{"id":151607,"date":"2023-10-24T15:15:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T19:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/?p=151607"},"modified":"2023-10-23T15:34:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T19:34:08","slug":"daily-routine-to-fight-off-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/151607","title":{"rendered":"Daily Routine To Fight Off Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Daily Routine To Fight Off Depression\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y9A5wuTtblw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n(upbeat music) – [Narrator] Hey Psych2goers,\r\nwelcome back to another video. Thank you so much for\r\nall the love and support that you’ve given us. Our mission is to make mental health and psychology more\r\naccessible to everyone. Today, we’ve invited Emma\r\nMcAdam, a licensed marriage and family therapist shares\r\nher insights on depression and some tips on how to cope with it. Her channel is therapy in a nutshell, you can check it out in the\r\nlink in the description below. With that said, let’s get started. History of depression\r\nin my family and myself, just like physical health, you have to maintain it by\r\ntaking care of your body with exercise eating the right food, and going to the doctor\r\nwhen you’re injured or ill. With mental health, you also have to take daily action to be healthy. And when things are stressful, I have to take extra care\r\nto manage my mental health.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nSo for example, when I was in grad school or when I was pregnant or\r\npostpartum, and right now when we as a global community\r\nare fighting a pandemic, we all have to take a little extra care of our mental health. What I’m going to talk about today is more about maintaining mental health than it is about getting out of the\r\ndeepest pit of depression. When you’re deep in a depressive episode, it can be really hard to see any light. It feels like you’re\r\nat the bottom of a pit and can’t imagine what it\r\nfeels like to be out of it. At that place, often, all\r\nyou can do is tiny steps and hopefully get some\r\nhelp to get out of there.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nSo don’t allow yourself to\r\nget overwhelmed by my routine. Just choose one little thing to start with and then take the next step when you can. Number one is the morning routine. So the first thing I do every day is get on my knees and pray. I express gratitude for\r\nthe day of my life and for the opportunity I have\r\nto do good in the world.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nAnd that connection with God for me helps me feel loved and\r\npurposeful throughout my day. If you’re not religious you could do some meditation\r\nor a breathing exercise here. I try not to look at my phone\r\nfirst thing in the morning because I wanna start\r\nmy day intentionally, the way I want it to be. If I open social media I’m letting others choose what I take in and that could be positive,\r\nnegative, stressful, uplifting, or critical. And so I just choose to start\r\nmy day with some quiet time. I do a little reading and\r\nthen I write out my goals and priorities for the day. And right now with all the\r\nnews, that’s frightening. I choose to listen to the news\r\naround lunchtime, once a day so that I don’t get\r\nconstantly stressed out and have time to process\r\nit during my waking hours.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nAnd speaking of waking hours let’s talk about sleep for a minute. I have three kids, five and under. So I usually wake up before\r\nthem to get some quiet time to set my intention for the day. My natural wake-up time\r\nis around 5:00 a.m. I don’t usually set an\r\nalarm, but to wake up I often go to bed between\r\n9.00 to 10:00 p.m. I’m not fighting my natural biorhythms. I just listen to my body. And this is the schedule that\r\nworks best for me.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nMany people, might\r\nhave different sleep needs or different schedules. Sleep is super important\r\nto managing depression. There’s a massive correlation\r\nbetween sleep problems and depression. Lack of sleep can cause depression and getting good sleep can\r\nlet your brain heal from depression. So I value my sleep. I have old friends who nicknamed me 905 because I often go to bed at that time. And I miss out on some fun for sure, but it’s what keeps me healthy.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nSo it’s worth it for me. For each person, your\r\nsleep needs are different but getting enough sleep can\r\nmake a big difference. One study found that 87%\r\nof people with depression who resolved their insomnia significantly decreased\r\ntheir depression symptoms. Number two, get dressed and showered. So after waking up refreshed\r\nand taking quiet time to pray, study, and set my intentions for the day, I make sure to get showered and dressed. I found that this can be\r\nhard when you’re depressed, but being clean and dressed\r\nhelps me feel more energetic and gets rid of my excuses. I mean, if I have yesterday’s\r\nmakeup all over my face and I’m wearing PJs, it\r\nmakes it hard for me to want to go out and see friends or\r\nbe social or get things done. So just get dressed for the day. Then I take my multivitamins. And if I remember I take\r\nmy omega-3 supplements, and nutrition is an important\r\npart of my routine as well.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI try to eat a lot of plants\r\nand not too much sugar or processed foods, but I’m not going to go into\r\nthat too much right now. Number three, exercise. The other essential part of my mental health\r\nmaintenance is exercise. There’s so much research\r\nthat proves that exercise is great for mental health. It helps clear brain fog, and it helps reduce stress\r\nchemicals in your brain. I feel like when I exercise,\r\nit just works through a backlog of pent-up emotions and\r\nI can feel my body relax.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.pexels.com\/photos\/7203956\/pexels-photo-7203956.jpeg?auto=compress&amp;cs=tinysrgb&amp;h=650&amp;w=940\" \/>\r\n\r\nI think it also helps me deal\r\nwith anger and frustration. And I just like it. I know a lot of people\r\nexercise in the morning, but for me back when I worked full-time, I used to always go climbing or for a hike or run after work. That’s when I needed it the most. And it was hard for me to\r\nget motivated in the morning but by afternoon, I was\r\nlooking forward to it. Now that I’m a full-time mom, I have to be more creative\r\nin how I get my exercise in.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI often just work out\r\nin the yard, gardening, digging in the dirt, and\r\nrunning around the yard with my wheelbarrow, or I’ll do some yoga on TV\r\nor go for a walk with my kids or pull them behind my bike. Now that we’re stuck in our homes with the coronavirus pandemic, I’m doing more inside workouts. I like the seven-minute\r\nworkouts on my phone or The Fitness Marshall on YouTube. Number four is nature time. This takes me back to another aspect of my mental health routine\r\nthat is important to me. Outside time. I need nature. I need to see the sky\r\nand soak in some sun.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI’m fortunate to live\r\nin a beautiful place. And I take advantage of\r\nthat by getting outside. There is some research showing\r\nthat sunshine nature and being outside change our physiology. It slows our heart rate and decreases the stress\r\nchemicals and stuff. But regardless of the research, I can just feel the difference for me. If you can’t get outside,\r\nopen your windows, and sit on your porch. Or if you can’t do any of that then you can spend some time looking at beautiful landscape\r\nphotography or a nature film. Your brain can bring to mind the feelings of nature just by imagining it. Number five is my evening routine.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nMy evening routine looks\r\nlike getting my kids to bed and then taking some\r\nquiet time for myself. I usually take a hot bath and read a book or an archeology journal. I’m kinda nerdy, but that’s what I like. Even though I have very few hours to work on my passion project, these videos, I don’t usually work in the evenings, because it would just\r\nstress me out a little and I need the downtime to stay healthy. So then before bed, I write in my journal, I often take the time\r\nto write about my wins and accomplishments of the day\r\nso that I can remember them because it’s my natural habit to dwell on my mistakes and shortcomings. So I write about my wins\r\nand then I pray a prayer of gratitude and talk with my\r\nheavenly father about my day. Again, gratitude practice\r\nis an essential habit of mental health, and it’s been shown to be an effective\r\ntreatment for depression. So you can pray about it like me, express gratitude as a family,\r\nwhich we do at dinner time, or write about it, whatever works for you.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nAnd then I go to bed. I try not to spend too much\r\ntime looking at screens before bed, but if I do, I\r\nchoose some calming documentary or a mudlarking channel\r\nlike Nikola Whites. If you don’t know what mudlarking is, it’s just finding\r\nhistorical bits of treasures on themes in London. Anyway, I find it relaxing. I encourage people not to be on TV because it’s just not\r\nsuper great for your brain. But if you do choose a\r\nshort and calming show. Lastly, other self-care. For me, that includes scheduling\r\nand some time for my hobby. I have tons of hobbies, but\r\nbecause I’m so busy with kids I don’t have\r\ntime to do most of them I make sure to carve\r\nout about two hours a week to do at least one of them. Right now that’s metal detecting which is something fun\r\nand relaxing for me. I put it on the calendar so\r\nthat I make sure it happens.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI also take the Sabbath\r\noff, no work, no housework. I don’t check my work email. I let my brain completely\r\nfocus on other things. Mostly my family, which\r\nis also exhausting, but it’s a day that is\r\ndifferent from the others. And I make sure to have\r\nsocial time as well. Having social interactions\r\nis essential for mental health. Our brains are inherently social. We are social creatures. So right now this is going\r\nto be an extra challenge with the Coronavirus. I’m taking the time to\r\ncall up old friends. I have some groups I’m\r\nhanging out with on Zoom and when we’re not on lockdown I meet up with friends\r\nto let the kids play or to go out to lunch or whatever. So there you have it.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nMy daily routine to\r\nmaintain mental health. I have a careful morning routine. I make sure to get enough sleep. I get dressed every day. I exercise and get some outside time, I carve out time to relax each\r\nevening, practice gratitude, and acknowledge my successes of the day. And once a week, I make sure to get out and do something just\r\nfor me, stress, anxiety, and social isolation can\r\nall contribute to depression but you can prevent depression\r\nduring stressful times like the pandemic and social distancing by using daily habits that\r\npromote mental health.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nDepression is treatable and there are some simple\r\nthings you can do every day to prevent depression and\r\nstay mentally healthy. I hope you can find some things from this list that help you figure out a way to maintain your mental health. Today, this week, and\r\nduring the crazy pandemic that we’re going through. And remember, you’re braver than you know and stronger than you think. Thanks for watching and take care. If you enjoyed this video and would like to learn more\r\nabout therapy, mental health, and what you can do to improve depression, anxiety, or other mental illnesses, check out Emma’s channel,\r\nTherapy, in a Nutshell, the link will be in the description.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Y9A5wuTtblw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">As found on YouTube<\/a>\r\n\r\nI thought my anxiety disorder was for life\u2026 <a href=\"http:\/\/flywait.anxiety4.hop.clickbank.net\">$49.\u2070\u2070<\/a> But I Discovered How Hundreds Of Former Anxiety Sufferers Melted Away Their Anxiety And Now Live Relaxed, Happy Lives \u2013 With No Trace Of Anxiety Or Depression At All!\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/flywait.anxiety4.hop.clickbank.net\">http:\/\/flywait.anxiety4.hop.clickbank.net<\/a>\r\nWe\u2019ve seen so many people go anxiety-free that we have no hesitation in guaranteeing this program. So\u2026 If at any time within 60 days of you purchasing \u2018Overthrowing Anxiety\u2019, your anxiety hasn\u2019t completely evaporated then you can have all your money back. No questions asked! You can do this for yourself today. You can start making a difference in your life right now. Click on the button below and you\u2019ll receive your copy of Overthrowing Anxiety in just a few minutes. It\u2019ll be one of the best decisions you\u2019ve ever made \u2013 guaranteed!\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/flywait.anxiety4.hop.clickbank.net\">http:\/\/flywait.anxiety4.hop.clickbank.net<\/a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/flywait.anxiety4.hop.clickbank.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ibb.co\/c8HrWCW\/R-3.jpg\" alt=\"R-3\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; (upbeat music) – [Narrator] Hey Psych2goers, welcome back to another video. Thank you so much for all the love and support that you’ve given us. Our mission is to make mental health and psychology more accessible to everyone. Today, we’ve invited Emma McAdam, a licensed marriage and family therapist shares her insights on depression &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/151607\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Daily Routine To Fight Off Depression<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":151606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,122,365],"tags":[696,60887,38797,38799,60893,34865,953,37548,54655,34854,34859,60891,34853,60888,957,40301,37803,41334,59794,59796,39665,59798,34169,60886],"class_list":["post-151607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anxiety","category-lgbt","category-music","tag-anxiety","tag-beat-anxiety-and-depression","tag-beat-depression","tag-beat-depression-naturally","tag-daily-habits","tag-dealing-with-depression","tag-depression","tag-depression-and-anxiety","tag-fight-depression","tag-how-to-beat-depression","tag-how-to-deal-with-depression","tag-how-to-fight-depression","tag-how-to-overcome-depression","tag-how-to-stop-being-depressed","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-health-tips","tag-overcome-depression","tag-overcoming-depression","tag-psych-2-go","tag-psych-to-go","tag-psych2go","tag-psychtogo","tag-self-improvement","tag-tips-for-depression"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/htmlF_IMG_6536b90206eaf.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151607"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151626,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151607\/revisions\/151626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}