Tasking care of your mind as well as your body is important while staying at home during the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.
There are a lot of factors that may make you feel worried and concerned. These may lead to anxiety, stress and frustration. Also, a sudden change in your normal lifestyle may lead to you being bored, frustrated and even lonely due to the lockdown. It is OK to feel this way as people react differently.
There are a lot of tips online to help you keep on top and cope with your mental wellbeing while staying at home.
Health & Wellbeing
What is Health
It is a combination of the physical, mental/emotional and social wellbeing.
Physical health
Physical health is one of the baselines to having a good health and wellbeing. It is easy to fall into unhealthy patterns in times like this therefore keeping on top of things will contribute massively to our wellbeing
Factors that contribute to your good physical health: -
Mental and emotional health
What affects your mental/emotional health?
Staying connected with others helps you to build a sense of belonging and self-worth and also:-
- gives you an opportunity to share positive experiences
- provides emotional support and allow you to support others
- provides emotional support and allow you to support others
For your self-concept or self-esteem, speak to someone if you are worried or feeling scared and helpless. Your organisation will provide you with telephone numbers where you can get support. If you cannot speak to anyone you know or speaking to them has not helped, there are numerous helplines you can find online.
OUR FEELING AND THE BEHAVIOURS CAN AFFECT THE MINDS, BODIES AND HEALTH OF THOSE AROUND US
Stress(source - NHS UK)
Stress can cause many different symptoms. It might affect how you feel physically, mentally and also how you behave.
It's not always easy to recognise when stress is the reason you're feeling or acting differently.
Physical symptoms
- headaches or dizziness
- muscle tension or pain
- stomach problems
- chest pain or a faster heartbeat
- sexual problems
Mental symptoms
- difficulty concentrating
- struggling to make decisions
- feeling overwhelmed
- constantly worrying
- being forgetful
Changes in behaviour
- being irritable and snappy
- sleeping too much or too little
- eating too much or too little
- avoiding certain places or people
- drinking or smoking more
Mindfulness
When we are more aware of the present moment, it helps us appreciate the world around us more and understand ourselves better.
When we are more aware of the present moment, we begin to enjoy again many things that we have been taking for granted.
How to be mindful
Reminding yourself to take notice of your thoughts, feelings, body sensations and the world around you is the first step to mindfulness. Most of our day to day living is on auto pilot however, we can disengage from this autopilot and to give ourselves new perspectives on life. The following mindfulness exercises help.
Anxiety
Anxiety is something everyone experiences at times, and feeling anxious is a perfectly natural reaction to some situations.
But sometimes feelings of anxiety can be constant, overwhelming or out of proportion to the situation and this can affect your daily life. (Source NHS).are plenty of things you can try to help cope with anxiety.
Appreciation
Good people are very hard to find, that’s why using all manners and techniques to boost the staff is more efficient, than spending money on constant training of new people. The managers/Team Leaders can appreciate their teams in other ways. For example, they can treat staff with a breakfast, lunch or snacks, organise an outdoor team building exercise or office party.
Providing staff with additional day off is also a way to appreciate their work and strengthen the bond between employer and employees. Even a 'thank you' means a lot to employees. Gratitude is recognising the positives, things that others have done for you rather than focusing on the negatives.
How gratitude can be used to improve mental and physical health
Showing gratitude can help your wellbeing in a number of ways, such as:
- help build new relationships or boost current ones
- help you forgive yourself and others
- reduce anger and increase empathy
- help you sleep better, give you energy and boost self-esteem
- make you appreciate what you have.
A stronger mental wellbeing means you can resist some of the things that can have a negative impact on your health, like:
- using alcohol or other drugs in ways that don't help
- not practising healthy eating habits.
With so many benefits from gratitude, see a few simple ways to add it into your day-to-day life.
Add gratitude into your daily life
Through acts of kindness
One easy way to bring some gratitude into your life is through simple acts of kindness. These can be small and may only take a moment, like texting a family member or friend to wish them a nice day. Whilst not a daily event, giving blood can also help you feel more grateful.
By showing gratitude to others
Showing gratitude can provide a boost to your mental health. Make an effort to say a genuine ‘thank you’ to others, such as checkout staff. This can inspire them to do the same for someone else.
Expressing gratitude to your friends or family can often feel more difficult to do. Rather than a simple ‘thank you’, you can tell someone that you’re grateful for them doing something specific and what that means to you.
Create a gratitude board
A gratitude board is a physical space where you place visual representations of the things you're grateful for. These could be in the form of photos, words, and objects of the people, things and experiences you're grateful to have in your life. It can provide an excellent visual reminder of all the things you have to be grateful for.
Use a daily journal
Another exercise is to end your day by writing down a list of the things you’re grateful for. It can be as simple as two or three things that happened in your day and may include people, places or things. For example, you may write down that you’re grateful for a friend for sending a nice message, or a teacher who gave you helpful advice.
A daily gratitude journal can help you to see exactly what you’re grateful for, giving you a better state of mind before sleep, readying you for the next day.
Credits:
Created with images by THE 5TH - "Relaxing Breakfast" • Joseph Gonzalez - "Avocado and Egg Toast" • Wesley Tingey - "untitled image" • pina messina - "untitled image" • Kristaps Solims - "untitled image" • Austin Distel - "This photo is free for public use. Please credit this photo in caption with link to "www.distel.com"." • Yukie Emiko - "Mayana peak" • Kate Hliznitsova - "untitled image" • Jared Rice - "A morning yoga session peering into the jungle in Ubud, Bali." • Steve Johnson - "Abstract Painting" • bruce mars - "success" • Marcos Paulo Prado - "Rio de Janeiro - Gratitude - Gratidão - Blessed" • Kyle Glenn - "Awesome stencil on a book cart outside of Green Apple Books in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond district."