COVID-19 has been quite a scare for everyone across the globe and its full impact varies. While the virus certainly causes physical ailments, it also leads to mental challenges.
Even if you don’t necessarily have coronavirus, you might experience feelings of anxiety, stress, fear, depression, or hopelessness because of the current situation. These are all normal during something as shocking as a pandemic, but they can still make it difficult to function.
With this in mind, you must be proactive about managing your mental health. This includes actions like continuing to have social interactions during the pandemic, which you can do through video calls and messaging.
For a few other helpful suggestions, we’ve outlined what you can do to keep your mental health afloat during these trying times below.
Prioritize Your Body
First, you should begin by prioritizing the health of your body. The pandemic is certainly keeping you away from the gym and it’s taking a toll on your mental health as well.
However, a healthy mind starts with a healthy body. With this in mind, you must stay as active as you can to keep your mind in the best shape possible. Just because you don’t have access to a gym doesn’t mean that you can’t exercise!
From yoga classes to cardio sessions, there are many online workout options and courses for you to participate in. Keeping your body moving will keep your head in better spirits and is an excellent way to pass the time.
A bonus of exercise is the release of endorphins. These hormones help your mind stay sharp and keep your mood elevated.
When you focus on your body, you feel better about yourself. Love your body and your soul will feel nurtured as a result.
Accept How You Feel
It’s also important for you to fully accept how you feel and understand that it’s okay to feel this way.
We’ve never experienced something like this before and it can be confusing to know how to feel. The way you lived life has surely changed and there doesn’t seem to be an immediate end in sight.
It’s normal to experience a wide range of emotions during a new and shocking situation. Instead of bottling up how you’re feeling, let the emotions come naturally instead of feeling guilty for how you feel.
The best part about feelings is that they always pass, so if you feel stressed or in a low mood, remember that you won’t feel this way forever. Everything will be okay in time and releasing your feelings will make you feel less anxious about them.
Share Your Feelings
Another useful tip is to share your feelings with close friends and family. In addition to making sure you don’t suppress how you feel, you might want to try talking about how you feel.
Whether it’s with a friend of yours or someone in your family, reaching out to others can help you feel less isolated during the pandemic. Connecting with loved ones can help you remember that other people are dealing with this situation as well.
More importantly, this reminds you that you aren’t alone. Even if you can’t see the people you love, knowing that they exist and care about you will surely make you feel better.
When you are physically isolated from family and friends, you can start to feel emotionally distant from them as well. Break that barrier by calling them on the phone or video chatting.
Reach out to someone you feel comfortable talking to and see if they have any reassuring words of wisdom to offer. Sometimes, all you need is a reminder that someone is there for you.
Avoid Media
Finally, you should be particularly careful to avoid the media. While it helps to stay up to date with important news updates, the media can make you feel worse if you consume too much of it.
Furthermore, social media platforms can make you feel more isolated than you already do. This also applies to many other online websites that are full of clickbait and negative news.
By limiting your access to the media, you are protecting your mental health. We should always be careful of how much media we take in, especially during a pandemic.
While knowledge may seem helpful, having too much of it can be overwhelming. Most of what you hear likely isn’t relevant to your life, which will make much of your effort wasted.
Instead of reading news headlines and looking at defeating statistics, open a book that you love and immerse yourself in a captivating storyline. Focus on things that bring your happiness to help boost your mood.
Closing Thoughts
As stressful as COVID-19 has been, you must do your best to keep your mental health balanced. So much uncertainty and suffering can surely drain your spirits, but you need to stay mentally strong to persevere through this pandemic.
A few tips to manage your mental health include prioritizing the health of your body, accepting how you feel, sharing how you feel, and avoiding media sources.
These techniques help you address your emotions, physically support your mind and limit your exposure to further negative information. Taking advantage of them is your best chance of staying sane and mentally healthy during COVID-19!
