- Thrivinity3
- Posts
- 🌻 Sun, Sarah, Swerve Depression
“a sunny day with friends”
This lofi album by my friend Tommy (adaptbeats) is an iconic 1st caffeine of the day soundtrack. 🌻
SWERVE Depression Protocol
I write this because I’ve strengthened a young mind into an imperfect fortress. At a young age I was introduced to depression and over time figured I was on the sucky side of the spectrum. Later on I learned the vulnerability to depressive thoughts for various types of individuals:
Source: Andrew Huberman
I’m a fooking non-fiction writer + sonical poet lol
I write this to elevate your life reading this right now, and anyone else you think can benefit from this.
I write this after the hardest 16 months of my life, with a record-low amount of depression since late December 2023.
Decided to call this a protocol instead of a ”formuioli” because when a brain has depressive onsets, clarity is at a low with willpower right beside that. I treat Stage 1 onwards like a protocol from a doctor.
Stage 0: acknowledge it, accept it, let it in your fortress, then kill it. Kill it with ego+anger (what the majority of people do, I have learned), or kill it with objective logic, or kill it with a notion of self love + hakuna matata. Mental toughness is earned from many things and many of us carry it day to day. That toughness combats entropy, and is a defensive shield from negativity. It is natural for us to fight depressive thoughts, daily, and consistently win.
But sometimes, we can’t kill it. Identify your thresholds and know when to accept you are depressed. Just accept it, we are human. The following is the reason I wrote this newsletter:
Stage 1: give up and give in. Yessir. This can be as quick as strategically crying like a baby (works magic if you focus) or as long as the rest of the day. The point of this protocol is to go thru the rinse cycle quickly.
When I accept I’m depressed, I noticed the mind is weak; anxious, invasive, mean, self-degrading thoughts all enter the mind at will. A red flag is when I think “meditation/breath work/prayer is useless”.
Acceptance is liberating in itself. Give in and listen to sad music; crying it out is therapeutic as hell.
Turn off the phone…OFF! No working on anything from the early evening onward. Caffeinate thru the day to get thru the day job, then shut down. Perhaps hear God say “rest child.” Focus on the setup for the next morning. Phone phast, walk in nature, go somewhere to journal, eat some healthy food. Treat your self like a patient. Tomorrow morning is the rebound.
Get PLENTY sleep and wake up early for a (caffeinated and/or electrolytes) gym session. Come back and cold shower. Boom. You realize you were a couple Hz off in the connection with the universe. Happiness, excitement, energy was so close <3 yet it felt so far.
Cherry-picked resources
I leave you with some concise and impactful resources to consider in a lifelong fight against the lows:
Short X video by the GOAT Tim Ferriss “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
He mentions some of my Trusses for an elevated life on Earth 🌎 as they are exceptional preventatives. He wisely elaborates on cold water exposure, exercise, social time with friends: long group dinners with no alcohol, trips with friends and family always booked in the calendar as “psychological safety nets”
YouTube short on the power of a low insulin lifestyle. This paired with caloric fasts that reach 18+ hours (full ketosis + autophagy engaged).
Waves by Russ [SPOTIFY]
“away from home” Spotify playlist started in 2019 I have never shared with anyone.
Sarah’s Poem about…
In the shadowed valleys of my past,
Where echoes of my traumas amassed,
Countless storms sought to quench my light,
To smother my spark in the darkest night.
Beneath the weight of a broken self,
I found something, an ember, a wealth.
Ashes, bitter yet strangely sweet,
In their taste, my fears I'd meet.
From the depths, a phoenix arose,
Fed on pain, on countless woes.
I became the flame, burning bright,
Out of despair, I claimed my right.
The spark that ignited this life of mine,
A glimmer of hope, a divine sign.
Through trials, it was love I saved,
In its warmth, my soul was bathed.
This love, a beacon, fierce and wild,
Guided the steps of the lost child.
Back to myself, to the heart's true call,
In love, I found the might to stand tall.
The bonfire of my life, now ablaze,
Illuminates the night, defies the haze.
What tried to beat me down, now fuels my rise,
Under the vast, open skies.
That spark, my essence, my core,
A promise of life, of so much more.
Dared to name it, to claim its power,
In its light, I no longer cower.
From spark to flame, from flame to fire,
In every ash, my desires aspire.
To be more than the sum of my scars,
A luminary, among the stars.