Having Healthy Habits means you can rely on yourself to heal yourself and get into a better situation without having to think about it. This is extremely important for people stuck in thought loops of depression because decision making is hard when depressed, and habits reduce the decision making cost.
If you or someone you know is depressed, the best thing you can do for them is to guide them to learn healthy habits at their own pace. I remember when I was deep in my depression, one friend would call me every day to check in to see if I was doing basic things like eating and sleeping. It was meaningful to me to get care and support from someone when I was depressed because at that time I was not getting care and support from myself. That action taken by my friend was a critical reason why I was able to start the successful journey out of depression.
Today, I decided to add two healthy habits to my morning routine of waking up: taking a walk and meditation.
The bad habit I had was to wake up and sit and look at the internet. I think the internet gives the illusion of moving and traveling without the physical act of moving and traveling. And the movement of the body is so important to the health of the body mind and spirit. We are in our bodies after all. Our bodies are our tie to reality and this world, so as much as it is important to take care of our mind and spirit, it is important to take care of our bodies. And our bodies were not designed for internet consumption. Our biological evolution has designed our bodies for long distance running. The human species is known for being the longest traveling species on land per day, and so when you take a body that is specifically designed to run and you make that body sit still and travel no where, it is being used in the opposite way it was designed. And that can lead to depression and feelings of uselessness. To break those feelings of worthlessness, and to take care of my body, and to help gently get the blood flowing after a night of sleep, I am adding a small walk (indoors, doesn’t have to be outside) to my wake up routine. My room is small: I can take literally 2 steps before I have to U-Turn and take 2 steps again. But that’s what I’ll do: pace back and forth because it’s healthy and good for me.
The other bad habit I have is to feel distressed, anxious, and uncomfortable, and then take out that angsty emotion through browsing the internet in an aggressive manner. An aggressive manner means I spend very little time looking at one thing before quickly clicking to another. That way, I can view 100 things and be dissatisfied by all of them, and that is an unhealthy mindset, attitude, and habit to have. To break this negative energy, I want to meditate in the morning. This way, I have a reliable hard reset to my energy levels every day to set me on the track for success that day. I plan to meditate by first focusing on my breathing to make it deeper and slower. Then I plan to slow down my perception of time by consciously slowing down my racing mind and focusing on the present, on letting go, on nothing.