I know through the emails I receive and the feedback I get from my GROW group members that  a lot of people find the Christmas period very unsettling and depressing. Often it brings into focus what we don’t have or highlights difficult family relationships.

I came across a very good paper from the Internet called “10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy”. Whilst I usually shudder at these formulaic papers that promise happiness and fulfillment, this is a little different in that it is based on quantitative studies from positive psychology from the likes of Ed Diener, Standford Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, and ethicist Stephen Post. They have studied people all over the world. Here are 10 scientifically proven strategies for getting happy.

1. Savour Everyday Moments
2. Avoid Comparisons
3. Put Money Low on the List
4. Have Meaningful goals
5. Take Initiative at Work
6. Make friends, treasure family
7. Smile even when you don’t feel like it
8. Say thankyou like you mean it
9. Get out and exercise
10. Give it away, give it away now

For full details of the paper go to the news section of www.IamBackFromTheBrink.com

I think this is a very interesting list as it really parallels my experience in overcoming depression.

Make 2009 depression free

Whilst most of you would know that I don’t believe in quick fixes for depression, I believe the key to starting a more fulfilling life is to take appropriate action. I am going to be reading this paper to my GROW group tonight and ask them if they would like to choose 2 of these strategies that they would like to concentrate on for the next 3 months.

When we meet back on January 5 I will ask them to describe what they will be doing to make these things a higher priority in there life. Over the Christmas break when things get a bit difficult they can reflect on what they will be doing to make 2009 more pleasant.

I hope all my readers and visitors have a restful break and feel the sense of a new dawn in 2009.

Kind Regards

Graeme

Graeme Cowan

www.IamBackFromTheBrink.com

 

Tags: back from the brink, beating depression, depression, graeme cowan, happiness

Last week we held the first of four web and phone based seminars on overcoming depression. It also differed from other courses on this topic as it was designed with both the depression sufferer and their caregiver in mind.

We had over 100 people participating from all over Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the USA which I was really very pleased with.

What really really works in overcoming depression

It was interesting running a session on this over the web as when you put depression into Google you get over 87,700,000 page impressions. Surely everyone can access anything they want to know. Unfortunately that is just the problem. Most people are so time poor and don’t know just where to start.

I also found this to be an issue when I was in the depths of my depression and just had a hunch that a session that covered 7 evidence based strategies shown to help beat depression would be valuable to some people.

From my perspective it was a little strange presenting to over 100 people without being able to see their response so I was very keen to do some market research after the event.

The information presented in the seminar was helpful

I was very pleased that 70% Strongly Agree and 30% Agreed with this statement.

There were suggestions made during the seminar that I could action this week.

Strongly Agree 60% Agree 40%

I was very pleased with this also as I truly believe that action is one of the main enemies of depression.

I found the telephone and web simulcast concept convenient

Strongly Agree 70% Agree 30%

It could be improved by:

Having more time for questions

Strongly agree 49% Agree 42%

One of the issues when people listened via the web is that they could not ask verbal questions. This was also compounded by me trying to cover too much in the first session. The technology does allow for written questions to be conveyed and based on the feedback, I have decided to cover the formal presentation in the first hour and then have 20 minutes of answering questions at the end.

All in all I was very pleased with this first attempt. Of course I will be very keen to get additional feedback after the end of the next 3 seminars but I am very hopeful that it will be a great medium for 2009 and beyond.

The next 3 sessions will cover:

Finding the right mental health professionals

Building a support network

Helping to prevent a crisis and sustaining the care

If anyone has any questions or comments regarding these seminars please respond to this blog or email me at graeme@IamBackFromTheBrink.com

Kind Regards

Graeme

Tags: beating depression, depression carer, depression phone and web seminar, depression sufferer, depression treatments, overcoming depression