10 Habits That Helped Me Overcome Depression

One of the key symptoms of depression is that you don’t see any hope. But, at least in my case, there were a number of little (or big) things that helped me get through it.

What helped me when I was depressed

These are some of them:

1. Natural light

Sun, windows with shutters open.

2. Travel

In your room there is nothing new that you should observe. No potential external threats, only internal ones. By entering a new physical space, preferably in another country, you end up concentrating a little more on the world outside your head.

3. The books

He read and read and read with an intensity he had never known before. The books were, in themselves, reasons to go on living. Every time I read a good book I felt like I was reading some kind of map, a treasure map, and the treasure I was being directed to was really myself.

But each map was incomplete, and I could only locate the treasure if I read all the books, and thus the process of finding my best self was an endless search.

4. Go for a run

I had never been very athletic, so running was pretty tough for me. It hurt. But I was convinced that by training my body I also trained my mind.

A kind of active meditation. Going for a run every day is like fighting a battle against yourself. Going out on a cold February morning gives you a great sense of accomplishment.

5. Practice yoga

I was always a yogaphobic, but now I am a convert. It’s great because, unlike other therapies, it treats the mind and body as part of the same whole.

6. Breathe at a slower rate

Not with desperate deep aspirations. Soft. Five in, five out. It is difficult to hold, but it is very difficult to panic when you breathe in a relaxed way. Many anxiety symptoms (dizziness, tingling, tingling …) are directly related to shallow breathing.

7. Meditate

You don’t need to chant mantras or anything like that. Just sit for five minutes and try to think of one reassuring thing. A ship moored in a sparkling sea. The face of someone you love. Or just focus on your breathing.

8. Accept

Don’t struggle with things; feel them. Tension is the product of opposition; relaxation is achieved when you let yourself go. My trick is to make friends with depression and anxiety. Thank you, to be able to handle them much better.

And the way I found to become their friend was to thank them for my sensitivity. I hate depression. I am scared of him. It terrifies me, actually. But, at the same time, it has made me who I am. And if for me it is the price of being able to feel life, it is a price that is always worth paying. One needs to feel the terrifying of life in order to feel its wonders. And … are we not here to feel?

9. Live in the present

This is what meditation teacher Amit Ray says: “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment. Live in each breath ”. Letting go of the self, and at the same time opening up to mindfulness, seems to be a good solution when the self intensifies and causes us suffering.

10. Loving

Anaïs Nin defined anxiety as “the greatest killer of love”. But, fortunately, the opposite is also true. Love is the biggest killer of anxiety. It is our way out of our terrors, because anxiety is a disease that engulfs us in our own nightmares.

It makes us feel things that we cannot ignore. Things that point arrows inward. But having people who love us and whom we love is a great help.

It doesn’t have to be a romantic love, or even a family one. Forcing yourself to see the world through the gaze of love can be healing. Love is an attitude towards life. It can save us.