today we're going to be talking about the concept of a sustainable lifestyle and how
having a sustainable lifestyle can help you out of a depression or prevent you from falling into one
hi everyone in today's video we're going to be talking about developing an antidepressant
lifestyle or what i call a sustainable lifestyle essentially a way of living
that ensures that if you're having symptoms of depression it can help you out of the depression
or can also be protective and prevent you from falling into depression but before we get into
that just a couple of disclaimers to go over i'm a registered psychologist in the province
of british columbia canada and this video is for informational purposes only it is not intended
as a substitute or replacement for advice from your doctor or mental health professional so with
those things out of the way let's start talking about a sustainable lifestyle now uh you've
probably heard a lot about sustainability right we hear about sustainability in terms of sustainable
energy sustainable forests and the whole notion of sustainability revolves around the idea that
we can continue to use these resources in an ongoing way and ensuring that
the resources we use are being replenished uh as we use them so that we won't uh ever run out now
have you ever thought about the way you live your life in terms of sustainability and that's one of
the questions i often ask my clients when they're dealing with depression is to say think about your
life and to think about your life kind of like a metaphor i like to use this is kind of like a car
and you are a car and you drive around and you have a gas tank and your gas tank has a
certain amount of gas in it now there are some activities and some things that you do in some
aspects of your lifestyle that take fuel out of that tank so um think about some of the things
that that drain your energy or take energy out so things like work uh things like parenting things
like doing household chores or activities around the home gardening landscaping cleaning cooking
it can be maintaining relationships some relationships take a lot of work to maintain
and they they take a lot of energy to sort of drive the the relationship or to ensure that
the relationship stays healthy so there are a lot of things that people will do that in their life
that it takes effort it takes energy it uses up some of their resources and some of that gas tank
now that's not to say that these activities are bad right so yeah of course you need to go to work
uh of course you need to expend energy to raise children of course you need to put time and effort
into maintaining your household and cooking and cleaning and and those types of things so this
isn't to say that those types of activities that drain energy from your fuel tank are bad
but there may be some of these activities and some of these lifestyle factors that may drain your
fuel tank that aren't as productive that aren't as functional so the biggest one i often think about
is a toxic relationships that people will have relationships that really aren't that
healthy for a person and can be a huge source of of drain of their energy in their fuel tank
another example of uh lifestyle factors that tend to drain the trunk the tank excessively that
may not be all that productive is excessive work uh one of the things that i'll often find with
my clients who are struggling with depression is that they're dealing with being overworked
uh a lot of times when when they end up in my office it's because they're burned out they've
been working so hard they've been working such long hours that it just drains their fuel tank
so you have all of these activities and aspects of a person's life that drain
their fuel tank that take energy out and some of these things are really important you can't
eliminate these things you need to go to work you need to raise kids those types of things
and that's what the energy is for but some of these things may drain the fuel tank a bit faster
or a bit more unnecessarily than than needed so it's important to think about what are the things
that are taking fuel out of my tank but equally important and one that i don't think people think
enough about is what are the things that you do or what are the aspects of your lifestyle
that put fuel back into your tank right so this is the sustainable part
of having a sustainable lifestyle right you have lots of things that are going to take energy out
you need to have a lot of things that are putting energy back into your tank so
think about what are some of the things that might put energy back into a person's
fuel tank well we know some of the things include exercise exercise is a bit of an interesting topic
because it seems on the surface that it takes a lot of effort and energy out of me to exercise
and yeah that's the case but what we know is that a person when they're they're exercising more it
actually gives them more energy in the long run than it's taking away so you can go get exercise
and immediately after sort of a workout you might feel tired but you're going to have more energy
later that day or you know in following days from doing the exercise so exercise is one of those
really great energy in types of things having a good diet is an energy in type of thing with
people you care about spending time with people you care about tends to put energy into your tank
engaging in hobbies or recreational activities playing sports doing things that you enjoy
doing having fun these are all things that that may not have any sort of tangible
benefit or tangible purpose other than the fun itself but they're really really
important because these are the things that help put fuel and energy into your tank ensuring that
you get a good night's sleep that's another way of making sure that you're refilling
your fuel tank so uh you have these activities that and these aspects of lifestyle that take
fuel and energy out you have to match them or you have to equal them
with aspects of lifestyle that put energy back in because if you don't
eventually it's going to catch up with you imagine yourself if you drove around all the time but
always kept saying to yourself i don't have time to stop for gas i don't have time to stop for gas
what's going to end up happening well you're going to run out of gas there's no way around that and
that's often the case when i see with a lot of my clients who are struggling with depression is that
they just run out of gas their lifestyle has been such that it has just drained them
and by the time they end up in my office they just feel exhausted and their tank is empty
and so how do you use this what do you do in order to ensure that your lifestyle is sustainable well
one of the uh exercises i often get my clients to do is to write out a list and to think about
all of the things in your life that tend to drain energy right essentially how do you
spend your time and what are the activities that you're spending your time doing that are using
up your energy now some of these things like i said are important and you're not going to be
aiming at getting rid of them so you can't just say oh you know what work is taking up my energy
and so i'll just stop working that's not practical so the idea is you have to keep working you have
to keep raising kids you have to keep doing household chores you have to keep mowing the lawn
those types of things but in doing this list what can sometimes happen is people can
recognize that there are a lot of things that that drain their energy that drain their tank
that they don't really need to be doing so like i mentioned things like
that relationship that friendship that is just so draining every time i talk to this person it just
either ends up in a big fight or a conflict or just exhausting dealing with this person
you could also recognize that maybe you're overdoing some of those
um those energy out activities that you need to be doing so uh work is a really big example uh
overworking is a major problem for a lot of my clients is that they'll be working their regular
hours at work but then they'll be working in the evenings uh they'll be working on weekends and
that constant work and that constant thinking about work is just draining their tank and
they may not need to be working that much but they feel like they have to because it's just i got to
get through this next project i just got to get this next thing done but what often happens is uh
after that one project is over there's another one and i just need to get through that
and so that can really drain a person's tank so writing out and having an idea
of what are all the things that i do in my life that take energy out of my tank
and then write out a list of what are the things that i'm doing in my life that are putting energy
back into my tank right and to think about how much time do i spend doing those things
compared to how much time i spend doing some of the energy out activities
and then comparing the lists and if what i recognize is the list of things that
take energy out of my tank is much greater i spend so much more time doing those things
than activities that are putting energy back into my tank that's a problem and that's a lifestyle
that isn't sustainable because there's a greater drain on your energy there's a greater drain on
your fuel tank than uh the amount of energy and fuel you're putting back into your life
and if you find that that's the case what i often encourage people to do is to think
about the energy in type of activities and maybe there are things that you used to enjoy doing
that you just don't do anymore uh just don't have any time to do anymore and to think about
what are some ways that i might be able to rebuild some of those activities or reintroduce some of
those activities back into my life what are ways that i can you know take up photography again and
you know pull out the the camera and go out for even 15 minutes and and take some photographs what
are ways that i can incorporate more exercise into my life maybe it means parking a little further
away and walking into the office or maybe it means taking stairs instead of using the elevator
what are ways that i can get back into back into touch with that friend that was really uh that we
were once really close and we've just kind of lost touch and and that relationship was really
meaningful and valuable to me what are ways that i can uh reincorporate that person back into my life
and so the idea is to to think about ways of setting goals
to build more energy in activities into your life
and the other thing you can look at as i mentioned before is are there these energy out
activities or aspects of your life that you might be able to eliminate so maybe it is um
spending less time with that toxic person in your life a big one is it could be
finding ways of spending less time working and i often get a lot of pushback on my clients about
this and they say i just can't stop working this much i have to because the projects have
to get done and i say you know what that's fine and i understand that but just recognize that
eventually it's going to catch up to you so either you need to figure out a solution to it now
or the solution will be you know thrust upon you at some point when you get burnt out
and so one of the things i'll often do is get my clients to experiment a little bit
with um taking a night off so yeah i know you have that project that's due at the end of the week
but take a night off spend some time with your partner watch that movie you've been meaning to
watch do do something enjoyable or rewarding for you and see what happens does the world fall apart
does that project not get done does do crises arise that you're not able to deal with because
you didn't deal with them the night before usually not um but the interesting thing that happens
is that as people work less as people pull back on the excessive work
what they find is that they they actually become more efficient when they are working
so i often remind people you need to be taking breaks at work you need to be taking a break to
eat lunch and they'll say i don't have time for lunch i don't have time for lunch i say okay look
let's just try right let's do do an experiment where you take an hour break for lunch
twice this week and see what happens and what typically happens is that people will take
those breaks and then what they find is that you know what i was a lot more efficient in
the afternoon so even though uh i spent you know eight hours working instead of nine hours working
i actually got as much done if not more done during that eight hour day when i took that break
the brake gives energy and puts energy back into your tank allows you to focus more allows you to
focus more effectively and to be more efficient so it really is an investment in ensuring that
your tank stays full so i hope this information is helpful one of the things i'll i really encourage
people to do when they have these two lists energy out versus energy in is to set some goals and i've
done some videos about goal setting so i'll put a link to those videos up above and you can take
a look at that but to to actually set some goals if you're thinking okay i need to be building more
energy and activities into my life how do i go about doing that well you can
set some goals around that likewise if you're able to recognize or be aware of
some of the things that are taking energy out of your tank and ways to eliminate some of those you
can set some goals around eliminating some of those as well so i'd love to hear your thoughts
and ideas and comments about that so please leave me some comments in the comment section down below
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