Why does a person lose the taste of life. Anhedonia - loss of taste for life

Quite often in the stories of clients I hear the phrase: “I don’t feel the taste of life.” This is not stated as a problem, but more often goes in the background when talking about another problem. It is known that a client comes to a psychologist not only with a problem, but also with a solution. And the task of a psychologist is to create such an atmosphere, such a space, such communication, when a person can separate the desire in the cauldron of his thoughts, see the problem that prevents the desire from being realized, and the solution.

So, by solving many issues, the “feeling of the taste” of life is just that.

To feel is about the need to restore contact with your emotions, feelings. Taste is a sensation, a signal from the body. “To taste” is also about connecting thoughts, emotions and body.

Surely you have heard the phrase: "There is no life in it" or "It is empty, lifeless." What do these phrases mean? From physics we know about the Law of Conservation of Energy and that energy exists in the form of motion. If primitive, what does not move - stagnates and begins to smell. Energy cannot be at rest, that is the law. If it does not move towards creation, then it begins to move towards destruction.

Taste of life and your age

Thus, in order to feel the taste of life, to regain interest in life, you need to figure out where your life energy is moving and, if necessary, direct its flow in a constructive direction. When people ask me: “How to restore interest in life after 30 years?”, “How to restore interest in life after 40 years?”, “How to restore interest in life after 50 years?”, I answer that age does not matter. You need to figure out where the life force, energy is flowing or where it is blocked.

Negative thoughts and words lead to energy leakage. If you are honest with yourself, you can inspect your thoughts and words and begin to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. For example, instead of complaining about health and savoring the topics of diseases, you can talk about a healthy lifestyle, or at least avoid talking about diseases. If the state of health is not yet very good, you can answer the question about how you feel: “I don’t feel very well.” Notice the difference - "bad" and "not very good". Positive change will begin the moment you stop expressing negative thoughts.

Energy blocks are formed when emotions, feelings are not lived through (they arose, but for some reason did not find a way out). These blocks (clips) are visible even visually in the body. It is not so easy to understand on your own, to separate one feeling from another, to determine to whom the emotion is directed. In psychological consultations, I help to determine where life energy is blocked, remove blocks and allow energy to flow freely, easily, towards constructive changes, allowing you to regain balance in life and experience different feelings, including interest and joy.

The state of fullness and emptiness is influenced by awareness, integrity, living one's own life. Do you know that when you realize YOUR desires and live YOUR life, you are filled, you receive additional energy from outside, high-quality and powerful energy, and when you realize other people's desires, do not understand yourself and your needs, live someone else's life, you spend and drain your energy. You have to work very hard to produce more energy, but it is spent again. Hence the apathy, depression, a sense of futility. Someone may say: “This is selfishness. But what about mercy, helping loved ones, etc.? Good deeds can be done both out of a state of fullness and love (I want and can do this), or out of lack and a feeling of pity (I must). I am not advocating that good deeds be abandoned. Mercy remains mercy, no matter what state it comes from. But doing good deeds from a state of fullness is much more effective, more pleasant, more useful. Then this activity itself turns into an inexhaustible source of energy. In general, when a person gives up his own desires and lives a “non-own” life, he always has excuses and so-called secondary benefits. After all, in fact, admitting to yourself that you betrayed yourself all your life is not so easy. For example, it might look like this: "I wanted to be an actress, but my own illness (son's alcoholism, volunteering, etc.) took up all my time, there was no time for that." There is a lot of slyness in this phrase and cause and effect are mixed up in places. True desires can be hidden from the person himself. I wrote about some of the reasons in articles,. At certain periods of life, contact with desires may be lost, as there is a reassessment of values, the old system dies off and a new one is born (article). My main task as a psychologist-consultant is precisely to help you understand yourself, your needs and desires and start living YOUR life.

What to do if life is no longer interesting

To everyone who has become uninteresting in life and has no energy, I offer a few tips on maintaining energy balance. These tips will concern all three of our components - the body, emotions, thoughts. So:

• give up negative statements and learn to give thanks;
• interact more with nature. Anything that you like to do is suitable: walking in the park, in the forest, stroking a cat, walking a dog, watching a stream flow, admiring the starry sky, etc. Interacting with nature, we find ourselves in a space of smooth lines, which is necessary for the normal movement of energy;
• learn to be calm. In a tense form, we hold back the movement of energy. Really deep peace can be achieved only by understanding yourself. Knowing yourself step by step, you can notice how anxieties are released, and peace comes in their place.
• get creative. Creativity involves the right hemisphere of the brain, the area of ​​the unconscious. Creativity brings us a double benefit - it fills us with calmness and reveals our inner potential. It's not about doing something professionally. The main thing is to do something with pleasure.
• pamper your body. Our body also has memory and language and is able to interact with emotions and thoughts. If the body is “enough”, it transmits a calm signal to the brain, the thoughts in the head subside, and positive emotions arise.
• expand the boundaries of your knowledge. Direct your energy to the study and knowledge of both the world around us and ourselves. It's so exciting!

And I also invite you to. At them, participants learn to restore contact with their bodies, with their feelings, learn to understand people, perform practices and fill up with energy. What gives communication in this format is difficult to convey in words. It fills. And it needs to be felt. Join now!

Your psychologist, Larisa Artamonova

It's no secret that people believe in the existence of Good and Evil. Some are even tormented by the question of when Good will finally defeat Evil. The answer is simple - never! Don't you understand that if "white" wins over "black", then the latter will disappear along with "white". "White" cannot live without "black", they can only appear together! Like Yin and Yang!

The world around us is complete. This is a system in which everything is in its place, everything is needed for something, there is nothing superfluous! Human thinking is discrete, and since the time of Adam and Eve, people have been trying to divide the world into "good" and "evil", into "good" and "bad".

From birth, we are told who is who and what is what - thus forming a "basic package" of beliefs in relation to this world. We often take pride in our beliefs without even realizing that they have been forced on us. And this could be reconciled if these beliefs did not interfere with our happiness. Beliefs, filtering out the supposedly unnecessary, often do not allow us to discover a very useful and necessary "taste" of this world.

If someone is convinced that life is difficult, then it will be so - it is very difficult to live easily, treating life as a test. The other one is sure "You can't even pull a fish out of a pond without difficulty"- he will have to pay for everything in this life himself, he will not allow the world to give him a gift. Well, if there is confidence that luck is an accident, then luck will happen only sometimes ...

Do you want to live "tasty", become richer, more successful, happier? Understand that the limits are only in your head! These are those non-constructive beliefs with which you used to run away from the diversity of this world ... But you can’t run away from yourself. Isn't it time for a reboot?

Request stop…

Listen to your inner dialogue. Have you ever wondered why we can't stop and not think? It is dangerous for our self-esteem not to think. The world is actually not the way we see it, and so that our "image of the World" does not crumble into its component parts, we have to constantly say to ourselves the "main plot" of Life. And if we find not very beautiful words to describe the world, then our world becomes just as ugly.

The world does not help us in achieving the Goals, often not because the goals are bad or we do not deserve them. It's just that the world can't figure out which of these thoughts is the Goal. After all, it is human nature to think even without the need. Hundreds of desires are intertwined in our head with a thousand fears. Try to write down your desires, fears, neutral thoughts on paper, and then sort them by topic, prioritize ... How long will it take you?

Now imagine how horrified your subconscious is from your word mixer! How difficult is it for the subconscious mind to understand what is important for you, what is secondary, and what is just rubbish? Now do you understand why not what we wanted often comes true? Learn to stop thinking for a few minutes a day. Just be! Only in inner silence is it possible to hear the "whisper" of Intuition! Only then will hints be given to you and the signs placed on your way will be correctly understood!

Happiness is already here! But where are you?

Our thinking is linear. In pursuit of happiness, moving towards the goal, we move away from ourselves, thinking about our plans. We are striving towards the "horizon line", thinking that Happiness is somewhere there ... We were brought up in such a way that any achievement is perceived as a path from ourselves to some goal ...

Alas, this is another unhelpful belief. Sometimes, in order to achieve something, you just have to stay. Happiness is already here! The problem is, we're not here! We are not in the moment...

Happiness cannot be in the past - the past already no. Happiness cannot be in the future - there is no future yet. Happiness can only be in the present! And how does the average person live - either the past or the future. Remembering and hoping...

You can feel the Taste of Life only at the moment. So start doing it! Right now, after reading these lines, inhale deeply, stretch, feeling the whole aroma of sensations from what you have done. Do it against the backdrop of a sense of gratitude that you are! Just eat, no strings attached!

Enema for the subconscious ...

Nature created us "in its own image and likeness" - as integral as the whole world around us. That is why we have everything - both good and bad. But it just so happened that we, by default, want to be good. Therefore, we are forced to hide everything that we consider evil. It is not difficult to hide something from prying eyes, but here's how to hide it from yourself ...

Here you either need to dig very deep in order to forget over time, or engage in self-deception, like, "this never happened." Therefore, everything that from our point of view was "bad", we do not want to see, hear and feel. We carefully and deeply rammed all this into our subconsciousness - out of sight, out of mind.

But the "garbage bin" is not bottomless. The time will surely come when the torn away part of the whole world will make itself felt. Feelings and emotions that we once did not dare to show, which we suppressed within ourselves for years, will manifest themselves either in nightmares or as symptoms of diseases. Strive to regularly remove the psychological "garbage" from the "kitchen" of your Life.

Chain mail from happiness ...

Think about what tool you use to feel happiness? Is this tool in working order? Suddenly it has deteriorated or does not work at full capacity? So, happiness we are all the same feel, we feel, and therefore it is not a fact that a second higher education will help us in this matter. We feel happiness through the receptors of the body.

And if the body is in chronic tension, if the body is sick, what kind of happiness can we talk about? Subtle, positive vibrations of happiness cannot break through the "muscle armor" of a stressed body. Try not to relax on the couch at the massage therapist, but to shrink, strain all the muscles. Do you enjoy a lot?

A tense person, with a blocked body, cannot fully receive impressions from Life. Shades of happiness are lost, the aroma of contact with the world becomes flat, with a touch of gloominess ... That's when it seems to us that the world has put us on the black list, but in fact everything is in our hands. If we do not feel the Taste of Life, then, most likely, it is not the world's fault. We need to find ways to “unblock” our body, release muscle clamps, allow the body to be spontaneous… The sun shines for everyone, we just need to figure out how to get out of the shadow…

Awakening Instincts

Ethologists say that man is just a "conceited mammal". And all his "arrogance" is that he decided that he was no longer controlled by instincts. Then think about it - where is our intuition, the memory of the family, our innate qualities? Can you develop all this by training the intellect?

By betraying instincts, we lose the most significant connection with nature. We do not even realize that our instinctive nature determines our way of thinking, type of intelligence, our behavior and even sexual preferences. Most of our life choices are not determined by the mind, although the latter is excellent and justifies the deed.

For example, finding a job by vocation is often associated with the work of the intellect, although, from my point of view, one should ask one's feelings about this. With the help of the mind, we can find a high-paying job, but we are unlikely to feel happy about it.

It is much more useful to choose your favorite business, and with the help of reason make it profitable. If you're lucky and you find own business that matches your inner being, then your brain biochemistry will automatically balance. Nature rewards us so much for fulfilling its Mission! This will lead to a spontaneous sense of well-being. You just need to get into your niche, the path. You just need to be in your place, nature will do the rest!

We, like any other person, have what we want deep down. We are not talking about those superficial things that we "allegedly want", but about deeper values, the need for which we sometimes do not admit even to ourselves. It is very important to decide on them in a timely manner in order to feel the Taste of Life.

Afterword…

Oddly enough, but in order for a disease to come into our Life, nothing special needs to be done. You live, you live. Once - and I fell ill ... But in order for health to come into our Life, we have to regularly and consistently take some steps: engage in physical education, eat right, think positively ... That's how cunningly this world works!

The same happens with our personal Happiness! To please the Taste of Life, it is not enough to be healthy - you need constant tuning of thoughts, feelings and emotions in the body and deed! To do this, you need to be not just an optimist, you need to find those "points of application of power" that are indicated in the article, and which in the future can become a guide to action! Once again, "run through" this article with your eyes - from beginning to end. Realize what you can do now? To be in the moment? Change your posture to relax and feel better about your body? Letting go of the mind so it can calm down?

Write down, while you have free time, what useful books you were recommended to read, but you still have not done so. Or maybe get a diary now and schedule some kind of psychological seminar or training? To Live Tasty! To teach this to your children!

The other day I recalled a conversation between a psychotherapist and a client: “Doctor, you are all about emotions. Is it possible without them at all? To feel nothing at all? Can. There is just nothing good about it. This condition even has a name - anhedonia.

Anhedonia is an abnormal state of mind in which a person loses the ability to rejoice, enjoy and enjoy. In a word, it ceases to enjoy life at all. Becomes dull, loses motivation. Does the usual things automatically, like a robot.

For the first time, this term was introduced by the French psychologist Theodule Ribot, describing the psychological state of patients suffering from liver diseases. The psychiatrists Kraepelin and Bleuler began to use it to describe the emotional disturbances in schizophrenia. Soon, studies showed that anhedonia was not a sign of schizophrenia, but a consequence of mental abnormalities. Scientists also noticed that the disease also occurs with somatic disorders.

Causes of anhedonia

chronic stress. People who are in chronic stress are constantly tense, overly sensitive, painfully endure criticism, forget how to relax, they are not happy about weekends, because after them they have to work. Holidays are infuriating and exhausting: “again you have to cook something, invite guests, wash the dishes after them”, “again you have to look for new clothes, gifts”, etc. They also usually suffer from insomnia and cannot restore their strength in any way .

The tendency to load oneself with problems (one's own and others'). This is usually characteristic of conscientious, honest, responsible and anxious individuals. Such people are used to relying only on themselves, they decide everything on their own. If it doesn't work out, they only blame themselves for the failures. They strive to do everything as best as possible and, if again it doesn’t work out, they fall ill with pessimism for a long time.

Mental disorders. For example, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, depersonalization (when a person sees himself as if from the outside).

Medical therapy. Sometimes anhedonia occurs as a result of improperly selected antipsychotics for treatment. The drug in such cases must necessarily have an antidepressant effect.

Let's find out what people with anhedonia say.

“I was a positive, energetic person, creative work, and I liked everything. Now I communicate with people with difficulty, since the conversation is only with my head without an emotional charge. Even communication with relatives does not bring pleasure, because I don’t feel anything ... I seem to be without a soul ... ”

“I used to travel all over the country and was not afraid of anything, I was brave, had many friends, and now ... Now I just sleep, eat, work and I’m afraid of everything ... I don’t communicate with anyone, I’m afraid of people, sometimes even go out . I can’t buy clothes for myself, I don’t take a taxi, sometimes it’s scary to ride a minibus, because there are people there ... I’m just a cornered rabbit who lives only because he has to, and there is no strength to get out.

The impetus for the development of anhedonia can be a difficult life situation (loss of a loved one, betrayal of the second half, loss of work), when the psyche has a hard time, its reserves are exhausted and there is a feeling that you have turned from a person into a soulless robot.

How to recognize anhedonia?

How to distinguish this state from the usual "disliked"? If in “I didn’t like it” the priorities simply change: “I used to love to embroider, now I like to draw,” then with anhedonia, everything stops liking. Gradually.

There are several stages in the development of anhedonia:

Stage 1. Bored of any business, hobby. Then they stop being happy.

Stage 2. Further, a person is surprised to find that he is not happy with life in general - neither travel, nor shopping, nor communication with friends (social anhedonia). A person perceives work only as a means of earning. Love for loved ones disappears. And it's very scary. Also at this stage, orgasmic anhedonia can join - the loss of positive emotions from intimate life.

Stage 3. Emotions have to be imitated so as not to frighten others (for example, joy when meeting them, empathy with their grief).

Stage 4. I don't want to dream. At all.

Mechanism of anhedonia

The pleasure center in the brain turns off, which leads to a complete or partial loss of the ability to experience joy and express positive emotions. With a lack of joy hormones, a person sometimes seeks to fill them with artificial stimulants, but the problem only gets worse.

How to get rid of anhedonia?

If the cause of anhedonia is mental disorders, they get rid of it with medications and psychotherapy. If anhedonia appeared due to other reasons (see the beginning of the article), you can overcome it yourself.

Nutrition necessarily! Even if depression, anhedonia and do not want anything. Otherwise, you fall into a vicious circle: do not eat, because you are in a bad mood, and do not recover, because the necessary substances do not enter the body. Nutrition should be balanced, rich in vitamins and minerals. Include more fruits, vegetables, dairy products, nuts, honey, beef, poultry, seafood in your diet. If there are problems in the genital area, add garlic, chili peppers to food, drink jasmine tea.

Dream at least eight hours a day. And besides, it is important to go to bed on the wrong day when you have to get up.

Job. Often anhedonia affects those who work hard. These people don't have free time. Most of the time they are at work, gradually forgetting that you can enjoy simple little things. Moreover, income growth does not compensate for positive emotions. In the end, even the strongest player fails. But no one wants to become a karoshi (Japanese for "professional death", "death by overwork"), right? Then urgently adjust the working hours. If you have anhedonia, it is extremely dangerous to work more than eight hours a day. Set priorities in business, remove some of the responsibilities, find assistants for yourself, do not bring work home - there are a lot of options.

Search for joy. Be sure to look for something from which you get joy, even the smallest. For example, from a massage, cooking an unusual dish, contemplating the dawn, viewing childhood photos, etc. Write down your pleasant sensations and return to them again and again. The main thing is to break through the "mental armor".

If it is difficult to decide, you should talk to your subconscious. In a relaxed atmosphere, ask yourself questions: “What would be good for me now?”, “What do I need to become happy?” etc. Memorize or write down all the answers that come to mind. Even the most ridiculous and unrealistic ones.

Physical activity

• Walks. Go outside more often, walk, observe nature, animals, birds. Fresh air improves mood.
• Sports increase the level of the hormone of joy - dopamine. And therefore it is not necessary to refuse him, even if you do not feel the same love for him. Try sports that give you an adrenaline rush: skydiving, bungee jumping. Adrenaline brings back the taste for life.
• Dance movement therapy will relieve bodily clamps. Turn on the music and dance. If it is difficult / ashamed in front of yourself, close your eyes and surrender to the rhythm. Wave your arms, squirm, take big steps, listen to your feelings and let go of all thoughts. Enjoy movement and freedom - freedom from problems. Of course, you can’t get away from them, but there is so much beauty in the world, you don’t have to go far.
• If necessary, you can contact a psychologist, a psychotherapist who deals with the "corporeal".

Communication. If you have not suffered social phobia, it's time to establish social contacts. Without them, in any way, we are not hermits. Don't stay long with your thoughts. Communicate with relatives, friends, colleagues on abstract topics, try not to quarrel with them, do not make excessive demands on them.

Other utilities. Put your house in order, clear the rubble. Throw away or give away what you don't need, sell it, exchange it for a chocolate bar. There are many groups on the Internet for fun sharing and nice give-and-take meetings. Get in the game!

Give up things, deeds and actions that you can do without. For example, instead of driving across town to comfort a friend who was dumped by her 20th boyfriend, go to the movies instead. Or instead of standing in a long line at the bank, master the system of online payments and make transactions at home.

When the world turns gray and indifference overshadows all feelings, the surest way out is to find something to your liking.

Why does the desire to dream and create suddenly disappear?

Joy inspires and gives a sense of the fullness of life. But suddenly something breaks - and she leaves. Do you know the feeling of hopelessness and apathy? To deal with it, you need to understand its true cause.

Fatigue – the simplest and most common reason why the world around us ceases to be enjoyable. Feelings are dulled, everything seems gray and monotonous. And the only recipe in this case is how to relax.

Sometimes we think that we live very boringly. “The artists (showmen, politicians, journalists…) have an interesting and eventful life, not like mine,” we think. The paradox is that writers, artists, actors, and pop stars are all equally tired of what they do every day. Whoever you are, from time to time you need to break out of everyday reality and change the picture. Take a vacation and go away - to another city, another country. Free yourself from your usual routine. Breathe in the air of freedom. Learn new things. Often this step is able to restore strength and bring back the joy of each day.

But it happens that the blues becomes chronic. Complete disappointment, unwillingness to do anything, awareness of the meaninglessness of life - these are the symptoms of this state. “We lose joy in one case: when we cannot use life to satisfy our needs,” says psychoanalytic therapist Eduard Livinsky. - A person perceives the world through the prism of what he can influence. And if he satisfies other people's desires and sacrifices his own, he feels frustration. And that's how we're raised! You go to work where no one is going to think about your personal needs. You live in a society that is focused on the accumulation of capital, and if you have other values, you have to break yourself. Joy is always the joy of one's own doing, activity for oneself among like-minded people.

6 ways to shake things up and want to live

If everyday life has become insipid, you need to look for a way to diversify them. Just do not sit back: apathy does not go away on its own!

Go on a trip. Change of environment and new experiences expand the boundaries of perception. All sensations become several times sharper. And there is time to think about what, in fact, is important to you.

Get a pet. Caring for a small defenseless creature - even a turtle - gives each of us the necessary feeling of being needed. The animal depends entirely on the owner: you will begin to receive joy when you feed it, stroke it, communicate with it.

Go to church for a service. Even if you are not a religious person, try to stand the service, listen to prayers and understand yourself better. People often find peace and harmony after attending church. It's not even about the ceremony, but about returning to yourself.

Think of a new hobby. Ask yourself: what is important for you, what have you always wanted to do and what have you denied yourself? And take this step: sign up for a dance or theater studio, start learning professional photography. There is nowhere else to put it off.

Start a mini-repair at home. At least rearrange the furniture and re-paste the wallpaper. Firstly, you will undoubtedly be distracted, and secondly, transforming and renewing your home, you yourself will want to renew yourself internally.

Help someone who is in trouble. When we do good, we always feel joy. We are changing, becoming cleaner and brighter. A visit to a sick friend, helping her mother, a few kind words to a neighbor ... And, maybe, volunteer work.

Pamper the body - thaw the soul

Bodily pleasures can be excellent therapy for apathy. To do this, turn ordinary procedures into a pleasant ritual. The simplest things that we often do in a hurry can give moments of genuine joy. For example, peeling: there is so much bliss and sensuality in the treatment of the body with a fragrant scrub! The same can be said about Ayurveda's favorite oiling ritual, for which any slightly warmed oil will do (you can take olive oil and add a few drops of essential oil to your taste). It makes sense to take a course of oil massage or several sessions of stone therapy - massage with heated stones. During such procedures, we focus on our sensations and learn to enjoy touch and tactile contact. The body relaxes, unnecessary thoughts go away along with tension. We take care of ourselves - and this gives us confidence!

With a taste of sadness

There are times when sadness just rolls over. Psychologists advise not to hide from her under fake fun, but to fully experience emotions.

• LISTEN TO YOURSELF. If at this moment you feel sadness and longing, surrender to these difficult feelings in full. You are entitled to them.
• FIND THE RIGHT JOB. Maybe it's time to watch a sentimental movie or flip through your ten-year-old diary. Or just cry into your pillow. By the way, tears act cleansing.
• THINK THAT IT WILL PASS. No matter how bad it is, you should always look for a thread that you can cling to. This thread is our hope for tomorrow, that everything will change for the better and we will be in great shape. Think about the good even in the most difficult periods - and it will certainly happen to you!

Pick up a brush

Express your feelings in creativity and understand the essence of the problem that worries you, enables art therapy (“healing by art”), a method of psychotherapy that has become popular in recent years. Spleen, apathy, lack of interest in life are direct indications for her. The simplest technique is to try to express your emotions in a drawing.

Depict, for example, your anguish, and then your joy - and compare these two pictures, mentally transferring yourself to the field of joy. If you are overwhelmed with negative emotions, you can even create a sculpture from paper, old newspapers, pieces of wallpaper, and then paint it in sunny colors - try to transform the negative into a positive. How good is art therapy? Firstly, you express your emotions, which means that they do not accumulate inside you. Secondly, you pull the problem out and distance yourself from it. And thirdly, the creative process itself is healing, which will capture you entirely! In addition to isotherapy, there are many other techniques: music, dance, fairy tale, photo, game, drama and even sand therapy.

sitting at home

After a difficult operation, I lost faith in myself and in life.

One day, my mother brought a set for creating figures from beads. Without inspiration, I started making a heron. But the whole process took over. Soon I ordered books on beading on the Internet and now I create wonderful things. No time to grieve. Stranger Yoli

Where to look for life energy

To return the world of color, you need to start doing something. Not for anyone, for yourself. Find the area where your efforts will be fruitless. Seeing the result of your work, you will want to live again!

The work that does not bring joy and serves only to earn money, relationships in which the sharpness of feelings has long been dulled, constant employment and haste, many small household chores ... How to break this vicious circle? You need to find an area where you can fully realize your abilities, and the perception of life will change.

the main task any of us - to allow our "I" to do something valuable for itself. Therefore, any activity that brings you pleasure can get rid of the blues! The most difficult thing remains: to find something for the soul. The trouble is that often we deactivate our own "I" so much that it loses the ability to create desires. Psychologists recommend in this case to remember what brought you joy in childhood. Sewing outfits for dolls, creating collages, sculpting, drawing - after all, it was definitely an exciting activity. And then cast aside doubts and false shame (say, I'm no longer a child) and indulge in your favorite business! Even if you don't feel inspired at first.

Very important don't lock yourself in. Find people with similar problems so that you have someone to talk to. Search for those who share your hobbies, since now it is easy to do using the Internet. But communication should not be limited to the virtual world: it is imperative to go out into reality!

Each of us needs for his work to be appreciated and accepted by others. Therefore, find an opportunity to participate in those collective events where your activity will be welcomed! “A single person can go on a group tour of the city: a friendly atmosphere, an exchange of opinions - and now you are no longer alone! It is enough for a young mother, who thinks that life is passing her by, to organize a holiday at home, invite friends with children - and she will perk up, advises Eduard Livinsky. “A life without meaning is a sure road to depression.”

Set goals for yourself and reach them, and this activity will bring you out of an emotional stupor. Write down five goals focused on your own needs - what you will do for the soul and good mood.

IMPORTANT!

Any communication with children will bring you pleasure and sincere joy if you put aside all business and completely devote some time to the child. Teach him something, discover a new meaning for his favorite activities. Nothing makes us more happy than the success of our children.

Give children joy

The most common cause of apathy and depression is infantilism. A person expects that life will give him all the joys, not wanting to act on his own. Meanwhile, life requires effort, otherwise it turns into a swamp. Look for new meanings of existence for yourself. One of them may be caring for children who have no parents. If you are single and not too happy right now, give some warmth to those who really need it! Coming to the nearest orphanage on a weekend and reading a fairy tale to the kids, talking to older children - this will not require any special costs. But the return can be very strong. You will feel that someone needs you, that someone is happy for you, someone is waiting for you. So, there is a meaning to life!

The Art of Gratitude

Any person feels happy when his efforts are accepted, whether at work, in the family.

Imagine that you cooked a delicious dinner, having spent the whole day at the stove, and your relatives ate it with lean faces and did not even thank you - where can you rejoice? Therefore, at home - in our microcosm, where we ourselves establish orders - we need to cultivate a culture of gratitude.

Teach your children, your husband, and learn to appreciate what you have done for yourself. Say "thank you!" Feeling this warm feeling inside of you. And thank life for what it gives you.

Experience difficulties. And with honor to overcome!

Everything is fine, but everything is tired - the spleen of satiety, you can’t say otherwise. She is being treated!

Live in extreme conditions. For example, go camping with tents. The world will turn upside down. You will start to notice things that you didn't notice before. And many problems will be unimportant.

Start running. At least 3 km per day. It is not easy to break away from the TV - the favorite pastime of all the blues. But what joy you will feel every time after the end of the run! Including the fact that while running, endorphins are released into the bloodstream.

My niece brought me out of apathy

Two years ago Diana from Poltava (26 years old) was in a serious depression. She, pregnant, was left by a loved one. She lost her child from frustration. And these were not all the trials that fell to her lot!

At first everything went great. Upon learning that I was expecting a child, Denis proposed to me. We had already invited guests to the wedding, when suddenly at night we quarreled over a trifle. And Denis ... disappeared. And I soon ended up in the hospital. The baby was not saved.

I hated men. She lived in chronic apathy. Nothing made me happy. I went to work only because I had to live on something. One day I was walking home tired and thought: “I want to go to the hospital with a sore throat.” Our negative attitudes come true: I slipped unsuccessfully and ended up in intensive care. I was paralyzed, the doctors said that now I will lie down. But a miracle happened: I got to my feet. I was discharged from the hospital, knowing that for three years I could not become pregnant.

My sister just had a daughter. And she called me to her place in Kiev.

She offered to change her life and stay with her, help with Karina. At first I refused, and six months later I quit my job and moved in with my sister. At first I was afraid to touch the baby. But soon she easily changed her diapers and could stay with her for the whole day. Communication with this sun energized me. We walked with her for a long time, played, I read books to her. Somehow I caught myself thinking that I want the same miracle! Karina taught me to smile again. The depression has passed. Now I am looking for a job in the capital and I hope to arrange a personal life.

Caring, we find harmony

Caring for plants and animals is a guaranteed way to love the world again. In Haruki Murakami's acclaimed book Norwegian Forest, the main character Naoko, years after losing a loved one, finds herself in a closed medical institution in the mountains. People who have lost their taste for life - people like her - are treated there not with medicines, but with simple activities: growing vegetables, floriculture and poultry farming.

Working near the earth, in contact with its creations, watching how sprouts break through, how fruits ripen, a person draws strength and is charged with vital energy, forgetting about his mental traumas. This "primitive" activity, despite all the achievements of scientific and technological progress, remains the most natural for us. But where can a city dweller look for a vegetable garden or a farm? A good way out is the cultivation of flowers. This hobby does not require a lot of money, but allows you to fully experience the joy of communicating with nature. Flowers are beautiful, they awaken in us a sense of beauty. Caring for them, we free our heads from annoying thoughts, relax and rest from the hustle and bustle.

Your sources of inspiration

We are sad when we lack something. And we rejoice when we feel connected with the world and other people. And for this you need not to engage in self-digging, but to strive to learn new things, to see the world in all its colors. And feel that you are alive!

nature observation brings joy because it is alive. And depression is nothing more than a loss of life dynamics. Therefore, the contemplation of nature restores. You watch how the trees bloom, clouds float, insects swarm, and you understand: life flows regardless of our petty everyday misfortunes. Against this bewitching background, their problems seem insignificant. And nature also instills faith that you can do something as important and natural as a blooming flower or a bee carrying nectar.

Art inspires and demonstrates the diversity of life, showing that not everything around us is gray and monotonous. It also “allows” us to have our own emotions, pushing us to feel, experience, ignite. Indeed, in essence, art is emotions poured into sounds, colors, movements. Depression always starts with fear of your feelings.

Books and films with a positive story, dedicated to overcoming obstacles, inspire confidence in their own strength. If the hero coped with the difficulties, then you can do it too! Joy goes away because we cannot process the situation, we get stuck in it. And someone else's example shows: there is a way out, you have to look for it! And the only question is how to do it. If you can’t find a way out yourself, you should talk with a friend, a psychologist, any person who will help you look at the problem from the outside. And make sure: there is something to rejoice in life!

Beautiful landscapes cause unconscious joy, so use every opportunity to be in nature. Alternate active rest with meditation or contemplation of awakening nature. Rejoice in spring!

4 books that will set you up for positive

Osho. Hsin Hsin Ming: The Book of Nothing

Our mind creates dreams. To wake up and experience true joy, you need to go beyond the mind. Osho tells how to "turn off" the stereotypes imposed by culture, free yourself from the need for choice and begin to live an authentic life.

Anna Gavalda. Just together

A kind, wise and life-affirming novel about love and how to find joy in everyday life. All the characters, at first lonely, find their happiness at the end of the story. And one of its important components is to help another in difficult times.

Sue Townsend. The Diaries of Adrian Mole

Incredibly funny book, not leaving the bestseller list, about the adventures of an English teenager prone to blues and who considers himself an intellectual and a talented poet. Sparkling!

Viktor Frankl. Man in search of meaning

An Austrian psychiatrist describes his personal experience of surviving in a concentration camp and shows that even in the most terrible conditions, one can find an incentive to continue life. A serious book that can turn your worldview upside down.