One Simple Mental Shift That I Used To Help My Depression.
I listened to a video about mental health and finding meaning in your life the other day.
In it, came a part where Jordan Peterson was talking and he mentioned that from a psychological perspective: if you’re feeling depressed and you have specific personality traits (like agreeableness/disagreeableness), do “micro-routines” — routines that aid you on focusing on the opposite side of your personality trait.
For myself, when I was deep in my depression, I was a very agreeable kid who wanted to please everyone even at the expense of my wellbeing.
Because of this, no one really respected me, not even my own friend group. I was regularly bullied.
This put a lot of pressure on myself throughout middle school and high school and led to me emotionally eating as a way to comfort myself.
I got overweight, and that made it worse.
It led to me contemplating suicide.
The single shift I made (that I didn’t realize at the time) was exercise.
I worked on something a more “disagreeable” person would do: working on doing more things for myself.
This allowed me to not only improve my physical and mental health, but to serve you guys today.
So with some selfishness, I was allowed to be more selfless.
Small Exercise Routines Will Transform You.
Now that you know that taking care of yourself is the solution, let’s get right into the “micro-routines”.
If you’re not exercising already or exercising enough, this part will be helpful for you.
I like the term micro-routine because it means that you can start by doing this in VERY SMALL ways:
- 5–15 minutes daily. You can implement short bouts of exercise sessions where you are doing push ups, pull ups, crunches, etc. You can do this if you want to get into the habit of exercising and you may get some mental health improvements over time.
- 3–4 days a week for about 30–60 minutes. This route will get you in the habit of developing a workout routine that involves movement for a specific period of time. You will notice some mental health improvements over time in implementing this kind of routine.
Exercise is one of the easiest ways to get started on improving our mental health.
Every one of us can do it.
We can all go for a walk, or a hike, or even do some circuit training (or metabolic conditioning) workouts from the comfort of our home.
You can see this example in practice with my friend Chris. I’ve been working with Chris to help him lose 150lbs and manage his depression with exercise.
He has been documenting his journey on our YouTube channel and is SLOWLY shifting to exercising frequently and eating better.
You can watch the more recent episode below.
What Chris is doing is more for himself — and taking SMALL STEPS to reach this goal.
Taking It Further
If you already have an exercise routine in place and you’ve been seeing progress from it, let’s take it further:
- Read non-fiction books on personal development. Some books I recommend are Extreme Ownership (Jocko Willink), 12 Rules For Life (Jordan Peterson), and The 50th Law (Robert Greene).
- Listen to podcasts or watch videos. I would recommend a podcast like Huberman Lab that really focuses on the brain and managing things like mental health.
- Journal. Journal how you’re feeling, thinking, and more. Think of this as a self-discovery exercise.
- And a plethora of more things you can do. Find something that you enjoy and helps you take care of yourself more.
There are so many options of growth to choose from, and if you really want more for your life, start by making these small changes.
Want More For Yourself
Now you know that THIS is what you have to do.
Do NOT think it is shameful to want more for yourself, to be more ambitious.
To improve yourself so that you can, in turn, serve the world in a better way.
I truly believe it’s our duty to work on our mental health so that we can give our best selves to the world around us.
And I truly hope you take this as a call to action.
Let me know your thoughts and what you plan on doing in the comments.
If you do need an action plan to get started, I created an eBook series for you all. It’s 3 hacks that boost mood & wellbeing. You can get yours here.
Until next time!
