Motivational speaker Bo Sanchez has kept on reminding people who battle with anxiety and even depression during the pandemic to always acknowledge their blessings.

On Karen Davila’s recent podcast, Sanchez told listeners who are struggling to keep themselves mentally healthy to work on gratitude.

“I told them to work on gratitude because gratitude is so powerful that in the midst of anxiety, depression, I tell them 'just work on gratitude. Write down your 100 blessings,’” Sanchez explained.

And most of the time, people who hadn't been counting their blessings suddenly realized hope: “People tell me, parang may nag-on ng light switch sa buhay nila. Powerful ang gratitude.”

He went on to tackle another timely issue during the health crisis: the extensive use of social media.

According to Sanchez, people tend to start their day checking their social media accounts and soaking in stories posted on news feeds that are commonly negative.

“I know a lot of people who have not risen from their beds yet. They are still lying down. The first thing they do is to go to their news feeds of their social platforms. We know how the algorithm works... Bad news sells,” he said.

He compared a fresh mind to a white canvas every morning, ready to be painted with colorful stories, but too much digital exposure might taint such cleanliness.

“Imagine your mind is fresh. It's like a white canvas ready for you to paint with the most vibrant colors and all of sudden somebody comes along and splatter black ink on the white canvas,” he added.

Sanchez revealed that he has been receiving tons of requests to help them survive anxiety and depression during a series of lockdowns in many parts of the country.

So what does he tell them?

The known motivational speaker would constantly explain how important it is to recognize the things that you can do and otherwise.

He said that people tend to worry more and suffer anxiety when they try to control the things that they know they cannot.

“Life consists of 2 areas: the first area is the things that you can control -- our decisions, our attitudes, our perspectives. But there are a lot of things we cannot control,” Sanchez quipped.

• WATCH: Bo Sanchez talks about surviving COVID-19

“When we try to trespass that boundary between what we can and what we cannot control, the moment we violate that, that's when we have anxiety, that's when we have worry.”

He emphasized focusing on what one can control and letting God take charge of the things one cannot control.

“Get to know that there is this God who cares for you, who created you, who is bigger than COVID, the pandemic, the financial problem you are going through,” he said. “When we have no control of the situation, the more we need to respect and recognize that there is this God that wants to be involved in our lives.”

Last June, Sanchez also opened up about surviving COVID-19 in an interview with host Toni Gonzaga.

He said he struggled with severe coronavirus for more than a month as the rest of his family and household also contracted the virus.

Sanchez said that on top of the virus symptoms, he also went through mental and emotional struggles during his COVID-19 journey.

He was able to find peace in what he referred to as the "surrender place," which he realized can be discovered by anyone who is undergoing a crisis.

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