How to Stop Being Depressed (and Start Being Awesome)

1. How to stop being depressed due to a breakup --

The loss of a short relationship can be a source of sadness, and even more so, the loss of one longer-term.

You must know how to stop being depressed as soon as possible.

Note that in this scenario, the breakup is a source of mourning over the relationship and over the person with whom you are no longer with.

A great deal of time can be spent thinking about the past with this person, thinking about what they are doing, wondering why you cannot change their minds, or even worse trying to change their mind by some mystical meditation.

When you are depressed due to a breakup, there is the real possibility that you will be spending a lot of time in your ex's head asking why did the break up happened, and is there some way to influence your ex to change his or her mind.

2. Or due to divorce --

Divorce is as traumatic as death and clearly can wreak havoc on any person who experiences it first hand.

It is not simple to recover from divorce, especially when there are children involved who are also dealing with their suffering.

Divorce can hit you like a freight train, and if you do not take action now, it can take years to begin the recovery process.

Because in the case of divorce, you will be spending a lot of time thinking about:

• your ex,
• your children
• the past, 
• memories of better times, 
• the incidents which kept building walls between you,
• words which tore down the emotional bonds of love, 

You can not only suffer because of being rejected by someone else but even worse, you might start to dislike yourself, which is one of the hallmark sensations of depression -- have you ever heard a depressed person say, “I hate myself!”?

Enough said.

3. How to stop being depressed because of estrangement --

Estrangement can happen between family or friends.

Either way, there is a deep sense of loss and misery of how did a once close and bonded relationship split apart to the degree that there is little to no communication at all.

Estrangement has a different feel than when you lose someone to actual death. The reason is that the perpetual shock of alienation can easily cause you to lose your sense of identity and security to the point where you wonder if you ever had those now estranged relationships in the first place.

In this case, too, your mind can be lost in their minds and their behavior, you wonder why the person that you are estranged from does not answer your:

• calls, 
• emails, 
• texts, your 
• birthday wishes, and
• why do they act as if you do not exist? 

Do you even exist becomes your question, are you a monster to be shunned to this degree?

And you will realize that you spend much of your time thinking about those who have rejected you, but you spend little to no time thinking about how to improve yourself.

All your thoughts are focused on the people who have let you go, and it becomes easier to understand how you ended up in the quicksand of depression with no end in sight.

4. Or due to job loss --

Once depression really gets hold of you, that itself can lead to job loss or termination can lead to depression.

Having a source of income is so important, not just for the need for money, shelter, food, but only for your self-esteem and feeling of productivity.

If you lose your job because of depression, now you have the additional challenge of how to support yourself.

Your problems are now compounded.

Here again, though, the common denominator is where you put the focus of your attention on your former job, boss, employer, and employees or on yourself and finding a new path to build a new life.

You will understand through experience and reflection that your only chance at survival is by putting your attention on yourself, as selfish as it might sound. Still, it is accurate, because until you are healed and healthy, how can you be of help to anyone else?

5. And even Obesity --

This might sound a bit superficial, but it is reasonable to say that your self-image and self-confidence takes a big hit when you see your fat reflection in the mirror.

In our media-saturated culture, there is a lot of pressure to be slim, beautiful, in shape, sporting great curves or a six-pack, take a look at magazine covers and celebrities.

There has to be a reason that there is no end to new books on the NY Times bestseller list for how to lose weight.

Can it be so complicated?

The answer is yes because 75 percent of the population in the United States is overweight or overweight.

Depression and obesity go hand in hand for a reason; they feed each other.

• Feel Depressed?
• Eat something to feel better.
• You had too much pizza and ice cream?
• Guess what, you can no longer fit in your clothing, and now you can be depressed about that.

How to Stop Being Depressed and Start Being Awesome

That is the goal of Hashi Mashi Diet + Training tips for your mind and body.

To start, to keep moving in a new direction, to stop the descent into depression, to never give up, and to start pushing yourself out of the pit so you can build a new life is what HashiMashi.com is all about. Start being awesome, despite the chaos, despite your challenges, never give up. 

• Eat real food, and you will discover how easy it is to slay the dragon of obesity. 
• Begin to move more by walking or even better by using weights and resistance training like 
• Start a beginner deadlift workout routine and deadlift program 
• Learn to squat
• Do pushups, and you will be shocked as to how fast your body will respond by changing from fat to fit.

What is in a name

Even though I made up the name Hashi Mashi many years ago, I still find new meaning in virtually a meaningless word.

The importance of ‘Hashi Mashi' or any other word you use to motivate yourself is not the word, but what it means to you and how it can motivate you to make better choices to strengthen your:

• body, your 
• mind, and your 
• spirit, 

especially after they seem broke beyond the possibility of repair.

Twelve years ago, I felt broken beyond repair due to all of the above reasons; breakup, estrangement, divorce, career loss, obesity, and more.

Twenty years ago, I battled the depression with medications and continued to cycle down deeper into the pit of despair and suicidal ideation.

The dragon was burning me from the inside out, and I saw no possibility of survival or interest in survival, let alone slaying the dragon of depression.

So, I get it.

Fortunately, along the way, I had specific experiences that helped me to stop being depressed about the life I had lost and started me off on building a new body, a new mind, and a new spirit.

6. Eat Real Food --

Eating real food and shunning processed ‘food' is the most powerful way to transform your body faster than anything I have ever experienced.

You do not need to buy any books to understand what eating real food means.

You know what real food is, vegetables like:

• broccoli, 
• asparagus, 
• spinach, 
• onion, 
• garlic, 
• mushrooms, 
• eggplant, 
• okra 

Plants are abundant, in a great variety, so you know vegetables and only need to start eating them.

When you want a snack, have a fruit, an apple, a grapefruit, a banana, whatever you have around, some nuts.

Add chickpeas if you like, make a Hashi Mashi breakfast omelet which includes:

• Eggs
• Vegetables
• Hummus
• Avocado
• Olives, or
• have wild salmon for lunch or dinner with sweet potato and broccoli, 
• grass-fed beef with an Idaho potato and cauliflower

Yes, Oreos are not ‘real!', so sorry about that.

7. Start moving --

Get up -- walk at least -- stop watching tv for an hour and walk, or jog, or do the elliptical or swim.

If you only start eating real food, you will see significant changes in your body within the first month.

After ten months of eating real food and doing a minimum amount of exercise, I lost a total of 75 pounds and, more importantly, 18 inches off my belly.

The choice to change your body will lead to more confidence and a better mental attitude.

Adding full-body compound weight training exercises like squats, bench press, and deadlifts to the mix will ramp up your gains in body strength and make you feel better and fitter than you ever have.

8. Add pushups and pullups

To build even more muscle without needing a gym.

9. Weighted squats to challenge your entire core

10. And deadlifts

To not only get stronger in body but to get stronger in your mind. The same way that you can lift these physical weights, so too can you lift the burden of depression from your life.

Hashi Mashi is all about

• Focusing on yourself, 
• leaving the theater of depression where the old movies of your life replaying over and over again, 
• throwing away the goober chocolate covered raisins (yea, I love those too!), 
• start eating real food, 
• drinking water, 
• adding some simple exercises like
• squats
• deadlifts
• bench press
• pushups
• walking

 along the way and keep staying focused on yourself.

Shouldering the Shoulds

Hashi Mashi is all about ‘shouldering the shoulds'; whatever you think someone else should be doing for you, instead, you must take the responsibility, and you do it yourself, for yourself.

You think that:

• ‘he or she should respect you,' no, you should respect yourself, 
• ‘he or she or they' should treat you better?
• No, you must treat yourself better, 

You will be amazed at how many shoulds you can come up with how you think others should be doing for you.

For all of them, flip the script and shoulder the shoulds yourself, take the responsibility yourself, be independent, be awesome by relying on your power and start building a new life.

How to Stop Being Depressed and Start Being Awesome

By now, you know that I call it Hashi Mashi, shouldering the shoulds, making simple changes and choices to strengthen your body, mind, and spirit.

You can call it what you want, but I believe the results will be the same.

These are the ideas I wish I knew about twenty years ago, and these are the fundamental concepts of this site, everything else you find here is to elaborate and motivate on these concepts.

• Have you experienced depression in your life?
• How did you get past it?
• What was/is your Hashi Mashi?

Today, with sincere gratitude, I do have a new life, one that I could not have imagined, but it is real, and the pains of the past have disintegrated into the soil of my new crops, which are now growing.

There is always more to do, but I leave you with several thoughts:

• • “Shoulder the Shoulds”
  • “Focus on Yourself”
  • “Eat Real Food, Walk, Do Squats, Pushups, and Deadlifts”

Incorporating these new physical and mental lifestyle changes are how to stop being depressed and start being awesome.