Finding and Staying in Your Happy Place

from Anisa Aven's Creative Manifesting newsletter which i subscribe to (click on the title above for the link)--

Here are seven simple spiritual exercises to naturally release depression:
(Not in order of importance)

1 - Meditate!
Don't tell yourself that you've tried it and it just doesn't work for you. Meditation is a learned skill that anyone can do, with time, patience and practice; you absolutely can achieve the promise of being closer to God through meditation. Meditation is a simple act of releasing your thoughts and communing with God. This one act alone can support you in achieving that state of serenity and peaceful acceptance that is crucial to manifesting what you want easily and effortlessly.
The resource that I recommend is The HoloySync Program.

2 - Seek out things that feel good!
Anything that you can do to feel better; to get your attention upon what you have to be grateful for, what you have to be joyous about is going to set you on the path of feeling better.

If you feel good when you hold a baby, then volunteer at a woman's shelter, a child advocates organization, or an orphanage.

If you feel good when you are out in nature, then MAKE time every day to sit under a tree and listen to the birds.

If you feel good when you read a good book, then MAKE time every day to enjoy a chapter.

If you used to love memorizing jokes when you were a kid, go to the library and read joke books.

If you used to love to paint, pick up a "paint-by-the-numbers-kit" and begin painting.

3 - Remember Your Alamo! Keep a Victory log!

You want to remember that every day that you are alive, you do something each day, that someone, somewhere didn't have the good fortune to do! Therefore, remember your personal accomplishments and the things you have to be grateful for! Do this by keeping a victory log. Write in your log every day a minimum of 3 accomplishments. It doesn't matter how small they are, write them down. They can be past accomplishments or current, but you are not allowed to sleep until you can write down 3 things that you are proud of yourself for, every day!

4 - Use Emotional Freedom Technique to eliminate your fears, doubts, worries, and your shameful, guilty, or apathetic thoughts and emotions.

In just 3 minutes, you can use this simple, tapping with intentions on your body's meridian points to eliminate your negative thoughts. If you visit Gary Craig's site, there are tons of testimonials about individuals healing their short-term and even life long bouts of depression.

Try these Releasing statements:
Even though I feel depressed and don't know why.
Even though I feel worried that my negative thoughts are going to poison my creative abilities.
Even though I feel anxious because I know I'm sabotaging my own success.
Even though I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Try these Implanting statements:
.I choose to be willing to let these thoughts and feelings go.
.I choose to trust in the Divine for complete and total healing, now.
.I choose to courageously and boldly do what must be done, now.
.I choose to be optimistic.
.I choose to make peace with what is.

5 - Use Dr. David Hawkin's Map of Consciousness
Using his map, you can intentionally walk yourself up the vibrational scale, transcending the lower level, depressed thoughts and emotions and raising your consciousness to a place of peace, joy, love, and tranquility. The more you do this, the easier it becomes, and the faster you'll get there next time.

6 - Launch a happy Daily Living Vision
Every day, launch a living vision that includes what you want your everyday emotional well-being to look like.

For example:

I am so grateful to experience such joy in my everyday existence. I am free to be me and I feel at peace with what is at all times. Just this morning, as I was sipping my soothing cup of coffee, I was listening to the birds and feeling so happy about simply being alive and well. I don't know what tomorrow will hold, but I do know that I feel more and more at peace and in joy, every day. I know that I was born to be happy and I claim this as my normal level of existence from this point forward. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be so loving towards others and to be so loved. I am inspired to be at the right place, at the right time to make a difference, to make my life count even in the smallest of ways. I acknowledge my greatness and I give thanks! I claim peace, joy, love, and harmony to be my moment to moment _expression!

7 - Pray!

Find time to ask God to support you in your desire for fulfillment, peace, serenity and joy. Your prayers will always be answered when you hand it over. SurRender to what is by accepting all things as perfect and then hand your fears, worries, doubts, and all levels of anxiety over to the omnipotent presence of God.

I know from personal experience, that when we are depressed, it's hard to make ourselves get out, exercise, eat right etc. However, this is what is required to begin building a mass of positive intentions that is larger than the mass of negative, depressed thoughts. Your work is to release your limitedness and accept your unlimitedness. Seek the presence of God within through your spiritual pursuits, and any and all depression will be removed. It is impossible to realize your unlimitedness and simultaneously feel depressed - the two cannot co-exist.