The daily stuff and the not so.: 10 things you can do to avoid being part today’s collective depressiveness

Have you noticed it? You can feel it in the air, its reflected on people’s gestures, you can tell from their body language. There seems to be a general depression. Worry and stress is notorious. Inside organizations pressure to it’s members is more than evident: Bosses preoccupied with annual quotas and employees living in anguish of losing their jobs. And the fear in the streets is doing its thing to; and in this holiday season the festive feeling is the only missing feeling.

But despise all I say there is a lot to celebrate this year! That is why I decided to share 10 simple actions that I consider key to not be part of today’s collective depression.

1- Write down your thankfulness list.
Nothing reminds us so much what we are suppose to celebrate as listing each and one of those things: our children healthy and happy, our families close together, full of health and wealth, our homes safe and full of love, our jobs fund and challenging, our friends loyal and close…there are tons of thing why all of us need to be thankful for.

2- Go on a news free diet.
This is something that I personally have practiced all year long and believe me it works. Of course I do miss on the occasional gossip and unnecessary water cooler tragic police notes, but who wants to waste their time on those anyway? Besides if there are really important news that you must know, believe you will know.

3- Give yourself time to recreate.
Recreation means to create once more, and in order to be able to do just that, one needs to make space and time for rest and relaxation, without these we will not have a clear mind and will not be able to think things more through.

4- Watch yourself in the mirror and give yourself a smile.
Have you ever done this? See yourself in the mirror and make funny faces at you, talk to yourself in strange voices and tell yourself jokes? Laughing at one self is key to not take life to seriously, they say. (Ok, I might need to practice this a little more)

5- And while you are at it, smile to other people too.
Even if it for no apparent reason at all. Few things are as contagious and makes people fell good as giving and receiving smiles.

6- Do something spontaneous for someone else.
When was the last time you did something special for anyone without being asked? It doesn’t have to something big, a note, a coffee, a candy even or a recommendation can do. Whenever we do something for someone else we cannot help but feel good with ourselves.

7- Do not do or work at what you don’t like just because you think it is your only option.
It is not! We all have great skills and strengths which are usually linked to the things we love to do most (because we are really good at it), so don’t waste time doing stuff you are not passionate about.

8- Don’t eat junk food. It doesn’t nourish you and just makes you fat and feel bloated and heavy and when we feel like this we don’t even want to move and, since we are moving creatures, when we don’t move we feel like dying. Wouldn’t it be better to feel agile at all times? OK so this is something I really need to work on, but what better way to be aware of this than to write it and share it?

9- Make a lot of time in your daily agenda to spend it with your loved ones. If you do not, not matter how important your job is or your projects are these will just not make any sense.

10- Each morning as you wake up give yourself a special task or mission for the day, something to look forward to, besides all your daily chores and work. It can be to just have fun at anything you do, connect with new people, call an old friend you haven’t talked to in a long while, have something special for lunch, meet a deadline, anything, as long as it is something worth looking forward to.

So here they are my 10 suggestions to avoid being part of today’s collective depressiveness. I’m sure you can think a few others, so feel free to share!