Last Updated on November 1, 2016 by Michael Brockbank
Recently, I put myself in a position where my depression is at an all-time high. As a result, I have let myself become lax in maintaining health. However, I did wake up today to realize I lost a bit of weight. Unfortunately, it’s not the good kind of loss. The way you view yourself and life in general has an incredible impact on how successful you are. It’s your personal mentality that influences whether you can achieve your goals or not.
The Influence of Personal Mentality When Striving for Health
This morning, I awoke depressed and anxious. This has led me to do things that are unhealthy because I am not in the right frame of mind. Once this thought process starts, it’s difficult to stop the downward spiral. It’s like a snowball that is rolling uncontrollably downhill while picking up momentum and size. Here are a few examples…
Returning to Bad Habits
I quit smoking a while ago. But today, that’s all I want to do. The silly thing is that I know I can live without them. I switched from cigarettes to vapor quite successfully, and I know I don’t need to smoke. But for the last few days, I’ve been fueled by nicotine and alcohol.
Neither of these are conducive to health.
Cigarettes are quite obviously bad for you and alcohol depletes the body of water. In order to pull out of this funk, you need to recognize your own bad habits and push yourself to avoid them. All they will do is fuel your personal mentality to continue to be depressed. Trust me, I know how hard this is.
Wallowing in Self-pity
Wallowing in self-pity is never a good thing. Sometimes it’s OK to feel bad, but not when it drives you to the point of altering your nature. I’ve hurt a couple of people who are very dear to me recently. And it’s going to take a lot of time to heal. But I can’t let it control everything in my life. Otherwise, I will never get anything done and I will lose myself in the sadness.
When you get stuck in a mode of dwelling on circumstance, it’s difficult to get your head back in the game. You may even feel comfortable in your personal mentality at the moment and would rather torture yourself. Right now, that is what I am doing.
You need to find that positive focal point that can bring you out of the funk of self-pity. You need to realize that you are better than this and that one mistake, no matter how large, doesn’t dictate who you are within. Learn from the experience and move on. I know…it’s easier said than done.
Punishing Yourself
I think I am delving into cigarettes and alcohol because I am punishing myself for what has happened. I broke the hearts of two people with one fell swoop. And that’s not who I am. This has led me to punish myself in a couple of ways. Mainly, this is involving many bad habits including those that have killed immediate family in the past.
In my personal mentality, I feel that I deserve to be hurt as badly as I hurt them. Which has already happened since it feels like I have a gaping hole in my chest. But I continue to hurt myself by not eating and having a difficult time maintaining proper health. What I need to realize is that punishing myself isn’t going to change anything. The damage was done, and I need to move on from it.
The state of mind you may be in when punishing yourself can lead to severe issues. Some may even think about suicide. What you need is to understand the mistake you made and learn from it. Instead of punishing yourself, make sure that the situation driving you to this point never happens again.
Derailing Your Focus
When your personal mentality is in a negative space, it has potential to derail your focus. Whether you’re striving for better health or working at your job, it can affect you greatly. As a result, you could be less effective in any task you try to set your mind to. For me, I’ve found it hard to enjoy a lot of the things I had before.
It’s difficult to stay in a positive head space when you’re suffering from depression or anxiety. You can begin to dwell on the thought of “why should I care” or “it doesn’t really matter anymore.” These thoughts will undoubtedly cause you to fail. Essentially, you’ll become a self-defeatist and find it difficult to succeed in anything.
The only advice I can think of right now is to push yourself to do what needs to be done. Because I am in such a negative personal mentality right now, it’s hard to really come up with anything awe-inspiring. But that’s OK. Because I know that I will work this out and eventually regain my composure.
And that’s what it truly centers around. Being able to recognize your own greatness and how you can regain your sense of worth. It’s difficult at times, sometimes it’s damn near impossible, but understanding who you are as an individual can make a great difference.
Getting Your Head Back in the Game
I know that everyone is different, and how their own personal mentality greatly alters their perception. But here are a few things I do to try and pull out of my own version of funk. Perhaps they can help you as much as they do me.
- Uplifting music: I have a playlist of fast-paced, ass-kicking music that I listen to when I go into a negative head space. It often snaps me out of it.
- Meditation: I am a big supporter of meditating. While I find it to be difficult at the moment, this practice often helps me gain clarity.
- Long power walks: I find it relaxing to go on long power walks where I push my legs as hard as I can. The extra blood flow to the brain helps me think.
- Do something easy to accomplish: I often find that a quick success does wonders to boost morale. For example, break a personal record in some random exercise.
- Journal or Diary Writing: Lately, I’ve been getting back into writing in a journal. It helps when you put things down on paper to center your thoughts.
- Blogging: Much like writing in a journal, I also find that writing in my blog helps me gain some focus.
- Hugging my children: My daughters are a source of strength for me. I often find that giving them a big hug helps me feel much better about the situation.
Don’t worry about feeling like a copycat if any of these help you. That’s why I built this blog in the first place – to share everything I’ve learned in the hopes to help others. For now, I am going to try and get my head on right. My personal mentality is really affecting my work right now.
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