My Daily Practices and Habits to Fight Depression | Tim Ferriss

hey folks this is tim ferriss and i'm answering a question a request from alice d this is daily practices strategies to fight depression she's asking this in part i think because i have spoken about and written about my history with depression so up until about eight years ago had i would say two major depressive episodes per year at a minimum that were extended so at least several weeks and the short answer to what happened eight years ago is i began looking very closely at psychedelic medicine and psychedelic science not going to get into that in this particular episode though that is a subject for its own dedicated episode and there's a lot of writing and also many interviews in my podcast related to that at tim dot blog podcast if you want to explore that topic further you can start with the michael pollan episodes where we basically explore all the content of his book how to change your mind in two hours that's an important piece of certainly my personal journey with depression but there are other tools that have proven to be incredibly valuable here are a few of them i'm going to look at this list because i want to make sure i get each of these the first is meditation meditating 10 to 20 minutes each morning it is just an incredibly helpful tool for becoming better able to observe your own thoughts and feelings and not fully identify with them depression for me is sort of a fixation on the past or a fixation on permanence whereas anxiety is a fixation being trapped in the future in a sense when you make things personal and permanent usually that is when you basically become a thought pattern or a loop and meditation helps you to develop an observer capability so you can look at them and scrutinize them and turn them around and really better understand that they are passing phenomena and that everything is impermanent a few different options for that transcendental meditation i do use and have found very helpful i use the waking up app with sam harris i recommend doing the introductory course it's very very good and i think it's 10 minutes per morning for something like 30 mornings and that consistency will also provide you with skills that are layered in and there's a progression so i highly recommend the waking up app and that is a fantastic place to start cold exposure is another option that i use so i happen to have a small pool but i've used cold showers you can even create a cold plunge with a chest freezer and there are instructions online for how to do this safely do not electrocute yourself but i will usually use cold plunge in the mornings at least once and then in the evenings oftentimes again with some type of contrast therapy going hot cold in the winters when things are overcast which has a tremendous effect on me i use a phillips go light this is a blue light a portable blue light that you can put on your desktop there is research to support this i care more about the actual outcomes it does help tremendously as a form of medication after that caffeine all right what role does caffeine play what are its limitations i find that keeping my caffeine intake to before noon or before 1 pm is incredibly important it's important because if i have it later than that it starts to compromise my sleep and if i compromise my sleep everything falls apart to me sleep quality is directly correlated to mental health so if i'm sacrificing sleep quality the likelihood of a depressive episode or experiencing depression goes up dramatically and this is particularly true over a course of multiple consecutive days and many of you will have had the experience you have caffeine too late you can't sleep you sleep a little later or you just wake up early nonetheless and you end up having more caffeine to get through the day and then yet more caffeine again to get through the third day and last but not least i would say exercise critically important the mind and the body are not separate they're really one in the same in a lot of respects there's a book called spark that looks very closely at the research to support this and how exercise affects brain drive neurotrophic factor and many other things that contribute to ultimately mental wellness so a few easy options particularly in times of pandemic kettlebell look at getting a kettlebell the footprint on your floor will be about that big so it takes up the same amount of space as a door weight a large doorway but you can use it for almost any type of exercise pavel tatzulin and strong first have a lot of fantastic programs very simple programs and i've also put out videos on kettlebell swings so you can look at my instructions for the two-handed kettlebell swing last two recommendations related to exercise would be number one consider doing some form of yoga or acro yoga if you have another person you can do acro yoga with it injects both play and exercise slash training into your life it's an incredible combination check out jason niemer nemer n-e-m-e-r for more on acroyoga that has saved me and my girlfriend throughout the last year of covid and quarantine and so on and second is simple walking walking long walks there is almost no problem you cannot walk your way out of so i will routinely walk one to two to three hours a day listening to podcasts that are conversations also because i think that attenuates any feeling of loneliness or isolation and if you want to make it harder you can check out a company called goruck they sell backpacks that are specifically designed to carry weight so if you want to try something that's a little easier on the joints than running but can still give you a wonderful workout consider wrecking and one such company is goruck and with all of that i wish you well you are not alone sometimes it's better to snuggle with your demons snuggle instead of struggle with them and it's important to forgive yourself for something that is very normal and in fact extremely common which is the experience of sadness loneliness and depression that is part of being human especially during a pandemic so that's very important to remind yourself of and i hope these tools help you as much as they've helped me you

Channel: Tim Ferriss

Views: 266,588

Keywords: tim ferriss, timothy ferriss, tim ferriss blog, timothy ferriss speaker, Tim Ferriss Podcast, depression, anxiety, stress, therapy, resilience, tim ferriss depression, tim ferris, how to fight depression, fighting depression, fight depression, tim ferris depression, tim farriss, tim ferriss anxiety, tim ferriss mental health

Id: zJGJGVicLkQ

Length: 6min 33sec (393 seconds)

Published: Tue May 11 2021