Those that have struggled with depression know that you can be cruising along fine through life, but wake up one day and feel those negative thoughts and feelings trying to regain control over your life.

It is in this moment that these feelings or thoughts need to be confronted before they take root and ruin your day or at worst send you into a depressive cycle.

Here are some steps to help ward of those negative thoughts and to keep you on the path of feeling positive about life.

1. Isolate the negative thought that began to trigger the negative emotions.
2. Ask yourself if this negative thought is the truth, a lie or some twisted version of the truth. Thoughts that are based on lies often seek to undermine you and your worth as a person. They will be in disagreement with the fact that you are valuable, you are loved by God, and that you have purpose for being on this earth.
3. Once you’ve determined that the thought is a lie, begin telling your self truth statements, such as “I am loved, valuable and have purpose”.
4. Begin listing all the good things in your life that you are grateful for.
5. Dwell on these items of gratitude.

The feelings of depression will begin to ease as you begin to dwell on positive things and put to rest the negative. Each time you do this, you will find that it gets easier and what used to send you into a spiral of depression will be cut off before it can take root.