Ideas from Comments

In my effort to get to a "happier" mental place, I thought that today I would respond to several of the very kind comments I received yesterday:

 (From Schrodinger's Dog):  "... changing part of your focus from an internal one to an external one?"

I agree with you fully about the notion of external focus.  It *is* helpful in most circumstances.  I do involve myself in a fair amount of volunteer activities, and I am quite active in many aspects of my parish as well.  I could do more in this regard, however, and one avenue I have been contemplating is working at one of our soup kitchens for the poor and homeless.  The one challenge I sometimes face with the more external focus is that often the timing needs will occasionally clash and then I tend to feel stress about not being able to do all the things I try to commit to do.  But that is a minor point.   Your bigger message is a very sound one.... one that I often can lose sight of when I am in the deep depths of the melancholy.  

(From Simone): "Take the opportunity to do things you want to do rather than those things you feel you have to do."

This is also a great point.  One of the harder aspects of this, for me, however, is that sometimes what I "want" to do feels selfish, or perhaps more accurately, I mean it will cause me to potentially neglect some of my "have to do" things (which I feel guilt about often already for not doing well enough).  But the idea is an important one.  I really do need to find some way to more regularly have time for things I find fun and enjoyable. 


 (From Forsythia): "...It's just so exasperating at times."

I can fully understand this idea.  I sometimes worry that I am spreading negativity.  And, that is truly NOT something I wish to do.  It is hard sometimes to know if my melancholia is having others perceive me as being negative or not.  Much of the time, I tend to "hide" myself away from others when I feel this melancholia because I do not want it to impact others in my family.  But, hidinig it away also causes its own challenges.   

(From MRMacrum): "Finding a better frame of mind is the goal. How you get there almost does not matter."

Very well stated, Mike.  Finding a better frame of mind IS my goal.  How to do so in a meaningful and consistent fashion is the key I am searching for.  I do feel that my trying to list and trying to focus on good things yesterday DID help yesterday be less melancholia infused than the preceding several days have been.  

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Today I am trying to focus on these positives:

1.  My run was pleasant and enjoyable.  It was around 65 degrees at 5am this morning while running at 5am.  

2.  I am thankful for my cereal and blueberries this morning.  I have a mix of two high fiber cereals and blueberries that I let sit for probably an hour so it is quite soggy.... the taste and texture is so wonderful.  Some days, I think I could eat 5 or six bowls of the stuff easily. 

3.  At night, before bed, I am reading a new (for me) Michael Connelly novel "The Wrong Side of Goodbye" and I finding it to be one of my favorites of his many good novels.

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