Your Life Might Be Killing You

Your Health and Wellness

Anthony Bourdain

Kate Spade

Tim Bergling

Your Life Might Be Killing You

How did this happen? The world was shocked at the news that back to back celebrities at the top of their games, suddenly ended their lives. Anthony Bourdain, world renown chef, television personality, with a young daughter and a reported net worth of 16 million dollars, hangs himself. Kate Spade, a huge name in fashion design worldwide, also with a young daughter and a net worth of $200 million dollars hangs herself. Tim Bergling, Swedish DJ known as Avicii, just 28 years old dies by suicide when he cut himself with a wine bottle while on vacation in Muscat, Oman.

They all reportedly suffered from depression and anxiety issues. We might ask ourselves what did they have to be depressed about? They were at a place that most of us can only dream of in regard to success, fame, and wealth. We are reminded of people known to us in the past, John Belushi, John Candy, Richard Jeni, and of course Robin Williams. Depression and anxiety can reach everyone of us regardless of our station in life or magnitude of our accomplishments. Our demons are real, at least in our own thinking.

I am not a doctor, psychologist or mental health professional and nothing I am going to offer here should be considered a replacement to what you may already be using for treatment, let me be clear about that from the start.

We all go through times of sadness, disappointments and even anxiety and depression. Understanding why it happens is the first step to getting out of it. Like a plane spiraling toward a very solid mountain, we have to pull up and escape a certain demise. Some opt to crash and burn. Why?

As evidenced by the wealthy celebrity A-listers who had it all, it sure isn't for a lack of material comfort. Are they "crazy"? I think not. I do believe that people end their lives because of a sense of hopelessness. Unrealistic expectations perhaps, pressure to be a better version of themselves everyday. The demons haunt every one of us, we all have a past story that may not be a Disney movie. Why do some of us pull up and others stay in an unshakable state of fear, stress, anxiety and depression? I believe that no one can answer that except for those in the situation. There are solutions that I want to share because they are non-medical and they actually have helped others.

Self Talk

What your brain hears you say to yourself , it believes and act s upon.

Depression is the harmful art of doing nothing. We all get overwhelmed from time to time and sometimes it seems like there is no end in sight. Trust me, there is.

A Few Helpful Ideas

As hard as it may be, get up, take a shower, take a walk. Listen to music.

Force yourself to change your state of mind, however, avoid recreational drugs or alcohol. Alcohol is a depressant, hypnotic drug.

Get into the sunlight. Darkness adds to a depressive state of mind.

Talk to a friend or trusted family member. Share your feelings instead of bottling them up inside.

Realize that you are not alone. We have all been right where you are and bad times do not last forever.

In my darkest hours I found incredibly helpful resources viewing YouTube videos about motivation, personal life enhancement and how to pull myself out of a bad state of mind. Remember, what you see and hear, you become.

Change your environment. Get away from negative and toxic people and situations as much as possible.

Be good to yourself, remember, you are your own best friend.

I talk to myself. Admit it, you do too. We all do, as nutty as that sounds. What we may not be aware of, is that what we say to ourselves, our brains hears us say and accepts as absolute truth. It gets tucked right there into our subconscious mind and begins a process of proving our words. Our actions follow our thoughts. Winners act like winners but they had to believe it first.

Think about it, we are so careful about what we say to others, aren't we? We are careful not to offend our boss, say complementary things to our friends, yes sir and no sir to the cop that pulled us over and lovingly to our significant others. However, when we speak to ourselves we are incredibly critical. I'm fat. I can't do that. I am stupid. I am inadequate. I will always be broke. I hate myself. Your brain will do what it does best and find all the reasons why you are right.

I want to submit to you that it is not arrogant, conceit, self deception or wrong to tell yourself that you are great, special in every way, beautiful, successful, talented and a superstar. It may not be a manifested fact just yet, but the first step to feeling great about yourself is to believe that you are great. Your brain, doing what it does best, will find the reasons why your words are true. Try it! Stand up straight, breathe like a winner. Walk like you are a wonderful, respected and a very special person. Smile. (smile?) Yes, smile and your brain will think of the reasons why you should be smiling. The brain will release those 'feel good' chemicals into your bloodstream, endorphins, seratonin and cortizone. This has been proven again and again in clinical studies. Most of the self improvement and life enhancement coaches share this with their audiences with great results. Motion creates emotion. Your body signals to your brain how it should feel. Sit like you are on a royal throne. Walk like the world is yours. Scuttle the thoughts that would create anxiety and depression by replacing them with thoughts of victory, success and power and life can be yours.