What do you do to keep a positive mind set?

More recently I have been trying to keep myself in a better frame of mind

Depression has made me weary of life

Some changes I have made are:

  • Listening to more positive music rather than violent shouting heavy metal
  • Going to walks to the shop round the corner - even if I don’t really need anything
  • Talking more to my family, and being proactive in going for coffees
  • Take my meds at regular times
  • Try not to be so hard on myself
  • Adding structure to my days I work from home
  • Creating new things (Work) and getting good feedback
  • helping others and doing people favours within my gift

Sometimes, or a lot of the time, I don’t cut myself much slack, but I am trying to change that

This new job has so far been positive for me just 2 weeks in, but I am trying to be better at keeping positive - even though there is so much bad stuff out there

It’s to protect me from suffering, and I am trying not to see this as a selfish endeavour, but to improve quality of life by editing my preset mind that leans towards scepticism, negativity, catastrophising and self-disbelief

I really need to boost my confidence, motivation and self-esteem

How about you?

:black_heart:

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My positive mindset, which is only recent, has come from eating well and exercising. I used to scoff at this as I thought it would only give a mild improvement at best, but it has been much larger than that. I deal with stress a lot better now than I have in a long time. My confidence and motivation have improved a good deal.

Of the two, eating well comes first, then I felt like exercising later.

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I don’t even know anymore. I fully subscribe to the fake it til you make it strategy of overcoming depression.

My depression has usually been PTSD and/or grief related, but lack of confidence was also a huge part of it. Learning to truly not give a ■■■■ what people were thinking we helpful. Doing anything I could to make sure I laughed every day. The more laughing the better. I cut all toxic people out of my life. Went full no contact. Then just pretend everything is fine.

For a long time I focused more on just being content. I didn’t try to be happy, just content. I just wanted to not be actively sad. No one is happy all the time, so chasing that high was unrealistic. But content is achievable.

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Since I’ve moved to the place I’m in now I’ve been actively working to change my outlook to be more positive, coz I think I was born with jet black negativity on a genetic level. In the last 10 yrs I’ve taken steps (not always voluntary) to look past the darkness, in part by assessing my physical state and standard of living vs people I know and esp people I used to know, some of whom are not here anymore. I try to do a gratitude check when I’m feeling lost, but nothing works all the time. Little by little. At least I’m not living under a bridge anymore.

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I’m on a manic high right now. I slept about 6 hours though. I like my mania sometimes, but my meds usually work. I go to sleep really early and get up before dawn. I have good coping skills. Maybe for mania I should practice mindful walking. I think about people who have it worse than me, heroes they be. Acting is a coping skill for me, I act to survive. If I clean my apartment today I’ll be sailing!

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I’m happy to hear your job is going well. This could be life changing.

I always believe tomorrow might be better than today, that’s how I keep a positive mind set + focus on the things you’re grateful for.

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I try to regularly go for a light jog and be physically healthy.

I like do positive affirmations and really believe them, instead of just saying them

Are you still swimming?

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Thank you :slight_smile:

I am trying to go as often as possible, but last week I screwed up my body over doing it on a rowing machine!

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Wow, you’re doing really well at working on that. I’m pretty negative about myself. I feel like a failure. I’m too scared to go places without people with me.

I sing songs to myself. I try not to complain.

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Read about the 15 thought distortions in CBT and when you catch yourself thinking in one of those ways change your negative thought to a positive thought.

One CBT exercise is to write down your negative thought, then below it write down a positive but realistic thought to counter it. It has to be a realistic thought or you won’t believe it and the exercise won’t work.

When I first started doing this it would sometimes take me 20 minutes or longer to come up with a positive thought to counter the negative thought. Over time thinking less negative and more positive becomes easier because you are slowly rewiring your brain to think differently aka “Neuroplasticity”.

The main idea behind CBT is that when you change the way you think, you then change the way you feel.

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