If you had asked me a few weeks ago whether I wanted to do any type of outside Christmas decorating this year, I would have probably answered you in saying I could care less. Yet the real truth was that deep down I actually did care, I was just too depressed to realize that. But for anyone who has ever dealt with depression and all its symptoms, the reality is that sometimes the only way to overcome it is to do the tasks you’d normally do, even when you don’t feel like doing them. And that’s precisely what I did on an unseasonably warm Friday in mid-November.
I had been sitting in my funk outside on a lounger that day hoping that the sun’s rays would somehow help to alleviate my depression and holiday blues. My mental state had only been worsened by hearing the news that my partner had been laid off from his job after 11 years of employment earlier that morning. So, as I sat there on the driveway, I wasn’t quite feeling the holiday decorating spirit or anything else for that matter. But then I thought about how it would be far better to put up the decorations in the warmth versus in weather where I might not be able to feel my hands. Trust me I’ve gone through plenty of decorating in past years where it was like that and it was never much fun.
Nonetheless, it is widely known that any form of exercise helps to reduce depression, which is precisely why I made the sudden decision around 1pm that day to start decorating the outside for Christmas. And wouldn’t you know, within thirty minutes I felt a whole heck of a lot better being totally focused on the task at hand. Eight and a half more intensely focused hours later, all of the decorations were completed and every sign of depression I had felt earlier had completely evaporated. But you see that’s how easy it really is to overcome many forms of depression.
Trust me, I should know given that depression is something I’ve endured a substantial amount of in this lifetime. I’ve learned plenty of healthy ways over the years to overcome it, none of which involve drugs or medications or alcohol or expensive therapies. Decorating the outside of my house was merely one way. Working on complex puzzles, coloring in drawing books, sitting outside in parks by the water, taking walks in nature, going to the gym, writing articles for my blog, doing some gardening or other yard work, reading books, and helping others in recovery from addiction have all helped as well.
Yet I must say that in each of those cases where I resorted to one of those techniques to help reduce the symptoms of depression, I rarely had the desire to do them at the onset. It’s almost as if there was a huge wall I had to climb over each time I got depressed. In this case that wall was starting the holiday decorating without any tangible desire to do it. Thank God doing things such as this have worked for me thus far and thank God they’ve helped to keep the most debilitating forms of depression at bay.
So, the next time you find yourself getting depressed, don’t let that wall that seems so insurmountable prevent you from moving forward in life. Climb over it by taking up any type of focused task, like my holiday outdoor decorating did for me, even if the desire isn’t there. As I’m sure you will feel far better in doing so, then if you do nothing at all…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson