Coaching practices for How to Overcome Depression and Anxiety Naturally

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Overcome Depression and Anxiety Naturally, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I keep trying to feel better by piling nice things on top
• My anxiety hums constantly and my mood’s been low, and sitting-still meditation just leaves me alone with the spinning while hard workouts feel like too much
• The voice in my head when I’m anxious is brutal
• The low mood has settled in and stayed, and I’m looking for something that actually shifts the underlying weight of it over time
• I’d rather fix this through what I eat than swallow another pill, and I’m wondering whether the on-edge feeling is partly that my everyday meals just aren’t giving my body something it needs to settle.

Practices that may help

1. Exercise for Mental Health
   Regular aerobic and resistance exercise reliably reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety and lifts mood — an effect supported by randomized trials and large reviews. It is a wellbeing practice that complements, not replaces, professional care for diagnosed conditions.
2. Practising ataraxia: removing sources of anxiety
   Identify and address the sources of background anxiety rather than adding pleasures on top of them.
   Epicurean Philosophy: Practical Happiness
3. Tai chi for anxiety and depression
   Three months of regular tai chi practice reduces anxiety and depression symptoms with effect sizes comparable to conventional exercise.
   Tai Chi: The Evidence for a Mind-Body Practice
4. Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical
   Problem-Solving Therapy (PST), developed by Nezu and D’Zurilla, treats depression and anxiety by building structured, step-by-step problem-solving skills — targeting the learned helplessness and avoidance that occur when people face stressful life problems without an effective coping framework. Multiple randomised trials support PST for depression, especially when linked to real-life problem load.
5. Balanced, compassionate self-talk
   Talk to yourself as you would to a friend — accurate and kind, not harsh or falsely cheery.
   The Anxiety Toolkit, Made Practical
6. Magnesium and Anxiety, Made Practical
   Magnesium is a cofactor in over 300 enzymatic reactions and acts as a natural NMDA receptor antagonist, dampening glutamate-driven excitatory signaling. A systematic review of RCTs found magnesium supplementation associated with reductions in mild anxiety; Emily Tarleton’s RCT found significant improvements in depression and anxiety scores with 248 mg elemental magnesium daily. Effects appear meaningful when dietary intake is genuinely low, which is common in Western diets. Supplementation is not a treatment for anxiety disorders, but correcting a genuine deficiency is worth considering.
7. The Anxiety Toolkit, Made Practical
   A practical anxiety toolkit pulls together a handful of evidence-informed skills — grounding, breathing, interoceptive awareness, behavioral experiments, and balanced self-talk — so you have the right tool for the moment instead of one move for every situation. Several of these rest on solid clinical and experimental support. They are self-help skills for everyday stress and anxiety; for severe or persistent anxiety, use them alongside professional care.
8. Aerobic exercise for low mood and depression
   Sustained moderate cardio — brisk walking, cycling, running — as a mood regulator.
   Exercise for Mental Health
9. Increase dietary magnesium through food first
   Dark leafy greens, pumpkin seeds, legumes, and dark chocolate are reliable dietary magnesium sources.
   Magnesium and Anxiety, Made Practical
10. Engage with the present moment
    Once the edge comes off, redirect attention fully into an activity or your surroundings.
    The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical

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