Depression can hit any of us at any time. If you work for yourself you can’t allow depression to get in the way. This is why self- treatment for depression can be an important tool in your business life.

First off, there’s no magic cure! Depression - or being low, down or however else you describe it - can hit you at any time with no apparent reason. The way back to a normal, energetic and happy life can also vary, depending on personalities and circumstances.

Here are some of the major techniques I teach my coaching clients to use. Among them you are likely to find effective solutions for you.

Firstly, Exercise! Yes I know everybody tells you this - it’s supposedly the answer for everything. What exercise does is to burn off excess adrenalin and stress hormones. “But surely self-employed people don’t get stressed!” I hear you cry. We love having every problem landing on our shoulders don’t we?

So how much exercise do you have to do? Although there’s no specific answer I can give you right now, a guideline would be around 20 minutes a day. This doesn’t have to be done at the gym, it can just be brisk walking. How you work out what’s right for you is how you feel. You may find you don’t need to do it every day, but do pay attention to what’s happening, and after a couple of weeks you’re likely to find the right amount that works best for you and fits in with your lifestyle.

Daily laughter - and I don’t mean when the Inland Revenue slaps you with a ridiculous bill! Laughter releases good hormones into your bloodstream. In fact smiling goes a long way towards it.

These good hormones make you feel good, relax you, and allow you to be happier. So if you have daily laughter, what you’ll find is that things get easier, you’re less stressed, you become more productive, and your energy levels rise.

Speak to yourself nicely! Yes we all talk to ourselves inside our heads. It’s only when we talk out loud and people start to look at us strangely that it becomes a problem!

If you’re normal, and odds are that you are (sorry about that) sometimes you’ll find yourself talking to yourself in less than charitable terms. If somebody else talked to you in the way you sometimes talk to yourself, you’d certainly get annoyed with them and you wouldn’t want that person around.

Take the time to change what you say to yourself. Instead of saying “ I’ve failed at that” try saying “I’ve learned how not to do that now so I can do it differently next time.” Instead of getting annoyed with yourself, you could talk to yourself about all the things you can do well.

Practice mindfulness. This is what we’re seeing happen more and more in the business world. Mindfulness is about paying attention to your own thinking. After all - you are not your thoughts. You can change your thoughts and by just observing them you have the choice to change what you’re thinking.

Mindfulness has been shown to be one of the most effective approaches for preventing the re-occurrence of bouts of depression. Just find somebody who can teach you how to do it in the right way for you.

Eradicate overwhelm. Some people can find themselves very depressed when they feel overwhelmed. In simple terms, to deal with overwhelm only do what you can do and get somebody else to do the rest - but first - make sure that the thing actually needs doing! It always amazes me how many tasks that seem so desperately urgent, turn out later to be irrelevant. It would be nice to think carefully about these tasks before they consume our energy.

Build a compelling future. If you take the time to build a compelling future for yourself, you’ll end up doing what you want to do, in a way you want to do it, and enjoying it. This will start to feed energy into your system. If you take the time to put the plan together, determining how you’re going to get from here to there, then this will give it a sense of reality for you.

Having a strong positive view of the future and knowing how you can get there can be one of the most powerful approaches to eradicating depression.

Good Nutrition can play an important part in self-treatment for depression. Numerous research studies have shown that things like fish oil, taken regularly, can be as effective as a mild anti-depressant. Because they’re not foreign chemicals in the body, they don’t have negative side-effects.

Another traditional self- treatment for depression is St John’s Wort - sometimes called the Sunshine Herb. Once again, numerous studies have shown that self-medication with St John’s Wort can be as effective as many of the milder anti-depressants. An important part of this strategy is self-medication, since when people feel depressed they can also feel loss of control. Controlling when supplements are taken can clearly put them back in control.

I appreciate that this is an incredibly brief article on some very powerful self-treatment techniques for depression. Hopefully it will act as a signpost to show you where you can look for further help.

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Have you ever met someone who seems to be incredibly confident in a way that feels so natural and right?  Someone who doesn’t need to shout, push and get all hyped up, they just exude confidence that’s almost infectious?

There are numerous effective techniques for boosting your confidence when you need it.  However, they’re just that! They’re techniques that, when you stop applying them, they stop working.  So the question must be: “Is there a way of building confidence into the core of your being?”  Or perhaps, “How can you transform yourself into a naturally confident person?”

The good news is that it can be done and in a way it’s a lot easier than you think. On the other hand it’s a lot more difficult than you think. If you want an instant fix then you won’t find it here.  When you’re looking at such a profound change within yourself it’s not going to happen in a few minutes, days or even weeks.

If you take as an ultimate truth in your life, the core principle that ‘we become what we practice’, it will transform everything you do.

To have success in anything in a reliable way, requires a combination of three things: knowledge, skills and positive habits.  Today, knowledge is more abundant than it has ever been.  It’s more accessible and easily understood than at any other time in history.  If knowledge were enough then we’d all be truly successful.

Skills and positive habits take time to develop.  As people demand more instant gratification, immediate solutions or dramatic changes, the development of skills and positive habits seem to become more difficult.  Nothing has changed, just expectations.  Both skills and positive habits require practice, discipline and repeated practice.

A major study by Oxford University found that the only common theme or trait shared by talented people was the commitment to frequent and regular practice - whether that was sport, music or anything else.

What’s interesting is that if you look at people at the peak in their field, while they’re active in that field they also put in the time to practice.  When they retire they tend to stop doing the practice.

Practice is the price to be paid for exceptional achievement.

Now let’s turn our attention back to natural confidence.  As the title of this article says, it comes from knowing who you are (that’s who you are right now) and being comfortable with it.  This is not to say that everything has to be right about you.  It just says you have to be comfortable with where you are right now and how you’re progressing through life.

You’ve probably heard a thousand times that life is like a journey.  Have you ever taken the time to really understand this analogy?

When you’re on a journey you’re never in the same place twice unless you get lost and wander about.  Isn’t this a bit like life where you often keep coming back to the same place rather than moving forward?  The same mistakes, the same hopes and desires that become dashed?  Perhaps there’s a similarity here as well.

A journey is about going from here to there.  However, at any point in time you’re neither here nor there, you’re on the journey.  Have you ever been on a journey where your focus is purely on your destination?  If the journey is a long one, then what you may have found is that your energy for the journey is decreased because the destination seems so far away. This can lead to strong emotions such as frustration, anger, resentment or even hopelessness.  While these may be extreme, think of it this way, many people who start on journeys cut them short because of these powerful feelings.

Think about marathon runners.  If their focus is the finish line then the race (the journey) can become too difficult.  The pain and exhaustion in front of them can become overwhelming.  The only way to successfully run a marathon is to take one step at a time.

When you’re on a long journey, if you take the approach of being comfortable with where you are on your journey right now, knowing that you will get to your destination, then the journey will be easier and more enjoyable.  The same is true of your life.

I’m comfortable with where I am right now in my life.  There are lots of things I want to change, and if you ask my girlfriend she can give you an even longer list!  However, I’m comfortable with where I am right now with all my imperfections, knowing that they will change and improve.

So there’s the first skills practice for becoming naturally confident.  Become comfortable with where you are at right now with all its inconsistencies and inadequacies, knowing that over time things will change and get better.

The next component of natural confidence is fear, or rather lack of it.  Let me put it a different way.  People generally talk about lack of confidence which, in many cases, is no more than fear.  So if you can eradicate the fear from your life you’ll have confidence.

To my mind fear comes in three types.  There’s fear of physical harm, there’s fear of scarcity and there’s fear of being found out.  Perhaps it will help if I expand on these a little

If a hungry tiger walked into the room you’re in right now, then it’s appropriate for you to have fear of physical harm.  That’s pretty clear.  This is the flight or fight response of nature.  It’s short-lived and is in response to genuine threats.  Fortunately today, most of us never encounter this.

Fear of scarcity is the fear that drives us to do things right now.  I have to find that life partner because there aren’t enough available people out there.  I have to work 60 or 70 hour weeks to get the sales because there might not be any more customers in the future.  I suspect this type of fear comes from the days when we were dependent on nature and where there could be feast or famine.  Today, fortunately, we hardly ever suffer from this.  At least in the West we now live in an incredibly abundant world where scarcity hardly exists except that we create in our own minds.

The big fear for most people is the fear of being found out.  This is the fear that other people may see us for who we actually are - some sort of fake, inadequate or worthless.  It’s what drives some people to exaggerate because they don’t feel good enough as they are.  It’s what makes us say yes we understand something even when we don’t, because we don’t want to appear foolish.

The fear of being found out is probably one of the strongest fears we regularly have.  It seems to be a major cause of stress for many people, somehow feeling we should be better or we’re not up to the task as we are.

You’re probably ahead of me already.  As you become comfortable with where you are right now in life and accept it, this fear will evaporate.  And since fear is directly related to confidence, as your fear levels drop, your confidence will rise and you’ll become more naturally confident.
The next component of natural confidence is your belief in yourself.  Studies have shown that past performance is not necessarily a good way to predict future performance. Poor performance previously can be the result of lack of belief in yourself. But if you start to believe in yourself and your skills and abilities, it’s likely you’ll succeed in the future.  In other words, whether you believe you can’t or you believe you can - you’re probably right – because that belief will determine the outcome.
That’s a very good reason to always maintain a strong belief in yourself wouldn’t you say?

So where does this belief in yourself come from?  For some time it’s been observed that one of the functions of the mind is to prove itself right.  You’ve probably had a discussion (argument) with someone with a different point of view – let’s say someone in customer services.  You see things one way and they see it another.  As you present the facts, you each interpret them in your own way.

What’s happening is that you’re each interpreting the evidence to support your own belief.  You’re probably well aware of some of the very strange beliefs that people have - like the world is flat or we never landed on the moon etc.  These of course stand out, but what about those smaller, internal beliefs such as believing you’re not worthy, you’re not good enough and so on? Your mind sets out to interpret the evidence around you to prove to you that this belief is true.

This leads us to question of whether we can change these beliefs and, if so, how?  Let’s say that you believe you can’t speak in public.  You may well have spent years gathering evidence to prove you can’t. But now, just for fun, imagine you believe completely the opposite.  Make a list of all the evidence that says you can speak in public.

You’ve probably been with a group of friends and spoken out about something in front of them.  You may have attended a meeting where you were in the audience, and you spoke out on a particular point.  If you spend a little while I’m confident you’ll build a long list supporting the fact that you do already have the ability to speak in public.

As your belief in your ability changes, then it becomes worth your while developing the skills to do it even better.  So, with the theme of this article being natural confidence, being comfortable with where you are right now in your ability to speak in public means you can become confident about it.  Then as you do speak in public, you can develop the skills to become even better.

While on the subject of the mind proving itself right, I’ve got a question for you.  How do you feel about other people who show natural confidence?  If you’re uncomfortable with them, resentful of them, or envious of them, what do you think is going on in your mind, given that it always wants to prove itself right,

The fact is that those negative feelings towards these people would extend to you too. The mind doesn’t want that to happen so if you become naturally confident, the mind will have a problem.

On the contrary, if you decided to feel good about others who are naturally confident, then in your mind’s quest to be always right, the subconscious part of your mind will support you in becoming naturally confident yourself.

So to sum up, natural confidence comes from being comfortable with who you are right now in your journey through life.  It takes skills and practice to build this and some acceptance of where you are right now, and by going out to find the evidence that you have confidence, your beliefs will change.

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The evidence is overwhelming - you become what you practice. So to become confident you need to practice confidence, but what does that consist of?

In this article I’m going to give you some simple skills that you can practice daily to build your confidence. These techniques should be seen as stepping stones in your becoming a naturally confident person. As you achieve success with the techniques here I urge you to move on to develop yourself as a naturally confident person. Wouldn’t it be good to be naturally confident rather than needing to apply techniques every day to remain confident? To actually be confident from the core of your being and knowing this confidence is there?

I have a suggestion about how you can pay attention to the changes that these techniques will bring. First - let’s talk about super tankers - those huge vessels weighing hundreds of thousands of tonnes. If they want to change direction it takes time. It takes tens of miles for them to reverse their direction.

For you to change from a person with a lack of confidence to a person of confidence it’s going to take time. From moment to moment the changes will be quite small, yet accumulated over time this change will be dramatic. So here is my suggestion.

Each time you notice yourself being just a little - even the smallest fraction - more confident, celebrate! Be grateful, accept it and feel good.

Sometimes my clients focus only on wanting to be 100% confident, failing to notice these small incremental changes. They then become disillusioned and don’t have the motivation to complete their change. Please don’t make this mistake. Celebrate and be grateful for even the smallest increase in your confidence levels.

Now to the techniques, the daily practices that will transform your confidence levels.

The first technique is changing what you say to yourself inside your head.

Yes we all talk to ourselves. That’s okay, it’s only when you talk to yourself out loud that it can be a problem! Most of us spend a lot of our time talking negatively to ourselves, saying how we got it wrong, we’re stupid and so on. Think of it this way, if someone else talks to you like that, would you hang around them? Of course not, so let’s change how we talk to ourselves.

As you catch yourself saying negative things about yourself, stop and say it again in a positive way.

The second technique for change is to make big pictures.

Whenever you think about things you’re creating some kind of mental image. Usually you hardly notice it, yet it’s still there. Sometimes you make pictures of things you want to do and they’re small, dark and tiny. That’s hardly motivating is it? It’s like watching a TV programme on an small, old, black-and-white television. Compare that to going to a cinema with a massive screen, full-colour and deep, rich surround-sound.

As you think about things you want to do, take the time to make those pictures brighter, louder, panoramic. Make sure you’re in that picture looking through your own eyes. Turn up the brightness and colour, put motion in and a compelling soundtrack. Just for the fun of it, try it once right and notice how much more excited you feel about that thought.

A handy tip is to ensure that when you have negative thoughts, you make them tiny, black-and-white, still, dark and with no sound. It’s amazing how much less feeling you’ll have about them.

The third technique is to ‘walk the winners way.’

When you look around the room, people who are confident seem to stand out. They stand differently, they move differently. They seem to use their body in a different way.

Make a point of observing this for yourself. What you’ll find is that if you stand and move in that same way, you’ll feel more confident. At first you may have to do this in front of a mirror to get it right.

Take the time to each day to regularly stand, move and sit like a confident person. This will start to programme your body for confidence.

The fourth and final daily technique to boost your confidence is to take a risk.

Each day take one risk that you’ve not taken before. Initially this can be really small, perhaps selecting a different item on the menu in the restaurant at work, or smiling at the person in the shop you buy your paper from..

Taking risks is like building muscles, you have to slowly increase the load. Start small and build up. As you become comfortable with tiny risks you can move on to slightly larger ones.

By practicing these four techniques every day, within a month they will significantly boost your confidence level. They’ll put you on a journey to becoming a truly, naturally confident person, so use them as a stepping stone towards this.

Think of it as trying to push a car. At first it’s very difficult to get it rolling, once it starts it’s much easier. So once you start the process of changing to become a truly confident person it’s going to be easier to keep it going. Don’t let the car stop rolling; keep the change in yourself going.

You don’t need to be alone in keeping this change going. Friends may be able to help you. Also there are many professionals around who are experienced in helping others make these big shifts.

Brian Tracy- Unbreakable Laws of Self Confidence- Training - Self-confidence is the key to success in all areas of life. It determines how much money you will earn, how happy you will be, the quality … all » of your relationships, your ability to attract the things you want, and more. … Your Ideal Self and Life - The Science of Self-Confidence Training Kit will help you achieve your goals! Your Future is Unlimited Perhaps the most important thing for you to realize is that whatever anyone else has done or become, you can do or become as well. …

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