Hi everyone Emma McAdam here, I'm a licensed therapist and today I want to
talk about habits and daily routines that you can do to help manage
depression. So I've got a history of depression in my family and in myself
when I was younger in my teenage years and in my early 20s I experienced some
bouts of depression that were really painful and lasted a couple of months,
and so now I've developed a mental health routine some habits and practices
that keep me healthy now and I haven't I can honestly say I haven't had a
depressive episode for probably thirteen years maybe longer I'm not quite sure.
But I do have to constantly work to maintain my mental health, and just like
physical health you know you have to maintain your body by exercising and
eating the right food and you know if you're sick or injured you go to the
hospital or you go to the doctor when you're when you're ill. With mental
health you also have to take this daily action to be healthy and I think a lot
of people don't think about that like they just think about taking care of
their mental health when they are depressed or when they are experiencing
an anxiety disorder. And I see mental health much more about this process of
creating health instead of just treating illness. And when things are stressful I
have to take extra care to manage my mental health. So for example when I was
in grad school, which was really stressful or when I'm pregnant or
postpartum which are really exhausting and stressful times. These are times
when I have to take extra time to care for my my mental my mental health. And so
right now we as a global community we're fighting a pandemic a lot of
people are scared a lot of people are stressed out, and many of us if not most
of us are in lockdown we're doing social distancing we're alone in our homes and
this can be a scary and a stressful time. So we all have to take a little bit of
extra care for our mental health. But these routines and habits that I'm going
to teach you they're gonna apply to even when the coronavirus is taken care of
and things are back to a new normal, which is hopefully a better normal. I
actually believe that we can be a better worldwide community after coronavirus
than we are before it. So what I'm gonna talk about today is more about
maintaining mental health than it is about getting out of the deepest pit of
depression. So when you're in a deep depressive episode it can be really hard
to see any light. I mean it feels like you're in the bottom of a pit and you
know like when I'm there I...I couldn't imagine what it feels like to be out of
it. And at that place often all you can do is take these like tiny little steps
and then hopefully also you can get some help to get you out of there. So don't
allow yourself to get overwhelmed by all of these ideas that I'm gonna share with
you, but if you are in that place you're feeling you know an overwhelming feeling
of despair or depression don't allow yourself to get overwhelmed by the tips
and tricks that I'm gonna offer you, just choose one little thing to start with
and then after that you know after you've gotten that one figured out you
can take like the next little baby step. Okay so let's talk about morning routine
so the first thing I do every day is I get on my knees and I pray. I express
gratitude for my day and I express I express gratitude for my life and the
opportunity I have to do good in the world. And that connection with God for
me it helps me feel loved and purposeful throughout my day. If you're not religious,
you could do some meditation or a breathing exercise at this point. But
whatever it is start your day with an intention and for this reason I try not
to look at my phone first thing in the morning because I want to start my day
intentional the way I choose it to be. So if I open social media I'm letting
others choose what I take in and that could be positive and it could be
negative it could be stressful it could be uplifting or it could be critical, and
so I choose instead to start my day with some quiet time so that I can control
how my day begins that I can set that tone for my day. So I do a little reading
and then I write up my goals and my intentions for the day, and right now
with everything that's frightening and all the news that's pretty anxiety
provoking I don't read the news in the morning. I choose to listen to the news
around lunchtime so I do it once a day, and I do that so that I don't get
constantly stressed out. I also choose lunchtime because
then I have time to process it throughout the rest of the day like I
have time for my brain to work through the new information or the new
difficulties that are going on. And I can do that during my waking hours instead
of reading the news right before bed which might mess up my sleep,
or doing it in the morning which might kind of set the tone for my whole day. So
I make sure that my morning routine is about intentionally setting the tone for
the day how I want it to be, and I set the tone that I have a good day by doing
this. Okay so now that we've talked a little bit about how I manage my morning
routine and talking about doing things during my waking hours, let me talk for
just a minute about sleep. Okay so I just had to move because the Sun came out
and it was too bright in my eyeballs. So I'm gonna go back to talking about sleep.
So let's talk about sleep for just a minute. So I have 3 kids 5 and under. So I
usually wake up before them to get some quiet time and to set my intention for
the day, but my natural wakeup time is around 5 a.m. I don't usually set an
alarm. But because I can't really sleep in like it's like physically I'm like
incapable of sleeping in. I often have to go to bed between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. to
get enough sleep, and I'm not like fighting my natural bot biorhythms I'm
not like setting an alarm and forcing myself to wake up I just listen to my
body and this is the schedule that works best for me personally. So for many
people they might have different sleep needs or a different schedule, but
regardless of what your personal sleep needs it's like you should find out what
they are and take care of them. And that's because sleep is super important
to managing depression. So there's like this really massive correlation between
sleep problems and depression. Lack of sleep can actually cause depression and
getting good sleep can let your brain heal from depression. So I really value
sleep. Plus I just like how I feel when I've had a good night's sleep, and
because of that I have old friends who've nicknamed me 9:05 because I often
go to bed at that time, and for sure like I miss out on some fun it's hard for me
to do like a lot of those late-night social activities. But because going to
bed early is what keeps me healthy, it's worth it for me. Now each person has
different sleep needs. Your needs are different but getting
enough sleep can really make a big difference. One study found that 87% of
people with depression who resolved their insomnia significantly decreased
their depression symptoms. Okay so another really important thing to do
after you wake up you're refreshed because you got a good night's sleep you
took your time to set your intentions for the day, I make sure that I get
showered and dressed. And I found that this can be really hard when you're
depressed but being clean and dressed helps me feel more energetic and it gets
rid of my excuses. So I mean like if I have yesterday's makeup all over my face
and I'm wearing my pajamas it makes it hard for me to want to go out and see
friends or be social or get things done. So like for example if I'm at the store
I'm gonna like kind of avoid talking to anyone who I run into that I might know
because I look like a bum. Or if I go drop off my daughter a preschool I'm not
gonna be chatty with the teacher and those are kind of the interactions that
also help make our day better and enjoyable. So for me getting dressed kind
of sets the tone that I'm you know here for the day I'm ready to go and helps me
have like a better day. The next part of my routine that helps fight off
depression and keep me mentally healthy is nutrition. So I take my multivitamins
I eat well. If I remember I take my omega-3 supplements and nutrition is
just an important part of my routine. I try to eat a lot of plants I try not to
eat too much sugar or processed foods. But I'm not gonna go into that too much
right now because it can be kind of overwhelming to think about changing
your diet or eating right. So I mean just just store that away if you have the
ability eat well. Okay the other essential part of my mental health
maintenance is exercise. There is so much research that exercise is great for
mental health. It helps clear brain fog it helps reduce stress chemicals in your
brain, and I feel like when I exercise it just like works through this backlog of
pent up emotions. I can feel my body relax. Exercise helps me deal with anger
and frustration and honestly I just like it like I know a lot of people who
don't like exercising but I actually enjoy it and I think one of the reasons
people maybe don't like exercise is because they're doing these kind of
like boring and mindless exercises at the gym, walking on a treadmill or
pushing themselves in a way that's really painful or uncomfortable and so I
try to exercise in a way that I enjoy I try and do things that are enjoyable for
me and I try and do them at a time that I enjoy. So a lot of people like to
exercise in the morning but for me back when I worked full time I always used to
go to the climbing gym or go for a run after work, and that's because that's
when I needed it the most. It's also kind of hard for me to get motivated in the
mornings to work out. But by the afternoon because I was you know maybe
stressed out that day, I'm looking forward to it. Now that I'm a full-time
mom I have to be a lot more creative in how I get my exercise in. So I often just
like do yard work, I garden I dig in the dirt, I'll
literally like go run around my yard with my wheelbarrow like a load rocks in
it move them really fast. Because they need to be moved. Or if I'm not in the
garden then I'll do some yoga on TV or I'll go for a walk with my kids or pull
them behind my bike. And now that a lot of us are stuck in our homes with the
corona virus pandemic I'm doing a lot more inside workouts. So I like the
seven-minute workout on my phone or the fitness marshal on YouTube if you
haven't seen him he's hilarious. So those are some good ways to get exercise if
you're stuck indoors or you don't have a lot of time. Okay so I just started
raining so I might have to go hop into my greenhouse in just a minute we'll see
it might die down. But we're out of nature and that's what I was just going
to talk about. So nature time so this is another like essential aspect of my
mental health and it's really important to me to get some outside time. So I need
nature like I just have to have some. I need to see the sky and soak in the Sun
and I'm fortunate to live in a super beautiful place I'm just gonna tilt this
up and see if you can see the mountains behind me. Do you see this like it's kind
of rainy alright I have beautiful mountains behind me and I take advantage
of this beautiful place by getting outside, and there's actually research
out there showing that sunshine changes your physiology, so like we have
different physiology like a different heart rate and different blood pressure
on sunny days then we do on cloudy days. And so being out of nature is I think an
essential part of our physical and mental health.
It's still raining I'm gonna go in the greenhouse hang on just a second. I'm
seriously not very good at this whole leg selfie think. Okay hopefully you can
still hear me and it's not too loud. Hey do you guys want a green house tour
look this is how I get my sunshine in the winter. There's some kale and some
beets and some poppies growing. And in here I've got tomatoes and pepper plants
more lettuce and a fig tree. Anyways this is where I get my nature fix now that I
have little kids. We're gonna find a place to sit down. Okay so being out in
nature it's good for your stress levels, it decreases your heart rate it like
helps with stress chemicals and stuff but regardless of the research like I
can just feel the difference for me. When I'm outside I feel healthier I feel
happier, and when I'm stuck indoors I am actually kind of cranky pants. So if you
can't get outside open your windows sit on your porch or if you can't do any of
that then you can spend some time looking at like beautiful landscape
photography, or a nature film. Because your brain has the ability to bring to
mind the feeling of nature just by imagining it. Okay let's do I can set my
my phone right here if you're wondering what the milk jugs are those help keep
residual heat in the greenhouse, that's I mean it looks trashy but it's functional.
Okay now let's talk about my evening routine. So my evening routine looks like
getting my kids to bed by 8 o'clock and that's like this massive stressful
struggle, but then I take some quiet time for myself. I usually take a hot bath or
I read a book or an archeology journal. Yes I am kind of a nerd but that's what
I like and that's what helps me relax. So even though I have like very few hours
to work on my passion project which is these videos, I usually don't work on
them in the evenings because it would probably contribute to like overall
stress levels and for me like I need the downtime to stay healthy. So I
intentionally plan in a my day to relax and take downtime. So I
take a bath, read something relaxing I often write in my journal I use a little
journaling app called day one, and I use a template on there that prompts me to
write about my accomplishments of the day and my wins of the day, what I'm
grateful for and any good that I was able to do that day. And the reason I do
that is so that I can remember them. Because it's my natural habit to dwell
on my mistakes and my own shortcomings. So I I write about my wins and then
before I go to bed I pray a prayer of gratitude and I talk with my Heavenly
Father about my day. Now again gratitude practice is an
essential habit of mental health and it's been shown to be an effective
treatment for depression. So you can pray about it like me or you can express
gratitude as a family, I actually have a reminder on my Alexa to express
gratitude and so we do that at dinner time. Or you could just write about it
you can do gratitude journal do whatever works for you. But I think gratitude
before bed is really good for mental health. So then after that I go to bed, I
try not to spend time looking at screens before bed but if I do I choose
something really calming like a documentary or a mudlarking channel
on youtube like Nicola White's. If you don't know what mudlarking is
it's just like walking down the mud of the river tames
and finding like historical bits and bobs. So anyways I find it relaxing and I
encourage people not to go spend too much time on TV or watch anything too
stressful before bed, because really that's not very conducive for brain
health. But if you do choose to watch TV just choose a short and a calming show.
Other self care for me includes scheduling in time for my hobby. So I
have like tons of hobbies but because I'm so busy with kids I'm a full-time
mom, I really don't have the time to do most of them. And if I wasn't intentional
I wouldn't have time to do any of them. But I do make sure to carve out about
two hours a week to do at least one of them. So right now that's metal detecting.
So that's something I do which is fun and it's relaxing for me, I put it on the
calendar so that I make sure it happens. Another thing I do is I take the Sabbath
off. I do no work I don't do housework I
don't check my work email, and I let my brain completely focus on other things.
Now mostly that's my family which is actually really exhausting because of
these little kids. But at least that day is completely different from the other
six days of the week. So there's like one last thing that I make sure to fit into
my day and into my schedule that helps me stay mentally healthy, and that's
social interactions. So having social interactions is really essential for our
mental health, our brains are inherently social we're
social creatures. So right now with the coronavirus and everyone on lockdown
this is going to be an extra challenge. And some of the things I'm doing to stay
healthy right now is taking the time to call up old friends, making sure to
FaceTime and face chat like video chat I mean with people who I can't see face to
face. And it really is better to have you know physical hugs and see people eye to eye,
for our brains then it is just to talk to them on the phone or message them. So
whatever you can do to make those interactions more personal is gonna be
better for your brain. So I have some groups that I'm hanging out with on
zoom' and when we're not on lockdown I meet up with friends I schedule in
playdates with other moms and go out to lunch or whatever. So I always just make
sure to have social interactions be part of my routine, so that I'm able to stay
mentally healthy. And this is something that I think for a lot of people comes
really naturally but for me I actually have to work at it I have to take extra
effort to be social because it's not really that easy for me. Anyway so there
you have it that's my daily routine to maintain mental health. So I have a
careful morning routine I make sure to get enough sleep I get dressed every day
I exercise and I get some outside time I carve out time to relax every evening I
practice gratitude I acknowledge my successes and once a week I make sure to
get out and do something just for me. So I hope you can find some things from
this list to help you figure out a way to maintain your mental health. Today for
this week and during this whole crazy pandemic thing that we're going through,
and also just remember you're braver than you know and you're stronger than
you think. Thank you for watching and take care.