When we experience depression and/or anxiety, we often find our lives shrinking as we become stuck in patterns of negativity, hopelessness, and avoidance. Our thoughts and feelings spiral into negativity, as our brains focus on protecting us from perceived threats. The harder we try to stop that spiraling, the worse it seems to get. We ruminate about past “if-only’s” and worry about future “what-if’s” – missing out on what is happening in the present moment. Rather than taking actions based on awareness of our values, we do things that make us feel better immediately, but may not ultimately move us towards the life we want to create, the person we want to be, or the relationships we desire. Our lives become less active, engaged, satisfying, meaningful, and purposeful; we begin to overlook what is good about our lives; we neglect self-care; we beat ourselves up over not being able to gain control over this cycle; and yet we resist change because our negative brains say, “well, what’s the point?” It’s a vicious cycle – when we experience depression and/or anxiety we stop or avoid doing the things that make our lives satisfying - which simply continues to feed the depression and/or anxiety.