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Beat Seasonal Blues with 4 Power Based Self-Esteem Tools

Beat Seasonal Blues with 4 Power Based Self-Esteem Tools

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Beat seasonal blues with 4 power based tips which also enhance your self-esteem. Instead of waking up and feeling blue learn how to fight back.

Beating seasonal depression is easy if you know what tools to use. We have four tools and tips you can use to win the battle against seasonal depression.

Four Tips Which Help You Beat Seasonal Depression

There are four tips we are going to share with you that puts power back into your body and mind. Use these tools when you start to feel seasonal depression coming at you. They give you a concrete way to fight back and move forward.

1) Activity and movement provide physical and psychological benefits. They also allow you to feel and see light around you when you are moving around. This is essential to a good heart circadian rhythm. It brings lightness to the body and spirit. This is vital in fighting back against darkness and depression.

2) Eat healthy foods and avoid junk foods. It's a fact that a healthy diet boost your mood. Healthy diets give you energy and balance your cravings for junk food or unhealthy carbohydrates.

When Therapy and Counseling Are a Good Tool to Use

3) It's okay to talk it out. When seasonal depression keeps you feeling blue and you have lost your zeal for life, seeking therapy is a wonderful gift to give yourself. There are three different types of psychological therapies which can help beat back blues. They are

The therapist will then work on helping you find a way to change your negative thought patterns.

The thought patterns which occur in the season which prompts your depression. The therapist will give you ways to change your thoughts and behaviors into positive patterns.

  • Guided Self Help – Guided self help is learning how to help yourself with self-talk, meditation, and self-learning.

Find your inner core and spirit and align them with your practical and healthy exercises. These verbal, physical and mental exercises help you become more balanced in your mood.

  • Counseling for Depression – Counseling for depression is something many people need from time to time. 16 million adults in the United States have had at least one depression episode.

Many of those involve seasonal depressive episodes. Seeking therapy to talk about your depression helps you find where the depression is coming from. That way you can work on ways to prevent it or fight back against it.

Photographer: Kelly Sikkema | Source: Unsplash

More Tips and Tools To Beat Back Seasonal Depression

4) Don't fight seasonal depression by yourself. Enlist your family and friends to help beat back those blues. There is nothing worse than isolating yourself when you already feel depressed or blue.

Isolation allows us to dwell on the depression or the blue feelings. It is important to enlist family and friends to help keep active, do activities with people you care about.

This helps you escape from the one-person cage of solitude. Anything that brings you pleasure helps lighten your inner spirit.

5) Get a new hobby or re-energize an old hobby. Hobbies help give you purpose. It is important to use interest and motivation in finding old, new, and exciting purposes. There is sometimes nothing more exciting than finding a new purposeful hobby you can throw yourself into 100 percent.

Misconceptions about Seasonal Depression

Many people think that seasonal depression only happens in the wintertime. That is when many people are cooped up and stuck inside their homes. However, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a depression which is defined as a recurring major depression which happens with a seasonal pattern.

This depression can be brought on during any season for any reason. Many people will have their seasonal depression end when the season is over. Yet the depression comes back the next season around the same time.

The symptoms of seasonal depression are somewhat unique to SAD. They include, but are not limited to;

  • Tiredness and a general feeling they cannot get enough sleep
  • Irritable or cry easily
  • Become more and more isolated, rarely venturing away from their home
  • Weight gain or binge eating
Photographer: Hermes Rivera | Source: Unsplash

What Else Can Be Done to Help Seasonal Blues?

There are many other things which can be done to help fight back against seasonal depression or the blues.

There are studies which suggest going to bed early may help. Many of us are wired for our energy levels to rise and decrease during certain times of the day. Fighting the blues with your body clock is a great idea.

That is a holistic and healthy way for your body to roll with the season and go to bed when you are tired. Instead of forcing yourself to stay up and grow more depressed.

Treat yourself to a sauna or hot tub. There are studies which suggest the bodies temperature also may play into seasonal depression. Warming your body by a fire or in a sauna can help your body feel flush with heat while having a calming effect.

Aromatherapy can also help lift a mood or fight back against depressive darkness. There is a lot to be said for lighting a scented candle, sitting back, and enjoying the scent and ambiance around you.

The Seasonal Depression Battle Can Be Won

The seasonal depression battle can be won but you have to use tools to help you in the battle. If you take the time to develop these tools and tips you will reap the benefits. You may no longer experience anxiety or stress every time your depressive season rolls around.

Instead by using some of the tips and tools listed here you may find you have become stronger and are now able to win the seasonal depression battle. Enjoy the season which is breaking around you by controlling your activities and feelings. What fun you will have!

Self Nurturing Activities

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Self Esteem Happy PicSelf Esteem– How do you go about caring for and nurturing your child within? There are hundreds of small acts of self-nurturing that can serve to cultivate a more caring relationship with yourself and ultimately a much improved sense of self-worth. The list below suggests fifty small ways in which you can nurture yourself on a daily basis resulting in improved self esteem.

Take a warm bath

Have breakfast in bed

Take a sauna

Get a massage

Buy yourself a rose

Take a bubble bath

Go to the pet store and play with some animals

Walk on a scenic path in a park

Visit a zoo

Have a manicure or pedicure

Stop and smell some flowers

Wake up early and watch the sunrise

Watch the sunset

Relax with a good book and/ or sooting music

Go rent a funny DVD

Play your favorite music and dance to it by yourself

Go to bed early

Sleep outside under the stars

Take a mental health day off from work

Fix a special dinner just for yourself and eat by candlelight

Go for a walk

Call a good friend

Go out to a fine restuarant just with yourself

Go to the beach

Take a scenic drive

Meditate

Buy new clothes

Browse in a book or music store for as long as you want

Buy yourself a cuddly stuffed animal and play with it

Write yourself a love letter and mail it

Ask a special person to nurture you

Buy yourself something special that you can afford

Go see a good film or a good show

Go to the park and feed the ducks

Visit a museum or another interesting place

Give yourself more time than you need to accomplish whatever you’re doing

Work on your favorite puzzle or puzzlebook

Go into a hot tub ot jacuzzi

Record an affirmation tape

Write out an ideal scenario concerning a goal, then visualize it

Read an inspirational book

Get in touch with an old friend

Bake or cook something special

Go window shopping

Buy a meditation CD

Listen to positive, motivational tape

Write in a special diary about your accomplishments

Apply fragrant lotion all over your body

Exercise

Sit and hold your favorite stuffed animal

Reevaluating Negative Feelings

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Self Esteem Scared Child PicSelf Esteem– If you were to encounter a small child who appeared scared, confused, or abandoned, you would likely do everything in your power to nurture and comfort her. Yet how do you treat yourself when you feel insecure, scared, lonely, abandoned or otherwise needy? Too often we simply deny these feelings; or else we become critical or rejecting toward ourselves for having them. One of the most profound transformations you can make along the road to greater self-esteem is to re-perceive feelings of insecurity and inadequacy as pleas for attention from your inner child rather than as signs of weakness to be gotten rid of. You will heal yourself faster by acknowledging and nurturing the needy child behind your negative feeling states instead of trying to push away your inner child’s needs.

The next time you feel frightened, insecure, inadequate, vulnerable, or angry, frustrated, and fed up, try asking yourself “What is the need behind this feeling?” What is it that my inner child needs right now?” Then take the time to give your child within the attention, caring, or nurturing she or he needs, and you’ll be surprised how much better you feel.

Learning to re-preceive negative feelings as pleas for attention from your inner child will transform your life and contribute greatly toward your self esteem. This is what “becoming a good parent to yourself” is all about.

Examples of Disguised Pleas for Help From Your Inner Child

You’ve just come home from a hard day or work. You see yourself in the bathroom mirror and you can’t stand the way you look. Your makeup looks too heavy and it’s smeared besides. You look and feel like an old floozy. You begin to think “What’s the use?” You could choose to sink into a depression, but instead ask your inner child what she wants at that moment. Intead of fixing your make up you decide to fill the bathtub with warm bubbly water. You soak in warm water and stay in the tub as long as you would like. When you look in the mirror, you look pink and warm. You feel more forgiving of the way you look- after all, you’ve had a hard day!

Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part III

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Self Esteem Child Picking FlowersSelf esteem is composed of different factors and that’s why it’s important to attack low self esteem from multiple angles. One way to improve self esteem is by reconnecting with your inner child. We have been discussing different exercies that will help you bring out your inner child such as writing a letter, keeping a photo of yourself as a child in your wallet and engaging in real-life activities that you would as a child such as playing on the swings. Now we are going to explore the power of visualization.

Below is a detailed visualization to help you create a closer relationship with your own inner child. You can put this visualization on tape, pausing for a moment between each sentence and pausing for 15 seconds where it says pause. You may also have a close friend who you trust or a relative read the text aloud to you pausing at the appropriate moments.

Healing Your Inner Child

Imagine sitting down in a rocking chair and getting very comfortable. Feel yourself rocking easily back and forth. As you continue rocking, you might find yourself starting to drift…drifting more and more. Rocking back and forth you might find yourself gently drifting back into time. Year by year you might imagine yourself getting younger and younger. Drifting back to a time when you where prehaps very young. You’re imagining now that you can see the little child you were along time ago. Very soon you can imagine seeing yourself as a little child. Perhaps you can see her/him now. What does she look like? What is she wearing? About how old is she? Indoors or outdoors? Can you see what she is doing? Perhaps you can see her face and you can see the expression in her eyes. Can you tell what this little child is feeling right now? (Pause)

As you look at this little girl, can you recall anything that was missing in her life? Is there anything that kept her away from being fully happy? (Pause)

If there was anyone or anything that got in the way of this little girl being completely happy and carefree, perhaps you can imagine seeing that person or situation. (Pause)

What does your little girl feel toward mom, dad, or whoever is standing in front of her? Is there something that your child would like to say to this person right now? If so, go ahead and say it right now. (Pause)

If your inner child is feeling scared or confused about saying anything, imagine that your present day adult self enters the scene right now and goes up and stands next to your inner child. Imagine your adult self speaking up to whoever is there on your little child’s behalf. Your adult self can say whatever is wants. Tell them whatever you need to say…whatever you need to express. (Pause)

Does the person your facing have any response? Listen to see if they have a response. If so, you can respond to what they say. When you’re finished speaking, you can ask whoever is there to either go away and leave you alone…or to go away for a while until you are ready to talk again…or else to stay…and you’re going to accept them as they are and give them a hug. (Pause)

Now go back and see your present day adult self standing next to your little child. If you’re willing, pick up the little girl and hold her in your arms. Tell her it’s going to be OK. Tell her you know how she feels. Tell her you understand. Tell her that you think she’s a great little girl….that you love the way she talks, laughs…and does everything. Tell her that you care and that she’s precious.

Now allow yourself to slowly wake up. You should now feel closer to your inner child.

Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part I
Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part III

Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part II

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Self Esteem Inner Child LetterSelf esteem can be improved with several different techniques. One technique is getting back in touch with your inner child. In a previous article, we explored keeping a photograph of yourself as a child in your wallet. This will help in keeping the inner child fresh in your mind. We also explored engaging in real-life activities that will increase awareness of your inner child. Activities include eating an ice cream cone, going to the zoo, climbing a tree, hugging a teddy bear and playing on the swings. Now we’ll explore writing a letter to your inner child.

Write a Letter to Your Inner Child
Composing a letter to your inner child will help bring more awareness to yourself which is part of improving your self-esteem. Sit down in a quiet room with a pen and paper. In this letter you can tell your child about 1) how you feel about her or him, 2) how you feel about what happened to her or him as a child, 3) how you would like to get to know her or him better, and 4)what you would like to learn from him or her. When you’ve completed this letter, open your mind and see if you can take the role of the little child. Then write a child’s letter back to your adult self, saying how you feel about your adult self and what you would like from him or her.  You might even try using your child’s handwriting for this letter to help get more in touch with how your little child feels. You will be surprised at how well this works in opening up communication between your adult and inner child “selves.”

Bring Out Your Inner Child Part I
Bring Out Your Inner Child Part III

Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part I

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Self Esteem Inner Child PicSelf esteem improvement is imperative on learning to overcome negative patterns internalized from your parents. During this process, you may wish to begin bringing out your inner child. It’s useful to begin this even before you work through all of the limitations you’ve imposed on your child within. There are several ways to go about doing this, including 1) real-life activities which give your inner child expression 2) using photos as a reminder, 3) writing a letter to your inner child, and 4) visualization. You may be surprised to find that caring for your own inner child is a lot less time and energy consuming than bringing up a real one!

Real Life Activities

A number of real-life activities can foster increased awareness of and closeness to your inner child. Spending ten minutes daily doing any of the following may help you not only get in touch with your inner child but also put you on the right track to improving your self esteem.

Hugging a teddy bear or stuffed animal

Going to a children’s playground and using the swings or other playground equipment

Playing with your own child as if you were a peer rather than an adult

Having an ice-cream cone

Going to the zoo

Climbing a tree

Engaging in any other activity you enjoyed as a child

Try to get into the spirit of being a child as you do any of the above. Your feelings in doing so will tell you a lot about your attitude toward your inner child.

 Photographs

Carry a photo of yourself as a child in your purse or wallet and take it out periodically as a reminder of your child within. Reflect on what was going on and how much you felt in your life around the time the photo was taken. After a week or so with one photo, pick another one from another age and repeat the process.

Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part II
Bringing Out Your Inner Child Part III