Six Best Therapy Exercises & Activities for Depression
Key takeaways:
Evidence-based therapy exercises are a powerful tool in managing and easing the symptoms of depression.
Sticking with these exercises consistently over time can make a big difference in your mental health, leading to lasting improvements.
These exercises often work best when you’re working with a trained professional who can guide you through them.
Meet Emily: a woman in her early 30s who seemingly has it all -- a successful career as a lawyer, a loving husband, friends, and a bright future ahead. But lately, something hasn’t felt right. Emily has been struggling with a deep sense of sadness that she just can’t shake. She’s finding it hard to focus at work, and even the simplest tasks feel overwhelming. At night, she lies awake, her mind racing with worries. When she does manage to get sleep, it’s restless and unrefreshing. She’s lost her appetite, has no energy, and feels emotionally distant from her husband, unable to connect like she used to. For the first time in her life, Emily is experiencing the heavy weight of depression, and it’s left her feeling lost, isolated, and unsure of how to move forward.
Hi, I’m Dr. Jess Ribeiro, a licensed clinical psychologist with extensive experience in treating depression. With a strong focus on the best available evidence-based treatments, I’ve helped many people like Emily who are experiencing symptoms of depression and are overwhelmed by their impact.
In this blog post, I’ll share some of the effective, evidence-based techniques I use in my practice to help manage and alleviate depression symptoms. Whether your depression is a new experience or something you’ve been dealing with for a while, these strategies are designed to help you take those first steps toward feeling better and reclaiming your life.
Who are these depression activities for?
The activities I describe in this post are designed for individuals who are experiencing depressive symptoms and are looking for practical, evidence-based strategies to help alleviate their symptoms. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by sadness, struggling with low energy, or finding it difficult to engage in daily activities, these exercises can offer support and help you regain some control over your mental health.
If you’re dealing with depression that is so severe that you're finding it hard to function on a basic level or experiencing significant suicidal thoughts, these exercises alone may not be sufficient. In such cases, it’s really important to seek help from a healthcare professional who can provide the appropriate treatment and support. You can also always reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988, which is available 24/7. Of note, these activities are meant to complement professional care, not replace it.
How can these depression activities help?
These depression activities are designed to help you start finding some relief from your symptoms. They offer practical tools to boost your mood, shift your thinking, and give you a bit more of a sense of control when things feel overwhelming. By making these exercises a regular part of your day, you might notice that they help you cope better and gradually lift some of the heaviness you’re feeling.
But remember, these exercises aren’t a substitute for professional treatment. If you’re dealing with severe depression or your symptoms persist, it’s really important to reach out to a mental health professional. Again, these activities work best when combined with the right support and care.
Six cognitive behavioral therapy exercises for depression to try at home today
In this post, I’ll walk you through several Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) exercises that can help fight depression. These exercises are designed to challenge negative thoughts, engage in more helpful behaviors and routines, and improve your mood.
Behavioral techniques
1. Behavioral Activation & Activity Scheduling
Behavioral activation is a powerful technique used in CBT that helps fight depression by getting you back into activities that bring meaning and joy to your life. When you're feeling depressed, it's common to withdraw from activities that once brought you joy or a sense of accomplishment. But, this withdrawal can ultimately worsen depressive symptoms, leading to a cycle of inactivity and worsening depression. Behavioral activation works by breaking that cycle, encouraging you to re-engage in activities that can boost your mood.
How to do it: The process is pretty straightforward -- you identify activities that you used to enjoy or that could give you a sense of accomplishment, even if they feel overwhelming or daunting right now. Through activity scheduling, you start adding these activities back into your daily routine. The idea is to increase opportunities for positive experiences in your life, which can lift your mood, reduce symptoms of depression, and improve your overall well-being.
Example scenario: Consider Emily, who used to love physical activity. She especially enjoyed walking in her local park but hasn't felt up to it since experiencing depression. She might begin by scheduling a short 10-minute walk every other day during her lunch break. Even a small step like this can help her get some fresh air, engage in some physical activity, and experience the physical and mental health benefits of spending time outdoors. She also starts feeling proud of herself and a sense of achievement for following through with a goal. As she continues, Emily may find her mood lifting, her energy levels improving, and her negative thought patterns beginning to shift a bit.
How it helps: Behavioral activation helps by directly counteracting the withdrawal and inactivity that often accompany depression. By deliberately planning and engaging in positive activities, you can disrupt negative thought patterns and start to build momentum toward feeling better. These activities can also provide a sense of achievement, which is important for improving self-esteem and combatting excessive guilt that often comes with depression. Over time, this process not only lifts your mood but strengthens your coping skills, making it easier to handle difficult emotions.
2. Graduated Goal Setting
Graduated goal setting is an effective technique often used in treating depression and other mental health disorders to help individuals gradually work toward larger goals by breaking them down into smaller, manageable steps. Depression can make even simple tasks feel overwhelming, so setting and achieving small goals can encourage steady progress, help build confidence, improve mood, and provide a sense of accomplishment.
How to do it: The process begins by identifying a larger goal that you’d like to achieve but currently feels out of reach due to your depressive symptoms. Once you have that goal in mind, you break it down into smaller, more manageable steps that you can work on one at a time. Each step should be realistic and achievable given your current energy levels and mental health. As you accomplish each small goal, you gradually work your way up to the larger goal.
Example scenario: Emily's depressive symptoms have made it really difficult to keep up with things at home and, as a result, she has let her living space become cluttered and disorganized. Her larger goal is to clean and organize her entire home, but the thought of doing it all at once feels impossible. With graduated goal setting, she might start with a smaller, specific goal: cleaning just one corner of her living room for 10 minutes. Once she completes that, she might set the next goal to tidy up a specific shelf or a small area of another room, perhaps for a slightly longer period of time. As she continues to accomplish these small tasks, Emily gradually builds momentum, making it easier to tackle larger areas and eventually restore order to her home. This progress can help her feel more in control, reduce stress, and improve her overall mood and well-being.
How it helps: Graduated goal setting helps by making overwhelming tasks more approachable, allowing you to take action even when motivation is low. Each small step completed gives you a sense of achievement, which can boost self-esteem and counteract the feelings of worthlessness often associated with depression. By focusing on what you can do in the moment, you reduce stress and gradually build up to larger goals. Over time, this approach can lead to improvements in your mood, energy levels, and ability to combat feelings of depression.
3. Opposite Action
Opposite action, or sometimes you might hear this discussed as “acting from the outside in,” is a simple yet really effective tool used in CBT. When you’re feeling depressed, your natural tendency might be to withdraw, avoid activities, or isolate yourself. For instance, feelings of depression may push you toward behaviors like avoiding people, staying in bed, or withdrawing from activities you usually enjoy. While these urges might feel right in the moment, they’re often at odds with your long-term goals or core values. That’s when opposite action comes into play: by intentionally doing the opposite of what your depression is telling you, you can start to break the cycle and move closer to the life you want to lead.
How to do it: When you feel the urge to avoid something or stay inactive, take a moment to ask yourself: does following this urge align with the life I want to lead or my core values? If it doesn’t, then consider what the opposite action would be. For instance, if your depression is telling you to skip a social event, but you value connection, social interaction, and maintaining relationships, the opposite action might be to go, even if just for a little while. The goal is to act in a way that reflects what’s important to you, even when it feels tough.
Example scenario: Let’s consider Emily again, a lawyer dealing with depression. She’s tempted to skip an important networking event because her depression is urging her to isolate. Before making a decision, Emily thinks about her professional goals and the importance of staying connected with her peers. Realizing that avoiding the event doesn’t align with her values or what she ultimately wants for her career, she decides to take the opposite action and attend. She sets a small, realistic goal -- like staying for just 30 minutes and chatting with one colleague -- which helps her stay true to her values, improve her mood, and combat those feelings of isolation.
How it helps: Opposite action works by challenging the negative thought patterns and behaviors that depression often brings. By choosing actions that align with your values and long-term goals, you can break the cycle of withdrawal and start to see improvements in your mood, energy levels, and overall mental health. This technique empowers you to take control of your actions, helping you to fight depression and live in a way that reflects what truly matters to you.
Cognitive Techniques
1. Identifying negative automatic thoughts and thought patterns
Negative automatic thoughts are those quick, reflexive reactions (thoughts or images) that pop into your mind throughout the day when you’re feeling down or facing a challenging situation, often without you even noticing. These thoughts are typically negative, distorted, and unhelpful. Identifying these thoughts is a core technique in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression, and it’s a powerful first step in eventually challenging and changing the thought patterns that contribute to depression.
How to do it: The first step in managing depression through CBT is becoming aware of these automatic thoughts. Throughout your day, especially when you notice a shift in your mood or energy levels, take a moment to pause and ask yourself, "What was I just thinking?" or "What just went through my mind right then?" Jot down these thoughts, no matter how fleeting or trivial they may seem. You can use a notebook or a notes app on your phone to keep track. Over time, patterns may emerge, helping you to identify recurring negative thought patterns.
For example, you might notice that after making a small mistake at work, a thought like "I’m such a failure" immediately comes to mind. By regularly tracking these thoughts, you start to see how often they occur and in what situations, which is the first step in understanding how they impact your mood and behavior.
Example scenario: Emily often finds herself feeling low after interactions at work but isn’t sure why. By starting to identify her negative automatic thoughts, Emily begins to notice that every time she receives feedback, her mind automatically jumps to thoughts like "I’m not good enough" or "I’ll never be successful." By simply identifying and writing down these thoughts, Emily gains insight into the patterns that contribute to her depressed mood and self-esteem issues. She sees that these thoughts are not one-time occurrences but rather a consistent pattern that’s affecting her mental well-being.
How it helps: Identifying negative automatic thoughts is a crucial first step in managing depression because it brings these thoughts into your conscious awareness. Once you can see the pattern of how these thoughts pop up and how they’re linked to your depressive symptoms, you’re in a better position to start addressing them. This process helps you understand the connection between your thoughts and your mood, which is essential for making positive changes in your mental health.
2. Evaluate, challenge and restructure negative automatic thoughts
Once you’ve identified those negative automatic thoughts that affect your mood, the next step in is to evaluate, challenge, and restructure them. This process helps you break free from the negative thought patterns that contribute to your depression, allowing you to develop a more balanced and realistic perspective.
How to do it: Once you’ve identified a negative automatic thought, the next step is to evaluate it from two angles: validity and utility.
Validity: Start by assessing the validity of the thought. Ask yourself, “Is this thought truly based on facts, or is it influenced by my emotions or assumptions?” Consider the evidence for and against the thought. For example, if you think, “I’m terrible at my job,” look for objective evidence. Did you receive feedback that supports this thought, or are you focusing on a single mistake while ignoring your successes? This step helps you determine whether the thought accurately reflects reality.
Utility: Next, consider the utility of the thought. Even if there’s some truth to it, ask yourself, “Is this thought helpful? Does it serve me in a positive way, or does it only bring me down?” For instance, dwelling on a thought like, “I’ll never succeed” might seem valid in a moment of frustration, but it’s not useful because it undermines your motivation and self-esteem. The goal here is to recognize whether holding onto a particular thought is helping you move forward or keeping you stuck.
After you’ve looked at the thought through these two lenses, you can start to challenge it and reshape it into something more balanced and helpful. So instead of sticking with “I’m terrible at my job,” you might reframe it as, “I had a rough day, but I’ve had successes too, and I can learn from this.” This new thought is not only more accurate, but it’s also way more useful in keeping you motivated and in a better headspace.
Example scenario: Let’s say Emily, our lawyer who’s dealing with depression, has just finished a challenging meeting with a client. After the meeting, a negative automatic thought pops into her mind: “I’m terrible at handling difficult clients.” This thought immediately drags down her mood, making her feel inadequate and overwhelmed.
Emily first asks herself about the validity of this thought: “Is it true that I’m terrible at handling difficult clients? What evidence do I have?” She reflects on past experiences and realizes that while today’s meeting was tough, she’s successfully navigated challenging client interactions many times before. This shows her that the thought isn’t entirely valid—it’s based on one difficult experience rather than an overall pattern of failure.
Next, Emily considers the utility of the thought: “Even if I had a rough meeting, is telling myself I’m terrible at handling clients helping me in any way?” She quickly realizes that this thought is only making her feel worse and isn’t doing anything to boost her confidence or performance. It’s not a useful thought; it’s just adding to her stress.
With these insights, Emily restructures the thought into something more balanced and helpful: “Today’s meeting was tough, but I’ve handled difficult clients well in the past, and I can learn from this experience.” This new thought is both more valid and more useful -- it acknowledges the challenge but also reinforces her ability to grow and improve.
How it helps: Evaluating, challenging, and ultimately restructuring your negative automatic thoughts helps dismantle the distorted thinking patterns that can fuel depressive symptoms. By modifying how you make sense of a situation to be more realistic and helpful, it has a downstream effect on your mood.
3. Postpone rumination and worry
Worry and rumination are really common in several mental health conditions, including depression, and can make it tough to break out of a cycle of negative thoughts. Worry and rumination postponement is a simple technique used in CBT to help manage these thoughts. Instead of letting them take over your day, you set them aside and revisit them later during a designated “worry time.” This approach can free up mental space, allowing you to focus more on the present and less on intrusive negative thoughts, and make you feel more in control of your thinking as well.
How to do it: When you notice yourself starting to worry or ruminate during the day, acknowledge the thought, but don’t engage with it immediately. Instead, decide to postpone it until your designated “worry time.” This time should be set for between 10 to 30 minutes in the evening, a few hours before bedtime, to avoid interfering with your sleep.
Once you’ve decided to postpone the worry, the goal is to refocus your attention back on the task you were engaged in -- not distracting yourself with something else entirely or trying to suppress the thought, but by fully immersing yourself in what you’re doing. To help with this, give yourself at least five minutes to completely focus on the task at hand. You can set a timer for these five minutes if that helps. During this time, direct your attention to the details of what you’re doing, whether it’s work, writing an email, doing household chores, or even just a walk outside.
When your scheduled “worry time” arrives later that day, you can then choose to focus on the worries you postponed earlier. Sometimes, you might find that these thoughts no longer seem as pressing, and you can use the time for something else instead.
Example scenario: Let's go back to Emily. She finds herself constantly worrying about an upcoming court case, which is draining her mood and energy levels throughout the day. To manage this, Emily sets a 15-minute “worry time” at 7:00 PM, a few hours before her bedtime. Whenever she starts to worry during the day, she acknowledges the thought and reminds herself that she’ll deal with it later during her worry time. She then spends five minutes really focusing on whatever task is in front of her, like drafting documents or organizing her workspace.
By the time 7:00 PM comes, Emily sits down for her worry time. Often, she realizes that the worries that felt so urgent earlier don’t seem as overwhelming now. By setting a specific time for her worries, Emily finds that they have less impact on her workday and overall mental well-being.
How it helps: Worry and rumination postponement helps by giving you control over when you engage with negative thoughts, so they don’t end up taking over your day. This technique is about setting boundaries with your worries, helping you stay focused on the present and less on what’s dragging you down. The five-minute refocus period is key -- it lets you shift your attention back to what really matters without just trying to ignore the thoughts (which can often backfire).
Over time, this practice can lead to a big improvement in your mental well-being by breaking the habit of constantly worrying or ruminating. It helps you manage stress, stay present in your daily routine, and reduce the impact of depressive symptoms, giving you a better chance to enjoy your day-to-day life.
When at-home depression therapy activities aren’t enough
While these therapy activities for depression can be a great start, they’re not a replacement for professional help. If you’re dealing with any of the following signs, it might be time to seek support from a mental health professional:
Persistent depressed mood or feelings of hopelessness
Difficulties completing daily tasks and routines
Thoughts of self-harm or suicide
Intense feelings of excessive guilt, feelings of worthlessness, or low self-esteem
A significant drop in your mood and energy levels
Major changes in sleep patterns or appetite
Significant difficulties concentrating or making decisions
If any of these symptoms of depression resonate with you, reaching out to a mental health professional could be the next step in treating depression effectively. Remember, you don’t have to go through this alone -- getting the right support can really help improve your mental well-being.
Final thoughts
Therapeutic activities for depression, like the ones I've included here, can make a real difference in managing your major depression symptoms, lifting your mood, and helping you feel more in control of your life. These evidence-based techniques are a great starting point for breaking the cycle of negative thoughts and behaviors that depression often brings. But remember, they’re most effective when combined with professional therapy. A well-trained CBT therapist can provide the personalized support and guidance necessary to effectively and efficiently treat depression.
If you’re finding that these exercises aren’t quite enough on their own or you're having a hard time implementing them consistently, don’t hesitate to reach out for help. If you think we might be a good fit, feel free to schedule a consultation call. There are treatments that work well, often more quickly than you might expect, and I’m here to help you explore your treatment options and find a path that supports your well-being.
