I’m not sure how I’ll be able to help anyone face and beat their depression, but I believe talking about my own experiences is a start. I was working on one of my ebooks earlier and thought this piece would make for a nice start. It’s not in depth, it’s not complicated, it just loosely talks about an experience while getting help with my depression. I’ll be posting more of these in the future, but I hope that by openly sharing and talking about my experiences, it will encourage others to open up about theirs, and possible get the help they need to overcome the disorder.

A Memo To Myself

During my depression, I met with a psychologist off an on as a recommendation by a friend. I didn’t see the point of sitting in a room listening to someone that was only going to tell me what I already knew, that I had an emotional problem and needed help. But she insisted, and said that the doctor she was referring me to was a family friend, and that I should give her a try. So I did. We met at her office a handful of times but for the most part, we met in the evenings at a quite lounge, mainly because that’s where I felt most comfortable and relaxed. We met several times in 2009, and each time she required me to do an exercise before meeting again. One of these exercises, which she’d given me near the end of our sessions together, asked me to write a short memo from my future self to my present self. The idea is to get patients to think of the life they’d want to cultivate or thing of things they would like to do and work towards. I thought it was silly at first, and didn’t want to do it, but I knew if I didn’t do the work, she wouldn’t have agreed to another session. So I did. It took me a week, but I was finally able to come up with something. Thought I’d share it with all of you.

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I want to encourage you to be and have more than you are today. To appreciate all the little wonders of life. To laugh more, cry more, be more open and transparent, hug more, taste more, see more of the world around you, prepare new dishes in your kitchen, go see a new movie, meditate and pray often, spend more time with your family, fellowship with amazing friends, shed your inhibitions, and set new goals for yourself and put forth the effort to reach them. I want to share the experiences life has brought you, and the lessons it will teach you. Be different. Be adventurous. Be vulnerable. That is living. 4 weeks ago