I've been doing very well lately. And it comes to me as no surprise that my mental and emotional wellness tend to increase as my physical and social wellness increase.

Which leads me to purport that many of us here live lives that become a self-perpetuating cycle.

When we're down, we feel tired and become lazy. When we become lazy we get bored. When we become bored we get lonely. When we get lonely we feel even worse. When we feel even worse we start to do things that are hazardous to our health - eating junk food, not exercising, staying cooped up indoors, ignoring friends family and coworkers. When we start doing such self-destructive things we make our problems even worse and it gets to the point where we feel stuck in a rut - we can't remember the last time we were happy and we begin to hate life. We begin to blame our shitty lot in life for how we feel, instead of looking at our self-destructive habits and doing something about them.

I'm not trying to tell anyone here that your problems are all your fault. Surely, they are not. Something had to trigger the initial spiral downward. What I am trying to get at is that there is a hell of a lot that we can do to pick ourselves up that most of us never bother trying. Whether it is because we are convinced that we will never be happy regardless of what we do, or whether it's because we are so fatigued, so pounded down my our demons that we feel incapable of making changes.

I'm talking about the concept of the locus of control. Where does your perceived locus of control lie?

Locus of control can be internal or external. In a healthy, well balanced individual, that locus of control is perceived as greatly internal, with a healthy acceptance of those external realities that cannot be controlled.

In an unhealthy individual, the locus of control is perceived as external - they feel as if they have zero control over their life; things just happen to them. These people are not agents in the world, they are passive objects.

I would like to ask each and every one of you which type are you? Where do YOU perceive your locus of control to be?

Do YOU control your life, or do "the forces that be"?

Whatever situation you are in, whatever external, uncontrollable forces have thrown your way, there is ALWAYS some aspect that you can control.

You can control your reactions to events, situations and people.
You can control your diet, your exercise regimen, your choice of entertainment, your friends, your job, your volunteer commitments...
You can control your attitudes, your ideals, and your evaluations.

I have recently managed to break out of the self-perpetuating, self-destructive cycle that so many of us find ourselves "locked" into. And as it turns out, it's not as hard as it seems when you're looking at it. It's about making minor choices each and every day - conscious choices to do things that are helpful not harmful, healthy not self-destructive. The more positive choices you make, the easier it becomes.

Again, I'm not laying the blame at anyone's feet for what they are feeling. What I am doing is trying to encourage you all to do what it is that you CAN do - to harness what control you DO have - to overcome what ails you. You didn't ask to be depressed. You didn't decide one day that you were going to be this way. But you have decided each and every day since then what it is you are going to do about it that day. You have decided, consciously or not, each and every day what you are going to eat, do, see, discover and be.