“Reflection is a very helpful tool” – Angela Lee says writing down her thoughts helps her conquer bad days

Former ONE women's atomweight MMA world champion Angela Lee relinquished her belt and retired from the sport last year to fight a more important fight: help fighters combat mental health issues. This is quite a noble sacrifice considering Lee was thriving as a dominant world champion atop her weight class for over half a decade.

'Unstoppable' decided to go on hiatus from the sport to heal from the tragic death of her sister and fellow ONE athlete Victoria Lee. A year later, she chose to retire to focus on helping other pro-fighters deal with depression and suicide.

In an episode of Keep It Aloha Podcast on YouTube, Angela Lee spoke about how helpful it was for her to write down her thoughts when she's feeling lonely and depressed:

“I think reflection is a very helpful tool too. When my thoughts are getting out of control what I like to do is open my notebook get a pen and start writing down things that I'm grateful for. Start writing things that I'm glad that are in my life and when you look at that and you try to shift you're trying to trick your mind and to look at the good because you know it's easy to get caught up once you're in the dark state of mind.”

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Angela Lee reveals what she thinks is the best way to deal with someone going through mental health issues

In the same podcast episode, Angela Lee discussed how one should deal with either going through depression or someone they love:

“I hate it when people just say like ‘Oh just be happy. Just like stay positive.’ Their intentions are good I know, but is that really helpful in that situation? So I think it's important to acknowledge what you're thinking or feeling, embracing it, and maybe think and ask yourself well why am I feeling this way right now? Is it due to increased stress? lack of sleep? or is it something deeper.”

Watch the full podcast episode here: