Episode 93: Unscheduled, by host, Laura Milkins. Our guest, J., tells the story of his depression and how taking psilocybin mushrooms relieved his depression symptoms for months afterward. Sunday, October 14, 2018
Everyday Health
Britt’s Story: A Morning Routine to Manage Depression
“The good thing about a morning routine is that you make sure you take care of yourself before the day gets ahead of you,” Reints says.
Anyone can benefit from a morning routine, whether you have depression or not, says Renee Garfinkel, PhD, a psychologist in private practice in Washington, D.C. But when you’re living with depression, establishing a morning routine may need to be more of a conscious choice. Depression can make you wonder why you should bother getting out of bed at all. Having a routine that feels automatic can give you less time to dwell in that mindset.
Reints’ routine helps her to get everything in place so she can sit down and work for three hours in the morning, which helps keep her on track.
Garfinkel agrees that taking your morning routine one step at a time makes it easier to move forward. Another good idea is to do what you can the night before, such as setting out your clothes or putting your toothbrush and towel on the sink. “You’ve set an intention at night that this is what you’re going to do in the morning,” she says.
Masterpiece
A master calligrapher was writing some characters onto a piece of paper. One of his especially perceptive students was watching him. When the calligrapher was finished, he asked for the student’s opinion – who immediately told him that it wasn’t any good. The master tried again, but the student criticized the work again. Over and over, the calligrapher carefully redrew the same characters, and each time the student rejected it. Finally, when the student had turned his attention away to something else and wasn’t watching, the master seized the opportunity to quickly dash off the characters. “There! How’s that?,” he asked the student. The student turned to look. “THAT…. is a masterpiece!” he exclaimed.
The Depression Session 