Over coming Depression /Mood swings

Recently I read somewhere that 1 out every 10 persons have clinical depression at some point of their life. Here u can find a few signs. But these are sort of extreme. Is it not? Most of us have lows and at some point feel empty and useless, though not clinically depressed!! Listed below are a few instantaneous remedies that have been beneficial for me. Please do remember its a personal opinion and I am no shrink!!  

Physical health vs mental health:
Physical fitness is an important aspect of our well being. It also has immense power to cheer us up!! A brisk walk, a long run, a nice cycle ride  etc!! Endurance sports other than making us physically fit, do impact our self confidence in a positive way. Personally I have 2 suggestions:

1. Running!! A simple way to relax yourself!! But we do need a motivation to run and sometimes its boring. But if u begin to enjoy running, its a wonderful self relaxing tool and u can never suffer from insomnia. Here is a useful link for wannable runners. U can follow the schedule even if u dont wanna run a half marathon!!
2. 100 pushups A friend of mine suggested this website to me!! Its an interesting scheduling and if we can do 100 push ups in 6 weeks we can do almost everything :D!!

So when your mood swings are gone, u would be in an awesome physical shape also!! Sorry Gautham Menon for laughing at you after watching Vaaranam Aayiram!! (The protagonist overcomes depression by getting a 6 pack which was ludicrous for me then!!)

Work Work Work!!

"Idle mind is a devil's workshop". So when you are feel low, keep yourself as much busy as possible!! If possible work 18 hrs a day!! So working means not just your professional life, but doing anything and everything!! Other than sleeping you must have almost no time to contemplate!! Working could be learning new things, doing some chores that you have been postponing or anything!! It could need no intellectual demand or it could drain your brain!! The latter is better. Learn new things, explore new stuffs. If you see its a superset of the previous point!! But it is very difficult as we are hardly at our productive best when not cheerful!! But who cares about productivity when one is feeling low :P!!

Target Small successes!!

Its mostly the time when we wont have much personal successes that u are feeling low. So a nice way to cheer ourselves would be to   break our day today activities into small competitions or trials!! Like if you are daily catching ur train at a particular time, leave your house 5 min late and try to catch the train on time! Dont ask me what will happen if I miss the train??? I have no answer!! But If you can catch the train, you have actually won something!! Savor that!! Build on such small things!! Making a schedule and sticking to it, winning a freecell game, completing an easy task quicker than usual  are some other examples!! Build on these small successes!! Again if you carefully analyse, its a superset of points mentioned above and is possibly the most difficult of the three points till now!!

Mother Nature!!
It is good to appreciate the things around us. Mother nature has so many things  serene and eclectic, that have the power to cheer us up.  This is the only thing that requires absolutely no effort from us. The beaches, cheerful chirpy birds, a calm sunrise or a sunset, a bunch of kids playing and many more.   

Have a creative outlet!!

Thats where hobbies are so wonderful. Do something so you can play the role of a creator!! And importantly appreciate it yourself than expecting others to do so. So blogging, writing, singing, dancing, photography, cooking and even playing sports!! Dennis Bergkamp for me is as creative as Pablo Picasso. Also try to pen your thoughts in a dairy or MS Word file. It has a two way benefit. You can understand better why u are/were depressed and have a hearty laugh when you go through those stuffs again at a later time.

Share if possible!!

Its always easy to share one's success. But we rarely share our fears and insecurities. Its always good to have a few ppl with whom you can do this and who are ready to accept you for what you are, rather than for what  you have done. But please make sure you select the right people!! Because this is a double edged sword and can have serious detrimental effect also.  And not always people will have time for you!!

 Seinfeld, panchatantiram and catch 22

If an episode of seinfeld cant cheer you up, better take up professional help. For tamil movie fans, watch panchatatantiram - the kamal classic especially the half an hour before the intermission. For people who love reading, Catch-22 is the book to go to!! All these are so relaxing in the short term, but its better to avoid an obsession!! Like watching 20 episodes together :D!! 

So I have penned down 7 points that personally has helped me. Listening to music, praying and meditation also have been suggested!! Overcoming a low point does not mean becoming successful instantaneously(though this is the ultimate goal), but losing the fear of failure. And a few concluding points, begin to enjoy spending time with yourself. If you cant spend time with yourself, no one else will :P and you cant expect others to also. And do forgive yourself and dont ruminate in the past!! We all make mistakes but shd learn from them and move on. Make mistakes but never repeat them an interesting article by harsha bogle.. If someone says "I have never made mistakes in my life" the person must have died 10 minutes after his/her birth :D!!

Any success after you have  buried your lows tastes a lot better(A feeling eternally cheerful cannot have :P). One can savor it like a Mysore pak attired with ghee melting in your mouth!! Even if one cant control his/her emotions, the actions can always be controlled. I do think that the mental well being does not get as much recognition as it deserves. Life is too short to have regrets and like krishna said, "Live life king size". If you think there are other methods that could help ppl, share for sure.  And dont hesitate to get professional help if you think its necessary!!