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Depression and anxiety are terrible things to deal with and they’re way more common than they should be. But there are some pretty interesting ways of dealing with them that you might not have considered in the past.

Botox

A study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found that injecting Botox into the frown lines can lesson depression in one third of people. It seems to be that when the Botox paralyzes the muscles and stops them from forming a frown, it sends a signal to the brain that the emotional stress has been released as well. This is referred to as emotional proprioception.

Clean Up

Cleaning up can help to relieve some depressive symptoms in a few different ways. For one thing, a cluttered or messy space tends to hold onto stagnant energy, which just continues to allow the same mental state to remain. We might also associate our messy habits with depressive episodes, so sometimes pushing through that urge to avoid the chores and doing them anyway can make us feel like we’re accomplishing something even if it’s quite small on the scale of things.

Meditation

Many people still overlook meditation as a legitimate way to deal with depression and anxiety, but it’s suggested because it’s been proven to work. Mindfulness meditation teaches people to let thoughts flow them more quickly as opposed to sitting and brooding about things. Anxious people tend to overthink and get stuck on tough topics, which only serves to make them feel worse as opposed to coming up with new solutions. Meditation also slows the heart rate and encourages deep breathing, which can relax the body in physical ways that help change the emotional landscape as well. It’s best to commit to a regular schedule of meditating, but there’s no harm in starting small and working up to a regular habit.

Identifying What Drains You

Sometimes depression is simply a chemical imbalance, and sometimes an imbalance in where we are focusing our energy. It’s always easier to see these things in retrospect because it can take some time and perspective to identify how we relate differently to things as we grow. Occasionally our needs change and we don’t recognize that right away. We grow out of people or lifestyle choices don’t necessarily sever ties with them, which can lead to us overextending ourselves in certain ways.

Take note of the top energy drains in your life whether or not you currently see a way to change them. Most likely it will be relatively easy how some of them could be changed. Don’t answer the phone every single time that needy pal feels like venting. Stop buying cooking when you know you can’t limit your consumption, that sort of thing. Of course once you identify what should change you also have to commit to making the change, but at least having some direction on the matter can instill in you a sense of control over your life instead of simply being overwhelmed by outside circumstances.

Tags: botox, depression, handling depression, meditation