Hi ash
It's seriously tough when we're surrounded by key players in our life who don't understand what it takes to raise us. While psychologists may understand what it takes to raise our dopamine or serotonin levels, as well as our sense of self-esteem and consciousness, we unfortunately can't have them with us 24/7.
I realise that while I had loving people around me during my years in depression, many of them were more so observers (consoling or constructively criticising me) rather than active raisers (inspiring me). Not many were really able to help me establish a relateable management plan, for helping me raise myself out of my depression.
As a mum, I try to instill skills in my 14yo son and 17yo daughter so they become equipped for a life I pray will be free of depression for them. One of these skills is the skill of reasoning. To be able to reason consciously is what makes us reasonable, to varying degrees. For example, my husband may say to our kids 'You need to come out of your room. You're spending too much time in there'. They remain in their room, annoyed by him, while he gets even more annoyed by them. I've mentioned to him 'You're not going to lure them out unless what's outside of their room is more exciting that what's inside their room'. Sounds reasonable. Understanding this, I'll occasionally come up with some exciting prompts/ideas and then, BAMM, out they come. Ash, I also know that luring them out solely for the purpose of doing chores is going to trigger them. I believe it reasonable, in this case, that they would be thinking 'So the only time you're interested in me is when you want something from me.'
Ash, you sound like a reasonable person to me. You're self-entertaining during this incredibly challenging time in society, you're throwing in a reasonable amount of exercise to boost yourself mentally and physically and you don't want to deal with unreasonable people (it angers you to have to do so). You're doing an amazing job of trying to raise yourself under the circumstances.
By the way, a little outside the square, wondering if you'd consider taking up cooking whilst you're stuck inside. It's perfectly reasonable to ask for some affordable ingredients so as to creatively experiment.
Ash, sometimes I find the criticism and lack of reasoning from others to be highly questionable and potentially depressing. I believe it's reasonable at times to challenge such people to thoughtfully seek higher consciousness.
Take care 🙂
