With COVID-19 hanging over all of us, it can be a stressful time for everyone. While many people worry about their physical health, their mental health also needs to be handled properly. Fortunately, there are many solutions available even to those stuck at home to help with their mental health. Here are some things you should be doing to better cope with the stress of COVID-19.
Get Some Exercise
One of the first things you need to do is get into the habit of exercise. The problem with people during isolation is that they let themselves go and get lazy. Lying around all day is not going to help you feel good. What you should do is get your blood pumping every day with some exercise. It doesn’t have to be anything complex. A simple regimen of push-ups and squats should be enough. For cardio, you can try out the jumping rope. The important thing is to get sweating and have the endorphins inside our blood.
Screen Your News Consumption
The other thing that people with nothing to do tend to start doing is to consume a lot of media. While binge-watching Netflix is nice, you should try to be more careful when it comes to the news. With our 24-hour news cycle, it can be tempting to watch the cable news channels. Avoid doing so. It is better to get the news from a website or the actual newspapers. You want to reduce stress and constant news is not going to help with that at all.
Start Meditating
If there is anything that you can learn to help out your stress levels, it is how to meditate. The simplest form of meditation is to simply follow their breath. Inhaling and exhaling slowly will encourage people to be aware of how they feel. The idea behind meditation is to be more aware of your body and to relax to it. There are different approaches to meditation so you should do some research on what can be done. Try them out to see which ones work and what doesn’t.
Develop A Hobby
There is a lot of free time on your hands during this pandemic. Being bored is not something that will help your mental health. An idle mind can turn to negative thoughts so you should try your best to stay busy. If you want to be more active, you should get a hobby. Whether it is knitting something or doing woodworking, hobbies that provide you with additional skills can be a great thing.
Hobbies do more than keep you busy. There is something about making something that can give you a sense of achievement. That can be missing from your life during this pandemic so having that can be a great thing.
Sleep Right
Sleep is one of the essentials when it comes to staying healthy. During the pandemic, it can be easy to get into an irregular schedule that is disruptive to your sleep. For example, you might end up staying up late binge-watching shows or movies. You might also end up sleeping too much. Avoid both of these situations and follow a strict sleep schedule. Disrupted sleep is not good for your mental health. It can cause headaches, stress, and more. At the very least, you should be getting eight hours of sleep every day.
Reach Out For Some Help
You should not be dealing with the pandemic alone. If you have your family with you at home, you should constantly be interacting with them. They can be a big help for your mental health. A good talk or hug can do a lot. Even if you are isolating alone, you can still reach out. Thanks to modern communication technology, you should be able to make calls to friends or family. If possible, you should call someone once a day.
You can also get some professional help. Telehealth counseling service is becoming a very popular option nowadays. Therapy is essentially talking and you can do it perfectly over Skype, Zoom, or even a simple phone call.
Your mental health should be one of your main priorities during the lockdown. While your physical health may be fine, if your mental state is not at a good place, it will soon deteriorate. Put some effort in relieving your stress and anxiety so that you can better handle the challenges of being caught in this pandemic. With the right approach, you will come out of this as a much stronger person and ready to face a new world.
