So, a few months ago, when I was still struggling with the worst of my seasonal depression (this year’s bout was complicated by grief, of course), I was working on relaxing.

‘Working on relaxing’ is a ridiculous phrase but an apt one.

At a certain point, my nervous system got so revved up that I couldn’t relax naturally. I had to make a conscious choice to do so.

Or, perhaps more accurately, my physical and mental stress was so high that casual relaxation didn’t bring it down enough for me to actually feel the effects.

It was the equivalent of drinking a cup of tea that someone refills every time you put your cup down. Sure, you could keep holding your cup so the refill doesn’t happen but then your hand and arm getting tired and you end up stressed out in a different way.

So, yeah, that was happening.

In order to lower my resting point, I started doing relaxation exercises. They were really helping and I was starting to feel better.

Then, practically overnight, my overall feeling of depression lifted.

It was such a relief.

I felt great.

My head was clear.

I was no longer just putting one foot in front of the other.

And that’s when I made the classic blunder.

(I’ll give you a minute to go through the Princess Bride quote…)

Yep, I stopped doing the relaxation exercises.

And I didn’t notice for a while because the heaviest weight had been lifted and that felt so good that the smaller issues weren’t as obvious.

Lately though, I’ve noticed that I’m a little too revved up about small things, that I’m unnecessarily tense.

It’s time to bust out those relaxation exercises again before things get any harder.

Because I don’t need to wait to feel really bad before making myself feel better.

I can lay the foundations for feeling better at any time.

And I’m starting now.