When you have chronic depression or bipolar disorder, depression relapse seems inevitable and you need to know how to survive depression relapse. I’ve been in treatment for bipolar disorder for almost 12 years and I still struggle with these relapses. Here are some tips I gleaned recently on how to survive a depression relapse.

It’s hard to experience peace in uncertainty. If I always knew how the chips would fall life would be easy and I would be happy, right? I’m not sure if certainty really leads to bliss, but I do know it’s possible to experience peace in uncertainty.

Developing emotional resilience does not exempt you from life’s stressors. It helps you maintain hope when you have to face those stressors (Resilience: Getting Up When Mental Illness Knocks You Down). If you can learn how to bounce back from difficulty, you will adapt rather than succumb to adversity. Learn how to develop your emotional resilience. Here's how.

When I feel overwhelmed by emotions, sometimes the difference between misery and bliss is nothing more than a healthy perspective. You can manage overwhelming emotions with healthy perspectives.

When it comes to emotional healing, I see more and more how important our sense of worthiness is in the process. Emotional healing can't happen if you believe you're worthless. I created a video about worthiness and belonging a few weeks ago, and I can’t seem to shake the importance a sense of worthiness has in emotional healing and in living a blissful life. So I decided to do a follow-up blog to include emotional healing.

Life viewed through a lens of love can lead to blissful living. As I reflect on some of life's journey, I remember painful times during my growing up years. I accepted a truth of myself as viewed through a lens of fear and poison. At that time, I wasn't aware my view was one from fear. I had no idea that a life viewed through the lens of love could be blissful.

You can manufacture an attitude of gratitude even if you don't normally feel thankful. Focus on what you're grateful for now--name something you're grateful to know or have. Gratitude is an expression or feeling of appreciation, and it matters. It is recognizing the source of "goodness" in your life rather than "badness." Do you have good days, trustworthy friends, a supportive family, a respectable job, decent pay, etc.? Could the list of goodness in your life continue? Think about it. An attitude of gratitude can go a long way to uplifting your heart, mind, and soul.

Fear never wrote a symphony or poem, negotiated a peace treaty, or cured a disease. Fear never pulled a family out of poverty or a country out of bigotry. Fear never saved a marriage or a business. Courage did that. Faith did that. People who refused to consult or cower to their timidities did that. But fear itself? Fear herds us into a prison and slams the doors. Wouldn’t it be great to walk out? ~ Max Lucado Fear Revealed What is your biggest fear? What feeds your fears? Does fear stifle your thinking? Can you imagine a life with no fear? Do have faith?

I live, I love, I laugh, I cry. I’m not perfect. No one is, not you or I. ~ Unk Meaning of Perfect Are you striving to be perfect? Have you made mistakes? Are you judgmental of self and others? What does perfect mean and look like to you?

The list of people associated with the word beauty or beautiful is long and distinguished. As human beings we tend to be enamored with physical beauty. The popular media floods us with endless images of men and women who fit the sociocultural essence of beauty. Every year, People Magazine even dedicates an entire issue to the “50 Most Beautiful People in the World.” Sensationalism of beauty simply intensifies stress rather than deepens satisfaction with self.