Battling the vicious cycle that is depression is a challenge for anyone at any age, but for older people it’s especially vexing.
Added to the everyday problems and disappointments that people of other ages also suffer, older people see and feel themselves diminishing — their bodies, their employment opportunities, their finances, their physical equilibrium and strength. The fact is, getting old is hard enough to deal with without adding newly-acquired bad habits into the mix.
Physical activity is the most powerful rejuvenator, both physical and emotional, an older person can find — and it’s free.
No matter how weak or fat or depressed you are, get down on the floor and try to do a push-up. If you can’t do one, try again in an hour. Then again until you can manage one. If you can do one, try for a second. Tomorrow do the same. When you can accomplish two, try for three. Next month is going to come regardless, unless we’re dead, and then we don’t have to worry about it. But you will find that a month of push-ups will make a world of difference in the way you feel 30 days from now, especially if your goal is to challenge yourself to continually increase the number of repetitions. The improving of ourselves and feeling and seeing the results of that improvement is the most powerful treatment for depression that there is.
One month from today, without cost, without a gym membership, in the privacy of your own home you can be stronger and fitter. Or you can be that much weaker than you are today.
It is within everyone’s power to turn hopeless into hopeful.
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