Your environment is a critical component in how you feel. It is important to note that there are three components – the external reality, your perception of it, and your reaction to it. So while one person can be surrounded by tragedy and sadness and emerge seemingly unscathed, another may experience life changing trauma that can take years to undo. This can be very complex, but there are some simple things one can control that can make a noticeable difference in the way one feels.

Television news is perhaps one of the most pernicious sources of ideas that one can feed his or her brain. Here is a medium that by design deletes any evidence of life being good and then dramatizes the bad news that is left. And you can have this 24 hours a day. Unless you are able to be truly objective when viewing this, there is little doubt that over time, it begins to make you cynical and you will begin to globalize the what you see and hear. Even if it is only on in the background, your brain is picking up the words and ideas and forming opinions and views based on this input. It is a form of subtle programming. I strongly recommend you give up all TV news for at least one week just to notice how you feel and to never watch the late night news before going to bed.
This one step can make a profound difference for most people.

What else makes up your environment? Your friends, family and co-workers are key ingredients in the environmental soup of your life. And they are things that you have surprising control over. It is very important to understand what I mean by control. You cannot change anything about the people you surround yourself with, but you can change who you surround yourself with or how your react to them.

There are two kinds of people you do not want to surround yourself with. Those who bring you down, and those who keep you down. The ones who bring you down are those whose behaviors and view on life are consistently negative. The ones who keep you down are those that listen to you when you’re feeling down and then sympathize with you! I know that you may value these people, and certainly there is a time for them, but if you have someone whose shoulder you have been leaning on time and time again, and they don’t offer you any alternatives to your negative thinking, they are not helping you!

Beliefs, in particular, strongly held unexamined beliefs, can be one of the key causes of depression. Especially when you or the world around you does not behave according to those beliefs. In my upcoming program on overcoming depression, I deal with this more thoroughly, but here is the central idea.

Many of the beliefs we hold in adulthood were absorbed without question as children, and some before we are even able to question. At young ages we trust our adult caregivers to teach us how the world operates. This gives us structure and helps us make sense of the world. That’s why the discovery that Santa Claus is a myth can be so upsetting – we’re forced to reevaluate and it’s uncomfortable. For perhaps the first time, we consider that we must question what we are told.

This extends to one’s religious, political, gender and ethnic beliefs, as well as a host of others about work, money, sex, etc. If one develops rigid beliefs in these areas, s/he also builds expectations about behavior in others. Should one be exposed to situations and circumstances that are contrary to these, the result can be frustration, anger and depression. It’s a desire for the world to work according to one’s internal map.

One doesn’t have to give up his/her beliefs to overcome these feelings. What is important is to examine them with the idea of allowing for other possibilities. Doing so acknowledges reality and fosters acceptance. Once there is acceptance, anger and frustration diminishes, and depression can too.