13 Healthy Habits to Fight Depression
Here are some simple, yet powerful, habits that can help to fight back against depression. Keep your goals realistic and start small.
Here are some simple, yet powerful, habits that can help to fight back against depression. Keep your goals realistic and start small.
"Start by picking a simple and small habit that can fit within your existing routine."
A major part of fighting depression is learning how to develop healthy and sustainable habits.
Unfortunately, the common reference that it only ‘takes 21 days to form a new habit’ often sets us up for unrealistic expectations and failure. The truth is each person forms habits at different rates.
Below are examples of simple, yet powerful habits that can help in the fight against depression.
It’s important to start small. Once you’ve picked out a couple habits to try, check out our guide to creating healthy habits, which can help you break habits down into goals, and work toward long term sustainability.
A healthy diet is key to fighting depression and fruits and vegetables are often overlooked by lots of guys.
This could mean adding some berries or a banana to oatmeal, cereal or waffles, having an apple with peanut butter, making a smoothie, enjoying chopped veggies and hummus, or eating ‘ants on log’ (celery, nut butter, raisins or other dried fruit).
By having a couple options we like, we can mix them up so we won’t get bored and letting the habit fall away.
Adding this habit to breakfast or an early snack helps us start the day by knocking off a simple “to do” as part of a daily healthy diet.
Take a look through our guide to healthy eating if you’re interested in learning more about how you can use diet to fight depression.
Depression can zap your energy levels to the point of never wanting to get out of bed. But not looking after daily responsibilities like regularly showering or bathing, brushing our teeth, and cleaning laundry makes it hard to build new habits that will help lift our mood.
Even if it’s the only thing you have the capacity to do, it’s important to try to maintain good personal hygiene habits.
Whatever you normally do to maintain your look and feel more confident, try to do it regularly and not let it slide because of other priorities. Your health and wellbeing are always top of the list.
Having a morning routine is a great way to add structure into our lives.
For example, a morning routine could look like:
Unless you are expecting an important message, it can be helpful to delay looking at your phone, as it’s a tempting distraction that can take up our time and interfere with staying on task.
Learn more: Creating Daily Habits and Routines to Manage your Mental Health
When we have something particularly stressful going on that we know might get stuck in our head all day, setting aside some time to allow ourselves to intentionally think about it can help free us of the stress caused by having the issue stuck in a worry loop in our heads all day.
During your ‘worry time’, it can also be helpful to make a list of items that are causing you stress. For items which are in your control, spend some time making a plan to resolve the issue as best you can. For items outside of your control, consciously acknowledge that you can’t control or change the situation/issue and instead turn your attention to the things that you can influence.
For example, if you’re having ongoing family stress, try to say to yourself “Okay, I am going to set aside 15 minutes in the morning to think about this and then park it for the rest of the day”, then use this time to think about it. Afterwards, whenever it pops back into your head, stop yourself and remember that you already spent enough time on this for one day, and you have time set aside to think about it again tomorrow if need be.
This can sometimes help to put worries aside before bed, as you know you’ve already spent time thinking about something and don’t need to carry the worry to bed.
Learn more: Stress Management for Men
Try taking a break to go for a walk during the day. Even a 5 -15 minute walk will help. Tying a walk to an activity that is already in your schedule (e.g., a lunch break) will make the habit easier to remember and stick to.
Taking the stairs (if possible) is another simple way to incorporate more physical activity into your day.
If walking or using stairs are not possible, there are many quick, seated arm exercises that can also be helpful.
Learn more: How to Use Physical Activity and Exercise to Fight Depression
Laughing activates the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, the same brain chemical targeted by common types of antidepressant medications.
It’s easy to get bogged down in stress and prioritize other things over ourselves, but try setting aside a few minutes each day to do something fun or funny.
Find something that makes you smile and make time for it each day.
Setting aside a longer period of time once or twice a week to watch a funny movie, enjoy a stand-up comedy special, or meet up with a friend who shares the same sense of humour as us can also help.
Schedule time in your day and week for laughter, similar to how you might schedule time for physical activity.
Some guys may shy away from the idea of meditation. But by doing so, they miss out on developing a potentially useful stress management skill. Even if you’re not interested in learning about full meditative practice, there are useful techniques that can be borrowed from it.
One good habit to form is the ability to use the ‘box breathing’ technique when we notice we are starting to get stressed. This means breathing in, pausing, breathing out, pausing, and repeating until we feel more in control, all to the count of 1, 2, 3, 4 for each step.
These are similar breathing exercises that are used by top athletes and even Navy SEALS.
“Box breathing is a technique that helps you take control of your automatic breathing patterns to train your breath for optimal health and performance…it was instrumental in saving my life several times in crises, I was able to remain calm and focus clearly.”
– Mark Divine, former US Navy SEALs Commander, NYT bestselling author of The Way of the SEAL and founder of SEALFIT (Forbes)
Learn more: Managing Depression with the Help of Meditation
Research has found several benefits to keeping a journal. One study found that expressive writing (the technical term for “journaling”) can reduce rumination and depressive symptoms.[2] Many mental health professionals recommend it as a way to fight depression.
Journaling is very personal and is not done the same way by any two men. For some, it can be a quick 5-minute process done daily. Others may choose to write longer reflections once or twice a week. It’s important to experiment and find what works best for you.
If you choose to journal during your nightly routine, different types of journaling may be more effective than others. One study found that spending 5 minutes writing a very specific to-do list helped with falling asleep at bedtime more than journaling about completed activities.[3]
Learn more: How to Journaling Can Help Combat Depression
Around 90% of people with depression have issues with sleep, but it’s often an area we overlook or don’t prioritize.[4]
Having a regular sleep routine – going to bed and waking up at the same time each day – is one of the best things we can do for our sleep quality. This allows our body to optimize our sleep cycle and restore our energy.
An example of a sleep routine:
Learn more: How to Improve Your Sleep to Fight Depression
When we spend less time caring for the space we are living in, it can translate into us caring less about ourselves.
Some guys only clean up when they have guests coming over, but we need to value ourselves just as much as others. We can take pride in cleaning up our living space for ourselves
Getting “in the zone” means getting caught up in enjoyable activities which takes us away from the negative thoughts we are having.
If we set this time aside, say every Friday evening after work, it can also help give us something to look forward to during the week.
As the world becomes more urbanized and developed, it’s getting harder for people to find places where they can comfortably connect with nature. Studies have shown that consistent exposure to greenspace – or a lack thereof – has a large impact on our ability to manage depression, anxiety, and stress.
Being in nature can promote the production of important neurochemicals that assist in the regulation of mood. Finding time to get out and immerse yourself in nature, even in small spaces, is a great way to de-stress, re-energize, and re-centre yourself.
This could mean:
Learn more: Using Nature to Fight Depression
Shelter, sleep, food, water, and clothing are bare necessities we need for life, but how often do we acknowledge having these needs met. How often do we acknowledge the people we value in our lives, or the work we put in to better ourselves, or the progress we’ve made on our road to recovery?
Gratitude is about slowing down to acknowledge the positive things in life we often take for granted.
There are two main ways to practice gratitude.
The first way is to note the people and things in your life you are grateful for.
In the past, practicing gratitude was built into many people’s religious or spiritual prayers and routines. Whether you are religious/spiritual or not, practicing gratitude is an important habit for everyone to build.
The second way is to express your gratitude to others. When we thank others for their time or efforts, we signal to them that their actions were important and valued by us. This can also give the person an opportunity to share things they value about us that we may be underappreciating (which can be very easy to do while fighting depression).
References
For more tips on forming habits, see our guide to Building Healthy and Sustainable Habits to Fight Depression.
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