Depression Getaway with Wendy Love

"Wonderful!"  I never tire of hearing that word. I was blessed for a few years to teach in a private Christian school. The prinicpal at that school was one of the most positive people I knew. And he was the loudest person too! But it is not so terrible to be loud when it is all positive. I was happy to have a classroom close to his office. He often left the door open. Whenever he answered his phone or replied to an inquiry at his door such as "Good morning Mr. Smith, how are you today?" his response would be a big loud "wonderful!" every time.

I am attending one of the friendliest churches I have ever gone to. The picture above was not taken in my church but it could be! People are welcomed warmly and cheerfully and made to feel important and at home right away. I love that about my church. Who doesn't like being greeted when you walk through any doors, whether that is at home, or in a store or restaurant, or maybe at work, and definitely at church. And the friendliness doesn't end at the door. Before the pastor even asks, people mill about greeting each other (old friends as well as first time visitors) and saying positive things. "So good to see you! We missed you last week!" "Welcome. So nice to have you with us this morning!" "You look great today. You always wear such cheerful colours." You get the idea. But my favourite line comes from Murray. He often says, especially to the men "you are the nicest guy I know".  "THE NICEST GUY I KNOW" Who...

I remember it like it was yesterday. My happy childhood was lived out in a beautiful neighbourhood near the Scarborough Bluffs in Toronto, Ontario. I had a cozy home and a family who loved me.  I worked hard and helped around the house but other than that I was an indulged kid with a privileged life. My time was my own and I spent a lot of my teen years lying on the floor in front of the 'hi-fi' listening to Glenn Campbell over and over and over.

Self-expression is not only effective but a super great depression getaway. Here are four benefits of self-expression taken from "Kids and Mental Health". It is actually an article by Lauren Bailey who is a guest blogger on that site. Even though it is written for children, there are great ideas for all of us. Here is the list of benefits.

Have you seen this wonderful ad on TV called 'Express Yourself' ? I remember one of the questions I was asked by my doctor when I was in a deep dark pit of depression. She asked 'what would you like to see happen?' or in other words 'what would you like to change?' On that particularly dark day I couldn't even come up with an answer. I thought 'what was the use of even imagining how things could be better, it's never going to happen anyways.' Have you ever felt like that?

Last time I was talking about the good ideas I got on handling mental illness from the movie '50 First Dates' .  I asked you if you had a video to wake up to every morning which would tell you how to handle your illness that day, what would that teaching video say to you? Today I am going to tell you what mine would say. This is a form of 'self-talk' I will refer to now and then.What does this picture have to do with anything? I would like to wake up in the morning to this smiling lady on my TV screen and she would tell me how she handles the things she has to carry around in life, like that on her head and then she would compare that basket to my bipolar!  I like illustrations. Heck, I just liked the picture. Okay, here is my morning pep talk.