What gets in the way of looking after yourself?
Next, spend some time thinking about what, in the past, has prevented you from paying attention to these signs. Also, consider ways that you can include other family members in your early warning system for detecting signals of relapse.
Putting It All Together: Your Action Plan
Press Play to learn more from your guide.
Your Action Plan
A very important way to begin to pull together all of what we have practiced and learned in this class is to write a letter to ‘yourself in the future.’ This is a letter from yourself now—when you are feeling a greater sense of wellness—to yourself at some time in the future when you may be struggling more with depression’s return. It is one way to give yourself in the future some of the hard earned wisdom that might be tough to access at that point in time.
Here are some steps that you can take to make this letter as valuable as possible for you.
How to Write Your Letter
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
As you begin the letter, you might address the frame of mind that you will be in at the time, e.g., “I know you probably will not feel hopeful about this idea and I know you may be thinking that nothing will help, but trust me, this is really important…” Or, “you may be thinking that this letter is a gimmick or silly, that it is not relevant to how I am feeling now, but please just listen…”
Taking Action When Your Mood is Low (PDF)
Actions to Help Support Your Wellness Plan
Hover over each image to reveal an action you may find helpful when you notice warning signs. Remember that these are only examples to get you thinking about what will be most helpful for you. The important thing is to identify the pleasure or mastery activities that support your mood and staying well over time.
Hover over each photo to reveal actions to help you respond skillfully when you or your support person notices warning signs.
Listen to a practice from Mindful Mood Balance.
Remind myself of something helpful that I learned from Mindful Mood Balance.
Take frequent breathing spaces; treat thoughts as events, not facts.
Go for a mindful walk.
Call a friend.
Make time to take care of myself.
Warning Signals and Action Plans in an MBCT Group
Let’s join the group as they are in the middle of the exercise in which they are discussing their warning signs and the action plans exercise.
Click on the questions to hear from each group member.
