5 Natural Ways To Overcome Depression And Anxiety

I'm going to share with you what I've learned over the last 20 years as a psychologist, around what are natural ways to overcome anxiety and depression. These aren't the common ways of better sleep, regular exercise, and whole foods. I'll talk about cultivating certain ways to focus, practices, and mindsets that can enhance your sense of energy, resiliency, and just plain being happier. Listen to them closely, pause the audio when you need to, and take notes, these can change your life for the better.

Transcript

Hey,

Everyone.

So today I'm going to talk to you about five natural ways to treat anxiety and depression.

So stay tuned.

Okay,

So these five natural ways to overcome anxiety and depression have a whole lot of science behind them.

I use them in my own personal life.

I use them in my programs,

And they've positively influenced thousands of people.

In order to understand why the first natural way of overcoming anxiety and depression is what it is,

We have to understand that there's a conditioned reaction of hopelessness and pessimism or catastrophizing that happen with anxiety and depression.

And you know,

If you've had depression,

You get this feeling of,

Like,

Am I ever going to break out of this?

Can anything ever help me?

Can I ever help myself?

Is this is what my life is going to be like?

And we get stuck in this conditioned loop.

And so the very first thing we need to learn how to do is break the loop.

We need to learn how to step into the space between stimulus and response for more choice,

Possibility and growth life.

And the number one way we found to do that is by recognizing what's happening while it's happening.

Another word for that is mindfulness or awareness.

We're simply naming what's happening while it's happening.

So studies show that when we're able to name or call out an emotional feeling that's there,

We bring more blood flow from the lower regions of our brain into this prefrontal region,

Which is more involved with impulse control,

Emotion regulation,

Executive function.

It also allows us to get more perspective of the choices and possibilities that are in front of us.

The first thing we have to just recognize when it comes to these is to learn how to name what's happening while it's happening.

That's the first step of gaining control over anxiety and depression.

And then we can start layering in these other ways as well.

OK,

So the second natural way to overcome anxiety and depression is with something called self-compassion.

Self-compassion is the recognition that I'm struggling.

So we're inherently naming it from the previous one.

But with the inclination to want to help ourselves,

We know when it comes to anxiety and depression,

One of the things that our nervous system is really good at is attacking ourselves.

So we start criticizing ourselves and it starts trying to point out what's wrong with us.

And what are the pitfalls?

Or maybe even with anxiety,

What are the worst case scenarios in front of us so we can plan and be prepared?

We need to know all the things that are wrong with us,

Right?

So in order to fix the holes that are there.

But really actually what happens is we start falling into a shame spiral and continually thinking that something's wrong with us,

So much so that we start retreating and retreating and retreating more.

And we maybe start feeling upset or irritable or angry when we're feeling depressed or even around anxiety.

And so we have to recognize that,

Hey,

This is this is tough.

We start naming it,

Right?

We're going to incorporate what we're learning earlier,

Naming what's happening.

This is a tough moment.

And you know what?

Like this is a part of life and tough things are a part of life.

That's part of being human.

I'm part of the human experience here right now.

So now the question that I need to layer in,

And this is so important because what we're doing is we're swapping out the self-critical mind,

Which is just amping up our nervous system or causing us more stress to kind of pile on that sense of pessimism and hopelessness that we know is a sign of depression,

Anxiety.

And so with a different question,

We're replacing it,

Which is what do I need right now?

Think about the difference between the question,

What's wrong with me and what do I need?

So we're swapping it out.

But in order to swap it out,

We step into that space between stimulus and response.

We recognize what's happening.

This is a tough moment.

In life,

There's tough moments.

We're widening that space there.

And then we're swapping out the question with what's wrong with me with what do I need right now?

And then we can start telling ourselves that,

God,

I just need to give myself a break or I need to go outside and get some sunshine on my face.

Or I need to really need to call a friend.

Let me tell you,

If you're experiencing strong signs of anxiety and depression,

Absolutely seek help.

If you haven't gone to a therapist or a counselor or someone you know that's within your community that or that's experienced something similar,

That can be a support,

Then go ahead and absolutely do that.

So that's the second thing.

OK,

So the third natural way to overcome depression,

Anxiety is by understanding and instilling a sense of purpose within yourself.

Purpose implies a sense of connection with something greater than yourself.

First of all,

You have to know that you matter.

And let me just tell you,

The science is very clear about this.

Our actions and behaviors have ripple effects across the people around us.

So we are interconnected by different information energy flow constantly between people around us,

Just like me and you right now.

And so so we want to ask ourselves the question,

Like,

What do I value in my life?

Just as a beginning,

Do I value inner harmony?

Do I value being more present and aware of my life?

Do I value being giving with other people?

Like when many years from now,

Looking back,

You know,

At end of life,

Looking back,

Like how I wish I would have lived.

And it's never too late.

And so we're starting now.

So I want to I want to read a quote or a poem by one of my favorite poets,

Rumi,

Because I think it's it's valuable and worth repeating here.

He says,

Sometimes you hear a voice through the door calling you as a fish out of water.

Here's the waves.

Come back.

Come back.

This turning toward what you deeply love saves you.

So we we ask ourselves the question,

Like what matters to us?

What matters to us in our lives?

Like does does is it,

You know,

A sense of inner harmony,

A sense of a healthy body,

A sense of loving the people around me?

You know,

What what really matters for us?

We know that people who live with a sense of eudaimonic well-being,

Which is a well-being that's focused on more meaning,

Purpose,

Sense of connection,

Have lower cellular inflammation that people that favor just hedonic well-being,

Which is just focused on pleasure,

The simple pleasures of life,

Which is also important.

But but they might they they've been shown to have higher cellular inflammation.

And so we want a mixture of both.

But we do want to focus on this eudaimonic well-being.

So we ask ourselves,

You know,

What's important to us?

So strong family,

Freedom,

World peace.

You know,

These are things when we say,

Like,

What do you value?

People like think of these things.

But it doesn't really translate until you ask yourself the question,

OK,

So what does this actually look like in my life?

Like what are the actual actions of it?

So if you value inner harmony,

You might value practicing meditation or yoga.

And if that's practice,

It's hard for you to do.

You might say like,

OK,

Well,

Who are the people around me?

What's the community I'm surrounding myself with that's going to support me in taking action with these actions?

If you value a healthy body,

You might value exercising on a regular basis or eating in a healthy way.

Now,

When we're feeling depressed and anxious,

That's not always so easy.

So then I ask the question,

OK,

So are there people in your life or can you find people?

I know in our community,

The Mindful Living Collective,

That's where the people reside.

But but do you have these people in your life that you can make more frequent contact with that help inspire these types of actions,

Which help you live alongside the values that you want to live?

So again,

Pro-social action is also really helpful.

What am I involved with that's something greater than myself?

I will say this,

Just so you know,

If you if you value a healthy body,

Let's say,

And you have friends or family and they see you exercising and working out,

Just know that that has ripple effects across their minds and lives,

Gives them ideas like if he or she did that,

Maybe I can do that,

Too.

So just know that's one way of doing that.

So just taking this type of understanding of bringing more of a sense of awareness of your values and actions alongside your values,

The natural antidepressant.

OK,

The fourth way to naturally overcome anxiety and depression is to make sure you're integrating play into your life.

Play is something that you find interesting,

Enjoyable and satisfying in your life.

And when it comes to depression in particular,

That seems sometimes harder to come by.

We typically lose a sense of interest and pleasure in things.

So this is where we kind of need to act as if sometimes.

And so and so we have to think about one of the things to think about if you're having trouble figuring out like how to play in your life,

Like how to bring more play in your life.

Play really means just doing really anything you find interesting,

Enjoyable or satisfying.

But the science shows that when we are able to create more novelty in our life,

You can imagine novelty just makes sense,

Sparks our brain a bit more.

So we bring more novelty into our life by trying out different things that are there or we have playmates that we do it with.

We we tend to that tends to be really healthy for our brains.

And so we what we want to do that is it's a natural antidepressant in some way.

Brian Sutton Smith,

Who is a longtime play researcher,

Said the opposite of play is not work.

It's depression.

And so,

You know,

Consider that for a moment.

Like as a child,

Sometimes I ask people,

Like,

Well,

How did you play?

Were you out with people?

Were you using your hands a lot?

Were you creating things were using your imagination?

Were you by yourself reading?

What were you doing?

And that gives us ideas as to where I built.

Was I building things with Legos?

That gives us ideas as to not that I want to go build Legos again,

But I was using my hands and building things and creating things.

What in my life can I do that with that now?

Some people are already you're already playing,

But you're not naming it.

Go ahead and if you go out and bike rides and bike ride new places,

But you just think that's just what you do for exercise,

Label it as play and see what you notice.

If you're not playing a lot,

Think of make a start making a list of ways you used to play as a child.

And then say or if it wasn't a child,

The earliest time that you ever noticed play in your life.

And then and then say,

Like,

Well,

What were the qualities of that?

If I was using my hands or my imagination,

Then maybe I can start bringing that type of thing into my life.

And in what ways play is a huge atmosphere we have in the Mindful Living Collective and also in all the programs I lead,

Because it creates more flexibility of mind and allows for a more optimal learning integration.

And it's fun.

And so go ahead and allow yourself an opportunity to explore and bring more play into the days,

Weeks and months ahead in your life.

OK,

The fifth natural way to overcome depression and anxiety is with something called a growth mindset.

We want to learn to really adopt this.

A growth mindset was a term that was created by Carol Dweck out of Stanford.

And it's the idea that obstacles in life are inevitable.

They're not things that just need to stop us and prove to us what we aren't able to do,

What we can't do.

Obstacles are inevitable and we just learn to get better and better at them.

So with this type of mindset,

What her science in particular has shown is that people might try things a little bit longer because they're really adopting a learning mindset.

It's all about learning.

Even obstacles are things to learn from versus reinforcement of really what we can't do,

Which is what we typically focus on when we start getting depressed or anxious,

What's not possible,

What we can't do.

Instead,

It's just saying,

You know,

Why?

And we start kind of learning about this.

Her research shows that students who adopted this mindset tried harder on tests and did better.

Her studies have also shown that it's inversely correlated with kids in college who have been depressed,

Meaning they become more resilient when they adopt this mindset.

They're depressed for less time.

And so we want to kind of ask ourselves a question.

All right.

So let me look at my day as an example.

What do I do during my day?

What does my day look like from the morning to the evening and what's nourishing and what's depleting and what's neutral?

And then out of all these things that I've learned,

The mindfulness,

The self-compassion,

The play and and being able to and the purpose.

What can I maybe swap out when it comes to the depleting or the neutral activities with things that might build these other natural ways to overcome anxiety and depression?

For example,

In the morning when I wake up,

Instead of just like slogging around the house or just kind of like on autopilot,

Just getting my coffee or tea or whatever it is,

I might just take a moment to check in my body,

Soften my body,

Take a deep breath and recognize that with this coffee or this tea,

These leaves or beans were sourced from somewhere by multiple people who were now now with my own ability and my own funds.

I purchased them and I brewed this myself.

And now I'm going to take a moment,

Take a couple sips with it.

What's happening is our brain is recording the sense of connection that's out there.

Try it out for yourself and just see what you notice.

And then you're feeling on the one sense,

There's a sense of purpose almost in that or a sense of something greater than yourself.

You're also starting to play with a little bit of mindfulness in that.

You might also realize that,

You know what,

I'm feeling kind of burnt out right now.

And instead of just continuing to plug through,

I'm going to take five minutes and just rest.

That's an opportunity to build self-compassion.

And so there's these different opportunities here to build these other natural ways of overcoming anxiety and depression.

If we look at our day and just swap out the depleting and neutral activities with these type of activities that build these other natural ways.

So go ahead.

And this is a way of you learning to get better and better at this.

So so build this growth mindset into your life.

Now,

The important thing to understand here or take home here is that depression and anxiety are things we can learn to get better and better at.

We can create a much stronger sense of confidence that no matter what comes my way,

I'm going to be OK.

And the number one way of really doing that is by wrapping ourselves in a community of people who are helping inspire,

Support and encourage us,

Helping us give us ideas that they've sourced through their own personal experience or making sure you're engaging with some kind of support mechanism of counseling or mentorship or therapy or something like that.

And so if you haven't checked out my Mindful Living Collective,

That's a place where we have a whole lot of people.

We're practicing together,

We're engaging all these different elements together in there through different practice sessions.

We have a variety of teachers in there and a ton of content that's going to be super supportive.

If you haven't checked out my Uncover the Power Within program,

Which is my personal coaching program,

I absolutely urge you to do that.

There's a whole structured program and we meet regularly within a group of people who are all dedicated and committed to making the shifts they want to make in their lives.

Reviews

Excellent! Thank you!

Thank you. This was very needed and your message touched my heart and soul.

Thank you. Grateful for this talk and recommendations. Sending good wishes with gratitude. 🌻

Great ideas! Will share! 🙏 Thank you!

Very informative post

This was easy to listen to and follow while at the same time very powerful and effective. I have written down the 5 steps to overcoming depression and anxiety so I can pick it up and read and act on when I need it as sometimes when you start in that negative spiral 🌀 it’s hard to stop and call it out and break the cycle but having it written down will be a powerful tool. Thank you 🙏

I went in and out of depression the past many years and I recognise fully these 5 ways helping to deal with it. In many ways this feels comforting to know smart people looked into this condition and can offer real insights, and that even comes on top of knowing we can be understood

Illuminating, thank you! This gave me much-needed new ideas.

So glad I found you. Thank you! 🙏🙏🙏

That was great. & I love your delivery

Very helpful, practical suggestions for dealing with depression and anxiety