The conundrum is how to find a purpose for getting out of bed when you are depressed.
Sometimes you don’t have the energy to move your body off the mattress and press your feet to the floor.
What can be done to feel better?
Some of us will need to take an anti-depressant. Others can make lifestyle changes.
After reading the disability memoir The Pretty One I took to heart how the author disparaged that able-bodied Americans rush-rush-rush around filling their days with nonstop activity.
From then on, I decided that it was okay to rest in bed for two hours on a Sunday afternoon.
The irony is that often we fill our lives with busywork that deters us from doing what’s truly meaningful. When the space of time in our days is filled up like a bursting closet something has to give.
Limiting the tasks, we take on is one way to feel better about getting out of bed. Knowing our daily calendars are jam-packed could disempower us.
Finding a purpose for getting out of bed can be made easier when we recognize that it’s okay to limit our choices as to what we want to do and can do on any given day.
My tactic is to decide when I wake up what my one “job” is for that day. I talk about the tasks I do even when at home as being “jobs.”
Sometimes it’s at the end of the day that you realize what your one “job” was that you fulfilled.
Not knowing what you want to do that day or with your life can be made easier.
Who says you have to be the same person or do the same things for the rest of your life?
Figuring out what you want to do today or in the coming weeks can be as simple as talking to a therapist. Brainstorming ideas with them or with a friend or family member.
Keep an open mind and be curious about what’s possible. That’s the first step: realizing that what pops into your head shouldn’t be ruled out before you think about it.
In a coming blog entry, I will talk about how doing “volunteer work” gave me a purpose for getting out of bed at a time when I no longer liked my job.
WorkingAssets 