The single most important thing you can do for your depression and/or low mood
Jogging. Cardio. Daily cardio to strengthen the heart.
I have been through just about every treatment known.. zoloft+, which helped but the side effects were horrendous, and the positives were no different than when I take l-tryptophan and l-tyrosine every day (oh, and B Complex so they get metabolized), a variety of cleanses, a variety of detox programs, a variety of herbs.
And it always comes back to cardio. Mind you, this is not just based on my own experience with depression, which is extensive and seemingly genetic in my case, but *every person I have
helped*. Not only that, but the people that I know who regularly exercise who do not suffer from "depression" all say the same thing. "If I slack off and don't exercise for a few days, I feel horrible." or even: "I get majorly depressed and don't want to get out of bed"
Experiential belief has been solidifying a theory for me for years now:
Depression mostly has to do with an imbalance in our neurochemistry either through a unhealthy lifestyle (most common) or a geneteic predisposition (much less common). These chemicals are created from the food we eat; metabolized by the body, broken down and fed to the brain.
The HEART is the master controller of this process. Most of us, even those who exercise, have a much more atrophied heart muscle than both *our ancestors who created these crucual bodily systems which we are not using in the same way, and *what is required by our bodies to properly metabolize our aminos and CREATE our joy juice. As the heart gets stronger (or simply how it is supposed to be normally!) more of these goodies are pumped throughout the body and INTO THE BRAIN.
I would not post this information if I hadn't learned the exact same lesson over and over and over and over and over again.
I promise you that if you jog every day or even every other day for 15 minutes, a healthy sweat, you will feel much better.
This may be obvious to some but is sadly completely foreign to far too many souls.
There is a lot of advice at forums like this about the different herbs you need to take, the different detox programs, even elaborate and expensive ozone treatments.
do you know what else is an ozone treatment? jogging! It alkalinizes the body. It detoxes the system. Most of our toxins are water soluble and if you are not sweating, you can spend all the money in the world on herbs and you will still feel crappy. But it is not just sweating (jumping in a sauna). YOU MUST STRENGTHEN YOUR HEART! And jogging is free! You need to make 100 grand a year to keep up with some of the herbal detox regiments suggested at varios
Depression forums.
So the question for many, especially those suffereing a severe low, is motivation. You are down.. you have a lack of interest in anything, so how are you going to get up and start moving? And not just moving, but cardio moving which raises your heart rate for an extended peroiod of time? And every day?? JEEEZ!
Well, this has been a daily struggle for me and it's literally not possible for anyone here to be lazier than me.
It's hard. but the motivation can be found.. the brain can be washed (get it?).
What helps for me, is to demand that friends who have already embraced this wisdom (have cardio exercise a maor part of their life/happiness) COMPLETELY HARRASS ME about it. At one time years ago (when I jogged for the first time since highschool gym) I was in a really deep hole and a friend was so confident that this woudl bring me above water that he essentially yelled at me all the time and eve threatened to not talk to me until I started doing it.. (tough love) And I was a zombie when i started... could feel no emotion at all. dead man walking and hated every second of it.
Find someone to give you some tough love. Write affirmations all over your room. say them to yourself all day. make journal entries. lucid dreams, magic, whatever you used to do to motivate when you were above water..
DO IT! Start off with simply walking briskly outside, but EVERYDAY. work your way up. you don;t have to be able to jog for 15 minutes off the bat. move at your own pace but make it a daily ritual for your own health: your heart, body and brain.
THIS IS THE REAL DEAL!
Overweight? bike! but do it until you sweat and then push it beyond that. (after you work up to this point gradually of course) Are you so heavy that a bike woudl crumble if you got on? exercise bikes in gyms. they even have the sit down kind now which seem to be the best on the body. Bad knees? use a treadmill. POWER WALK, if need be, but make sure to get your heart rate up and SWEAT.
If you still feel it is impossible for you because you are too sad, too lazy, can't get out of bed, crying, etc, consider this: If I were to come over there will a pellet gun and say: "Hello there! Guess what? We are goin on a brisk walk/jog right now." then you resisted, said you couldn't ge tout of bed, and I started shooting you in the butt with the pellet gun.. woudl you get up? If you started walking outside after this and then thought you didn;t have the energy and slowed down, and I shot another pellet in your butt, woudl you speed up? I think so!
this is simply to point out the motivation in its essence comes from within. The pellet gun would not be the motivator, but YOU.. your mind, your WILL. If it is theoretically possible that I could pellet you into jogging, then the same energy of motivation, actualization and INTENT and PHYSICAL ABILITY is already inside of you.
Or imagine that a grandparent is on her deathbed and the last thing she says to you before passing on is "plesase jog. every day for 15 minutes. please strengthen your heart as it will heal your mind and body!!!"
Do whatever you have to do.. brainwash yourself, daily harrassments from friends, abstract dellusionary imagary. whatever it takes to get there.
When i started jogging, I was a walking zombie. post depression, post substance abuse, post tragedy, and rarely got out of bed. If I am joging now, you can.
Regular cardio will alter the nuerochemistry of your brain, detox your body, and so much more.
I hope this helps someone because it has changed my life as well as many friends interent buddies.
DO IT! And feel free to respond if you have any questions
PLEASE DO IT! I PROMISE IT WILL HELP!
LOVE,
Brian
ps- and drink lots of water. a rule of thumb is to divide your body weight by 2 = oz's per day of water BEFORE EXERCISE, EXCESSIVE SUNLIGHT AND NASTY COFFEE, SODA, SUGARY CRUD. An example = 200 pounds/2 = 100 oz's of water + more before/after jogging.. enough until mouth and body feel nice and wet. hydrated.