In my book healing from depression, I state that the first step to mental health recovery is simply setting the intention to heal. This means making the decision that you want to get well, even if you don’t know how. Setting the intention to heal is the starting point of all recovery.
This may seem like a simple act, but it has profound ramifications for your future health and well being. It doesn’t matter how long you have suffered from anxiety or depression. Perhaps, like myself, you have been struggling since childhood; or maybe your first episode began six months or six weeks ago. Regardless of the time involved, the first step is the same—making the decision to heal.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok6F9tDp9p0)
For some people, this may be asking a lot, since depression robs us of energy, motivation and hope. Fortunately, at this point, I am not asking you to do anything, only to make a decision. You don’t have to know how your healing will take place. You don’t have to believe that it is possible. If you are feeling particularly hopeless or discouraged right now, ask yourself this question: “Is there a part of me, even if it is ten percent or one percent, that wants to feel better?” If you can find just a molecule within you that says, “I WANT TO LIVE,” your healing journey will have begun.
The tool that you will be using to translate your intention to heal into a reality is the vision statement. Essentially, your vision statement will answer the question, “What would my life look and feel like if I were free from the symptoms of anxiety and depression?”
A vision statement is based on the second habit from Steven Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People— “begin with the end in mind.” According to Covey, this habit arises from the principle that “all things are created twice”—first in the mind and then in the world of form. In writing a vision statement, you create an exact mental blueprint or picture of health that you that you are seeking to bring into your life. In a future blog, I will outline the exact steps to creating a vision statement of wellness.
