10 Honest Resolutions for the New Year When You Live With Depression
It’s that time of year when all the magazines and posts on social media talk about “Be who you want to be,” “Now is your time to shine,” “This is your breakout year,”and the list goes on.
I would read these articles about making lofty goals, being the best me, making a million dollars, traveling the world, and it would start to take me on a downward spiral. I would feel like such a failure because those types of things were nowhere in my mind. My goals looked a lot different than all of those things.
What goals do I have in mind for myself for 2016?
1. To be totally 100 percent honest, to just get out of bed in the morning would be really nice.
2. To make it through an entire day (12 hours!) without wanting to go back to bed and hide from the world would give me a huge sense of accomplishment as well.
3. Make plans with a friend and actually show up without my anxiety stepping in and causing me to come up with an excuse.
4. Look in the mirror and find the beauty instead of the flaws
5. Start to tell myself I am not a failure or a waste of space in the world.
6. Answer my phone when my mom calls to see how I’m doing so she doesn’t worry too much and show up unexpectedly at my house to see if I am still alive.
7. Seek out other people who are depressed too so we can support one another on the really bad days.
8. Have the strength to sit with my scary and dark thoughts when my disease is stronger than usual.
9. Accept that this is my battle and not resist it so much that it makes my suffering worse.
10. Choose to love myself.
Follow this journey on Happiness, Love and Light.
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Courtney has a major in Communications and a minor in Psychology from the University of Arizona. She is a Spiritual Life Coach, Mindfulness Teacher and a Published Writer. Courtney is a mental health advocate and her goal is to start healing the perception regarding mental health by sharing her story and bringing light to the subject. She blogs at Happiness, Love and Light. You can visit her website and Facebook page to learn more.
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