I do the same thing you do -- turning to those I love and trust to remind me of why they love me and why I'm worth all the bother. I'm pretty good at boosting myself up, but sometimes I need to hear it from others too.

And the PERMANENT thing... remembering that it's not permanent is so important. There have been many times when I felt hopeless, but things DID get better, so I remind myself of that when I'm feeling down and the hopelessness is creeping in again.

I've never been to BC. I have cousins in Victoria. The farthest west I've been is Edmonton, though. Here in Nova Scotia, our winters haven't been too bad lately. We've been feeling the effects of global warming -- kind of scary actually. Hardly any snow the past couple of winters. We get loads of rain too. Our winter didn't really begin until mid-January this year and we got some uncharacteristically cold weather -- bone-chilling cold. I'm not used to that... still hardly any snow that stays on the ground, though.

P.S. You mentioned your reliance on prayer. You should check out the spirituality forum.