How to Defeat Depression and Be?Happy

In this article, I want to talk to you about depression because I think it is something a lot of us experience, but no one really talks about. Depression and going through depressed states is something I have worked on over the past few years, and while I still struggle with it here and there, I have found ways to manage it… perhaps even defeat it when it begins to pop up.

I recently went to Venice and had a fantastic time, but when I came home, I realized I wasn’t as happy as I had thought. Taking some time to step away from everything and come back, refreshed gave me the perspective of finding myself falling back into my depression.

First, I want to acknowledge that depression is different for everyone, and I know there are varying levels, so I want to speak from my own experience.

Six years ago, my depression got pretty bad and was probably at its worse. There were weeks when I couldn’t get out of bed, and I was on the anti-depression medication, Wellbutrin. Since that time, I have looked for ways to overcome my depression, rather than allowing myself to fall back into that state.

Realizing I was becoming depressed again, I wanted to get to the core and understand what was causing it. What could have triggered this change?

When we look at the people we look up to, the influencers on social media, the celebrities, and musicians we admire, all we see is the good. We only see an amazing life that they are living, and we don’t ever see the bad. So, I want to talk about the struggles because as awesome as life may look on social media or the presence that we put out there to others, many of us still struggle. At the end of the day, when we are depressed, and we interact with other people, or we put ourselves out there on social media, we all become actors.

As I began to dig into why I was depressed, I found myself wanting to blame other people or my situation for my lack of happiness, but I got to a point where I realized that it wasn’t the people in my life causing my depression. It wasn’t my environment causing my depression. It was coming from me.

I began to look through my past, and what hs pulled me out of my depression before because if it worked for me before, it should work again.

At first, I thought it was fitness that made me happy. It was fitness that pulled me from my depression six years ago when things got really bad, and I was turning to anti-depressants. Then, several times since then, when I felt myself becoming depressed again, it was fitness that pulled me back out.

As I sat back and thought about it, and I really dug deeper, I realized it wasn’t the fitness at all that had helped, it was the fact that I was making progress in my life. I was working on myself and growing. This is what was defeating my depression over the past few years. This is what I need to fix my current state, as well.

Depression is real. For some, it simply starts out as a state, and then develops into something heavier, like a disorder. Some people are triggered by the death of a loved one, or the end of a relationship. For me, depression comes and goes, and I have learned to recognize patterns. From this, I have learned to create new patterns in my life and defeat depression before it takes over.

Because I know that progress pulls me out of my depression, or depressed states, I knew this was what I needed to work on. So now, I am working on progressing and making my health, business, and relationships even better than they were before. I am focused on growth.

If you are feeling depressed, or find yourself struggling, I want you to focus on four things, or what I refer to as The Four P’s:

• Power
• Passion
• Prosperity
• People

#1 Power

The first thing you need to focus on is your own power. Ask yourself, how powerful are you? What do you have power over? Certainly, you have power over your body, your nutrition, your mind, and your well-being. When you have power over these things, it means you have the ability to control them. You decide what happens to your body and the nutrition that you feed it. You decide whether that nutrition is good or bad. You decide how you structure your life and how you take care of yourself.

This is the power you have.

#2 Passion

Second, comes passion, or rather, your purpose. What are you doing in your life that allows you to be passionate or purposeful? Having a purpose and things you are passionate about in your life gives you the motivation to want to do better and be better. This is what will drive forward the progress that you will be making.

This is where you will begin to make goals, and your purpose or passion is what will determine whether or not you find the motivation to stay on track and reach those goals.

#3 Prosperity

For most of us, our financial situation is a concern and can have a major impact on the state of your mind. It can impact and trigger depression and depressive states. How financially stable are you, and what are you doing to make progress in your financial stability?

If your finances are a concern and triggering your depressive states, what are you doing to improve that situation? Are you working towards making progress, or are you standing still? Are you staying in a job you hate and coming home to watch Netflix, or are you using your free time to do what you can to get out of that job and move onto something more lucrative and satisfying?

#4 People

Our relationships have a major impact on our mental well-being and can be another major trigger of depression and depressive states. What are you doing in to make progress in your relationships with other people? With the people in your community and the people that are you are closest to?

The people around us and how we engage with them can be very impactful on our lives, whether we realize it or not, and these relationships take work. This means you should be trying to improve these relationships and growing with the people around us.

Take a look at what is going on in your life and ask yourself, “Why am I feeling like this?” Look in the mirror and ask yourself what is going on.

As I said in the beginning, I know there are all different kinds of depression, and I am speaking of my experience. I am talking about not making progress and looking in the mirror and not liking what you see. I’m talking about being so unhappy that making changes is difficult, but in the end, you need to own it. I know I need to own it when I begin to fall into a depressed state and go back to the things that make me happy. I need to go back to making progress in my life and growing as a person.

You also have to realize that it isn’t about starting over to get out of it. You can’t start over. Instead, this is a journey, and you have to pick up from where you are at and improve your current state.

If you find yourself being depressed, or becoming depressed, use this week to make progress in your life. Focus on The Four P’s and figure out how you can use this week to gain awareness and growth.