My Favourite Question

My favourite Question.

Yesterdays signing was a lot of fun there was laughter and open conversation. There were even phone numbers exchanged for home renovations! It was a fun day from start to finish!

One of my favourite questions was asked by a man right at the end of the day. “ Do you still struggle? And what is it like to have to fight these feelings everyday” this is one of my favourite questions.

Negative emotion is part of everyone’s life and it is not that I struggle with depression now but that I have learned to deal with negative emotion. I have tools that I learned to use and yes, they were hard to use at first and it was scary, it was overwhelming. But over time I started to enjoy using them because they started to work. I excepted that I needed to use them , I excepted the fact that I was wrong about how I was dealing with the challenges in my life.

No one teaches us to deal with negative emotion… Being happy is easy and we were all taught how to be happy. I like to give the example of playing with a baby. Even at an early age we are taught to be happy playing peek a boo and other games making a baby smile makes us feel good and the baby as well. But we are never taught to deal with the bad feelings that happen in our lives…

When I do my talks, I like to open with emotion good and bad. I like to see the reactions on peoples faces when I say the words. “ Love , hate, happiness, sadness, humiliation, pride and joy” this will either bring about 2 reactions.

· Recoil. People will make a face like holy smokes this is going to be sad or how dare he bring up such things! Those reactions are the best.

· People will sit up straight and pay close attention have a look like bring it on I am ready for this…And I don’t disappoint.

Either way I am not stopping what I am going to talk about or waiver from my message that negative emotion is felt by each and everyone of us and can be the building blocks of depression. Learning to deal with it is not easy , it is scary. But when learning to fight depression the main tools are self love, self care, and bettering your self. Realizing that negative emotion is not a bad thing and that we all feel it. Learning that you are not alone and learning that dealing with it is part of self care.

So yes, I do struggle like everyone else does, But I do not look at it as fighting. I see what is happening to me and I acknowledge it I except it. I have tools and I take pride in using them and it feels good.

Who doesn’t like feeling good! And if self care and self love are the tools used to living a happy life then I am in 100% everyday! 24/7 bring it on. Because when you use these tools depression has no chance!!

“Only with open conversation can we kill the stigma behind depression. Let’s start talking and kill it together”

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