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Anxiety and depression can be debilitating at times. It can drain us completely of energy, make us feel bad about ourselves, and most importantly it can drive us to new heights of insane. Trust me I’ve been there and find myself traveling to this dark and lonely place more times than I’d like to admit.
I have major, major anxiety and it’s a battle that I deal with on a daily basis. Something I have noticed over the years is if I don’t take the time to care for myself when I’m feeling extremely anxious, it intensifies. When my anxiety is going out of control if I don’t engage in some form of self-care, depression will slowly begin to creep in. when depression creeps in, I’m glued to my bed for at least a week…
And that’s not good let alone fun.
All this to say that self-care is very, very important. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you live, whether or not you have depression or suffer from anxiety, it’s a part of our health and wellness that needs to be a priority in our lives. If you can relate to what it feels like to be overwhelmed anxiety or depression, then you’ve come to the right place. I’m going to share with you some effective ways to manage your depression.
You don’t always have to rely on medication or therapy to make yourself feel better. Sometimes the best medicine is how you choose to care for yourself in a positive and healthy way. If you would like to know more I’ve got a unique list of self-care activities that are sure to help you with managing your depression.
Check it out below!
**This is part 2 of this blog post. In this post specifically we will talk about self-care for depression. If you would like to read part 1 click here.
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Self-care Activities to Help With Managing Depression
1. Get active
Being active is the best way to combat depression levels. It increases feelings of happiness and encourages you to let in positive thoughts that will keep away any negative ones. Consistent engagement in an activity that gets your body moving will also help in increasing your confidence, learning how to engage in healthy socialization, and most importantly become an effective coping tool for managing your depression. One way I like to keep myself active is by exercising for at least 15 minutes a day.
Below is by far one of my favorite workout routine by my favorite YouTube Health & Fitness Coach Cassy Ho! It’s intense and if you’ve never done a PIIT (Pilates Intense Interval Training) workout before, you will feel the burn within 5 minutes, but I promise it will be good for you. It also gets easier the more you do it.
Click here to check out PIIT28 and decide if this may be a good workout opportunity for you!
2. Make connections
As someone who actively lives with anxiety every day I understand how hard it can be to be social and make genuine connections with others. Living with depression is no different. However, something that I have learned over the years is that making connections with others is crucial, even when it hurts. It’s a great form of self-care because you are allowing yourself to build a stable and reliable support system with others who genuinely care about your health and well-being. Having those connections will also boost your self-esteem, which will naturally help to reduce your depression levels.
3. Eat healthy
This may be one of the biggest forms of self-care anyone can engage in to help manage their depression. You may be familiar with the phrase “you are what you eat” and believe it or not this is so true! When you fuel your body with foods that include a healthy balance of protein, carbohydrates, fat, water, and vitamins, you are encouraging your body to feel good from the inside out.
There are specific foods that help with depression, such as fish, but for the most part the key to this form of self-care is feeding your body foods that will give you energy. Having this energy will help you feel motivated to do more activities throughout the day.
If you need assistance in eating healthy here are some books that I recommend!
- Whole New You: How Real Food Transforms Your Life, For A Healthier, More Gorgeous You by Tia Mowry
- Cravings: Hungry For More by Chrissy Teigen
- 28 Day Reset by Cassey Ho
Drinking water can also help with managing depression. If you’d like to learn more about the health benefits of drinking water check out the article below.
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4. Make hygiene a priority
I don’t think I need to tell you this but hygiene is a critical part of any health and wellness routine. Believe it or not it’s no different when it comes to engaging in self-care. Practicing good hygiene as a form of self-care can literally be something as simple as taking a shower in the morning. I’ve also come to discover that even going the extra mile, such as putting on clothes even if you’re not going anywhere, or doing your hair and make-up, can help increase your feel good levels. It doesn’t hurt to get yourself all dolled up or just feeling fresh and clean as a way to make yourself a priority for the day. Even if you have nowhere else to go.
5. Treat yourself
I love this idea and I think people should do it more often. Don’t be afraid to treat yourself from time to time, or better yet once a week. Treating yourself doesn’t have to mean you spend money on yourself, although if that’s what you want to do by all means do it. It just simply means giving yourself some TLC for no reason at all. It’s one of my favorite ways to engage in self-care, and if this is something that you don’t do often, well it’s time that you do!
Interested in learning more about wellness and how it can have a positive impact on your life? If so, sign up today for the free Live Well Health and Wellness Email Course where I’ll teach you how to create a personal and effective wellness routine for your everyday living.
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6. Create a self-care tool kit
Another self-care tool that I love! This may sound like something super fancy but I promise you it’s not. A self-care tool kit is simply a box, or cabinet, bucket or anything that can hold/store items, filled with things that make you feel good. I’ve seen people fill their self-care tools kits with tons of things, but some of my all-time favorite items include:
- Candles
- Movies that I’m currently into (and by into I mean obsessed with)
- My favorite cuddle blanket
- A bag of my favorite snack
- Fuzzy socks
- Lotion
- Nail polish
- And whatever book I’m currently reading (the Eragon Series by Christopher Paolini)
Here’s what you need to create your very own self-care tool kit:
- A box or something to store your items in
- All your favorite feel good items!
That’s it!
Do you have a self-care tool kit? If so what’s in yours?
7. Set realistic goals
Plain and simple. One of the biggest forms of self-care is setting goals that you believe you can achieve. These have to be goals that you are passionate about, goals that have meaning to you, and goals that you realistically believe with hard work, dedication, and commitment you can achieve. This is a great way to boost your confidence level, and is one of the easiest and most effective forms of self-care. Chances are if you can envision yourself doing it, it is something that you willingly strive to achieve.
8. Join or create a support group
I honestly believe there is nothing more important than having people who love and support you filling up your cup of life. Sometimes the best places to find these people are in groups where you all have something in common. You connect based off of that commonality and the relationship naturally grows as you learn and discover new things about each other.
If there are no support groups in your community to join, or you don’t want to join one that already exists, start your own. This group can be a group formed for any reason where you and some people get together once a week or month and just connect. Friends or strangers who will soon become friends, there’s someone out there for everyone.
9. Create a daily/routine schedule
Much like creating structure in your life creating a daily routine/schedule will help keep you on track for the day. This form of self-care helps to keep you motivated to complete everything that you have pre-mediated to do for the day. The best part about this is that you can create multiple self-care activities within this small one.
Schedule in time for you to give yourself a spa, a manicure, or even go on a walk. The whole point of this self-care activity is to allow yourself to do things during that day that make you feel good about yourself, and doesn’t feel like a chore.
Keep track of all of your daily activities with a planner.
10. Be social
Very simple. Be social. It’s hard, it can be scary, but it’s so good for our mental and emotional health. Being social helps to increase our serotonin levels, the chemical that affects our mood. In addition to this, being social can help you naturally build up a guard against daily stress and anxiety, and can even help you fight off depression. Having people who you can talk to and engage with is a great way to distract yourself from the blues.
The best part is you can literally engage in socialization almost anywhere, the grocery store, the bank, your job, and even online if you need baby steps (just be careful!).
11. Practice mindfulness
Mindfulness teaches you how to tune in with yourself and the world around you. It’s such a unique and deliberate technique that in order to do it right, you have to go all in for it. There are various ways that you can practice mindfulness. You can practice mindfulness as a form meditation, as a form listening, and even as a way of observing. My favorite way to engage in mindfulness is by meditating. There are various forms of mindfulness mediation that you can engage in, but one that I do often is the body scan technique.
You can read and learn all about the body scan technique, as well as other effective wellness practices, in my free Live Well Health and Wellness Email Course.
12. Learn how to smile and laugh more
This is one of my favorite forms of self-care simply because it’s free! A lot of people don’t know the positive health benefits to laughing and smiling and just being a happy person in general. Life isn’t all flowers and rainbows, bad days are expected to happen, but it’s how you choose to let those bad days have an impact on you that really matters. Laughing decreases stress hormones and increases our immune system (did you know that?). It’s a sure fire way to trigger our feel good chemicals, and promote a greater sense of well-being.
Smiling naturally improves our mood, relieves us of stress, helps us to create healthier relationships with others, and helps us live longer lives. These all may seem like very small benefits to our health, granted that they are, but they are health benefits worth having in your life.
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These are just a few ways you can engage in effective self-care to help with managing your anxiety and depression. However, if you find that none of these activities are helpful, I highly recommend that you seek professional help.
***All too often people don’t make their mental health a priority, and times are changing. With those changing times comes the acceptance and almost normalization of mental illness. It’s important, it matters, and it can be treated when you make the decision to willing get help.
Do you suffer from anxiety or depression? If so (and even if you don’t) what type of self-care activities do you engage in on a consistent basis? Let me know in the comments below!
Looking for an unlimited amount of support from peers? Want to know how to start living a happier and more fulfilled life today? Join the free Wellness Warrior Facebook Community and start living your best life today.
-Xo
Kimora