“Recovery is full of ups and downs. There is no such thing as a linear life. But you can always turn your setbacks into setups to come back stronger.” -Brittany Burgunder, Author, Mental Health & Eating Disorder Advocate

You’ve heard the term, “one step forward, two steps back” and I am here to tell you to take that expression and flip it. Two step forward for every one step back. 

Life can be hard and unfair, so you’re going to take your hits that knock you backwards, but you only lose ground if you don’t give up. 

When I think about my battle with depression, I use the metaphor of being a Boxer in the ring. You’re going to take punches for sure, but you always get to punch back. It’s not an outright beating, it’s a fair fight. There are strategies to make sure you don’t get hit as much, let’s coin this as the Mayweather method. This method is all about endurance until your opponent (depression) gets tired and then you can strike back (happiness). 

To really nail this method, you have to know what actions you can take that will keep your depression at bay. To reverse engineer this, ask yourself what is the opposite of depression?? Antidepressants right? And I’m not talking about the meds. I am not anti-antidepressants, but I can say they didn’t work for me. I’m also not a psychologist or psychiatrist so I really don’t have the authority one way or another. However, I do know that there are things that also work AS antidepressants such as nutritious food, sunlight and exercise.

So to properly use the Mayweather Method, we need to equip ourselves with every means of antidepressant tools to keep ourselves in our happiest moods. A great article to reference is from Talkspace, and you can read all about natural alternative treatments for depression here. Depression doesn’t have near as good of a chance to catch us with a knockout punch when we are in good defensive position.

I do my best to use this method, but sometimes I get surprised with a few jabs leading to me being vulnerable to the knockout punch. If you get hit hard by depression, it only wins if you don’t get up. Let’s coin this as the Rocky Method.

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you get hit and keep movin’ forward. How much you can take, and keep movin’ forward. That’s how winning is done!” -Rocky Balboa

Fuck yeah! God damn that speech fires me up. Imma have to right that one down on poster paper so I see it every single day of my life.

We are gonna get hit. We are gonna be in pain. But we also get to hit back. We get to choose if we’re gonna lay on the ground and let the count get to 10, or if we’re gonna get back up. I’m not much for letting the count get past 8. I’ve let it that far sure, but I know what happens if I let two more counts get vocalized. It means I lose. And I am not a loser.

Recently, I have found my depression getting the upper hand, so I went back to the basics. I’m in the gym training for my next fight with depression. My trainer was able to figure out a strategy that will aid in one of my opponents attributes. In this case, it’s the financial stress. So, I have come to the realization that my truck costs too much money to drive for what I get out of it. Now I’m looking into options on how I can trade in my Truck with negative equity to a less valuable vehicle. 

The cons are; I won’t have a truck anymore, I’ll be negotiating from the bottom, and I’ll likely have a hole to climb out of. The pros are; smaller vehicle with better fuel economy, cheaper insurance, the ability to get into positive equity sooner, and a smaller monthly payment. One step backward, two steps forward. 

Every time my depression has gotten the upper hand, I’ve fought back harder. One step backward, two steps forward. 

I lost my mother at 19, and didn’t take steps forward until I saw 271 on the scale. I started running and moved out of my Dad’s house and into a “frat house” eventually leading to getting my weight down to 180 and then I went to college. One step backward, two steps forward. 

I had my ex wife step outside our marriage leading to our divorce. I got in shape, I started dating again and now I’m engaged to the true love of my life. One step backward, two steps forward. 

I found myself at 31 years old without any career aspirations. I took chances and learned some great new skills from experiences I wouldn’t have dared to dry previously, and now I have a great job as a Plasma Operator. One step backward, two steps forward. 

Yes, sometimes life gets heavy. I found myself wallowing in self pity, so I had to give myself a mental reset. I reverse engineered my feelings and thoughts and saw them for what they were. Depression got the upper hand and almost knocked me out. This time, I didn’t let the count get past 5.

I am not a failure, I am not a quitter, I am not damaged goods like depression was telling me. I am resilient.

Nobody is gonna save you, so get in the gym and get to work on your next match against your opponent, and YOU ARE CAPABLE! One step backward. Two steps forward.