Habits To Combat Anxiety, Depression and Low Self-Esteem X Mental Health Monday

Happiness isn't a permanent state remember life's like a heart beat it goes up and down and without the downs can't appreciate the ups, so being all sunshine and rainbows is actually toxic positivity which is super unhealthy and unhelpful for combating anxiety/depression but you can strive for feeling content and fulfilled with your life; which in turn provides real happiness, healthy positivity and improves your self- esteem. Accept that some things you cannot control but you can control how you react in how much you let it affect you, sometimes no amount of worrying or anxiety can improve, fix or change situations - infact you can actually make things worse as what you think you attract and all that jazz, you just gotta ride it out wait for better days to come man. 

"Prevention is the best medicine" and that's exactly what CBT teaches you, if you don't know what CBT is then you can read my previous post on the topic here. 

It's normal not to be perfect; we all make mistakes, embarrass ourselves, get things wrong/do/say the wrong thing and one thing to remember is people on social media aren't perfect either it's their "best selves" that is being presented, they're not like that 24/7 they're human exactly like you so stop comparing yourself because it triggers anxiety and can lead to depression or depressive episodes which certainly doesn't help your self esteem. Hustle culture is fucking dangerous, I've been sucked in before and it's  exhausting, extreme burnout isn't helpful for getting shit done it's counter productive; we all have a limit and if we exceed it then we burn out, it's not sustainable to do this for years putting extreme stress on the body and mind, learn to go slower. Spreading yourself too thin leads to half ass efforts because you're too stressed, learn to say no because you need a bit of time to yourself rather than saying yes to everything, be direct and don't make up excuses, you're trying to build your assertiveness so that will increase your self-esteem. Everything in life is set up to want our attention so we must learn to control our awareness by being mindful and using mindfulness techniques which are focus exercises like think of a texture or object in the room and it calms your anxiety as it's a distraction based technique; CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) is also referred to as DBT which stands for distraction based therapy and it's legit it works if you're open to trying the techniques. 

Social media is toxic for many reasons but try spend time with trees and other nature like birds or simply sit on the grass, you could also try dancing about to music that makes you feel good. even a little bit of exercise to get those good hormones flowing, it's proven that exercise helps anxiety and depression. Avoid lots of sugar in your diet and try not to eat late at night as this increases anxiety. and try listen to podcasts as this gets your brain to think outside the box. Get a grid calendar and try ticking off/giving yourself a sticker for making it through the day or getting whatever you needed to done - being organised makes life much easier! Plus it builds your self esteem by feeling accomplished. 

  Let me know if you try out any of these tips, what works for you personally?

Till next time,

Stevie x