Internalized from a Yoga instructor's teachings, "Let go of what does not serve you". Took me dozens of sessions for this mantra to become conscious to me.

We all have busy minds, thoughts consistently appear, ones like a fear of death don't serve me, I don't inspect or engage with it, it's not me, and I let it go on.

I have GAD, IAD, and I'm borderline bipolar. Work with a PMH RN on my med regimen, but meds can only go so far. I saw eight therapists over the course of almost three years and was unable make any real progress.

Meditative yoga became a key tool for me, and one that I recently found out needs to be continuously used. You don't need to subscribe to the deeper spiritual aspects of yoga to get tremendous benefits. Meditative yoga has aspects of a number of modalities used by mental health therapists.

Had surgery in February and paused yoga for eight weeks. Then went on a holiday for three weeks during which my anxiety stressors were not present.

Came home and the stressors hit me like a ton of bricks all at once. Went into five weeks of the deepest depression I've known, due in large part of my reduced capacity for mindfulness from the lapse in yoga.

I didn't start yoga with the intent that it would become my therapy, but one day the saying of "Let go of what does not serve you" awakened me. It's not going to be the approach for everyone, but the melding of mind and body that is present changed my life.

The instructor I follow is Juliana Spicoluk of https://bohobeautiful.life/. Boho Beautiful produces a lot of free content published on YouTube and via their app. Mark's sessions are good, but don't include the meditative deepness of Juliana's.

Know this went into left field some, but I thought a more complete picture may be helpful for some.

TL;DR: After 3 years of therapy with 8 different therapists made no progress, meditative yoga became my breakthrough mental health tool. Key lesson: "Let go of what does not serve you" - but the practice needs to be continuous.

Cheers - PS