My testimony: Beating depression with a “thank you”?

Showing gratitude is more than saying “Thank you” to the man who holds the door open or the women who complimented your new outfit. Saying “Thank you“, should be a way of life. When you are grateful for everything and everyone around you, it returns positive blessings back into your life.

I was depressed a few years back and was in total denial. Not because I didn’t want to  relate to those people on that one commercial with the hundred side effects. But because I didn’t know that I was depressed. My situation didn’t look like others that announced that they were suffering from such a serious mental illness. I was placing myself in confusing temporary relationships one after another, bills were all the way b

ehind and still piling, and I questioned if I was raising my son to be the man that he needed to be in this world. It didn’t stop me from smiling and pretending that everything was alright. Being positive in negative environment is a challenge but you have to take the challenge. And I found out that my remedy was “thank you”.

My sister presented me with a blank journal, fancy in appearance but this book would become my medicine. She told me that she could tell that I was struggling and that all I would need to do was write down everything that I was grateful for and things would be alright….What?!! I’m a writer, I write all the time how would writing on this subject turn my life and thoughts around?!! As easy as it sounds, it was rough, my mind fought to prove that I didn’t need to write down what I was thankful for because I had nothing.

Lies….lies..lies… so

I started off with the basics:

“Thank you for waking me up”

“Thank you for my career”

“Thank you for my loving family”

And as I became more specific, more things to be grateful for came to me, it was hard for me to stop. And this is what has pulled and still continues to pull me out of darkness. Yes, we all have dark moments, but we do not have to live and loath in them. They are moments and we have

the power to push through those moments and remind ourselves of all the good that is happening around us and will continue to happen. Focusing more on saying “thank you”. You don’t have to just write it either, when you wake up “thank you”, when you have a good conversation or meet someone new say “thank you”. Make it your ritual until it feels weird to not say it.

I’m not saying this is a cure for depression, but it sure brought me back to light and loving myself and everything around me. Who knew something as simple as a “thank you”, could change my whole life.

Thank you for reading