Make A Decision To End Depression: Future

Up to this point we have covered our thought patterns of the past and the present


Now let's talk about future.

I think we can see that future thinking affects us in many ways, good or bad.  Let's take a look at some bad aspects:

• Goals

Having a goal is definitely a good thing and usually is a motivation trigger for most of us.  However, especially for the depressed, it can cause blue moods.  

While depressed people can set goals and accomplish great things, most of them also have trouble mirroring their past experience to whatever goal they set.  This can lead to a very diluted image of the future.  And when you have diluted images from the past, this triggers mood disruption and anxiety as to what the outcome the future will bring.

We must remember that the image we hold about the future is nothing but an illusion.  We can not guess the complete outcome, and like we read in the earlier post on the present, we can only take steps in the present to build our future.

So when setting goals, it is important to focus on the present moment and not have an unusual expectation for the future outcome.  Because when the outcome isn't what you expected (and this happens all the time) we might suffer from the gap.  So set realistic goals and follow through by taking action.

• Worry

Worry can destroy you mentally and cause many bad bodily symptoms as well.  Worry also destroys focus so your concentration level goes down.  Worry is in most cases connected with future thinking.

How can we get out of this?  

Remember worry doesn't serve you any good in most cases.  However one way of looking at it is that we worry because we want to do well.  Worry is actually a natural response in this case.  But chronic worrying is definitely not the way to go.  Unfortunately smarter people have this problem a lot because they want to do so well and many are perfectionists.  They tend to wait around to somehow manage the worry just in their heads whereas in the mean time others take direct action to tackle the problems or worries with what they can do in the present moment.  So think about your worrying.  Is it serving you good? If not, take constructive action to tackle the worry and create the future you want!

Next section's on the six fears of human...