Mindfulness for anxiety and depression. Image contains drawing of person sitting in a chair with their head in their hands

How to Use Mindfulness for Anxiety & Depression

Published On: January 7, 2022

Categories: Meditation, Mindfulness, Wellness

Growing up, I always knew I was shy and had a hard time speaking to people. My anxiety around speaking to people was so normal for me that I didn’t even know I had anxiety until my accident.

In 2013 I was hit by a bus while crossing the street (on a green light) which left me with a traumatic brain injury and needing multiple (and I mean MULTIPLE) neurosurgeries. All of which also resulted in a diagnosis of anxiety, PTSD, panic attacks and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).

I definitely knew that I had anxiety after my accident!

Part of my coping strategy, in addition to working with a social worker, was learning mindfulness. In particular the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program.

Which was a game changer.

It’s not a joke or an understatement to say that this program changed my life.

Not only did it give me a new career as a teacher of mindfulness but it helped me learn how to work with my anxiety and depression. Instead of constantly fighting against it.

How, you ask?

Because mindfulness teaches us how to notice our thoughts and how to be in the present moment.

illustration of women sitting in a chair with her head in her hands and springs coming out of her head. Image describes the feeling of anxiety and depression

Being in the present moment helps because it decreases the amount of bandwidth to ruminate about past failures or to worry about possible future catastrophes.

Plus, focusing on the present moment creates space from our thoughts & feelings by changing our relationship to our thoughts by reducing self-judgements.

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Our thoughts affect our emotions which show up in the body as sensations. They also affect our behaviour and how we respond to life through our reactions.

Learning how to notice my thoughts, that thoughts are just thoughts, and that they aren’t facts helped me learn how to get out of my head and into my life.

My mind was always my home. Being shy and anxious I spent a lot of my time alone with my thoughts. It felt like my safe place.

Until I started noticing my thoughts and how I talked to myself.

It was then I realized that my mind was actually a prison. One I voluntarily spent time in.

When I first started paying attention to my thoughts, I noticed just how judgemental and mean my thoughts were – to myself!

I was my own worst critic.

I worried all the time what other people might be thinking about me (might, because I’m not a mind reader so I actually don’t know).

I was so worried someone might think what I had to say was dumb that I often wouldn’t say anything.

Which just fed my anxiety.

Mindfulness helped me to realize something though….

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Our thoughts feed our emotions which then affects what we say or do. Or don’t say or do in my case.

When we worry and overthink everything this affects SO many things.

As an entrepreneur, I’m constantly stepping outside my comfort zone. And nothing taps into fear better than stepping out of our comfort zone.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever talked yourself out of offering a product or service because you were worried about what other people would think? 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️

This is what anxiety does though. It causes us to overthink EVERYTHING.

“what if I say this?” “what if I do that?” “Is this person going to make fun of me?” “Will I embarrass myself?” “Am I _____ enough?” or “I’m not ______ enough”.

Thoughts -> Emotions -> Sensations -> Actions.

I go into more about this in the short (less than 15 minute) video below.

CW: this video was filmed after my recent craniecotmy (I had a piece of my skull removed for infection) so it might be hard for some people to watch.

Little a anxieties can slowly turn into big A anxieties and worries about all the things that might happen in the future.

Ruminating on the things that happened in the past also keeps us stuck. It’s already happened and we can either learn from it or we can continue to repeat it.

It’s been said that anxious thinking is being caught up in the future while depressive thoughts are often stuck in the past. Mindfulness helps us with both because it brings us into this moment. And this moment is the only one that we can do anything about.

Inside my 7 Day Free challenge, I introduce you to mindfulness and how to start to work with your thoughts.

These practices are short & sweet and they are exactly what I use to help me with my anxiety and depression so I know that they will help you as well.

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Charlene Gethons

Hey there, I'm Charlene!

I help creative entrepreneurs with chronic illness create a sustainable business that fits their lifestyle without letting imposter syndrome take over.

Charlene is an entrepreneur, psychotherapist and mindfulness coach living with chronic illness after she was hit by a bus.

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Mamma Mia with my Momma ❤️❤️
Ever had a day where everything seems to go sideways? 😅 Mom and I planned a getaway to Buffalo, but I woke up feeling awful. 🤢 Instead of panicking, I leaned on mindfulness, letting future me handle the decision. Turns out, waiting a few hours was all I needed. By listening to my body, we still made it to Buffalo and had a blast! ✨ We enjoyed some #girlsdinner our first night in the Target parking lot 😂😂 ✨ Visited the Eternal Flame Falls & came back soaked in sweat 🤮🤮 ✨ Survived without a GPS - more on this later 🤫 ✨ Did a little bit of shopping 🛍️🛍️ & of course had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory ✨ Don’t worry about Lucky, she got her own mini holiday 😉 🎉 Mindfulness taught me to trust my intuition and focus on the present. It’s about releasing judgment and embracing the moment. 🌟 Remember, you don’t have to solve every problem immediately. Trust that future you will have the answers. 💪 #Mindfulness #TrustYourself #HealingJourney
Mindfulness is about learning how to feel your feelings without letting them overwhelm you. Mindfulness and meditating regularly helps you to learn how to ride these waves. My guided meditation, The Welcome Mat, is a practice designed to help you learn how to greet each thought, emotion and sensation in the body as if it was an old friend. To invite it in and to let it stay for as long as it wants. Because here’s the thing: what keeps our difficult emotions around is our thoughts and resistance to them. When we push them down & pretend they aren’t here - they just pop back up later. When we go down the thinking and ruminating rabbit hole - we feed them encouraging them to stick around longer. When we let them float past like leaves floating down a stream - the move on faster. Mindfulness teaches you how to feel your feelings without feeding them. Skills training helps you to complete the circuit so that they don’t linger around inside your body. My 1:1 anxiety coaching program is a great way to learn how to start welcoming in these difficult uncomfortable emotions so that you can feel a little more ease and a lot less overwhelm. It’s time to start healing your anxiety and managing your burnout and I can show you the path forward. DM me the words MORE EASE and let’s chat about working together so that you can start to heal today.
Did you know that you can practice mindfulness even in a busy coffee shop? A mindful eating practice brings your 5 senses to the act of drinking a cup of coffee ☕️ 1️⃣ What do you see? Describe the different colours that you can see. 2️⃣ what do you hear? The hum of different conversations. The sounds of working in the kitchen. The different noises you can hear as they brew your coffee. 3️⃣ what do you smell? The smell of the coffee as it’s being brewed. 4️⃣ what can you touch? Feel the weight of the cup in your hands. And finally 5️⃣ take a sip and really, taste your coffee. Let it sit in your mouth for a moment before you swallow it down. This is a simple practice that you can do when the world outside feels chaotic to help you find a moment of calm. 💕🙏🏻🧘🏻‍♀️
Living with anxiety feels like being trapped in a stormy sea, waves crashing relentlessly 🌊. But healing your anxiety? It’s like finding a calm harbour, where the sun finally breaks through the clouds ☀️. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Let’s journey together from chaos to peace with my free 7 day mindfulness challenge. 💙 #Mindfulness #HealingJourney
Worries are imaginary problems. 🌟 They’re just thoughts and what ifs about things that *might* happen. These imaginary issues can cause real emotions to bubble up inside us. Healing anxiety is about recognizing these worries and taking action. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Here’s a 3-step process to help you out: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 1. **Check the facts** - What do you *know* to be true? Not your thoughts and fears, but actual facts. 2. **Future you’s problem** - Worries are about the future. Let them go and focus on the problems you can solve right now. 3. **One thing you can do now** - What can you do in this moment to help out future you? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Every time worries pop up, cycle through these steps. Over time, you’ll notice a shift. You’ll worry less and start making more intentional, mindful choices. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Take my recent example: I adore the shade of blue I’m wearing in this video and want everything I see in it! But... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 1. **Check the facts** - I already have two dresses in this shade. This one is similar, so I can put it down. 2. **Future me’s problem** - Future me won’t come home to three identical dresses and won’t face the judgment of buying another one. 3. **One thing now** - I saved money by not buying the dress, helping both current and future me. 💙 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This strategy is foundational for healing anxiety. It’s a kinder way to manage worries in the moment. We build on this in our 1:1 coaching sessions, creating more strategies for your anxiety toolkit. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Send me a DM, and let’s chat about working together. 💬✨
🧘🏻‍♀️💕🙏🏻The reality is, life is hard. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Whether it’s having to rebuild your life (again) after a catastrophic injury or life changing diagnosis. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Or living with lifelong anxiety. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Or even just existing and managing work, family and trying to have a life somewhere in the midst of all.the.things. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Life is hard. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Dealing with the uncertainty of life is hard. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The not knowing what the future holds and what path to take is hard. Life is hard. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ BUT at that same time we acknowledge that life is hard we can also CHOOSE our hard. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ While I didn’t choose the accident or needed to have my skull rebuilt 3x I do get to choose how I show up and face the hard in front of me. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ All paths are hard so which hard path do I want to choose? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Learning how to heal my lifelong anxiety was hard. But living with anxiety is also hard. Choose your hard. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Which path do you want to take? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Is it the path towards healing and living a life with a little more ease? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Or is it the path of resistance and staying small? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Choose your hard. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Life is hard, but you can create the space needed to make it a little bit easier. Which hard path are you going to choose? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If you’re ready to heal your anxiety, send me a DM and let’s chat to see if we are a good fit to work together.
No spoons? 🥄 what’s one thing that you can do to help out future you? Like… 💫 making enough dinner to last for two nights so you have leftovers available after a busy day 💫 not doing alllll the dishes but just the ones you need for your morning coffee 💫 heading to bed a little earlier so that you feel more rested in the morning Or the big one 💫 not worrying about something that may or may not happen for the next six months because you’ve learned how to manage your anxiety This is just one of the ways that mindfulness and a skills based approach can help you to manage and heal your anxiety. To get started, you can sign up for my free 7 day challenge to learn how to quickly calm your mind in 10 minutes a day. Click the link in my bio to sign up
🚀 Are you ready to heal? 🚀 Learning how to finally heal my lifelong anxiety is the best thing that I have ever done for myself. It is literally the gift that keeps on giving. And now it’s your turn. DM me “overwhelmed” and let’s chat to see how we can best work together. It’s time to start healing. Join me to find more ease and peace today. 🧘🏻‍♀️💕🙏🏻
🚀 Ready to finally heal your lifelong anxiety? Message me "Overwhelmed" to begin your journey today! 🚀 Wouldn't it feel great to finally have the tools you needed to quickly calm your nervous system down the next time anxiety hits? Are you ready to start your journey and see real change and healing? Let's get started creating your own personalized toolbox of mental health strategies that you can pull out to quickly manage your anxiety. Imagine this: Having a series of tools in your back pocket that you can pull out the next time you feel overwhelmed so that you can quickly calm your nervous system down. How it would feel to be better able to tolerate distressing emotions so that you are better able to reduce the impact anxiety has on your day-to-day functioning. Join me in and learn how to heal your anxiety. 🔔 Limited time offer! I'm looking for five overwhelmed and anxious entrepreneurs this week. If you're ready to change and to start healing message "Overwhelmed" and let's get started.