How to Manage Depression and Anxiety
First off I want to start off by saying THERE IS HOPE! Do not give up, you can overcome and manage depression and anxiety. You could be dealing with either separately, but anxiety and depression are often best friends.
Depression does not judge, have a type, it is not biased and does not target any ethnicity, age, or sex. It can hit anyone, and everyone differently.
For those who have never experienced depression and are here searching for answers for a loved one, first I want to thank you for caring and second, don’t give up!
Imagine a life where you are always chasing happiness. Except it isn’t always a brief jog which most people might endure for a day (called sadness), this can be a full-blown marathon ranging from 6 months to decades. The worst part for some is when you reach the end you don’t know how long you have until you have to start running again.
There is so much we have yet to uncover and learn about depression, the brain, and our consciousness/subconscious. They are making new methods and devices to treat depression every year. Depression isn’t just a feeling. It’s a loss of motivation, enjoyment, loss of appetite, that sustains longer than 3 months consecutively (IMDb book). We’re not talking about a bad day here and there. Depression can start whenever it wants, leave, and return as it pleases if it goes untreated.
Chances are someone you or someone you know has or had depression. Whether that is a loved one, close friend, or co-worker. I’ve had loved ones affected by suicide. I think in order to stop the epidemic of stress, depression, and anxiety we have a lot to change about the way society views talking about these topics and what we do about it. We have to all change our thought negative patterns about it and ourselves. The more people are aware, can empathize, can help; the more we can all make the world a better place to live.
How to Manage Depression and Anxiety
Believe in Something
The universe is an unimaginably vast entity of everything. It’s a scary place if you choose to be alone in your journey cut off from the possibility that something created all of this. How was it created? What’s going to happen? How are we still alive on this rock floating in nothingness with a thin layer keeping us from space? How hasn’t something shot across space and hit us yet? It’s terrifying if you start to theorize about the universe. Having a belief in something and that you live in a friendly universe where you are created to enjoy life will lift such a burden off of your soul. I’m not saying there’s even a reason we’re all on this planet other than the pure fact we were created to be here right now (living breathing and feeling) to experience life to the fullest. Check out my favorite motivation coach Jake Ducey, I have watched him every day (without fail!) since the beginning of 2018 to get my day going and feeling good
Your bed should only be used for sleep – Aaron Doughty – expand your awareness coach.
Morning and Nighttime Routines
Morning, and nighttime (see below), routines are great for people who are struggling with depression or anxiety. You may have no structure to your life and lay around all day. Sometimes we need a day of healing. However, when that day turns into weeks of laying around and not being productive, you or your loved one are going to find themselves stuck. Get detailed down to the hour or minute if that is what you need to do to break old habits of laying around. Maybe you find yourself randomly crying at the same time every day for hours. You can break this habit by having a routine and plan in place!
Morning Routine
Wake up and say “I get to do ____ today!”. It could be “I get to wake up and workout”, “I get to wake up and go work on my goals”, “I get to go see my favorite person today”, or even “I get to go to work today”. Most people, even without depression, wake up and immediately start having negative thoughts. Before you decide to hit snooze, watch this video and see how your harming yourself by hitting that button.
This is my personal routine that I change a little bit the night before depending on what I need to accomplish the next day. I have outlined this as a template for you to be able to copy and paste into a notepad or write down. I highly suggest waking up at 5:00-5:30 to start your day! Check out this YouTube video to get some motivation on why you should start your day early (via Bright Side YouTube).
- 5:00am- 5:05am : Chug glass of water
- 5:05 am – 5:30 am: Brush teeth while listening to a motivational video. Start hypnotic writing where you write your goal down over and over again.
- 5:30 am – 6:30 am: Gym! Go to my fitness blog posts here to try some new lifting routine out.
- 6:45 am – 7:00 am : Shower. I also play motivational speeches, podcasts, or audio while I am in the shower.
- 7:00 am – 7:45 am: Do hair, grooming, or makeup to feel your best and look your best!
- 7:45 am – 8:00 am: Read something inspiring or a book. I have listed a few below!
- 8:00am-8:20am : Eat breakfast. Need some healthy ideas? Check out this blog post on how I lost 20lbs in 3 months for some healthy and easy to make recipes.
- 8:00 am – 9:00 am: Take one hour to study, learn something new, or take a course.
- 9:00 am: Whether you are self-employed or work for someone else, it’s good to keep this structure.
- If you are ready to start working for yourself then see my post on “How to Start a Money Making Blog” and sign up for my Free mini blog course email series.
- If you are unemployed and looking for work, I highly recommend remote.co for remote jobs!
- 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Lunchtime. Go for a walk! Call your parents or a friend.
- 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm Finish up work
- 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm Exercise, eat dinner, hang out with friends, work on a hobby
- 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm Start your bedtime routine
Nighttime Routine
- 8:00pm – 8:30pm – Do some bedtime yoga
- 8:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Brush teeth, wash your face, write down goals for tomorrow.
- 9:00 pm – 9:30 pm – Meditate or listen to frequencies while falling asleep.
After just one day you will see how much better you feel! It’s not always easy to wake up early, but it sure is worth it. You’ll start to see how precious time is when you get on a schedule and how there are so many things that you want to do and accomplish! If this bedtime routine doesn’t work for you, YouTube is a great resource to find one that works for you.
Reading Suggestions
I suggest reading a book that makes you put your phone down and helps you get lost in its pages.
The list below are some suggestions that you can buy in either hardback (which you can write notes on the pages) on your phone or kindle:
- You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero
- The Artist Way by Julia Cameron
- The Magic by Rhonda Byrne
Leave some of your favorite suggestions in the comments below and I will add them to this list
Show Gratitude
Another practice that is more important than anything you do, is to show gratitude. The more you show gratitude, the more you will start to see amazing things in your life show up. It will lift you into different energy and will make you feel better instantly. Show gratitude for yourself, for others, for your loved ones, for the food you eat, the water you drink, the men and woman who made it possible for you to buy food at the grocery store, your device that your reading this blog post on, and anything you can think of. you found these tips and that the universe is sending more and more information your way every day to help you get better.
‘The Magic’ is an amazing book to start to your gratitude practice with and I highly recommend it! This book, that I linked above, helps you go through a month of gratitude practices. You can do this on your own as well with a journal. Write down 5-10 things every day that you are grateful for. You will start to change the way you think about the world around you from negative to positive. You’ll be able to look at these when your feeling down or feeling your worst.
Accomplish Something You’ve Been Wanting to Do
Even if it’s watching one of the videos on your to-watch list, finishing a book, playing guitar for 10 minutes, doing a few squats, just do it! You will feel a lot better after you have crossed off something on your to-do list. Start small and then work your way up. If you haven’t been showing, put it on your to-do list and mark it off until you feel good enough to accomplish bigger tasks.
Socialize. Socialize. Socialize
Depression thrives on isolation. It loves nothing more than to get you alone, make you do nothing, and starve you or make you overeat yourself to hatred. The longest study on happiness, which you can learn more about in this Ted Talk “what makes a good life”, explains how humans who had long-lasting relationships actually lived longer than those who did not.
Yes, it’s great to be there for people, but depression can be contagious. You must always do what’s best for you to get better. People who also have depression may only bring you down if they are not seeking treatment. Even in the first year of treatment, I suggest staying away from others who also have depression. It’s hard enough to take care of yourself when you have depression, so having someone else lean on you may be too much and it’s okay to walk away. It doesn’t mean you don’t love them, it just means you love yourself enough to fix yourself first.
Personality traits such as self-confidence and humor are shown to decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety. – unknown source
Nutrition and Exercise
It is so important that you have a healthy diet and exercise routine! Both of these alone can tremendously help anxiety and depression, but together they are key! What goes in your body has a strong correlation to how you will feel and perform. Look into what a good diet for you would be. I use Pinterest a lot for recipes, snack ideas, and meal prep. You can even get a meal service if you don’t think you are up to cooking.
Tips for Better Sleep
One of the biggest feeders of anxiety and depression is not getting enough sleep. I use sleepyti.me which is a website that allows me to count my sleep cycles. It tells me when to go to sleep if I need to be up at a certain time, or when I should wake up if I go to sleep right now. It really works to make you feel refreshed waking up! Remember, don’t hit that snooze button! I also suggest starting a sleep journal so you can start recording how many good nights of sleep your getting. If you don’t have a good night sleep figure out why and write it down. It could be that you had caffeine too late in the day or you talked to someone who stressed you out. Figure it out and get back to good sleep!
Listen to White Noise or Frequencies Before Falling Asleep
I tell people that this one is similar to the Pavlov dog experiment where a dog would salvage at the sound of a bell. Except for you, you will get used to listening to this sound and fall asleep within a few minutes every night of hearing it! I switch off, but a good starting video is this 417 Hz Healing Music – let go of mental blocks video.
See a Trained Professional specialized in Depression and Anxiety
Therapy always had a stigma to me when I was growing up. Being able to see what others thing online, validated my thoughts. Together we can remove the stigma. Therapy is the best thing you can do to move on with your life, quickly. If you want to stay the way you are, then keep doing the same things your doing. You don’t have to tell a single soul you went, or you can and help take away the stigma!
There are a lot of new methods for treating depression and anxiety, such as TMS therapy, helmets, Black Ear Clip Electrodes for Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation.
Exercise Your Mind
Meditation, hypnosis, and yoga are very powerful for the mind.
Meditation
This practice trains your mind to make it healthy just like you need to train your muscles for a healthy and toned body. I listen to Meditation Minis with Chel Hamilton.
You can also checkout my meditation business Cosmic Cloud Meditations (you can find us on YouTube, anchor, Spotify, Google Podcast, and Apple Podcast)
Meditation Tips
- Keep your eyes focused on one spot
- Observe your thoughts, don’t try to control them
Hypnosis
I have done a lot of meditations at home, but I had never done hypnosis before so I was very excited to be given the collaboration opportunity to try it out. Diana is the owner of Hypno Holistic that is located in Rockville, MD. However, you can also schedule phone sessions if you want to miss out on the traffic or you are not in the area.
My Experience with Hypnosis
Before going in for my appointment, Diana and I talked briefly on the phone for 15 minutes of consultation to discuss my goals. We reviewed them again when I came in for my appointment, and then she was ready to walk me through a set of personalized guided visualizations. I suggest doing meditation at home first to practice getting into a very relaxed state, but then doing the one on one sessions because they are personalized towards your specific life and goals rather than a generic podcast recording.
The Guided Hypnosis Visualization
Diana walked me through two different visualizations. The first one I walked down to a meadow where I was able to open a door to my past and speak to my subconscious. Then I opened a door to my future of what I would like to happen.
In the second visualization, I was then guided to a lake where a hot air balloon came towards me and I was able to take out gifts such as love and patience. I then put all the limiting beliefs that were not serving me into the hot air balloon and watched it float into the distance and dissipate into dust. It was a great experience and I woke up feeling like I had just had a massage done because that’s how relaxed I was. I have started to notice habits that I was trying to cut out at nighttime, such as listening to music, be more manageable after this session!
Try out a Float Tank
Float tanks have become more and more popular. I visited one in Denver, Colorado and it was an enjoyable experience. Float tanks help a variety of mental health issues. The room that I was in was a large capsule with warm salt water and lights that you could turn on and off. There was also music available for you to play while you are floating. I suggest giving this one a try after you have learned how to meditate.
Yoga
There are many different kinds of yoga out there! My favorite is hot yoga which can be a great workout. There is stretching yoga which is probably what most people think yoga is. Yoga also has man poses that you can practice in or outside of class. Most noteworthy for this post, there is yoga for anxiety, relaxation, to feel your best and anything you can think of! I like to watch and follow Yoga with Adrienne, this is her video for Yoga for Anxiety and Stress.
Take Vitamins
Not only is taking vitamins good for your overall health, but it can also help depression! I have read multiple times that Fish Oil can help with depression. I will be diving deeper into what vitamins can be helpful and adding them as I find them!
Cut out Harmful Substances
Alcohol is a depressant and can lead to a bad lifestyle. If you can’t cut this one out, you may have bigger problems than depression and anxiety to face first. Caffeine can also become addicting and hurt your sleep schedule. If you are finding it hard to sleep, I highly recommend cutting out all caffeine until you are on a good sleep schedule!
Listen to Something Inspiring
Listen less to negativity from the world around you and surround yourself with and focus on the things you love! This could be reading, things you love watching, the music you love listening to that makes you feel happy and makes you dance, and go to the places you love to go to. Cut out anything that isn’t that, as quickly as possible!
Sending you all hugs, love, and hope. YOU AN OR YOUR LOVED ONE CAN BEAT DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY! Share this post with someone you know that needs to read this how to manage depression and anxiety guide today. Leave a comment below to help boost this page so that it can reach more people! Share your favorite tips if I forgot anything that you know has helped you or someone else so that I can add it and make this the best resource possible!
This blog post was written in loving memory of a grade school friend. I miss you every day.
IT. GETS. BETTER!
Andi says
Great tips. I suffered from depression from 2017 until the end of 2019. I had no clue what was happening, I just could not get off the couch. I cut out all foods that were processed, worked out, forced myself to go hang out with friends. None of that helped until my IUD worked it’s way out of my uterus. I rushed in to have it removed. I found out that depression and migraines were both symptoms of the IUD. I am glad to report both are gone. Thank you for shedding light on such a touchy subject.
kitstanwood@gmail.com says
That is such a great point! I have struggled with being on different medicines. I am going to add that to the list above. Thank you for sharing <3 so glad to hear you are feeling better now!
Duocharms says
Last year , was a tough year for me mentally ND physically I felt like giving up and ending things fast , because I felt alone ,afraid but I had friends trying to help me but I wasn’t seeing pictures clearly. I’m glad I pulled through it, this post remember what I faced and how anyone can overcome it
Jessica says
I suffer from both! After having my daughter I hit rock bottom and have been on a healthier journey ever since. I love all your tips and have found relief from several including having a better daily routine.
Sidney Christensen says
I was reading through several of your articles. You have a wide variety of subjects that you write about. Very interesting
kitstanwood@gmail.com says
Hi! Thanks for stopping by. Which subject is your favorite Sidney?
Kim andrews says
Great article, covers everything and some excellent tips! X
Allison says
Absolutely loved this post! It’s refreshing to hear someone speak about how these issues can impact anyone, at any time for any reason. I’ve struggled with depression for years and have a ton of different things I do to manage but definitely going to take a few things from this as well. I wish more people realized how important mental health is! Thanks for talking about it!
Kelsey says
This is very informative! Mental health is so important! And it is also so common for people to ignore!