Ironic Interventions in Exhaustion and Depression

Last night I wrote on Facebook an absolutely true situation that happens to me: "The best way to keep from falling asleep is to give up trying and go get ready for bed. Then...WIDE awake!"

It happens to me all the time. It could be that it takes me awhile and I am simply moving around. It may also be that I am acknowledging what my body is telling me. If there is something I absolutly have to get done, Ill take care of it and then get to bed. Otherwise, in spite of the temporary spurt of energy, go ahead to bed, especially if you know you really need it!

But if it is day time, and you have got to get yourself moving, a super easy thing to do is to drink a a tall glass of cold water straight down. (I takes keeping chilled water in the fridge, no ice, so you can down it.) I think quite often tiredness has to do with dehydration. The hardest part is to just remember this helps!

Other things that help with extreme fatigue, if I can make myself do them are taking a short walk and turning on some music that I normally love to dance to. Often just putting on Salsa music makes me actually get up and move around. Must be something to the idea of "getting the blood pumping."


These simply things often help also with depression. We here all the time about the mind-body connection, which makes me fee like I have to change my entire lifestyle,overwhelming when dealing with depression. But these few little tools can help in the short term.

In addition, specifically for depression, I notice at times that my visual focus has limited. Most obvious when driving, I may be looking straight ahead and not observing things all around me. Literal tunnel vision. By intentionally looking all around, it opens up not only the vision, but seems too loosen the hold of being overly internally focused that accompanies depression.

Try one of these. Let me know if they help. And share your quick and easy tools as well!

Heather J. Kirk
Art by Heather J. Kirk www.heather-kirk.pixels.com
Literature by Heather J. Kirk http://www.photographicartistry.citymax.com/Books.html

#depression #fatigue #exhaustion #rest #work #walk #water #dehydration #mentalhealth #physical #health

Unconditional Love at the Free Throw Line

I took a walk around my “block” today – a big block that takes about 15 minutes at a good pace. I have an Omron Pedometer (http://astore.amazon.com/photographi0b-20/detail/B00435Z3Z0) and my goal is to get a minimum of 4000 steps a day, 1800 of which are “Aerobic Steps”. This route – let’s check - gave me 1885 aerobic steps. It also measures calories burned and distance walked. I’m not doing very well at getting to the desired 10,000 steps a day… Here’s a book to help if needed: The Step Diet - http://astore.amazon.com/photographi0b-20/detail/B0019MX6ZY

A father and daughter are taking turns shooting a basketball and the 10 year old tries from the same place her dad took is last shot – well beyond the free throw line. Her underhanded throw goes almost straight up in the air. Her dad, standing under the basket, deadpans, “No, over here.” She and I both laugh. There is nothing critical in his voice, and love comes through in the joke, that the daughter gets. Though she may not be confident in her basketball skills, it is clear she is confident in herself, because it doesn’t matter that she just completely missed. I am sure that confidence comes from her certainty that her father loves her.

Here’s the next amazing thing. She gives the ball to him for his turn. Maybe it’s a little girl’s thing about fairness – they are taking turns, she had her turn, now it’s his. What’s the big deal, you ask. If it were a boy, if it were me even, here’s what I would most likely say, “That didn’t count as my turn.” And I would try again. But she has no doubt whatsoever that her father will not hog the ball, will not play unfairly, will not even give her a lesson on how to be better! He takes his shot, makes it, and bounces it back to her to take her next shot from wherever she wants – which happens to be almost under the basket.

Now, you want to know if she makes the basket, don’t you? I have no idea, I was walking and I don’t look back. It doesn’t matter, it was about them being together, no pressure, just having fun!

By Heather J. Kirk