By Heather E A Todd

Depression can affect people in varying degrees, and can range from feeling like one has the blues through to more serious moderate and severe depression. Depression affects a person’s thoughts and therefore their feelings and subsequently their behaviour. Help for depression usually begins with a look at the symptoms so a diagnosis can be given by a qualified health professional.

There are many different symptoms of depression from feeling numb and emotionless, feeling no joy in once enjoyable experiences, feeling fatigued and irritable, difficulty sleeping, headaches, difficulty concentrating, lack of motivation, little appetite, lowered libido, weight loss or weight gain through to breaking down crying frequently.

Bob Proctor once said that depression is anger turned inwards; there certainly seems to be some evidence that depression can be linked to other emotions and events that weren’t coped with well. A good place to begin with mild depression can be to look at how long you’ve felt depressed for or if you’ve been prone to bouts of depression when did you first become aware of feeling depressed? What was going on in your life at that time? Sometimes an event such as the death of a loved one or the loss of your job or the breakup of a relationship can be pin pointed. Looking at the event that preceded the depression is worth while looking into.

What else might you do to relieve mild depression?

Other self help tools for depression could include thirty minutes of movement a day. This can be in the form of cycling, running, swimming, brisk walking, or an aerobics class. Fifteen minutes a day of relaxation or meditation. Making sure you have a good nutritious diet and getting adequate sleep. Don’t forget to indulge yourself in some healthy pleasures such as going to the movies, a meal with friends, a walk on the beach – even if you don’t enjoy these it is still a good place to start. One of the issues with depression is you lack the motivation to do anything but doing anything is better than doing nothing. What sorts of conversation do you have with yourself? Are you always putting yourself down, berating yourself. Turn those thoughts around and look for what’s good rather than what’s bad. Do you have a plan of action, a personal goal to work towards? If not develop one and work out small steps to achieving that goal. Find a trusted friend to buddy up with so you can hold each other accountable. Start a gratitude journal and every morning and last thing at night write down all the things you have to be grateful for and read it out loud.

By Heather E A Todd

In today’s typical modern fast paced lifestyle, the amount of stress people experience can wreak havoc on the body, especially when it is placed under too much stress for too long a period. Many people feel they need help with stress levels that have got out of hand. Tension increases and if it is not released through physical activity like our forebears would have experienced, then not only does the physical body suffer but you may also suffer mentally and emotionally as well.

Each of us have ‘weak points’ in our bodies. When stress is at an unmanageable level things start to go wrong. You may experience increased tension in your neck and back, you may develop headaches, skin complaints such as psoriasis or even stomach ulcers heart disease. On an emotional level you may feel irritable, anxious, depressed, or suffer from bouts of insomnia.

If you don’t have the tools to cope with chronic stress you could find yourself turning to destructive ways of coping such as overeating, smoking, drugs, or alcohol abuse. Escapism is another form of detrimental coping such as watching movies or sexual addiction in order to escape or take your mind off the problem.

So, what can you do?
EFT Tapping has been found to beneficial to quickly calm and relax you. There are several different ways to tap on stress. You could tap on what’s bugging you. What seems unmanageable right now? Is it something you have the power to change or is it outside of your control? What are the feelings that come up for you around this issue? You can also tap on simply feeling too stressed and wishing to feel calm and relaxed instead.

Try beginning your day with tapping three rounds of EFT on the following;

“Even though I feel totally stressed out right now I choose to feel calm and relaxed”.

Other useful changes to your lifestyle can include exercise. Exercise has been found to be very helpful because as tension increases and your body releases adrenaline by going for a jog or brisk walk you’ll burn off the excessive adrenaline and your body will release endorphins or “feel good” hormones helping you to feel better and more relaxed.

How about rest and relaxation? Are you getting enough time for you? I know, I hear you saying “you don’t understand I don’t have time for that”. The point is in order to live a happy, healthy, fulfilled life you need to have your life in balance as much as possible. I once heard a lady say “you don’t find time you have to make time” and I believe she was absolutely right. Look at each area of your life and see how you can work things to make time for yourself to enjoy the pleasures of life such as getting out in nature, special time with loved ones, going to a comedy show.

By Heather E A Todd