How to Stop Being Depressed and Start Being Awesome
How to stop being depressed and start being awesome is one of the purposes of the Hashi Mashi Blog.
The benefits of deadlifts, squats, pushups, eating real food and walking is the general prescription of Hashi Mashi to effectively treat depression with or without medication.
A welcome side effect of Hashi Mashi is a fitter body, mind and spirit.
Before you assume that you do not or never will need to know how to stop being depressed, consider if you or someone you know is struggling with depression, obesity and/or anxiety right now.
If you are or you know someone who is, I believe that the simple principles of Hashi Mashi can change yours and/or their life for the better. They did for me.
While there is no sure-fire way to forever slay the dragon of depression, the simple strategies of Hashi Mashi will teach you how to stop being depressed today and help you to continue to function and build a better life.
It is true that I could pitch Hashi Mashi as a plan for weight loss and/or to get into or back into shape.
I could easily avoid the topic of depression and how to stop being depressed.
Why would I want to?
Because frankly, admitting that one of the purposes of this blog is to help people learn how to stop being depressed without medication can be embarrassing.
Depression is not a condition that most people want to admit to experiencing, men or women.
So, this is why I say that true, Hashi Mashi is about how to stop being depressed but more importantly, once you have learned how to stop being depressed, now is the time to start being awesome.
I want Hashi Mashi to be a blog that matters and for that reason I have decided to clarify what I want to accomplish with the information that I share here.
Initially it is accurate that the only goal I had in mind was weight loss.
Ultimately though I discovered that every day that I made improvements physically, was another day that I felt more improvement away from a depressed state of mind to one of wanting to start living and being productive again.
Yes, I want anyone who is struggling with obesity or fat loss to be able to see for themselves the miracle of how real food and simple exercise can transform their body, but the truth is that once my physique began to transform, my mindset changed, my spirit changed and this has resulted in significant changes for the better in more ways that I can enumerate in this post.
Suffice it to say that I wish I knew this information twelve years ago, I might have lived a very different life.
But now that I have experienced first hand the power of real food and exercise, I must let everyone know, because even if you are thin but depressed, that is not much of a life to look forward to, because depression is the vampire that sucks the life out of you and anyone who knows you.
Therefore, beyond just focusing on the benefits of deadlifts, squats, pushups, real food and walking to transform your physique, I am adjusting the purpose to be what it really was, is and will be for me and I hope others as well;
A guide how to stop being depressed and start living with or without medications.
Do not worry about being caught reading a site with ‘depression' in the title, because the fact is that we are not focusing on depression, we are focusing on the steps that we can take to stop any further descent into the pit of depression and start moving forward to build a new home if you will.
Being awesome in my book is just the mere fact of a person being willing to leave their room of depression, shut the door and start moving forward.
Start focusing on building a new life, gradually acquiring new habits that will support a new life.
We are all under construction so to speak, but I know that you will feel awesome once you start to focus on yourself.
There are many causes of depression and the following is not an exhaustive list, but some that you might be able to relate to:
1. How to Stop Being Depressed Due to a Breakup –
The loss of a relationship, even in the early stages can be a source of sadness and depression, and certainly the loss of a longer term relationship.
A person must know how to stop being depressed due to a breakup and get back on the path of being productive as soon as possible.
Note that in this scenario, the breakup is a great 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 we 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 happen and is there some way to influence your ex to change his or her mind.
2. How to Stop Being Depressed Due to Divorce –
Divorce is thought of as traumatic as death and clearly can wreak havoc on any person who experiences it first hand.
It is not always so simple to recover from divorce, especially when there are children involved who are also dealing with their own 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.
Here too in Divorce, you will be spending a lot of time thinking about your ex, about the past, memories of better times, memories of the incidents which kept building walls between you, words which tore down the emotional bonds of love, his or her image in your mind, and depending on the length of your marriage and children involved, things can get even more complicated and agonizing.
You can not only suffer because of being rejected by someone else but even worse, you might start to reject yourself, which I believe 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 Due to Estrangement –
Estrangement can happen between family and/or friends.
Either way, there is a deep sense of loss and the mystery 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 because the perpetual shock of estrangement can easily cause a person to lose their sense of identity and security to the point where they wonder if they had ever had those now estranged relationships in the first place.
In this case too, your mind can be lost in their minds and in their behaviour, you wonder why the person that you are estranged from does not answer your calls, your emails, your text, your birthday wishes, why do they act as if you do not exist, do you exist becomes your question, are you a monster to be shunned to this degree?
Again you will notice that in this case too, much of your time is spent focused on someone else who has rejected you, in their head, with their perspective of you, and very little to no time is spent on 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. How to Stop Being Depressed Due to Job Loss –
Once depression really gets hold of you, that itself can lead to job loss or a termination can lead to depression.
Having a source of income is so important, not just for the obvious need for money, shelter, food, but just for your self-esteem and feeling of productivity.
If you have already lost your job due to depression or are now in a state of depression from being let go, now there is an even greater challenge of how to support yourself on top of your struggle with depression.
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, but it is accurate, because until you yourself are healed and strong, how can you be of help to anyone else?
5. How to Stop Being Depressed Due to Obesity –
This might sound a bit superficial, but I think it is reasonable to say that there are people whose self-image and self-confidence takes a big hit when they see themselves as fat.
In our media-saturated culture, there is a lot of pressure to be slim, beautiful, in shape, sporting great curves or a six pack, just 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 best seller list for how to lose weight.
Can it be so difficult?
The answer is yes because we see that up to a third of the population in the United States is 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.
To start, to keep moving in a new direction, to stop the descent into depression and to start pushing yourself out of the pit so you can build a new life.
This is what Hashi Mashi means, start being awesome, despite your challenges, do not give up, start eating real food and you will discover how easy it is to slay the dragon of obesity, start to move more by walking or even better by using weights and resistance training like deadlifts, squats and pushups and you will be shocked as to how fast your body will respond by changing from flabby to fit.
Even though I made up the name Hashi Mashi several years ago, I still find new meaning in essentially 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 have been seemingly broken beyond the possibility of repair.
Twelve years ago I was broken beyond repair due to all of the above reasons of breakup, divorce, estrangement, job loss, obesity and more.
Twelve years ago I battled the depression with medications and continued to cycle down deeper into the pit of despair.
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 certain experiences which helped me to stop being depressed about the life that I had lost and started me off on building a new body, a new mind and a new spirit.
This is what I share on Hashi Mashi, the simple strategies that helped me to begin a healing process that I desperately needed:
6. Eat Real Food –
This is the 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 and for some reason, there is an abundance of vegetables, a great variety, so you know vegetables.
When you want a snack, have a fruit, an apple, a grapefruit, a banana, whatever you have around, some nuts.
Add some chickpeas if you like (you will find out if you read more of the site that Hashi Mashi was originally a name I made up for a vegetable omelette which included avocado and hummus that is made out of chickpeas), have wild salmon, grass fed beef ( I rarely have had any of that myself), omega 3 organic eggs and avoid like the plague any food that you know is not real.
Yes, Oreos are not ‘real!', sorry about that.
7. Start moving –
Get up – walk at least – stop watching tv for an hour and go walk, or jog, or elliptical or swim.
If you just do number 1 and start eating real food, you will see major 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 exercise 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/or pull ups
To build even more muscle without needing a gym.
9. Add squats with weights to challenge your entire core.
10. Add deadlifts with weights
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 weight 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 play 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 along the way and keep staying focused on yourself.
Hashi Mashi is all about ‘shouldering the shoulds', whatever you think someone else should be doing, you take the responsibility and you do it yourself, for yourself.
You think that ‘she should respect you' , no, you should respect yourself, he or she should treat you better?
No, you must treat yourself better, you will be amazed at how many shoulds you have come up with in your life that 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 own 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 twelve 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 a ton of 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:
Rich is a certified personal trainer-AAPT and the author of