We’ve all heard the phrase you are your own worst critic. It’s a saying that’s been done to death, people may roll their eyes at it, or shrug it off  but it is never more relevant when you are feeling down. Whether it is academics, body image, job performance or relationship status, we humans are exceptionally brilliant at finding problems where there are none or brilliant at just plain feeling awful about ourselves.

So it’s time for me, Liz a.k.a Captain Confidence, and Fitness extraordinaire (because fitness is both about physical and mental/emotional well-being) to tell you how sad thinking works, what to do to make yourself happy again and who to call.

Spiralling in negative thinking is also something that happens quite a bit. First it may be feeling slightly insecure about job performance but then it can quickly lead to how unintelligent you are and then why no one *really* likes you and that can also be attributed to how awful you look. See how easy it is to spiral?

This may be true at more instances than at others, but I bet that anyone that has been dumped or fired or bullied has had these awful thoughts. So why would mother nature give us the ability to do this? Well my thinking is that this is actually evolution and somewhere along the line we needed this! The ability to apologise and ‘feel bad’ is found in many other social animals apart from ourselves, and this is mostly due to the need to get along in groups. (For more on morality and animals check out Frans de Waal’s TEDTalk). I don’t think we could function as a society if we didn’t have the ability to feel poorly about ourselves, because everybody would be self-righteous and entitled. This is probably why you have fights over food or mates in solitary animals.

But enough with the monkey business (see what I did there ), it’s all well and good to know that it is normal and ‘evolved’ to have negative feelings about ourselves, but it doesn’t really help. You know what does help?  Tea, a good book, some great friends, parents to vent to, an animal to cuddle up to, sad or funny TV, crying it out, going for a walk/run, chocolate (but only in small doses! You don’t want food to be your source of comfort, because that can end badly), Tumblr and of course the Gay Geek blog! I think you get the picture, just distract yourself!

We need to step back from it and look at ‘the problem’ (if there is one or not is actually something you should think about) and see where it truly lies and how can it be improved. Think about it this way, when you are in a cycle of negative thoughts you are likely to be emotional and in most situations that isn’t a way to approach a problem.

We also have to break the cycle of negative thoughts!

A theory on how depression actually comes about is due to neurological connections! Like learning a new language or memorising your shopping list, your brain actually makes more cells and connect it to the appropriate part of your brain to do those things the more you think about/practice them. More connections means that it is easier and faster to access sad memories and feelings. This also means that you are more likely to spiral and take drastic action! In fact, the reason why people cut themselves is because they are in the spiral or a storm of unhappiness and that pain physically and neurologically breaks you out of it! But of course just successfully distracting yourself has the same effect. So save yourself the pain and just watch TV!

Whether you have depression or are just feeling sad, distracting yourself (safely) and looking at problems from a less emotional light is always a good idea.

To get more factual information or to just talk to someone go to any of these sites, and ring any of these numbers:

http://www.beyondblue.org.au/ 1300 22 4636

http://www.lifeline.org.au/ 13 11 44

http://www.kidshelp.com.au/  1800 55 1800

These numbers and sites aren’t just for people who have depression, it really is for anyone who is feeling sad. Their focus is to make your day just a bit brighter and to help you out even a tiny bit.

We cannot make it through life alone, we weren’t built for it, evolution dictated that – so just talk and be merry!

{Image Source: memegenerator and askthecmmiappraiser}

Remember a few months ago when Marine Captain Matthew Phelps proposed to his boyfriend, Ben Schock, inside the White House and he said yes?

Well say congratulations to the happily married couple!

I love looking at wedding photos! The people in them look so excited and joyous. But good on them for making it so public! I mean military man gets married to a guy? That isn’t something you see everyday, but it should be! They look so good together.

Once again, congratulations and all the best!!

{Source: Guardian Advocate}

Can Marvel/ Disney give their permission to Valve to make this thing of beauty? I mean who can’t see Aperture Science as a part of the Marvel universe? I mean can you imagine Jarvis directing you or seeing the claw in the middle of the game?

So much love for this. So.Much.Love.

This was sent to me via email, so I don’t actually have the link   I know it’s on 9gag somewhere, so if this is yours please, don’t sue! We’ll be glad to link back to you – just get in touch at [email protected]

It’s really a compliment. It’s too good for it not to be on here

No hunting, aye?  Well clearly they have had some cowboys there  >.>”

Darn you Sam and Dean! Now they will be looking out for the rest of us. Some people just have to ruin the fun for others.

{Image Source: GWP57, Emmie}