good for stress, anxiety and anger.
• Magenta- Promotes letting go of the past or anxiety-provoking thoughts, moving on, spiritual understanding. It is good for reducing aggression.
• Pink- Promotes calm, clarity of thought, affection, compassion, nurturing, kindness and resolving power. It is good for difficulties in relationships, insomnia, anger, aggression, over-sensitivity

 

 

Subscribe to motivational websites:

Subscribe to any motivational websites and apps that notify you daily with a beautiful inspirational and motivational quote. Research says that looking at the same thing, again and again, makes it easy for you to learn and memorize it. So is the case with positivity. A motivational quote or tip a day keeps the depression away 🙂

“A pearl is a beautiful thing that is produced by an injured life. It is the tear [that results] from the injury of the oyster. The treasure of our being in this world is also produced by an injured life. If we had not been wounded, if we had not been injured, then we will not produce the pearl.”

-Stephan Hoeller

 

Life is not easy sugar cakes but we have to make it till the end. We must act like the conquerer rather than being a victim of the cruelties of life. Keep your chins high and breathe <3

This world needs you!

 

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