I'll tell you one of many, this one is a bit of mindfulness/meditation: one of the best ways I learned to deal with anxiety or depression is to commit wholehear

I'll tell you one of many, this one is a bit of mindfulness/meditation: one of the best ways I learned to deal with anxiety or depression is to commit wholeheartedly to feeling that feeling. I use the analogy to strength training a lot because once you start looking at anxiety as a form of stress you can adapt to (like weight training) rather than as an uncontrollable thing that just happens to you, your relationship to it changes dramatically. It was difficult to do this: one of the key exercises I did was when I wasn't feeling the anxiety, was mentally committing to the idea that physically it really wouldn't hurt me. Then when it happened I was able to say "ok we've already decided this wont kill you, so what happens if you try your best to feel it, rather than run from it?" Then you start building a tolerance to it. Do I still feel anxiety and depression sometimes? Absolutely. But I've learned to change my expectations around those emotions: I don't look at them as signs that something is broken, they are just regular emotions to go through like any other. In a weird way, I almost look forward to them because they are an opportunity to train again, and to test myself. In general mindfulness and meditation are great, and if you can't afford therapy as well, they can be great on their own (and are free!).