Okay, I think the rants about Castro’s broken condom and Staypuft from Etobicoke have run their courses, at least for the time being.
That being the case, I’d like to continue the theme from last time, wherein I noted a few things that stress, migraines, living well, and depression share.
- Triggers
- Cycles
- Strategies for improvement
As I sat in the back yard, enjoying the warm sun on an early autumn day, I got to thinking about Troy Broussard and one of his lessons, “There is freedom in discipline.”
The short version is that by maintaining rigid discipline over his business life, he had the freedom to enjoy a cross-country site seeing trip with his family, all the while maintaining his businesses. If you want the long version, look him up and buy the course. I did.
Anyway, while I admire Troy greatly, and have taken a great many lessons from his courses, this is one place where he and I disagree, vehemently.
You see, Troy is a military guy, ex-navy, wherein discipline is a way of life. I’m a layabout. For schmucks like me, discipline is a fool’s errand. I’ve even spilled a few pixels on the subject, here and there. You can find them, look them up.
Take New Year’s Revolutions. Please.
No, seriously, take them.
The average New Year’s Resolution doesn’t make it to February. Why? Lack of discipline. The average layabout simply lacks the discipline to stick with it, including your humble author.
Now, I don’t think Troy’s concept is fundamentally wrong, I think it needs one tiny little tweak. Replace the word “discipline” with the word “routine.”
There is freedom in routine.
If you choose to go the New Years Resolution route, don’t allow yourself to depend on discipline to see you through. Create routines that will become habits (another topic on which I might have spilled a pixel or two). Habits, as we all know, are hard to break. So create habit that will get you to your goal.
What about stress, migraines, living well, and depression?
Funny you should ask, I was just getting there.
If you want to avoid your triggers, create routines that keep you away from them.
If you want to help get through the rough spots, create routines that ease whatever burden it is keeping you down, or stressed, in pain, overweight and out of shape or whatever.
Exhaustion trigger your depression? Create a sleep schedule and evening calm down routine to get better sleep.
Does failure to accomplish your required tasks trigger your depression? Create routines that get your required tasks done, so you can’t get down on yourself for failing, triggering a downward spiral.
Does losing your temper trigger your depression? Create routines that avoid your hot buttons, and other routines that keep your head calm.
Does any of these examples seem extremely pointed? They should, these are three of my depression triggers, along with solutions I work to apply.
And the solutions, all based in routine, are all similar to solutions I’ve applied to stress management, healthy living and migraines.