Tips For Combating Grief – Depression Boot Camp

1. Be up and dressed by 6:30 every a.m.
2. Take a 30 min walk.
3. Eat at least 3x per day or 5 smaller meals with a little protein in each—especially in the morning. Keeping blood sugar in check is very important. Avoid sugar and simple carbohydrates.
4. Add B vitamins to your routine, especially B1 and B12.
5. Consider a therapeutic light. Even if you don’t have actual Seasonal Affective Disorder, you can benefit from more hours of full spectrum light.
6. Feed your brain something it likes each week, a concert, a book, an art gallery, a walk in some beautiful place, a play…schedule it and be faithful to it.
7. Get an agenda that has days broken down into hours and schedule what you need to do as you would create a lesson plan or an agenda for a day in an office. Schedule in breaks and lunch. Schedule 30% less than you want to—sometimes you can just cross out 30%.
8. Maintain or reconnect with your spiritual community or explore membership in a new one. If you can’t find a spiritual belief that appeals to you, find a worthy cause and donate 2 to 3 hours per week to it.
9. If there is someone you need to apologize to—do it. If there is someone who owes you an apology, tell them so. In both cases, keep yourself safe and let go of expectations.
10. Reconnect with gratitude and build it into a ritual at night before bed. It can be in a prayer or a journal. Some people choose to pray differently—It begins, “Dear G–, I thank you for this day. It wasn’t promised to me and yet it was mine….”
11. Tell someone that you love him/her everyday.
12. If you take anti-depressants, then follow doctor’s orders.

By KC Conway, LCSW