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The Covid 19 pandemic period has turned out to be troublesome for every one of us. The very basic concept of locking oneself within four walls for a substantial amount of time was beyond anyone’s expectations. Though on one hand, this prevented us from getting infected, on the other hand, this ended up affecting our mental health even without our understanding! Several Research Institutes have found that the reporting of cases related to mental health has increased by leaps and bounds in this time period. While feeling worried is normal and expected, there are many ways we can increase our resilience during this time. Here are some of the ways that will help you handle this situation better.
1. Take a break from the news and social media: After a certain point, in this pandemic situation, it’s necessary to check your intake of COVID-19 news. Whether you are watching, listening, or reading the news, the amount of information can be overwhelming. Even scrolling through social media may trigger you in some way or the other, causing overstimulation. So, it’s very important to maintain a balance, to retain better mental health.
2. Start a new hobby: At this time, we may not have control over our circumstances, but we do have control over our minds and our thought processes. To keep our minds engaged, it is important for us to make a conscious effort towards continuously learning, integrating new information, and developing new practices both on the professional and personal fronts. Photography, doodling, creating art, crafting, maintaining a journal and gardening are some of the common hobbies that have been taken up recently. Learning a new language, a new instrument, and doing some online courses can also be a fruitful alternative.
3. Engage in activities that bring you joy: To lift your mood, you can read books, watch feel-good movies, listen to soothing music that will calm you down and help you relax. You can also listen to podcasts and Ted talks to feel motivated. To start reading with books, you can try out some books like ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho, ‘Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, ‘The Bell Jar’ by Sylvia Plath, etc. For movies and series, how about binge-watching Harry Potter and F.R.I.E.N.D.S series all over again?
4. Take care of your health: The COVID-19 pandemic has radically changed the way we live, from our work habits to our learning, to our social lives. Our new reality has posed a unique set of challenges for all of us. According to Christine Carter, a sociologist, practicing self-care is essential when it comes to taking care of our emotional health and well-being. She also added that self-care is not at all synonymous with being selfish. Thus, focusing on what makes us feel nourished, or what gives us meaning, is part of easing those feelings and giving us a more solid foundation. Researches reveal that having adequate sound sleep is the basic and the most primary requirements to ensure proper wellbeing. You can also try out basic exercises like yoga, meditations and home workouts which will release endorphins from your body that in turn will help you to maintain a better health but also will help you to reduce stress and lower the chances of getting affected from the virus.
5. Catch up with your friends: Staying alone or self-quarantine has become a very common incident nowadays. In this phase, to get rid of boredom and loneliness, you can catch up with friends and have a chat. It will distract you and make you feel less lonely. Sometimes it’s really beneficial to revisit those embarrassing moments and have a hearty laugh with the friends you haven’t been able to talk to in years.
6. Try to be a concerned and aware citizen: To collectively navigate through this pandemic successfully, we need to be there for each other apart from doing our own parts in stopping the spread. Sharing the urgent and important news from renowned sources in social media platforms, trying to help out the people who are in dire need of something, and donating as per your own ability for a good cause to a trusted source are some small steps which you can take. This will bring a smile not only on your face but on others as well. Apart from this, spreading a message of positivity to bring a ray of hope in everyone’s life is really needed. If somebody known to you has tested positive, then try to create a bubble of positivity around them instead of making them worried and distressed.
Something we need to remember is that we are in this together! We may feel lonely, sad, and depressed; but that doesn’t mean we are alone. With plenty of time at our disposal, we can do the things that we have been putting off. Go ahead and open the meme page that you have always wanted to open. Write the novel that you are too scared to write. Learn new songs and sing for yourself. Decorate your house. Buy that houseplant that has always wanted to buy. Go back to the old hobbies that you had to abandon. Just because we are locked up in our homes doesn’t mean we have to be bored and sad. It doesn’t matter if some things aren’t as good as we expected or some things didn’t go as planned. What matters is that we take care of our mental as well as our physical health.
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