Three personal development laws that will help you to cope with depression.

I will share three personal growth and development laws that can help you to tackle moments of deepest lows; depression, anxiety and panic attacks.

It may come as a surprise for you: I am suffering from depression. Occasionally the panic and anxiety attacks can be so severe that I have considered committing suicide.
And, yet through years of suffering, I have learned to cope with such situations.

It’s a very long story why I am reacting to a world like that. Still, I have experienced several contributing factors most common for this disease: childhood abuse, loss of the business multiple times, loss of a loved one, betrayal of close friends and family members. 
And, yet despite all these bad and demoralising events, I have no interest in staying there - the zeal for living and indulging in the beauty of life takes over the anxiety of what’s gone.

Enough fancy words and “self-help” nonsense; let’s get practical.

Before I share all three principles - Disclaimer, this is a coaching technique post based on personal experience; you should always consult a local psychiatrist. However, there is no shame in doing that; you have the complete right to visit your local counsellor.

Becoming a certified John Maxwell trainer and coach has enabled me the keys to access the world’s best personal growth materials and courses.

I know, I have kept waiting for so long; here are three laws - principles.

First - The Law of awareness; You must know yourself to grow yourself.

This is the bottom line. Therefore, when I facilitate the workshop on the 15 invaluable laws of growth, I challenge the audience, asking for a simple exercise.
“List 5 things you do well”, says the exercise. I give 5 minutes and then ask the group to share their discoveries. “I am good at writing”, “I am a great communicator” are typical answers I do get. These are great, of course, and depict the traits much needed to thrive in the 21st century. Yet, not the ones I want participants to be aware of. So I give them a little tip: “Who has the talent to hit a nail with a hammer? And, give two more minutes. Now, at the end of two minutes, I do get: “I can cook an omelette”, “I am great at assembling IKEA furniture really quick”.
What you can and do can be as less tangible as speaking and as highly practical as omelette cooking. You have to be aware of your talents and skills and remind yourself there is a purpose for your skills.

Second - The law of the reflection. Learning to pause allows growth to catch up with you.

Hang on a second, what growth? This was my thought pattern when I read this first time being in a very low mood.
Here is the revelation - the chapter comes after the one in awareness, and having done the exercise on what I do well left me in very high esteem. However, I did not take the time to reflect on what I learned and get more focused on what I’d do next.
Basically, I experienced “bipolar disorder”, one of the syndromes of depression - extremely low mood following the extreme heights of great inspiration. In other words, my brain released too much dopamine for me to be able to cope.
Law of reflection gave me perfect guidelines on how to deal with that situation - close everything and take a break. 
I don’t mean running away; I effortless break - like a short walk, little exercise, cup of tea 🫖, or something else that would shift my focus away and experience the view from the stage.
Believe me or not, it did work; it works as I write, and it will do the same in the future. 
That’s the way to allow growth to catch up with yourself and regain back focus and the joy of life.

Third - The Law of environment. The growth thrives in conducive surroundings.

Your workplace, friends and family leave a significant impact on your personality, hence stand in the way or help you to grow. 
I deliberately did no put family first cause that could be quite difficult to change. However, if you experience physical abuse and violence from the ones closest to you, remember this - you have the freedom to leave and report that to relevant authorities.
When I was in my twenties, I did not have many boundaries - I welcomed everyone and everything. But, as you may guess, I easily got into trouble letting people using me as they pleased.
I had it literally; I grew in size, not in awareness and spiritually. Then in my thirties, on one occasion, It went so bad that I had a choice to leave Latvia - my home country or hang myself. Of course, I choose the former, and I had an opportunity to change.
Did that get me out of troubles and difficulties - no, but I was able to choose a new group of friends and a new community of peers. Both made me into a different person. I started even volunteering to help the homeless in my local church.
I had fully experienced the Law of Environment, believe it or not, but I went down from having weekly two-day anxiety attacks to just occasional ones once in half a year. Even those occasional ones were not an issue as I knew what I had to do.
Wow, indeed, it worked. 
The environment is crucial for your mental health and personal growth, and I must say you have a choice always. Viktor Frankl - an Austrian psychiatrist perfectly accesses:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

All have worked in my life, and I wish they will work for you too - three invaluable personal growth and development laws.