Is your mental health worse since the Covid pandemic?
If you ever needed a reason to look after your mental health, then Covid has given you at least 5 good reasons shown in various studies and reports from reputable sources. For example, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and scientific journals have highlighted the significant impact of the pandemic on mental health.
The impact of the pandemic on mental health includes the following:
Increased stress and anxiety
Social isolation and loneliness
Financial stress
Increase in substance abuse and overuse
Increased demand for mental health services
Because of the length of the pandemic, these responses have become habits, and it seems - as I work with clients and talk to managers and people in the caring professions, many of us have shifted sideways to a more negative response than before this worldwide disease.
Coupled with our fast-paced culture, it’s easy to focus on doing the doing of the day, forgetting that we’re human beings, not just human doings.
So what can you easily shift you from a more anxious, stressed, and negative mindset? Let’s explore some practical ways to complete this.
I use a mental health model that is simple and helps to balance your health, called te whare tapa whā. This stands for the four walls of the house. Should one of the four walls be missing or in some way damaged, a person may become “unbalanced“ and subsequently unwell. The walls represent your spirituality, physical health, mental and emotional, and social health. The tips below help you create that balance. Many of them cover more than one aspect.
Tip #1. Stay active. Even 20 minutes a day of walking, gardening, whacking or kicking a ball with the kids, skateboarding, or running all do it. This releases endorphins, the mood-boosting hormone, which can change your day. This decreases anxiety and depression for both physical and mental health. When you do this with others, you’re attending to at least 2 aspects of a blanked healthy life.
Tip #2 Writing or drawing. If you’re doing something creative, especially if you’re sorting out something that’s happened, this can help you stop getting those annoying thoughts that keep coming up. (Your brain will just keep bringing them up until you do something with this, so you might as well give this one a try!)
Tip #3 Talk about it with someone safe. When you’ve gone through something tough, we have a tendency to be like a cat that’s been in a fight and crawl under the house and heal. This might work for cats but humans aren’t designed to isolate like this. Ever felt better after talking something over? And i bet you don’t mind being a friend to someone who wants to talk to you. So what in our thinking believes we can’t do that?
Tip #4 Do something you love. Ride your Harley/roller blades, light candles, do a round of boxing, fish, build something, breed rhinos. Resurrect a hobby you once had or always wanted to do, from tatting to board ames, ultra marathon to hacky sacking, what is it that makes you feel good being you? Do that!
Tip# 5 Do nothing. Some call this mindfulness, but sitting or being in stillness for 20 minutes (there it is again) without the barrage of information and advertising that clamours for our attention, helps bring us back to just being ourselves. Can you remember enjoying being you? Do that.
To conclude: taking care of your mental health is essential for a happy and fulfilling life. Including the tips above improves your mental health without it being complicated and expensive. By taking time from media-related activities (I’ve not had a client yet that hasn’t said “I should spend less time on media”) to include stillness and exercise can shift your brain to a more positive mindset that makes it good to be you. Choose one or two from here, and you’ll be surprised, if you’re consistent, how much difference it makes to you and the ones you love.
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