A state of mind

Every challenge in my life so far I've been able to get through it without much help from other people, without alcohol to make me forget for a moment, and without drugs to ease the pain of something. I understand that some people really do need help to get past problems such as anxiety or depression and I wouldn't say that in all cases people should avoid medication, but there are other ways to help. Five years ago I had something called SAD, this is caused by the lack of light that we get around this time of year. It's a recognised problem and affects a lot of people that live in the UK. Since that year and every year after that I've made sure that I do what I can to avoid it, and so far it seems to have worked. The main things that helped me I believe were increasing my vitamin D3 intake, making sure I always get my omega 3, and probably the most important is exercise. If ever I felt a little down and I was at home I would put on some good music and simply just do some exercise and I find that it's absolutely amazing how much better you can feel! You can either sit there and feel down and sorry for yourself for whatever reason, or you can do something about it. I guess that it my attitude when it comes to my health. I never sit back and let things just happen. The consequences of doing nothing is pretty obvious when you look at the rates of obesity and depression.

It seems I'm resilient and I bounce back from things fairly well, it's in my nature to be generally relaxed, care free, but also dedicated to something when I put my mind to it. I seem to be the only one in my family at the moment that bothers to eat healthy and stay fit. I also seem to be the only one in my family that has been able to avoid taking medications for anxiety or depression. There was a time when I had anxiety, but like I always do, I got control over the issue pretty quickly from taking magnesium supplements, and learning to control my reactions to things better. I did things to alter my own behaviour and although it took some time, I did it without help from anyone. My brother, sister, and mother, and I believe many others in my family, have taken some form of mind altering medication in their lifetime or right now, but I have been able to completely avoid this even when I was going through a very tough period many years ago with insomnia from a side effect of a medication that lasted 4 months. Now I'm completely fine and I got through it all by myself with no help, and neither did I want any because I trusted in own ability to get back to how I was before that happened. If you put your mind to it you can really improve your own state of mind or health without any intervention from doctors or psychologists. It just takes a lot of effort and persistence. You wont change things in one day, but things take time to get better, and they really do. You can speed up recovery from many types of problems that happen to us with good nutrition, meditation, yoga, supplements, but even these are not miracles.

2010 has been a hard year for me, but I made it, and now I feel so good and happy again. I alwys return to myself, I return to my optimistic and happy state of mind. It is who I am, and maybe some things might hit me off balance, but I will always become a stronger, better and more determined person. Through everything that has happened over the last 5 years I've learned from it and tried to improve and prevent them from happening again. Life is a big learning experience and I'm still young and I'm sure that Ihave many things to come in my life that will challenge me even more than what has happened upto now.

Never stop trying to improve youself, never stop loving yourself, never stop loving others, and do the best you can to live a good life that is healthy and fulfilling.

"live like you're going to die tomorrow learn like you're going to live forever" - Gandhi

I hope that everyone has a lovely christmas and new year!