DrPurves.online

Making Mindful Choices

Dr Purves

Making Mindful Choices

12:00

 

Three Daily Practices That Help You Break Free from Anxiety and Depression

If you live with anxiety or depression it can feel as if life is happening to you rather than with you. Thoughts, feelings and behaviours appear on autopilot, leaving you exhausted, worried or flat. Yet there is a way to begin shifting these patterns from the inside out. In my work I call this approach Awakening, Growth and Control – three simple practices that together create a foundation for better mental health.

1. Awakening: Noticing the autopilot

The first practice is Awakening. This means deliberately noticing your inner world: your thoughts, emotions, and body sensations in real time. Anxiety and depression thrive in automatic loops – anxious predictions, self-critical thoughts, ruminating about the past. By practising small moments of awareness you begin to interrupt those loops.

Practical tip: Pause three times today and silently say, “I am here now.” Notice what you’re thinking, what you’re feeling and where you feel it in your body. Nothing to fix in that moment – simply notice. This small act of self-observation reduces reactivity and opens a gap for choice.

2. Growth: Building balance and energy

Once you’re awake to your patterns, the next step is Growth – balancing your mind, emotions and body so you have the energy to respond differently. Anxiety and depression both drain mental and physical resources. Growth practices help you conserve and redirect that energy.

Practical tip: Each day do one small act that restores you rather than depletes you. It might be a five-minute walk, loosening your shoulders, writing down three supportive thoughts, or spending ten minutes on a creative hobby. These small acts accumulate. Over time they strengthen resilience, much like physical exercise strengthens muscles.

3. Control: Guiding your choices lightly

The third practice is Control, but not in the rigid sense of forcing outcomes. Here control means guiding your attention and behaviour with gentle intention rather than letting old habits steer the ship. People struggling with anxiety or depression often feel powerless; regaining even small choices is empowering.

Practical tip: Each morning set a light intention, such as “Today I will speak kindly to myself” or “Today I will respond, not react.” Keep it simple. At the end of the day, reflect for a minute: when did I follow this intention? When did I drift? This builds a sense of agency and progress.

Why these three practices matter

Awakening interrupts the automatic loops of worry or rumination. Growth replenishes the energy and motivation that depression steals. Control restores your ability to choose how you respond. Practised together, they create a steady upward spiral: more awareness → better choices → improved mood → even more energy and clarity.

You don’t have to do them perfectly. Small steps practised daily make the biggest difference. These three practices give you a practical way to begin reshaping your experience of anxiety and depression – from the inside out.