Conquer Depression

Have you or someone you loved ever experienced depression? If so, it’s time to tame the gremlins and create a sustainably awesome life. Here are my Top 10 Big Ideas on how to CONQUER depression–forged from my own experience.

This is a great book. In Rethinking Depression, Eric Maisel presents an incredibly persuasive case for how medicalized we’ve made the normal human emotions of sadness, anxiety and other unfun feelings (and how dangerous that is) while giving us an existential handbook on how to deal with life’s challenges by creating an authentic life packed with meaning. In this Note, we check out the fact that unhappiness happens while learning how to create our “existential ideal” as we make meaning in our lives! (And, therefore, a *lot* more happiness.)

Alex Korb is a neuroscientist in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles. (Go Bruins!) He’s also a great writer. As per the sub-title, the book is all about “Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time.” It’s REALLY good. Inspiring. Scientifically grounded. Simple. Practical. ← A winning formula for a great book! Big Ideas we explore include the power of exercising your brain (which is the #1 tip, btw), setting goals (and making decisions), developing positive habits (via repetition, repetition, repetition), biofeedback (and how to take advantage of it), and the power of others (rely on it!).

I’m a big fan of Kelly McGonigal and her ability to help us apply scientific wisdom to our lives. We’ve covered two of her earlier books: The Willpower Instinct and The Upside of Stress. So... When I got this book, knew I’d enjoy it. But, I didn’t anticipate JUST how much I’d love it. We have some great Notes on Movement (Spark, Spartan Up and No Sweat among my favorites), but Kelly’s book will be our new go-to for the science of WHY exercise/movement is so essential to our well-being. It’s PHENOMENAL. Reading about the SCIENCE behind stories of transformation (and how, as per the sub-title of her book: “Exercise Helps Us Find Happiness, Hope, Connection, and Courage”) also made me that much more clear on the power of what we’re doing with all of our work and the importance of focusing so much on Energy (especially with our Mastery and Coach programs). Big Ideas we explore include: Hope Molecules (and how to create them), persistence highs (and how to create them), collective effervescence (and why it's so awesome), how we endure (hint: TOGETHER!), and OMMS!!! (Obstacles (literally!) Make Me Stronger!).

Did you know there's a science of hope? Yep. And Shane Lopez is the world's leading researchig studying the science of hope. This book is an inspiring look at the nuts and bolts of cultivating hope. Big Ideas we explore include differentiating hope from fantastizing and dwelling, the three keys to hope (goals + agency + pathways) , futurecasting, sirens, when/where plans and why hope is so important for leadership.

"Positive Psychology and the Body." Unfortunately, those two subjects are rarely connected--which is why I was so excited to get this book when I saw the title. It's actually a *textbook* not a normal book. It provides an overview of research on a range of subjects including: “Positive Psychophysiology,” “Positive Neuroscience,” “Positive Sexuality” and “Positive Nutrition.” Big Ideas we explore include a quick look at Martin Seligman's PERMA approach to eudaimonic (vis-a-vis hedonic) happiness, your nervous system (flip the switch!), longevity and positive emotion (some astonishing stats), diet and wellbeing/depression (sugar begone!), and physical activity (science says: it does a body good!).

Eat Move Sleep. The simple, powerful keys to optimal health and well-being. We talk about these fundamentals ALL the time and this is my new favorite book on health. Big Ideas we explore include 10,008 hours and 36 minutes (the magic # of elite performance), candy for cancer cells, the power of measuring whatever it is you want to improve, how to buy willpower at the store, and a vaccine for the common cold.

Richie Davidson is one of the world's leading neuroscientists and was the first guy to check out monks' brains in a lab. He founded the affective + contemplative neuroscience fields and is, quite simply, a neuroscientist rock star. In this Note, we explore some of his best Big Ideas, understanding how our thoughts and behaviors affect the very structure of our brains and the emotions we feel. We'll also look at how to dial it all in.

This is our first note on a book by Michael Easter. Michael Easter is an award-winning journalist, a contributing editor at Men’s Health magazine, columnist for Outside magazine, and professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. In this fantastic book, he tells us that we’re facing a COMFORT CRISIS. Want to Reclaim Your “Wild, Happy, Healthy Self”? EMBRACE DISCOMFORT. The book is packed with Big Ideas on how to do exactly that and I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

This is a VERY important book that has the potential to revolutionize the way we approach mental health care. For years, we have talked about the importance of getting our ENERGY optimized so we can show up powerfully in our Work and in our Love. We’ve also discussed the fact that our PHYSIOLOGY drives a *LOT* more of our PSYCHOLOGY than most of us think. This book provides the underlying theoretical framework that ties all that wisdom together. Christopher M. Palmer, MD, is a Harvard psychiatrist and researcher working at the interface between metabolism and health. He’s an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and has held leadership roles at Harvard, McClean Hospital and nationally. In this thoughtful, scientifically-grounded book, Palmer shares his “theory of brain energy” that, in short, establishes the fact that “mental disorders are metabolic disorders of the brain.” THAT, my Heroic friend, is a VERY (!!!) Big Idea. Let's jump in and discuss why this theoretical framework matters AND discuss some practical Ideas on how we can apply the wisdom to our lives TODAY.

This book has sold 30 (!!) million copies and Louise (founder of Hay House) Hay is one of the vanguards of the modern self-development era. This book rocks and in the Note, we'll look at some amazing Big Ideas—starting with the need to love and approve of ourselves exactly the way we are and including the power of changing our "should's" to "could's" and cleaning out our mental houses as we celebrate (yes, celebrate!) paying our bills!