22 activities that can help you during an episode of depression

We know that this condition, on several occasions, is characterized by the constant demotivation it generates in people; However, there are activities that can be tried as part of the management that must occur.

Experts from a health and wellness page, compiled an extensive list The best and most useful mental health tips for different situations and feelings.

With this list they wanted to provide advice for anyone who is having a bad day or for someone who wants to pay more attention to their mental health and is encouraged to do an activity when they need it.

The team knows that: “Many of these tips are easier said than done, especially when the person is also dealing with depression, anxiety, loneliness, or any other issue.. So you don’t need to do all these things at once and there is no pressure to do them, especially if you don’t find something useful. Self-care advice can seem daunting and overwhelming, and the last thing we want to do is add to that feeling.”

Activities to try when you feel depressed:

1. Listen to a mental health podcast. They are very useful for learning about how to deal with emotions or emotional discomfort. Here you can find some recommendations.
2. Spend some time in your space at homethey not only refer to organizing and cleaning, but also to decorating or changing the design.
3. You can take some time to review TikToks Silly, entertaining and fascinating.
4. Color. Art can be healing in many ways, allowing you to process trauma or emotions and disconnect from the world.
5. Immerse yourself in nostalgia of the people, places, songs, games and movies that have comforted you in the past. There’s a chance that your old self-care methods won’t punish you as much as they once did, and a sense of compassion for your old self may be kindled, and a sense of hope that you’ll get to the other side once.
6. Move the body. Go exercise, walk, run, jump, dance or ride a bike. Finding an activity that you really enjoy is a great piece of a self-care toolkit.
7. Make a list of things you hope will happen in the near and distant future. In this case, you can set activities or events that you want to happen, such as writing down movie, series or book releases on a calendar, or plans for the weekends.
8. Try meditating, even if you’ve never done it before. This practice revolves around bringing attention to the present moment. Research shows it can be helpful in combating anxiety, depression, and even chronic pain. There are guided meditations that can help you, in case you don’t know where to start. .
9. If you don’t like to meditate, but you are looking for that effect, try tying knots. It’s an active way to focus your mind, it gives you something to put your full attention on and allows you to notice your strange thoughts when they arise.
10. Follow a guided breathing video to manage anxiety or stress. The benefits are proven by science: by slowing down your breathing, you can change the entire response of your body’s parasympathetic nervous system.
11. Take a bath. It’s a common relaxation tip that, while it won’t solve every problem, can help a little to slow down your thoughts and daily hustle and bustle.
12. Turn off notifications from your networks. If anyone is looking to have a healthy relationship with social media, they should do it. Sometimes, we use comments and likes as gauges and depending on that we feel good or not, and that’s not how it should be. Turning off those notifications can help you interact with your apps more mindfully, checking them when you want, and not because you’re anxious about the judgment of others. .
13. Make a list of all the difficult or uncertain times you have already gone through. Surviving is not easy, but remembering it helps foster greater resilience. If you’ve overcome that, who’s to say it’s impossible that you can overcome that too?
14. Create something you can control and do it. Doing something you have control over can be helpful when uncertainty increases your anxiety. A new home project counts, as does knitting a new blanket, committing to daily hair styling, separating beads by color, etc.
15. Read a book about mental health that can help you understand and manage your feelings. For many, the scariest part of feeling negative emotions is realizing that they don’t know where they come from and how to handle them. Books are an inexpensive way to learn new coping skills and mental health practices. .
16. Distract yourself with a game on your cell phone. “There’s something very relaxing about distracting yourself with the repetitive, mindless therapy of tapping your phone screen when you’re stuck in an anxious loop, sort of like a slightly more engaging fidget cube,” Borges wrote in this 2020 article.
17. Write down all your negative thoughts. This exercise is useful when managing anxiety and practicing mindfulness; It’s also great for emotional regulation and self-care because it can help you identify patterns, find greater distance or perspective on what you’re feeling, and more.
18. If you have regretful thoughts, write them down and reframe them as a lesson learned.. This way, you can take action and move forward. Everything is a constant learning.
19. Create a new playlist to improve your mood and reflect. Music is loaded with emotion and a new playlist is an excellent way to reflect on how you feel, distract your mind and lower the intensity of your emotions a little. .
20. Use a mental health app to cope and better manage what you’re feeling, through, calm and liberation. Like books, apps can guide you in your mental health introspection, even creating new self-care habits.
21. If you have insomnia, don’t fight it, just relax. Take a few minutes and listen to your body. Do something relaxing like reading or coloring for 10 to 20 minutes, then try to sleep again.
22. Change your sheets, open the windows, eat a real breakfast or read a children’s story. Any of these actions will allow you to change the mental chip, allowing you to feel productive and, perhaps, motivated to continue with whatever comes next.