During time a global pandemic, understandably anxiety and distress my be increased due the both primary factors such as a of the vitus or due the secondary such as those associated with having to isolated from others. However, they are multiple ways both protect and improve mental health during such time.
Here is my opinion about how to deal your life crisis during pandemic COVID 19, I hope my sharing could help those of need a more motivation support and those indeed helper.
1. Maintain Your Routine
Daily routine can play an important in protecting mental health. Either maintaining existing routine creating a new one is recommended and should feature like going to sleep and waking up at similar times each day, excersing regularly, putting aside specific to work and ,eating healthy, regular and maintaining personal hygiene. Adhering to factor can increase and motivation and improve overall mood and wellbeing.
2. Reach Out
As a growing number of people worldwide ate being urged to stay at home and limit their physical contact with others, feeling of isolation my be the rise. To prevent this isolation from adversely affecting your mental health, it is crucial to reach out to others.
Use technology to your advantage and try to communicate with your family members and friends who you are unable to see face to face through video calls or group chat.
Feeling more connected and having the opportunity to discuss any potentials worries and positive with others is during time of crisis. For those limited social networks, they are variety of or online group that you can contact with to gain similar support. It is also essential to be self aware and avoid burnout caused by over committing to the number virtual social interaction.
3. Do something for You
One way to improve your mental health is to keep busy. If you're self isolating, learning a new skill can be a great way to improve your mental wellbeing by increasing your sense of purpose and boosting self-eestem.
Whether is baking, cooking, signing for an online course, or learning a new language, using your time to take something of interest to you can keep the mind focused and active, while filing up your day.
4. Ask For Help
If you have an existing mental health condition has exacerbated by COVID 19, or perhaps you're developing new anxiety or depressive , it is important to ask for professional help.
A lot of medical provider such a doctor's surgeries are operating in revised ways during pandemic, such as through video or telephone consultation. Therefore those requiring emotional support can still get the they need.
5. Stay Active
Taking part in regular exercise has been found to improve not only pshysicl health but also mental health too. Research has shown regular physical activity to reduce anxiety and depression across all age group and can be beneficial in reducing age-related cognitive decline.
Whether you're limited to indoor activities only or have a garden or outdoor area that you can see, there are multiple ways to remain active and safe during the pandemic. Workouts and exercise such as yoga, stretching or high intensity internal training can be found online that require minimal equipment or time. These can be completed both indoors and outdoors. Alternatively, walking, jogging, or biking can be a great way to boost endorphins and improve moods.
6. Limit Social Media Use
Due to an increased amount of time spent at home, individual may spending an increased amount of time use media sites, including those release news. While the use such sites may be beneficial in remaining connected with others and informed it may also worsen mental health.
Overexposre to information relating to the pandemic can relsut increased anxiety and distress. For example a cross-sectional study connected amogest Chinese citizen during the COVID 19 out break revealed that more than 80% of participants were frequently were exposed to social media. Furthermore, anxiety amongest the sample was positively correlated with frequent social media use.
Based on this evidence, to avoid this detriments to mental health it is recommended to reduce your intake of pandemic related information by only seeking out a maximum of once or twice a day from trusted sources.
7. Practice mindfulness
Mindfulness is practice of observing what is occurring both inside and outside of ourselves, moment by moment. It has been found that using mindfulness practice to increase our attention to our thoughts, feelings, sensation and the external environment in the present moment can improve mental well-being.
A variety of technique can be employed and multiple mobile application be downloaded that takes the participant through guided exercises. Such techniques can be used during periods of crisis. However they can be more beneficial if used routinely for example when waking or before going to sleep. The technique also has been credited for it's ability to help identify early signs of anxiety and distress, enabling individuals to cope with them better.
A study investigating the impact of daily mindfulness practice during the COVID 19 pandemic amongest the residents of Wuhan, China, found that those who practiced it developed reduces level of anxiety and less impacted sleep compared to those in control conditions. Based on this mindfulness may be useful in assisting people in coping with anxiety-evoking pandemic.
Credit for: WHO, The star news
By: Walter Marius
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