Caught the wind, feeling better

Every so often I realize that I've fallen into a depression (or, at least, fallen off of track), and usually when I notice, I'm on my way up again. This time, a series of events have shown me that I was pretty down for a couple of months, at least, which was impacting everything at least a little.

My partner and I recently started marriage counseling a few months back, and about two months ago, the counselor gave us a list of 83 values. We were supposed to pick the 3-5 that best fit what we thought was important, independently. This was so interesting, and also empowering! I wound up setting up a fairly coarse sort algorithm using index cards and a spreadsheet to track points, comparing two at a time like a tournament to see which rose to the top. Then I reviewed the list and chose from the three or four that fit best, influenced by my tournament. This whole process lit me up!

Following that, my counselor shared that there's data somewhere that shows that journaling about ones values for just a week can make a tremendous difference in their life. So I did that. And gradually, I realized that there are some things that are pretty important to me that I just wasn't doing enough of. And vice versa: there were some things I was doing a lot that are not truly important to me at all. This threw fuel on the fire!

Now, it's snowballing, and I'm doing a good amount of stuff - starting and increasing some habits - all starting with looking at a values list and allowing myself to sort it in the way that made the most sense to me. It's really been a breath of fresh air, and has helped my mood and mindset tremendously. I'm journaling again, reading a lot more than before (and, consistently), meditating, and setting some goals for this month and 2026 that are in line with that.

This is just a post to share something that has worked for me recently. Maybe it or something like it can benefit you or someone you know, or you can just feel good reading the post.

Good luck, friends.