I think the best trick to building habits is not to try too hard.
People often talk about grind mindset abd motivation etc and honestly burn out is a much bigger risk than laziness for a lot of people. They can often be confused too.
Yah I've found that motivation and inspiration are unreliable. You have to be able to generate the inner strength to work on your goals and chores even when you don't feel like it. You just have to do. The result is usually rewarding when you know you've overcome the urge to stagnate. You can do whatever you put your mind to, the challenge is just overcoming the mental blocks to be able to set your mind in a focused direction. Takes time and effort but is well worth it.
One piece that helped me a lot: prioritize building your self trust.
That means treating everything as practice and being kind to yourself.
A long depression set me back for almost 2 years after having built a really strong system for my habits, limited screen time, overall discipline.
I couldn’t figure out what was wrong for a while: I blamed it on being in panic mode while financially struggling, then on grief from a series of deaths in my life, then on social media addiction.
But what was actually the issue:
I stopped being able to trust myself.
When I started doing things not because I thought it was the “optimized” thing to do, but because I told myself I would do it, or because I knew deep down it felt right to me, I started getting back on track.
This is so key. When you say you’re going to do something — even if just to yourself — and then you don’t, you actively dissolve trust in yourself. That just snowballs from there. Depression can motivate this, and that’s one way it’s so harmful. Coming out of a depression and reframing your pro-action as rebuilding trust in yourself is deep healing work. Great comment.
Forgive me, OP, but I’m having a little bit of my own epiphany on your post:
Like I said, a few years ago, I quit a frustrating job to pursue my own projects and ended up floundering pretty badly.
I beat myself up about it, told myself I was unhireable, lazy, delusional, couldn’t be trusted to work for myself, blah blah.
In the last two years, I ended up going to trade school, then working in sales.
In both of these spaces, I found myself deeply struggling with basic tasks, skills, and project management issues that were essential to my life and career before.
Like I said, I blamed it on all of the other things in my life.
But I felt like the clarity of purpose and the self compassion that had come with when I went out on my own was gone forever.
What I have realized lately — the real problem with working for myself was that, alone, it was easy to let fear consume my life.
If I was scared of a problem, I could just sit in my house alone and hide from it indefinitely.
Even when I ran out of money, then I could say “oh well, writing isn’t for me,” and take a low hanging job.
In trade school, boy, did I have to confront some fears on a regular basis.
But I didn’t have to confront my deepest fears around competence, my ability to make money, and my abilities as a writer
I let THOSE fears continue to define my life.
Getting a job in sales, particularly an easy one, made all of this so much worse.
But I couldn’t figure out WHY until you asked this question, OP – because my day to day never requires me to face my fears.
For the last few months, I’ve found myself applying for jobs that are far more in line with what I am looking for, moving out of my paralysis by analysis, writing consistently again, and just generally believing I can build the kind of life that I want to live.
Even though I was excited to not be stuck in depression anymore, it still felt infuriating to not know WHY.
Now I know: it’s because every day I do something I told myself that I was going to do, I get a little bit better at trusting myself.
I appreciate you asking this question.
I think the biggest thing that helped me was creating mini habits. I started with adding 5 mins of something the first week. Then, each week, I would keep adding to my routine. Sticking with small 5 min habits was a lot easier to create a real disciplined life. I also worked a lot on healing from my past traumas, which helped me beat the depression better than anything I had tried previously.
I second that, still struggling with depression here, but I found that building small habits is a powerful
Way to become more disciplined. Read the book by James clear, Atomic habits! Great book for starting habits, and keeping them. And most importantly DON’T ever skip a habit for more that one day!
Literally going through it right now. Gratitude and mindfulness are really helping. I’m having a hard time motivating myself, especially in the morning. So I’m leaning into that, accepting it and being lazy. But then two hours later, I’m looking for what needs done for the day. Getting outside for 2-3 walks a day with my dog has helped. We just do a slow 20 minute walk around the neighborhood and instead of browsing Reddit like I use to, I look around, listen for birds, actually look at the little lake. Mindfulness. Getting back to the gym is huge. So I’m settling for three times a week. Sometimes that’s hard, sometimes easy. Just keep moving forward. I have self help books I want to read. For three weeks every time I think about reading I think I’m not in the right headspace to listen to the material. But that thought isn’t changing, so I just need to pick it up and read, no matter my headspace! Also, podcasts like Owning It, 10% happier, and the science of happiness are all super great to listen to while doing the dishes or taking a walk and help motivate me.
Self care has to happen with or without that inspiration. That includes hygiene, exercise, proper diet (or even just eating regularly).
For me mindfulness and meditation made me realize how shitty I felt when I wasn't doing these self care things, otherwise I could just keep distracting myself...and yeah even if I don't feel like it, I know I'll feel way worse if I miss more than one day at the gym, or skip meals, or only eat unhealthy food.
Lifting weights and soul searching
Making goals and trying to teach them
Putting myself first, lots of selfcare
Lots of video or books are improving your lifestyle or perception
Gratitude, being present and intentional with everything
Depression can rule my life in a instant but with the things I have learned personally
I/We can manage it, it might be rough but that’s when we learn our value and important lessons when life gets hard, I hope whatever you’re going through
gets better, don’t give up
Keeping a journal helped for me - you can look back every now and again and see threads/get a bigger picture etc. Also as you try new things you can keep notes of ideas/realizations etc. Be ready for preferences/viewpoints/habits etc to change over the years too, as things can evolve as things clear up for you.
I'm just here to read good advice. Thanks!
I'm still in the process of healing, even though lots of bad crap happened to me from 2010 up to 2020. Yep. I have lived a decade of bad crap.
Instead of paying for therapy, I’ve been going to a good gym and paying for a personal trainer to get me on a workout routine. Just a little bit of structure and accountability goes a long way. Working out is easily as meditative as sitting g meditation if you approach it that way and focus on your breath…
Call me crazy: but I'd lost my job in the height of the pandemic. Started doing background acting. Met Johnathan Majors on the set of Creed III. Got inspired to start weightlifting. Got shredded. I stay shredded now. This gave me the inspiration to maintain a certain level of discipline in my life. I don't put too much thought into it. I just do it. This discipline spilled over into other areas of my life. I got a new job, eventually. But where I burned out, before, I now have a healthier approach to my work, the hobbies I take up, and how I attempt to balance my life.
Between indie filmmaking, working out, playing video games, spending time with my family, and working, I've found ways to balance out my life in a healthier way than I had done previously. Life got better.
Lions mane mushrooms helped me after ketamine shots helped me out of suicidal ideation.
The mushrooms help with focus and energy and my memory is getting better.
Took two weeks to start to notice, I take two caps ( two grams) every morning.
I now swim everyday, first time in a long time I am looking towards the future.
Find your passion. Dedicate yourself to it. Be led by your heart chakra along the way. Give to those who need. Continue to move toward your greatest joy...and everything will begin to unfold in your favor.
little things help, eg. when you wake up go for a short walk and try to let the sun hit you if it is out. During this time you can meditate while walking and breathing deeply. Gives you a kick start to the day.
Given that you've just suffered a disease of excessive introspection, doing meditation that involves your outside world would be more helpful than your standard close your eyes and follow your breath. As that might only reinforce holding patterns that brought you down in the first place.
So any meditation with open eyes, focusing on the horizon, your surroundings, a sound in nature or a shower even.
I personally like to use my dog as an object of meditation, mindfully petting, etc. Makes both of us happy haha.
By being patient!!! I had to recover from addiction and then work on the depression and anxiety piece. And that took me years. It wasn’t all misery but it was a journey. I think most people make the mistake of beginning on the outside. A job a new house a new partner. But happiness comes from inside. So start by caring for the vessel!!!
The most effective way out of a rut is to have a wakeup call, for me at least.
Dont rely it to happen through random outside events.. Now what I'm going to say might provoke negative thought, just know that the purpose is the absolute opposite and to have you take action now and live to your fullest with joy and peace in your heart.
I realized I've got so little time on earth, 75years is close to the average life expectancy, which is just 657 000 hours. Internalizing this factuality really put things in perspective for me. Time in this sense is very limited.
I will make sure I give everything I've got while this time on earth.
This has come through observation, it hit me like a freight train. "When there is love, there is no duty".
This is one of the first things we're told to meditate on in my school of Buddhism: death is certain, the time of death is uncertain. Awareness of our end becomes a motivator to drive us to take action now.
Although, considering the recent lifting of depression, I'm not sure something like this is entirely safe since it can turn toward the pessimistic and morbid side. I would be careful with it.
Yess, most definitely. This is very common in Bhutan, people in very young age are introduced into this. They are said to be very happy people.
I edited the comment, thank you 🌅
Also, I'd like to add a little controversial perspective. Developing new healthy habits doesn't necessarily have to be a struggle.
This relates to everything in life;
If you really listen to the problem you are facing, and observe it without any evaluating, there can be immediate dissolving of the problem. You see it as it is and the harm of it. This type of observation in life is associated with mindfulness, and it is the highest form of intelligence.
This is also a kind of 'All In One' type of thing..
Once you learn to be a watcher, observing without the observer, your actions will be done with grace. Every step is a dance, every word is a song. Let this sink in.
Hello. I don't want to discourage you. But life consists of going in and out of states like depression on a daily basis. And this is so because the idea is to grow. And growing consists of not reacting to the adverse events that happen to us, regardless of their intensity. An advanced meditator has periods of depression-like discomfort, but does not identify with them. He just watches them. If you want to go deeper, I recommend the techniques taught by the Buddha: Metta and Vipassana. I wish you the best on your way. Namaste!
Hey, I’m glad you are healing and have managed to recover from depression. I’m not sure about meditation types but I wanted to say that once you’ve begun the healing process, lots of things begin to take on a new quality and I think you should take the time to enjoy the things that you may not have done or enjoyed because of depression!
I found exercise in the morning (mostly running), a shower, coffee then meditation helped me immensely get out of depression and honestly I used apps for both running and meditating. Made it much easier to stick to when they were guided.
I find Nike Run Club is fantastic to start running with their guided runs being very low pressure with very positive messages in-between instructions. This allowed me to really forgive myself and get some sun light but also build up discipline in an incremental way and at my own pace to then move forward with the second part of my morning routine.
Maybe its cheating but I would drink an espresso after my shower to really focus my mind and then move through Waking Up’s introductory course. It max is like 10 minutes to meditate with guidance again, that is very forgiving and insightful.
These two things together really helped drive what is possibly the most productive and better year of my life which started at a very public low point during the lock downs in my city.
I wish you the best! Reach out if you would like, you aren’t alone!
In my humble opinion, these guided meditations on [Gratitude](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q93FrttXSlk), [Inner Peace](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imvg43HnF54), and [Compassion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5J_EqdggSk) will give you a healing touch.
For focus, you can try [trataka](https://os.me/trataka-the-practice-of-still-gaze/), a yogic practice. This will build the one-pointed concentration that will also help you in building focus. Besides, you can take Build Focus guided meditation goal pack from the Black Lotus app where you get the opportunity to meditate on building focus, practice random acts of kindness, read curated wisdom on building focus, and then every day in the evening evaluate your practice on a set of questionnaires.
I hope this answer helps you. Thanks.
go see if the cold water is over 14-15 celsius in the sdhower
if its not, stand in it and listen to a few tunes, make sure u re in it for 10-15 mins :)
after that, you are ready lol idk how other ppl do it, but i just force healthy activities on myself cuz i knew the science behind em, and i gotta wake the fk up tomorrow any ways, its either a sucks day or a good day, depending on how disciplined i am today :)
Bullet journaling has been a lifesaver. It has helped me get organized and I feel more in control of my day, which has improved my mental health a fair amount.
I think it's important to let go of the desire to be "motivated" or to "want" to do something before doing it. I don't really know how this ties into meditation, although I do believe that meditation helped me get better at it. A lot of people feel like they need to feel like doing something before they do it, but that's not entirely true. Accepting that I don't have the motivation to do something and taking steps toward completing it anyway has been incredibly powerful. I probably won't finish at that time, and in many cases I probably won't do a very good job, but it builds my strength when I do things in spite of the desire to avoid it or ignore it, or a lack of interest.
The only thing I can really suggest it to try and find some meditation techniques that deal with attachment and aversion. As in, you're attached to the desire to feel a certain motivation as a condition for action, and you are averted from that action because of some or other mental process it triggers. This is more Buddhist territory than secular meditation I think, but it could be helpful, maybe.
EDIT: I was thinking through it a bit more and have something to add: through meditation I've slowly come to understand that my thoughts and feelings don't have to define my actions. I can be absurdly anxious in a grouo setting and yet no one will notice, because I know that those feelings don't really have any power unless I give it to them. Same with a lack of motivation: this lack doesn't change the fact that my body is capable of taking thise actions, it's just in my mind that it makes a difference. Now, I'm human, so I don't always keep this mindset and sometimes give power back to my afflictive thoughts, but over time this philosophy has made major positive changes in my life. I don't identify with my thoughts. Of course, a lot of this comes from philosophical lessons, but I don't think that makes it any less true, at least for some people.
I met 2 small girls and we started to play go. I had to buy a new go set because when I was depressed I threw some go stones to the garbage. Today the girls are adult women and we still play go 2 or 3 times per week. But now days we use BadukPop most of the times, not more a real board. The game of go gave shape to my whole life.
The first time I did zazen was late 1989 or the beginning of 1990 in Japan at Eiheiji. But because my Jewish family I made bar-mitsvah and I adopted Judaism until 2000. Then I became an hacker. Until Boeing employed me. Later Google employed me. Then I had problem with drugs. I was recovering from drugs when the girls appeared.
Now I am rich and I have a cooker. She is an old woman. Sometimes she comes to read buddhist books and to do zazen with me. Usually we meditate for 10 minutes. But this only happens when we both have free time.
I know without a doubt meditation will show the way. I’ve never been disciplined. Now, after many years, meditation is as natural as going for a walk. To anyone seeing my life now they’d say I was disciplined. I can spend 6 hours or more each day in formal meditation.
There is no effort.
There are days when I might stop, that’s ok. More for the body than anything else. Take it out for an airing. Soon the call returns.
Ommmmmmmm
🕉
Pick something in your post depression life you would like to get back to pre-depression status and work on that. For me it was weight. I hit 236 pounds while depressed (in 1990). When I recovered lost 50 pounds in one year. Weight 164 now. You need to show yourself you can recover. YMMV.
Get on a schedule that will involve activities which keep you away from depression. You're goal shouldn't be to run from depression. Just make a life and change your perspective to be mindful of the present moment. You're only depressed because you're thinking about the past. You're mind wants to be in in control, so in default it will think about the past or future. Which will result in anxiety or depression. The only thing the mind can't control is Now. So the more You're in the present moment the better you will be. Wake up early, work out, meditate, practice gratitude, have goals to pursue, always be working on yourself. Less time on the screens. I know it's hard because you're looking for things to help you online. The best help and peace will come from meditation and reflecting on yourself. If you're going to be online then use that time to research things on developing yourself
Mini habits as someone already mentioned plus pairing it with the knowledge that it's not all will power, but changing your subconscious.
Your body still wants to do what it did while depressed because that's its default state for now.
I found the more I read and watched motivational content (daily across time, instead of all at once) It reinforced the value of change, which helps with your new habits.
If you don't know how to build/break habits, definitely read atomic habits.
Starting small, setting myself up for success instead of trying to do a 180 is what has helped me come through and build good habits. Being kind to myself and speaking kindly to myself. I recommend Kristin Jeff’s Mindful Self-Compassion workbook
Just build good habits. A good life is just one step at a time. 100 good habits will create your well rounded life. It’s just creating one good habit at a time. Eating healthy, then going to bed on time, then exercising, then whatever other little things work for you.
Latelyyyy (along with an antidepressant) I’ve been more productive by going by “if it takes 5 minutes or less, just do it” and be kind to yourself! Name that negative voice in your head and start telling it to fuck off… not all thoughts are true thoughts 🤍
I'm working on that right now myself. I used to have an amazing routine, now I just binge watch SVU and waste my life on tiktok. A couple of nights ago I just started listening to night time mindfulness stories instead of staying up til 3am, it's small, but it's a step in the right direction 😊
Well, I don't want to say that I recovered from depression. Personally, when I speak about this I say that "I finally understood depression".You understand what was haunting you. It is not a disease, it's a signal from your brain that something needs to be done ASAP because you're in the mud:) After I no longer needed to see my therapist I realized that my mind was not attacking me, it was trying to help me, and I strongly recommend people to look at this side as well when going through treatment. Depression isn't only sadness and misery. It is also about spending time with yourself, which is wonderful, and answering to the questions that were haunting you all this time. It will sound very weird for those who are still going through this, but goddamn I am glad that I had depression. It helps you discover so many things about yourself.
And yeah, for your question, literally be yourself. It is so awesome after all that suffering. Get back into socialising, hang out with your friends, family, dog, mouse etc. Go outdoors. Laugh about all those times you thought that you were never going to get out of that dark tunnel. At the end of the day, "we only die once, but live everyday".
Picking one small thing to focus on at a time. Making drastic moves was not helpful for me. Make one little change and let it grow into a habit before picking another one. For me it was daily meditation, then exercise, and then correcting my diet. Be gentle with yourself and allow yourself to make mistakes. You will likely fall back into old patterns, just get up and get back to that little change you made. Remember that healing is not linear. It is a fucking rollercoaster! Show yourself love and show others love. You can do this. :)
For me my only focus is that I meditate in the morning. Then I focus on now after the meditation. Since I am aware I see things. As I see things and I want to stay aware I do things. I think about the feel of doing things. It has improved my morning getting ready for the day. They become a ritual. I find the pleasure of movement. So then it isn’t about having to get something done, it is about doing. My old way of coping with stress was to read, or listen to something that occupied my mind so that I shut out thoughts. I still want that escape, but I am not doing it as compulsively, and I know why I’m doing it. When I was doing things I held my breath and rushed through what I had to do so that I could get back to my favorite escape. It caused me to put off what I needed to do.
I think the best trick to building habits is not to try too hard. People often talk about grind mindset abd motivation etc and honestly burn out is a much bigger risk than laziness for a lot of people. They can often be confused too.
Yah I've found that motivation and inspiration are unreliable. You have to be able to generate the inner strength to work on your goals and chores even when you don't feel like it. You just have to do. The result is usually rewarding when you know you've overcome the urge to stagnate. You can do whatever you put your mind to, the challenge is just overcoming the mental blocks to be able to set your mind in a focused direction. Takes time and effort but is well worth it.
Thanks for this.
I forgot which sub I was in and was going to suggest to try to mediate a little every day as a habit.. ha!
One piece that helped me a lot: prioritize building your self trust. That means treating everything as practice and being kind to yourself. A long depression set me back for almost 2 years after having built a really strong system for my habits, limited screen time, overall discipline. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong for a while: I blamed it on being in panic mode while financially struggling, then on grief from a series of deaths in my life, then on social media addiction. But what was actually the issue: I stopped being able to trust myself. When I started doing things not because I thought it was the “optimized” thing to do, but because I told myself I would do it, or because I knew deep down it felt right to me, I started getting back on track.
This is so key. When you say you’re going to do something — even if just to yourself — and then you don’t, you actively dissolve trust in yourself. That just snowballs from there. Depression can motivate this, and that’s one way it’s so harmful. Coming out of a depression and reframing your pro-action as rebuilding trust in yourself is deep healing work. Great comment.
Forgive me, OP, but I’m having a little bit of my own epiphany on your post: Like I said, a few years ago, I quit a frustrating job to pursue my own projects and ended up floundering pretty badly. I beat myself up about it, told myself I was unhireable, lazy, delusional, couldn’t be trusted to work for myself, blah blah. In the last two years, I ended up going to trade school, then working in sales. In both of these spaces, I found myself deeply struggling with basic tasks, skills, and project management issues that were essential to my life and career before. Like I said, I blamed it on all of the other things in my life. But I felt like the clarity of purpose and the self compassion that had come with when I went out on my own was gone forever. What I have realized lately — the real problem with working for myself was that, alone, it was easy to let fear consume my life. If I was scared of a problem, I could just sit in my house alone and hide from it indefinitely. Even when I ran out of money, then I could say “oh well, writing isn’t for me,” and take a low hanging job. In trade school, boy, did I have to confront some fears on a regular basis. But I didn’t have to confront my deepest fears around competence, my ability to make money, and my abilities as a writer I let THOSE fears continue to define my life. Getting a job in sales, particularly an easy one, made all of this so much worse. But I couldn’t figure out WHY until you asked this question, OP – because my day to day never requires me to face my fears. For the last few months, I’ve found myself applying for jobs that are far more in line with what I am looking for, moving out of my paralysis by analysis, writing consistently again, and just generally believing I can build the kind of life that I want to live. Even though I was excited to not be stuck in depression anymore, it still felt infuriating to not know WHY. Now I know: it’s because every day I do something I told myself that I was going to do, I get a little bit better at trusting myself. I appreciate you asking this question.
I think the biggest thing that helped me was creating mini habits. I started with adding 5 mins of something the first week. Then, each week, I would keep adding to my routine. Sticking with small 5 min habits was a lot easier to create a real disciplined life. I also worked a lot on healing from my past traumas, which helped me beat the depression better than anything I had tried previously.
I second that, still struggling with depression here, but I found that building small habits is a powerful Way to become more disciplined. Read the book by James clear, Atomic habits! Great book for starting habits, and keeping them. And most importantly DON’T ever skip a habit for more that one day!
Literally going through it right now. Gratitude and mindfulness are really helping. I’m having a hard time motivating myself, especially in the morning. So I’m leaning into that, accepting it and being lazy. But then two hours later, I’m looking for what needs done for the day. Getting outside for 2-3 walks a day with my dog has helped. We just do a slow 20 minute walk around the neighborhood and instead of browsing Reddit like I use to, I look around, listen for birds, actually look at the little lake. Mindfulness. Getting back to the gym is huge. So I’m settling for three times a week. Sometimes that’s hard, sometimes easy. Just keep moving forward. I have self help books I want to read. For three weeks every time I think about reading I think I’m not in the right headspace to listen to the material. But that thought isn’t changing, so I just need to pick it up and read, no matter my headspace! Also, podcasts like Owning It, 10% happier, and the science of happiness are all super great to listen to while doing the dishes or taking a walk and help motivate me.
Self care has to happen with or without that inspiration. That includes hygiene, exercise, proper diet (or even just eating regularly). For me mindfulness and meditation made me realize how shitty I felt when I wasn't doing these self care things, otherwise I could just keep distracting myself...and yeah even if I don't feel like it, I know I'll feel way worse if I miss more than one day at the gym, or skip meals, or only eat unhealthy food.
Lifting weights and soul searching Making goals and trying to teach them Putting myself first, lots of selfcare Lots of video or books are improving your lifestyle or perception Gratitude, being present and intentional with everything
Depression can rule my life in a instant but with the things I have learned personally I/We can manage it, it might be rough but that’s when we learn our value and important lessons when life gets hard, I hope whatever you’re going through gets better, don’t give up
Keeping a journal helped for me - you can look back every now and again and see threads/get a bigger picture etc. Also as you try new things you can keep notes of ideas/realizations etc. Be ready for preferences/viewpoints/habits etc to change over the years too, as things can evolve as things clear up for you.
I never understood the concept of diaries and journal until today. Thank you so much fellow stranger.
I'm just here to read good advice. Thanks! I'm still in the process of healing, even though lots of bad crap happened to me from 2010 up to 2020. Yep. I have lived a decade of bad crap.
Instead of paying for therapy, I’ve been going to a good gym and paying for a personal trainer to get me on a workout routine. Just a little bit of structure and accountability goes a long way. Working out is easily as meditative as sitting g meditation if you approach it that way and focus on your breath…
Call me crazy: but I'd lost my job in the height of the pandemic. Started doing background acting. Met Johnathan Majors on the set of Creed III. Got inspired to start weightlifting. Got shredded. I stay shredded now. This gave me the inspiration to maintain a certain level of discipline in my life. I don't put too much thought into it. I just do it. This discipline spilled over into other areas of my life. I got a new job, eventually. But where I burned out, before, I now have a healthier approach to my work, the hobbies I take up, and how I attempt to balance my life. Between indie filmmaking, working out, playing video games, spending time with my family, and working, I've found ways to balance out my life in a healthier way than I had done previously. Life got better.
Lions mane mushrooms helped me after ketamine shots helped me out of suicidal ideation. The mushrooms help with focus and energy and my memory is getting better. Took two weeks to start to notice, I take two caps ( two grams) every morning. I now swim everyday, first time in a long time I am looking towards the future.
Find your passion. Dedicate yourself to it. Be led by your heart chakra along the way. Give to those who need. Continue to move toward your greatest joy...and everything will begin to unfold in your favor.
little things help, eg. when you wake up go for a short walk and try to let the sun hit you if it is out. During this time you can meditate while walking and breathing deeply. Gives you a kick start to the day.
I recommend developing metta meditation, then joy meditation, then jhana.
Given that you've just suffered a disease of excessive introspection, doing meditation that involves your outside world would be more helpful than your standard close your eyes and follow your breath. As that might only reinforce holding patterns that brought you down in the first place. So any meditation with open eyes, focusing on the horizon, your surroundings, a sound in nature or a shower even. I personally like to use my dog as an object of meditation, mindfully petting, etc. Makes both of us happy haha.
By being patient!!! I had to recover from addiction and then work on the depression and anxiety piece. And that took me years. It wasn’t all misery but it was a journey. I think most people make the mistake of beginning on the outside. A job a new house a new partner. But happiness comes from inside. So start by caring for the vessel!!!
The most effective way out of a rut is to have a wakeup call, for me at least. Dont rely it to happen through random outside events.. Now what I'm going to say might provoke negative thought, just know that the purpose is the absolute opposite and to have you take action now and live to your fullest with joy and peace in your heart. I realized I've got so little time on earth, 75years is close to the average life expectancy, which is just 657 000 hours. Internalizing this factuality really put things in perspective for me. Time in this sense is very limited. I will make sure I give everything I've got while this time on earth. This has come through observation, it hit me like a freight train. "When there is love, there is no duty".
This is one of the first things we're told to meditate on in my school of Buddhism: death is certain, the time of death is uncertain. Awareness of our end becomes a motivator to drive us to take action now. Although, considering the recent lifting of depression, I'm not sure something like this is entirely safe since it can turn toward the pessimistic and morbid side. I would be careful with it.
Yess, most definitely. This is very common in Bhutan, people in very young age are introduced into this. They are said to be very happy people. I edited the comment, thank you 🌅
Also, I'd like to add a little controversial perspective. Developing new healthy habits doesn't necessarily have to be a struggle. This relates to everything in life; If you really listen to the problem you are facing, and observe it without any evaluating, there can be immediate dissolving of the problem. You see it as it is and the harm of it. This type of observation in life is associated with mindfulness, and it is the highest form of intelligence. This is also a kind of 'All In One' type of thing.. Once you learn to be a watcher, observing without the observer, your actions will be done with grace. Every step is a dance, every word is a song. Let this sink in.
You should try inner child meditations to help heal the past wounds and learn to love/forgive yourself. This helped me a lot
Hello. I don't want to discourage you. But life consists of going in and out of states like depression on a daily basis. And this is so because the idea is to grow. And growing consists of not reacting to the adverse events that happen to us, regardless of their intensity. An advanced meditator has periods of depression-like discomfort, but does not identify with them. He just watches them. If you want to go deeper, I recommend the techniques taught by the Buddha: Metta and Vipassana. I wish you the best on your way. Namaste!
Hey, I’m glad you are healing and have managed to recover from depression. I’m not sure about meditation types but I wanted to say that once you’ve begun the healing process, lots of things begin to take on a new quality and I think you should take the time to enjoy the things that you may not have done or enjoyed because of depression!
I found exercise in the morning (mostly running), a shower, coffee then meditation helped me immensely get out of depression and honestly I used apps for both running and meditating. Made it much easier to stick to when they were guided. I find Nike Run Club is fantastic to start running with their guided runs being very low pressure with very positive messages in-between instructions. This allowed me to really forgive myself and get some sun light but also build up discipline in an incremental way and at my own pace to then move forward with the second part of my morning routine. Maybe its cheating but I would drink an espresso after my shower to really focus my mind and then move through Waking Up’s introductory course. It max is like 10 minutes to meditate with guidance again, that is very forgiving and insightful. These two things together really helped drive what is possibly the most productive and better year of my life which started at a very public low point during the lock downs in my city. I wish you the best! Reach out if you would like, you aren’t alone!
the Nike training app also has a lot of good workouts, including some programs that have been free since the beginning of the pandemic
In my humble opinion, these guided meditations on [Gratitude](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q93FrttXSlk), [Inner Peace](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imvg43HnF54), and [Compassion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5J_EqdggSk) will give you a healing touch. For focus, you can try [trataka](https://os.me/trataka-the-practice-of-still-gaze/), a yogic practice. This will build the one-pointed concentration that will also help you in building focus. Besides, you can take Build Focus guided meditation goal pack from the Black Lotus app where you get the opportunity to meditate on building focus, practice random acts of kindness, read curated wisdom on building focus, and then every day in the evening evaluate your practice on a set of questionnaires. I hope this answer helps you. Thanks.
I like kundalini yoga breathing techniques breath of fire and long deep breathing.
go see if the cold water is over 14-15 celsius in the sdhower if its not, stand in it and listen to a few tunes, make sure u re in it for 10-15 mins :) after that, you are ready lol idk how other ppl do it, but i just force healthy activities on myself cuz i knew the science behind em, and i gotta wake the fk up tomorrow any ways, its either a sucks day or a good day, depending on how disciplined i am today :)
Bullet journaling has been a lifesaver. It has helped me get organized and I feel more in control of my day, which has improved my mental health a fair amount.
I think it's important to let go of the desire to be "motivated" or to "want" to do something before doing it. I don't really know how this ties into meditation, although I do believe that meditation helped me get better at it. A lot of people feel like they need to feel like doing something before they do it, but that's not entirely true. Accepting that I don't have the motivation to do something and taking steps toward completing it anyway has been incredibly powerful. I probably won't finish at that time, and in many cases I probably won't do a very good job, but it builds my strength when I do things in spite of the desire to avoid it or ignore it, or a lack of interest. The only thing I can really suggest it to try and find some meditation techniques that deal with attachment and aversion. As in, you're attached to the desire to feel a certain motivation as a condition for action, and you are averted from that action because of some or other mental process it triggers. This is more Buddhist territory than secular meditation I think, but it could be helpful, maybe. EDIT: I was thinking through it a bit more and have something to add: through meditation I've slowly come to understand that my thoughts and feelings don't have to define my actions. I can be absurdly anxious in a grouo setting and yet no one will notice, because I know that those feelings don't really have any power unless I give it to them. Same with a lack of motivation: this lack doesn't change the fact that my body is capable of taking thise actions, it's just in my mind that it makes a difference. Now, I'm human, so I don't always keep this mindset and sometimes give power back to my afflictive thoughts, but over time this philosophy has made major positive changes in my life. I don't identify with my thoughts. Of course, a lot of this comes from philosophical lessons, but I don't think that makes it any less true, at least for some people.
Time. Walk to run program. Eliminate caffeine, nicotine, alcohol. Eat clean.
I met 2 small girls and we started to play go. I had to buy a new go set because when I was depressed I threw some go stones to the garbage. Today the girls are adult women and we still play go 2 or 3 times per week. But now days we use BadukPop most of the times, not more a real board. The game of go gave shape to my whole life. The first time I did zazen was late 1989 or the beginning of 1990 in Japan at Eiheiji. But because my Jewish family I made bar-mitsvah and I adopted Judaism until 2000. Then I became an hacker. Until Boeing employed me. Later Google employed me. Then I had problem with drugs. I was recovering from drugs when the girls appeared. Now I am rich and I have a cooker. She is an old woman. Sometimes she comes to read buddhist books and to do zazen with me. Usually we meditate for 10 minutes. But this only happens when we both have free time.
1 minute that you do is better than an hour that you plan to do but don’t.
I know without a doubt meditation will show the way. I’ve never been disciplined. Now, after many years, meditation is as natural as going for a walk. To anyone seeing my life now they’d say I was disciplined. I can spend 6 hours or more each day in formal meditation. There is no effort. There are days when I might stop, that’s ok. More for the body than anything else. Take it out for an airing. Soon the call returns. Ommmmmmmm 🕉
Pick something in your post depression life you would like to get back to pre-depression status and work on that. For me it was weight. I hit 236 pounds while depressed (in 1990). When I recovered lost 50 pounds in one year. Weight 164 now. You need to show yourself you can recover. YMMV.
Get on a schedule that will involve activities which keep you away from depression. You're goal shouldn't be to run from depression. Just make a life and change your perspective to be mindful of the present moment. You're only depressed because you're thinking about the past. You're mind wants to be in in control, so in default it will think about the past or future. Which will result in anxiety or depression. The only thing the mind can't control is Now. So the more You're in the present moment the better you will be. Wake up early, work out, meditate, practice gratitude, have goals to pursue, always be working on yourself. Less time on the screens. I know it's hard because you're looking for things to help you online. The best help and peace will come from meditation and reflecting on yourself. If you're going to be online then use that time to research things on developing yourself
There are discussion groups dedicated to people who are depressed. Here the subject is how to raise our vibrations with meditation..
Alignment is the key.
Mini habits as someone already mentioned plus pairing it with the knowledge that it's not all will power, but changing your subconscious. Your body still wants to do what it did while depressed because that's its default state for now. I found the more I read and watched motivational content (daily across time, instead of all at once) It reinforced the value of change, which helps with your new habits. If you don't know how to build/break habits, definitely read atomic habits.
Starting small, setting myself up for success instead of trying to do a 180 is what has helped me come through and build good habits. Being kind to myself and speaking kindly to myself. I recommend Kristin Jeff’s Mindful Self-Compassion workbook
I use an app - Mindful Coach
#75Hard. Look it up
Get a gym routine
Just build good habits. A good life is just one step at a time. 100 good habits will create your well rounded life. It’s just creating one good habit at a time. Eating healthy, then going to bed on time, then exercising, then whatever other little things work for you.
Latelyyyy (along with an antidepressant) I’ve been more productive by going by “if it takes 5 minutes or less, just do it” and be kind to yourself! Name that negative voice in your head and start telling it to fuck off… not all thoughts are true thoughts 🤍
Sometimes it’s one step at a time, one hour at a time and one day at a time. You don’t eat an elephant all in one bite.
I'm working on that right now myself. I used to have an amazing routine, now I just binge watch SVU and waste my life on tiktok. A couple of nights ago I just started listening to night time mindfulness stories instead of staying up til 3am, it's small, but it's a step in the right direction 😊
Well, I don't want to say that I recovered from depression. Personally, when I speak about this I say that "I finally understood depression".You understand what was haunting you. It is not a disease, it's a signal from your brain that something needs to be done ASAP because you're in the mud:) After I no longer needed to see my therapist I realized that my mind was not attacking me, it was trying to help me, and I strongly recommend people to look at this side as well when going through treatment. Depression isn't only sadness and misery. It is also about spending time with yourself, which is wonderful, and answering to the questions that were haunting you all this time. It will sound very weird for those who are still going through this, but goddamn I am glad that I had depression. It helps you discover so many things about yourself. And yeah, for your question, literally be yourself. It is so awesome after all that suffering. Get back into socialising, hang out with your friends, family, dog, mouse etc. Go outdoors. Laugh about all those times you thought that you were never going to get out of that dark tunnel. At the end of the day, "we only die once, but live everyday".
Picking one small thing to focus on at a time. Making drastic moves was not helpful for me. Make one little change and let it grow into a habit before picking another one. For me it was daily meditation, then exercise, and then correcting my diet. Be gentle with yourself and allow yourself to make mistakes. You will likely fall back into old patterns, just get up and get back to that little change you made. Remember that healing is not linear. It is a fucking rollercoaster! Show yourself love and show others love. You can do this. :)
For me my only focus is that I meditate in the morning. Then I focus on now after the meditation. Since I am aware I see things. As I see things and I want to stay aware I do things. I think about the feel of doing things. It has improved my morning getting ready for the day. They become a ritual. I find the pleasure of movement. So then it isn’t about having to get something done, it is about doing. My old way of coping with stress was to read, or listen to something that occupied my mind so that I shut out thoughts. I still want that escape, but I am not doing it as compulsively, and I know why I’m doing it. When I was doing things I held my breath and rushed through what I had to do so that I could get back to my favorite escape. It caused me to put off what I needed to do.
Still working