Self awareness is all about personal perception and self image.

To get to grips with personal growth and starting to transform our lives into what we want them to be we must face and overcome many problems.

Personal inertia, personal fear, personal doubt, personal worry and even personal depression when things do not go quite to plan.

One of the problems that affect us humans is a state of mind referred to as depression.

Exactly what is depression?

Why do we suddenly find ourselves stuck in a sea of inertia, unable to think positively, unable to hold positive thoughts, frozen in a zombie like state of inactivity?

There are many varying and conflicting explanations.

Even experts disagree on the core causes of depression and the methods of treatment, should they be palliative or something more uncompromising.

This is of course no help to the individual immersed in the thickening fog of a bout of depression.

What is certain is that the individual has to find and build from within the strength, the motivation, the wish and the will to conquer this debilitating mind set.

First of all we have to accept that we allowed ourselves to fall or as is sometimes the case drift over a period of time into this parlous way of thinking.

The trigger could have been any of a million reasons and may well have been an external stimulus over which we had no control..

The antidote however has to be found within us.

The first thing to understand is that you are not alone.

Read the newspapers and watch TV and you will over and over again hear of people you would regard as ?having everything? checking themselves into this or that clinic
for help with some problem or other.

Most people do at some time experience a period of disappointment, shattered dreams or some other personal disaster.

This then can lead them through the emotional helter-skelter of initially feeling sorry for themselves which may then develop into a serious bout of self pity which, if it is not dealt with leads them to destination depression.

What for one person may be simply an irritation can for another become the trigger which then sets off the internal self defeating process of the ?poor me? syndrome.

Why is this? Why is it that a situation which is a mild irritation for one person can lead another to almost suicidal tendencies?

The answer is because we are all different in some way.

However we may broadly speaking be divided into four categories in terms of behavioural attitude. An important step therefore to take in your search for depression self help is to identify your personal style as a first step to better understanding yourself.

Our attitudes stem from our values which are an amalgam of our life experiences to date and how we have found it best to cope with them.

Understanding yourself and why you react the way you do to situations with which you are faced is a prime initial requisite for self help with depression.

It is important that to be prepared to accept that depression is a state of mind if a person truly wants to overcome depression through self help.

Then learning, understanding and accepting that you can control what you allow to be accepted as fact by your brain is the next step.

Generally speaking nothing is ever so bad or, as good as it may at first appear. The phrase ?and this too shall pass away? may usually be applied to any situation a person may be faced with be it good or bad.

What is important is to understand that it is possible for you to move to a position where you take preventative steps to ensure that you stay clear of negatively infectious thoughts in the future.This is another positive step towards self help with depression.

Negative thoughts are the seed pearls of depression. These negative thoughts and internal video recordings of past failure and disappointment clog up your brain.

They lay there dormant just waiting for the right set of circumstances to explode into action and cloud your thinking.

The late Doctor George Hall discovered that it is possible to install a brain filter which stops any negatives from being accepted by you.

Just as you would install a virus checker or a firewall on your PC or Lap top you can install the same preventative systems in your brain. Dr. Hall, a clinical psychologist of international renown devoted his life to helping people understand who they were and then taking steps to help them become who they really wanted to be.

Dr. Hall developed a self help course called ?Human Cybernetics? it was a blueprint to follow for those who really did want to self improve and fully develop their potential in life.

I was privileged to be a student of Dr. Hall in 1975 and the tutorials he led were life changing for those of us fortunate enough to be exposed to his teachings.

Dangerous self talk he always propounded to be one of the most debilitating of activities a human being could engage in.

By replaying internal tapes of past failures and disappointments a negative self image is reinforced.

This is further reinforced through mutterings of things like ?I'm stupid?, ?why do I never get things right?? everyone dislikes me or ?I am a failure?.

Negative self talk must immediately be replaced by positive talk and visual imaginings. Those negative tapes and videos in the mind must be deleted and replaced with new images of success and achievement.

There are many self help courses available today and one place worth a visit is ww.trans4mind.com there is a huge amount of information freely available.

Why not take advantage of our FREE self-awareness questionnaire which is designed to help you focus on any deep seated negatives which may be holding you back from achieving your life dreams.

You will receive a 10,000+ word report based on your individual answers. Visit with us at www.e-trainme.com

Self help for depression is all about taking that first step to control your future thoughts and activity.

Decide today to take charge of your life and to live it as you want to and not as others would have you live it.

After all it is your life

All good thoughts

Malcolm Milligan