Three Good Things

*This post deals with an issue that depressed people have but the advice is for everyone, so don’t think it’s only relevant to the depressed.*

When you’re depressed it can be very difficult to see any good in your life.  Even if you do see it, you can’t necessarily feel it. Good can seem distant and emotionally unconnected from you. This is horrible. You feel hopeless, useless and miserable. Yet this is an illusion. There are so many good things in our lives to be grateful for. Yet often we take them for granted even if we’re aware of them.

Here’s something we can all do this week. It shouldn’t be difficult. It’s an exercise at the shallow end of gratitude. When you go to bed pause to think over your day and recollect three good things. They don’t have to make you FEEL good. When I was depressed, NOTHING made me feel good. Even things I knew in my head I liked didn’t make me feel good. But they were good. So think of three things which were objectively good in your day. If you really can’t think of three, start with one or two. If you can think of more than three, don’t feel you have to stop. Go ahead and knock yourself out!

Try think of things specific to that day rather than general things. Three things may not seem like much, but if you’re depressed even that’s hard work, so if you make it to three, give yourself a pat on the back – seriously! Any dent in a tide of negativity is welcome.

Here’s a way to take it further. Don’t wait till bedtime. Pause during the day at a time you’ve decided in advance and think of three good things up to that point, as well as at night. The more positive awareness you get in your life, the better.

If you really want to turbocharge this practice, look out for good things during the day. Before writing I made myself a coffee and considered how many good things were involved in its making. God created coffee beans, someone hit upon the idea of harvesting, roasting them and boiling them in water. Brave soul! Imagine if they’d been poisonous! Someone else invented sweetener tablets and coffee whitener. Plus electric kettles, without which making coffee would be more hassle. Electricity, too. That was discovered and now, all around the world, people are working to generate it so we don’t have to light fires to boil water. And somebody manufactured the mug I’m drinking from. As well as the spoon I stirred it with, so I wouldn’t have to use my finger and burn it in the scalding hot water. And the water! Men gather it, clean it up and pump it into my house through pipes that other men have laid! When you think through stuff like this once in a while it expands your awareness beyond yourself. You see how a hot drink connects you with so many other people!

We can thank them and thank God. Because without the raw material the Creator made, man could do none of this. In all things we’re supposed to give thanks to God, but do we? It’s a tough ask because we’re so distracted. He realizes we are but dust. However, Christians are redeemed dust and gratitude to Him is part of that redemption.

Finding good things alone will not cure depression. But it’s a big step to see that not everything is bad. There are good things in your life. And you have someone to thank!