When you’re struggling with depression, it’s natural to see yourself as depressed.
And if you have somehow made depression a part of your identity, by seeing it as a permanent part of you that remains, even when you’re feeling happy, then you always see yourself as having depression no matter what.
The problem with this type of thinking is that seeing yourself as depressed naturally makes your life feel less enjoyable and worthwhile, and also contributes to a greater struggle with depression.
For this reason, it is in your best interest to see yourself as depression-free as soon as possible.
It is even better if you see yourself as happy and depression-free, since if you can accept yourself as happy, life naturally feels much more enjoyable and worthwhile to you, and these positive emotions naturally help you remain depression-free.
For this reason, challenge yourself to see yourself as happy and depression-free the moment you can comfortably and honestly accept this positive perspectve of yourself. By doing so, you naturally change your life for the better in a big way.
Is it valid to see yourself as happy?
Imagine if you were struggling with depression, and you told me that you were severely depressed, and the first thing I told you was “See yourself as happy instead of depressed. That will help you.”
You would probably not like me very much, especially since you might find it completely false or delusional to see yourself as happy.
And, indeed, forcing yourself to see yourself as happy instead of depressed will not benefit you at all. After all, if you don’t comfortably and honestly accept yourself as happy, this more positive view of yourself will not benefit you in any way, because your mind ultimately rejects it.
So I am not talking about forcing yourself to see yourself as happy in a delusional way.
Instead, I’m encouraging you right now, at this point in time, after you’ve learned how to improve your thinking and life in numerous ways to feel better, happier, and depression-free, to now ask yourself a sensible question: is it valid to see yourself as happy and depression-free?
If you can comfortably and honestly accept yourself as happy to some degree, even if you’re just a little happy, then, yes, it is clearly valid and acceptable to see yourself as happy to some degree and to also see yourself as depression-free. And it is in your best interest to make that choice.
What happens when you think: “I am happy”?
It might seem insignificant or even irrelevant to make a tiny change in your thinking and to see yourself as happy.
However, this thought has an enormously powerful effect that helps you feel great and helps you remain depression-free. For this reason, it’s important to start thinking this way as soon as possible.
Immediately, you can see that when you think of yourself as being happy, you’re already seeing positive value in your life to enjoy.
Furthermore, when you think a thought like “I’m happy”, your mind then naturally asks questions like “Why am I happy”?
To answer this kind of a question, your mind searches for signs and evidence of happiness, and tries to identify all sorts of positive things that are contributing to you feeling happy. For example, you’re calmer, more relaxed, getting better sleep, have wonderful friends and family, have lots of great capabilities, have a bright future ahead of you, and so on.
In such a way, you rapidly ascend in a positive upward spiral in your mind, and this cycle of positive thinking makes you feel better, happier, and more confident.
Of course, all of these positive emotions naturally take the place of depression, and help you remain depression-free, which is fantastic.
So in this way, consistently seeing yourself as happy and depression-free is a powerful tool that helps you remain depression-free.
Why you can accept yourself as happy and depression-free even if no one else does
There are many different valid ways that you can think about yourself and your situation. The question is this: what are the better, beneficial, smarter, more sensible ways to think of yourself?
To understand this, think about how it can be valid to see a glass as half full or half empty. But if seeing the glass as half full naturally makes your life better, while seeing the glass as half empty makes your life worse, then seeing the glass as half full is the better, beneficial, smarter, more sensible way to think.
Similarly, it can be perfectly valid to see yourself as happy in a lot of ways, and unhappy in lots of other ways. In this way, it can be perfectly valid and acceptable to you to see yourself as either happy or unhappy.
The question is this: what is the better, beneficial, smarter, more sensible way to think of yourself?
Clearly, seeing yourself as happy benefits you in a lot of ways, while see yourself as unhappy makes you miserable and works against you. This means that seeing yourself as happy is always the better, beneficial, smarter, more sensible way to think of yourself.
Once you appreciate this, it becomes very easy to let go of negative self-perceptions, where you see yourself as being an unhappy person, and instead naturally have a positive self-perception, where you see yourself as happy.
By adopting this positive view of yourself for your own good, you’re doing much more than adopting a glass-half-full view of yourself; it’s like you’re filling your glass, because this positive, beneficial view enriches your life in so many ways.
So right now, appreciate that you don’t need anyone else’s help to adopt this constructive view of yourself. Just like you can choose to see a glass as half full, even if the rest of the world sees it as half empty, you can choose to see yourself as happy, even if the rest of the world sees you differently.
The choice is completely yours, which puts you in a very powerful position, since it means you can guarantee that you feel better and happier regardless of how anyone else thinks about you.
Can you honestly see yourself as happy to some degree?
Remember, the name of the game is to adopt the most positive view of yourself and your situation that you can comfortably and honestly accept.
As you learned from the beginning of this course, never see yourself as depressed, because even if it’s valid to see yourself as being depressed, it’s also valid to see yourself as someone who can get rid of depression and become depression-free.
The difference is that the second view benefits you a lot, while the first view works against you and makes your life worse, which means that seeing yourself as someone who can become depression-free is a beneficial, smarter, and better view for you in every way.
From this point, it’s just a matter of “upgrading” your perspective of yourself as soon as you can adopt a stronger, more positive view of yourself and your situation.
So right now, consider the following views, and adopt the strongest one of them that you can comfortably and honestly accept:
- I can become depression-free
- I’m depression-free
- I’m happy to some degree (even if it’s just a little) and depression-free
- I’m happy and depression-free
- I’m very happy and depression-free
Enjoy you’re success becoming happier & depression-free
So, right now, can you comfortably and honestly accept yourself as someone who is depression-free and happy to some degree?
If so, appreciate what a remarkable, wonderful achievement this is! This means you have gone from being someone who was struggling with depression to someone who’s happy and not dealing with depression anymore.
From now on, your goal is to consistently stay happy and depression-free by doing all the things you learned how to do in this course.
If you currently don’t see yourself as happy and depression-free, that’s ok. Just continue doing the things you’ve learned how to do, and you can guarantee that you will become happy and depression-free by making enough changes in your thinking and lifestyle. It’s only a matter of time.
If this is your situation, be sure to appreciate and enjoy every step you take that helps you feel better. And, of course, be sure to see yourself as happy and depression-free the moment you can comfortably and honestly accept this positive view of yourself.
Remaining happy and depression-free
No matter what your situation is, it’s important that moving forward you consistently think and live in ways that help you live a happy, depression-free life. This is the entire secret to becoming depression-free for good, and never having to deal with depression again.
One of the simplest, easiest ways to do this is to make it a daily habit use the Daily Happiness Tool every morning. Every day, it helps you reflect upon things you are thankful for in your life, which is an extremely powerful form of positive thinking that contributes to greater happiness.
It also helps you see yourself as happy, which as you just learned, is another extremely powerful form of positive thinking.
And it also helps remind you to do the 6 Depression-Changes that naturally help you achieve and maintain a happy, depression-free life.
The idea is that you now have the knowledge to become and remain happy and depression-free, so now it’s just a matter of taking action to do it. The Daily Happiness is just a tool that makes this easier for you to do.
Of course, you can use any method you like best. The most important thing is that you enjoy a lifestyle where you regularly think and act in ways that make you feel happier and depression-free, so that you never have to struggle with depression again.
You are here:
Section 10 Lessons:
- How to be happy with yourself
- How to practice gratitude daily & be happier
- Challenge: see yourself as happy and depression-free