dealing with depressionLet’s face facts.  Life is like a roller coaster, like waves coming in and out on the beach. You never know when a big wave is going to come. You never know when there’s going to be a day of no waves at all. There are highs. There are lows. Like a roller coaster.  So there are going to be days you just don’t feel like getting much done. If you have an occasional day like this, it’s okay.

If you have a day that you just don’t feel like getting anything done. You don’t feel like talking to anybody. You don’t feel like being social. You don’t feel like connecting. You don’t feel inspired at work.  You’re not feeling like running errands, being the best you can be that day. That’s okay.  It’s just a day.

See, the second we start feeling unproductive, we tend to criticize ourselves. Our inner coach says, “I don’t like when you do this.”

It might last just a minute, or two… or it might last the whole day. Embrace it.  If you embrace something for just a moment, it turns into just that.  A moment.  Even when I started writing this post.  I was feeling tired. With the time change, it set me back.  I’m going to bed at the same time but waking up an hour earlier. So I’m not feeling super productive today.

So I decided to talk about it.  I decided to dictate this blog post. And by dictating this blog post, I realized  I’m actually feeling better.  I’m feeling more productive. I’m realizing it is just a moment in time.  If you feel this way on a regular basis, it could be a sign of depression.  My mom felt this way a lot when I was a kid, growing up. There were times she suffered through long periods of depression, so I’m well aware of what it looks like.

Depression is when you have unproductive day after day. When you feel down, like you’d rather be in a dark room. Even if you’re around people, you feel like hiding. You feel like you don’t want to connect, you can’t connect. You have a heavy, heavy feeling. You feel tired even though you probably have slept a lot.  If this is something you suffer from on a regular basis, I strongly suggest, you get help.

Talk to somebody. Work your way through the depression. For most of us, it’s temporary.  Ask yourself what category you fit into and you’ll know whether it’s a simple fix, or you need to get help. It’s good to talk to somebody. To get therapy or coaching. Such a simple thing, but talking it out can really change your perspective. Like it did mine.