August 23, 2010

Discouragement, Depression, and Despair

During the change process we are bound to experience discouragement, depression and despair, especially if we let ourselves become overwhelmed with the strict requirements of change and living responsibly.  However, we must understand that these emotions can be very dangerous.

If we learn to view these moments of depression and despair simply as obstacles to overcome, instead of a never-ending gloom, then we will be better equipped to overcome them.  These feelings, like all emotions, stem from our thinking and perceptions.  So, in order to overcome them, we must struggle to identify, dissect and correct their thought components.  We can’t allow ourselves to simply focus on the feelings themselves, because this can serve to exacerbate them by causing us to get even more depressed about being depressed.  Instead, once we have properly identified our feelings and accepted them as a part of us, we should focus on understanding what is causing these emotions and then try to identify any errors in thinking or perception that could be contributing to our feelings of depression.

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