12 Powerful Ways To Stop Depression Naturally
I wanted to make a piece about depression, and what you can do to overcome it. I’ve suffered with my share of challenges over the last 19 years and I want to share the tactics I’ve used to combat and overcome depression while going through them. I’m not a doctor, and I am not addressing people with clinical depression, but rather mood depression or depression resulting from your circumstances, not your genetics. I believe these can work powerfully for anyone when life is hitting you in the face. In fact, you can use those hard times and turn those things that appear to be negative into positives. I’ve used these tactics to make significant improvements in my life including stopping almost all behavior that wasn’t serving me, getting sober, replacing all of my toxic friendships with better ones, becoming abstinent for years on end, getting into the best shape of my life and becoming just the absolute best version of myself. The changes didn’t come easy and could have very well crushed me, some days I literally wanted to crawl into a ball or wished I would get hit by a bus. But I developed most of these habits I because I HAD TO for survival. Plus I knew curling up in the fetal position in the morning wasn’t going to produce the results I wanted long-term. What I want to give you is the practical tools to push through, to work your way out of your funk so to speak.
You want to do your best to work the following tactics into a routine. Once you are in a routine it becomes easier to do something because it’s just what you do. Routines aren’t based on feelings. There is no thinking “do I want to do this today or not”, you just go. Routines are the opposites of ruts. If you’ve ever been in a rut, you know how hard it is to get out of it. Routines are the same, just a positive version of it. So if need be, force yourself to do these things initially, regardless of how you feel, you’re feelings will come around later. So here goes:
#1 Get a good night sleep: Getting a good night’s rest can play a vital role in managing depression. When you’re well-rested, you have better focus and you’ll have more energy. A good sleep also helps you deal with problems better.
REM sleep, the stage of sleep you dream in, recharges your system, keeps your body healthy and plays an important role in your emotional well-being. Without proper rest your will to get things done is low and you will be moody. How many times have you been tired and cranky? Research has also found that keeping a consistent bedtime is just as important as the length of time a person sleeps to deal with negativity. I do my best to go to bed and wake up at about the same time everyday. Have you ever heard that 1 hour of sleep before midnight is equivalent to 2 hours of sleep after midnight. Well, research confirms that people who go to bed later are more likely to be overwhelmed with repetitive negative thoughts. 9 pm is the ideal bedtime, which seems really early right? But I know from personal experience from forcing myself to get to sleep early and waking up early I always have a more positive outlook on life, probably because I feel like I have a jump on everyone else.
#2 Get sober: Drinking alcohol triggers the release of endorphins in your brain. It’s natural to want these feel-good chemicals, but you can get these same chemicals naturally, it just requires a little effort on your part. It’s when we seek these chemicals from outside sources that problems occur.
Alcohol itself is a depressant and will cause your problems to seem worse than they actually are and can make you feel even more depressed than before you had a drink. On top of that they mess with your sleep, increase feelings of pessimism and cause difficulty concentrating and making decisions. Plus we all know when you drink too much, you’re more likely to make bad decisions resulting in consequences you will have to deal with that will leave you feeling even more depressed. People that are suffering with depression that are drinking or using are doing usually doing because they are trying to escape reality because they aren’t happy with their lives. Imagine every time you drank to escape your problems or used drugs you got onto a rocket that went to outer space to visit another planet where everything is perfect. Eventually, you have to come back to earth, and when you get here, it’s a little worse than when you left because things got neglected when you were away. Because you feel the increased pressure from reality, you leave again. But each time you do, you come back, and it’s a worse than it was before. So, you must leave more often, until eventually, you hit rock bottom. This is how it is with an escape of any kind but especially drugs or alcohol. It’s duct tape. Trust me, I know. The only way out is through. Put the bottle or the bag down and start working on making things better whatever that looks like for you.
#3 NoFap (no porn): Stop jerking off and if you are looking at porn STOP! Masturbation contrary to what you may have heard is not healthy. Porn is poison and is now being referred to as the new tobacco. Some people will be shocked to hear this, but there was a time they didn’t know cigarettes were bad for you either. Masturbation and porn are now being linked to depression, social anxiety, brain fog and an overall lack of motivation. Pornography actually changes your brain and rewires the way it thinks. When you watch porn you get a dopamine rush over 200% of what is normal. That dopamine rush messes with your brain. Because as humans we are always trying to achieve stability our brain lowers the amount of dopamine receptors and guess what dopamine deficiency leads to? You got it, depression.
In the classic book Think and Grow Rich author Napoleon Hill talks about a principle known as Sex Transmutation; basically rechanneling all of that sexual energy into more productive means. Simply by not busting nuts you can make significant improvements in your life that will lead you to being more positive, confident and energetic.
#4 Make real friends: An 80 year old Harvard study has proven that embracing community helps us live longer and be happier. The study revealed close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives. Having friends to lean on when times when the going gets tough, and helping others you care about when they are in need go a long way to break depression. Research has shows that in almost every case of someone snapping out of depression, the turning point in their recovery came when they reached out to a friend or family member for support. On top of that, breakthroughs will more than likely come through friends.
Typically when you are depressed your natural response is to isolate, which makes you even more depressed. I often tell my friends that are suffering from depression to work on developing healthy relationships like it’s a job. You can’t just wait for them to happen you have to be proactive about it.
We’ve all heard you become like the people you associate with. Or you’re the average of the five people spend the most time with. So make sure you are choosing carefully. What you are looking for is healthy community. I define healthy community as any group of people that inspire you to be the best version of yourself. This could include faith communities, sober groups, gyms and the like. The best way to develop great friendships is to just start adding value to other people’s lives. Me and some friends started a nonprofit a few years ago and one of our tag lines is “Friends with better benefits”. Life gets really rich when you have great relationships with others, when you have a tribe to do life with, things to look forward to, and good things to do and good people to do them with. For more info check us out at www.cityfam.com
#5 Exercise: If you have depression or anxiety, exercise probably seems like the last thing you want to do, but there are several benefits to getting into good shape. Doing 30 minutes or more of exercise a day for three to five days a week has been shown to significantly improve depression and anxiety. High-intensity exercise releases those natural feel-good chemicals called endorphins. Everyone’s probably heard of the “runner’s high”. Regular exercise can help boost your self-confidence by making you feel better about your appearance, gives you the chance to meet or socialize with others and cope with stress in a healthy way. Now I know some people will say I don’t have time to workout! But if I were to ask you a question and I want you to be honest, if I could trade you a really hard workout that helped you look and feel great for 30 minutes of your time 3 days a week and it didn’t require you any effort from you whatsoever, you just had to give up the time, would you do it? Of course you would. So the issue isn’t time the issue is discipline. Again, make yourself go, the feelings will come around later.
#6 Eat healthy: A healthy diet can “significantly reduce” symptoms of depression. Eating more nutrient-dense meals that are high in fiber and vegetables, while cutting back on fast foods is important for every aspect of our health, but especially our mental health. The easiest way to eat healthy and has worked for me is Meal prepping. Diet, even more than exercise, is the single best thing to get into great shape. When you are healthy and looking good you are less likely to be depressed. Now I always like to address the naysayers because I know some ppl will say I don’t have time to meal prep, but I guarantee you spend more time looking for food throughout the week than I do meal prepping on Sunday afternoon. Plus typically by the time you finally go looking for food you are really hungry and not in the best mindset to make a good choice about what to eat. Not to mention it’s not always easy to find healthy food on the run. Restaurants make food to taste good, NOT with our health goals in mind, so take an hour and a half to make your food for the week. There’s lots of info online about how to do this.
#7 Gratitude: At least a few mornings a week I make a gratitude list. In my journal I write out 10 things I am grateful for. This always puts me into a better mood and starts to reprogram my mind to look for things to be grateful for rather than complain about. In addition, if you believe in the law of attraction like I do, you will attract more of whatever your mind is set on. So thinking about what you want and are grateful for, will bring more of those things into your life.
#8 Life coaching. Aren’t you usually excited when you’re going somewhere? And knowing where you’re going makes all the difference. Several years ago I started working with a life coach. She helped me get clear on my specific purpose and set up goals and benchmarks for myself to hold me accountable and remind me that I’m getting closer. You need a clear purpose. Otherwise you just drift around and never go anywhere. A good life coach will ask you the right questions and you will throw it up, that is what happened for me. Once you know why you’re here you can start to begin working backwards to make it come to fruition. One of our goals at CityFam is to connect people with purpose. We believe that we all innately want to be connected to a cause greater that is greater than ourselves so if that purpose involves helping other people even better. When you start making a difference in the lives of others your life takes on new meaning and the chains of depression will fall right off.
#9 Volunteer: There are so many benefits to volunteering! I often say Volunteering is the intelligent way to be selfish. This again goes against our natural thought process when we are depressed, because most people that are suffering from depression, and you might not like hearing this, are consumed with themselves, with their problems, with their faults and failings. Volunteering forces you to get your eyes off yourself, if even just for a little while. Many of the people you serve have it worse than you which changes your perspective and makes you feel grateful. Additionally volunteering has been linked to higher self esteem and a more of those natural feel good chemicals. People call this a helper’s high. You also… make new friends when you’re doing it that aren’t only looking out for themselves. You may have heard the saying You can’t steer a parked car. Well I’ve also seen evidence how when you start helping others you kind of fall into your purpose. At CityFam we have found most people want to give back but they don’t know how to get started, so we make it fun and easy.
#10 Visualization: One of the practices I follow every morning is starting my day with visualizing how I want it to go. I sit on the edge of my bed and close my eyes and imagine doing the things I know I need to do that day. How I want my workout to go, how I want to show up in a meeting, and imagine positive outcomes. Basically what I’m doing is pre-programming my mind for success before my feet ever hit the floor. The next thing I do is visualize my life in a few years from now. I see the person that I am working hard to become and imagine a pleasurable scenario as vividly as possible in the life that I’m attempting to create for myself. This might be vacationing with my family, seeing the businesses that I am building and where I want them to be, for you it might be a husband or a wife, getting your degree and walking across the stage, whatever it is, see it as clearly as you can in your mind. If you’re doing this right you will be sitting there smiling with your eyes closed as you do it. This should get you excited and fill your tank so that you are able to do all the hard things that will be required of you that day to get closer to that being reality. What else it does is remind your brain that this is the destination and it will start looking for ways to help you get there. At CityFam we call this INTENTIONALITY, or beginning with the end in mind.
If you’re depressed and not happy with your circumstances, reimagining your future gives you hope that tomorrow will be better than today.
#11 Faith: Cultivate a relationship with God and some of His followers that you can relate to. The last thing I want to do is push religion on you, trust me I’m not religious at all. And I’m not talking about being “spiritual” either, I’m talking about a real relationship with an an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God that has a plan for my life. So even when things may not be making sense to me I can trust that He is in control and if I just stay plugged in with Him, everything is going to work out in the long run. From a purely scientific standpoint, studies have revealed that higher levels of faith were associated with a greater reduction in mental health symptoms such as depression. From a purely practical standpoint, finding and plugging into a good faith community will help you find real, supportive friends, volunteer opportunities and a mentor, probably all free of charge.
#12 Pray: Another practice that I start every single morning with is prayer. Don’t get too hung up on the word, for me it is just having a conversation with God. For me this is critical, I literally don’t feel right if I don’t start my day with this. It doesn’t have to be long, but what you want to do is take a moment to be quiet, to sit and listen, reflect, and give any problems or anything your are unsure about over to Him. This way you don’t have to worry about them anymore because you already asked the all-knowing, all-powerful being that loves you unconditionally for help. Many ppl that suffer with depression also suffer from anxiety. There’s a verse in the Bible that says “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” I see so many people depressed and anxious but they aren’t doing their part by asking God for help and guidance. If you’re not already doing this it may feel unnatural at first, but so did taking a shit on the toilet at first, so give it time.
So that’s it, those are my “12 ways to stop depression naturally”.
I know some ppl will say that this won’t work for everyone, but I would say if you are not doing all of these things consistently then you can’t use that argument.
The one thing you will notice that all of these have in common, they all require discipline. Discipline is the key to all long-term happiness. SO DO THE WORK! Your mental health depends on it.
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