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Mental Wellbeing while staying at home

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: -

Eating nutritious foods and snacks. You should eat a good balanced nutrition and drinking a lot of water.
Participate in regular physical fitness. You can leave you’re your house alone or with members of your family to do exercises like walking, running or cycling but observe social distancing with others
Check-ups with your GP/dentists etc. Continue treatment for any existing health conditions. Repeat prescriptions etc are available through the phone. Your GP will advise of any services available to them and signpost you to those not available during this period.
Resist harmful behaviours. Avoid smoking or drugs and try not to drink too much alcohol

Mental and emotional health

What affects your mental/emotional health?

Positive and healthy relationships at home and at work. Stay connected with those you trust as it is important for your well being. Think of the best way to contact them e.g. text messages, WhatsApp or by phone

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.

Mindfulness on the move-When you are out walking, running, biking or just moving take a moment to think about how you feel, how does the breeze feel on your skin, what does the air around you smell like, feel the trees and different textures as you move let your mind relax and take in the simple every day noises smells and textures.
Mindfulness whilst you eat – Pay attention to what you are about to eat or drink, what does it look and smell like, if it’s a hot drink look at the steam coming from the cup, think about the taste and enjoy each mouthful ensuring that you really taste what it is you are eating or drinking, take you time and enjoy the whole sensation.
Mindfulness scan of your body – Take a moment to think about your body start at your head and work your through your body down to your toes, focus how it feels do you have tension, tingling a feeling of warmth or relaxation though the different process.
Mindfulness colouring or drawing – There are plenty or mindfulness colouring books or drawing books now available where you can doodle or colour only thinking about what the colours are you want to use letting your mind relax and you can feel the sensation of the pencils on the paper.

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.
It can also give you feelings of happiness and appreciation, which in turn has an effect on your wellbeing.

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.

This helps you be grateful for the thing they’ve done and also the person themselves, growing your sense of gratitude.

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.

Being mindful and practising mindfulness is one way to help be more grateful.

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."