I am not doing great at the moment and this is always a difficult time of year for me. Maybe this year has been tougher than others but I am not sure.

Do you ever get surprised by how difficult depression is no matter how many times you have been there before? I know I do. Always learning and relearning.

There is a comfort for me in writing lists that are almost the same every day. Sometimes I write a To Do list. Sometimes, especially on really hard days, I write a Things I Have Done list. My little mantra is "if it is hard for you, then it is hard".

Things I Have Done Today:

- Took my medication

- Fed and saw to the cat

- Took my Moodscope test

- Did a mini-mindfulness exercise

- Did some stretches

- Drank 3 large glasses of water

- Ate some fruit

- Ate some vegetables

- Walked around the block

- Washed up a basin of dishes

- Spent 10 minutes working on my CV (I actually set a timer for 5 minutes, but got into a flow so kept going for a bonus 5 minutes, which was completely unexpected)

- Read a chapter of my book of the moment which is "Managing Depression with Mindfulness for Dummies" (today it was interesting things about how parts if the brain work.)

Now actually looking back I feel pretty good about achieving all that. And I feel really good about having made myself feel pretty good! I am reminded that this setting 5 minutes of a task is really helpful. I learned this before several times but here I go again.

Tomorrow is a whole new day and imagine what I could get done now I remembered or relearned that?

Cathy

A Moodscope member.