Last week I published a list of ten things to avoid on your journey to overcoming  depression and anxiety.  While it focused mainly on things to stay away from and habits to avoid, it was basically spiritual neutral and did not give a whole lot of alternatives to replace the vacancies that would be created if you had successfully avoided those habits.

I once told a friend that depression was like your laying on a bed in some deep dark pit next to a ladder that leads up to the light, but you feel so bad that you can’t even find the motivation to get up and climb out, and most times you can’t even see the light.

Well, I hope this list at least encourages you to grab for those rungs with more enthusiasm, and helps you to start climbing one rung at a time out of the dark hole you may now, or in the future, find yourself in.  Because depression is a winnable fight.

Spoiler warning!  While there is something for everyone, this list is more spiritual in nature mainly because, in my own experience, Jesus Christ is the the final answer, the “death dealer” to the root cause of depression.   In the book of John, eight chapter,  Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  

Now I’m not suggesting that if you become a Christian your life will suddenly become all rainbows and butterflies, and that somehow you are magically never going to experience depression and anxiety again.  That would be called a fairy tale.   I’m a Christian, and I still occasionally get depressed, but I don’t camp out there anymore and I don’t build a house on it.

However, you have to listen to the words of what Jesus said and let them soak down into your soul.    It’s not a detail to quickly read over and dismiss.  He said, “whoever follows” him, and “will never walk in darkness,”  two very important distinctions that we will save for another post.

So, back to the immediate subject….

First of all, get up, get out of bed!  Put your phone or tablet down and don’t read another line until you’ve dragged yourself out of bed.  Lying in bed all day solves nothing.

Two – You smell bad, guys – shave, take a shower, brush your teeth, clean up.  Women – do something with your hair, clean up, take a shower.  Get dressed, get out of the pajamas or sweats and get dressed.   Put on something nice, and clean at a minimum, not the ripped jeans in the corner and that old smelly t-shirt.  Dress how you want to feel, not how you feel.  I know it is an old cliché, but it is one tiny little important step, “fake it, til you make it.”  And it has it’s affect.

Three – If you’re not medically tied to a bed or chair, EXERCISE! – Morning, noon or night – Set a goal and exert yourself! Don’t let your crybaby self talk you out of it.  Do something physically active and sweat.  Unlike climate change, this is as settled  science as it comes.  Study after study, after study,  agrees that exercise is critically important to physical and emotional health.  Before I was a Christ follower, this was probably the single most important thing I did in waging war against the darkness.

Four – Grab a notebook, a journal, or planner and start writing something. Your thoughts, brilliant ideas or just a “things to do” list.  I know depressed people have a lot of messy thoughts scrambling around in their brain, and this is an excellent way to let them out and to start organizing them.   These are things that will get you to start putting one foot in front of the other.  Action items that will propel you forward.

Do not do this on your i-phone, i-pod or any other “smart” electronic device.  You need to feel the thoughts flowing out of your heart and head, and down through your pen or pencil.  It doesn’t have to be meaningful at the moment, it could be just a reflection of how you feel right now.    Keep it by your night stand and when you can’t sleep, write about what’s keeping you awake.

Now this does however come with a warning, if you find yourself writing suicide notes and some death manifesto about your plans to blow something up, stop what your doing and seek out professional help that can help you work through that whole mess.  I’m not trying to be mean here, but I think that of course elevates your situation to a whole new level.    There is a definite nuance here in writing how you may feel like you want to die vs. spelling out how you are going to carry it out.

Five – Pray, pour your heart out to God. He cares and He is listening!! Even if you don’t know him, He still cares and wants you to know Him.

Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Six – Grab a Bible, read a couple of New Testament chapters and keep your notebook nearby.  Take notes.  Pray that God would reveal himself to you through the words that you read.  The Bible is filled with inspiration for the broken-hearted.  You can’t read two chapters without tripping over some verse that speaks directly to your heart.

Seven – Pick up the phone, call a friend, a close confidant or someone who is an encouragement to you. Do not call someone who is a “life sucker,” or a negative drain on your life, even if that is your closest confidant, find a new confidant, if that is the case. Even if you have to pay for someone to listen to you.

Eight – Go to work, if unemployed, getting work is your job.  If off, ie., weekend or holiday, do something constructive around the house, like clean or organize something.  I know when my garage is a disaster, I have to clean it up or organize it.  This helps me to organize my thoughts as well.  For you, it may be a different room in the house, but concentrate on one room,  or one filing cabinet and not the whole house.  The last thing you want to do is get overwhelmed right now.

Nine – Listen to some inspiring or upbeat music. Not some downer, or lonely, or I’m a loser music that makes you want to wallow in self-pity and look for the nearest rope.   This is different for everybody, but you know what I’m talking about.  For me it’s something Christian, patriotic or some inspiring movie score that often can lift me up.

Ten – Go out and help someone else, volunteer for something, do something good for someone else, you need to think beyond yourself, believe in something greater than yourself.    The Bible has a thing or two to say about this, but one of my favorites is in the book of James, where it say, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1:27

And finally, give it time to work.  Don’t pull off the  “Cool Hand Luke” version where you already have it stuck in your mind what the outcome will be, but approach it with hopeful expectation of something grand, something better than the mire you are currently sinking in, and…..

Fight the Good Fight!