Anti-depression suggestion (2)

I posted a suggestion about ensuring that you are taking a daily multivitamin once a day, so you can be certain that you are getting the required daily amount of vitamin B family. Here is another suggestion for people coping with depression.

Replace one half hour of your television time each day with reading from a non-fiction book about a subject you enjoy. I recommend that this be a real book made out of paper, and not one on the Internet. And it should be non-fiction, not fiction. Here's why.

In a span of less than 50 years people have been yanked from a world that was reality based (and this is not a political statement, I just mean that people had little time for fictional entertainment or exposure to concepts outside of their immediate reality) to a world that is saturated with theory. The human brain simply is not structured to process theoretical behavior and ideas in a healthy way over a period of hours. So many of people's jobs are related toward providing a "service" that is separate from the physical reality of how one would like to actually be living. So much of the media is structured to provide theoretical ideas, products you might or not obtain, lifestyles that you might or might not enjoy. It used to be viewed as "escapism" and "relaxation" but it has ceased to be so, because it is now a trap of unreality.

I'm suggesting a once a day 30 minute enjoyable detox from fictional reality. Use the time you would otherwise watch TV to turn it off, or go into a room where it is not on, and the same with the computer, and relax with a book on a non fiction subject. Find something you really enjoy, such as a gardening book, cooking, photography, art, history, language, travel, fishing, sports, nature, pets..... so long as it is real (your feelings or consumerism are not being manipulated by the material, nor is a 'story' being told... you don't need to hear another story... you need some enjoyable reality.) So get a book, even if it's only photos, though I recommend substantial text so that you are actually reading and not leafing. This will help the retraining of your brain's pathways and sensitivity. There are great non fiction books everywhere. For example, years ago I enjoyed a book that documented a botanist searching for roses that were widespread a hundred years ago, but not found today. It was like a gardening adventure book. I'd avoid biographies or autobiographies as such for this exercise because nowadays they are marketing and manipulative... even the best of them is pushing a message. I'm trying to get you to spend 30 minutes retraining your brain reading something that is not pushing a message. Don't use this time for your faith based reading or devotions, or select books with those subjects for this 30 minute time. I'll write suggestions about faith based reading later. Here I'm narrowly focusing on some of the day to day perceptions that your brain is forced to make when it is saturated by theoretical material.

Some depression is fueled by your brain's God given and natural attempt to reconnect and anchor to an enjoyable reality, one that is very sparse the way society and communications are structured today. By having 30 minutes of non fiction enjoyable reading each day, you'll be training your brain to reach out for an enjoyable reality and indeed finding that anchor. It's strengthening pathways that have been under attack and weakened. Give it a try.