How to Beat a Depressed Mood

When caught in a depressed mood or mild depression, it’s tempting to feel that life is too hard, that you can’t go on. It’s this type of thinking that winds up feeding and sustaining the mood. Consider trying this: do nothing! Doing nothing may seem counterintuitive at first, but it happens to be the single best way to break the back of a depressed mood.

All too often we go to battle with our negative, spiraling thoughts. We beat ourselves up, which only adds fuel to the dark mood. Instead, next time you’re in a slump of negativity, don’t engage in debate, guilt, or self recrimination–in essence, don’t resist, simply yield. Just allow yourself to ride out the mood with the understanding and conviction that, ‘this too shall pass.’ The key is not to get caught up in a dance with your depressed thoughts. The more you focus on how terrible you’re feeling, the more you ruminate, worry, or antagonize yourself, the more you fuel your misery.

Negative, depressive thoughts, like the grit on a piece of sandpaper, are abrasive to your psyche. The more you indulge these thoughts, the more grit you produce. And the more grit, the more friction and abrasion you create in your life. By letting it go, turning away, distracting yourself and not engaging a mood with ruminative doubts, fears or negatives, the more you allow yourself to reduce psychological friction while ensuring that you’re not an ongoing victim of your depressed mood. Whether it’s a depressed mood, anxiety or depression, removing the fuel supply of insecurity-driven thinking is the quickest way to a frictionless, liberated life.