In this article, we consider some tips to improve our mental health in the midst of Covid-19 related lockdowns and quarantines.
Most of us in India and elsewhere are caught up in the same situation, which is in some ways strange, funny and tragic at the same time. Without doing any crimes we are prisoners in our own homes, confined most or all hours of the day, while the nasty Coronavirus ravages the population outside. All this, confined in near isolation in one place for a prolonged period puts a strain on our mental health.
We who are still lucky to have a job and a home have to worry about working from home on weekdays and maybe some weekends too, with trackers to log how much we are working, and zoom conferences and Jira dashboards to keep track of work. Those of us who are not so lucky, such as the Uber or auto drivers and daily wage labourers, are forced to trek hundreds of miles to their native places to escape starvation in the big cities.
Looking at the exponential graphs we see the latest numbers of thousands of cases and deaths that happened in the last few days or weeks. Currently the virus is infecting people almost exponentially, with cases doubling every four days at least in India. This promises that the worst is yet to come. Watching or reading the news brings further misery, showing how governments are unprepared with inadequate testing kits and ventilators, with very few people tested and their contacts traced, with no reliable medicines and no vaccines available to fight the virus. Statistics tell us how older people, including our parents, might be the most vulnerable. Projections tell us how the economy is crashing, unemployment bubbling and the possibility of colossal job losses that might follow once the lockdown is over. We cannot visit nice places, cannot buy most non essential stuff from online stores or shops, cannot talk to or meet people freely any more.
So in these times, how do we take care of our mental health? How do we keep ourselves sane and cope with these uncertain circumstances? Our mental health during this pandemic and lockdown is, I feel, not being given enough attention, when it can be a major problem too. In this article, I will focus on a few tips for the same.
Mental health tip 1: Daily routine: Manage time and space
A daily routine can give a much needed structure to our life. Setting a daily (and maybe even weekly) timetable, with some variations, would be very beneficial for our mental health. This includes a fixed time to wake up and go top sleep, time for exercise, work, time spending with the family, time to clean and do housework, time to read books and watch movies.
We can reward ourselves at the end of the week by giving a special treat, such as splashing out on a food delivery takeaway (in big cities like Bangalore and Delhi, food deliveries like Swiggy and Zomato are still working) or buying a nice film/ ebook from Amazon and Google play movies (movie halls are closed and so are normal Amazon book deliveries since they are classed as non essential items)
Along with managing the time, we can also manage the limited space we have skilfully. We can break down the house space into areas for reading and writing, exercise, eating together, net surfing etc. We can set up a sacred space for meditation as well. Having a clean and tidy house can also be good for mental health.
Mental health tip 2: Exercise and walks
A good idea for a sound mental health is to spend at least half an hour on exercising. One can do Yoga (like Surya namaskar, a complete cycle of yoga) or simple stretches or Tai Chi or whichever exercise one is most familiar with. Mental and physical health cannot really be separated, hence a daily exercise is crucial.
Another thing one can do is go for a walk. It does not need to be outside (depending on individual circumstances): even a walk inside one’s home or on the roof is good. One can use a tracker or health app such as Fitbit or Samsung health to keep track of the steps. A minimum of 5K steps is probably something to aim for daily.
Mental health tip 3: Balanced diet
A balanced diet is also a good contributor to mental health. One has the tendency to overeat or eat too much unhealthy foods when one is stressed, as can be expected during this lockdown and pandemic. The solution is to make sure we eat enough fruits and veggies and in general eat a healthy and balanced diet.
One important thing here is to not miss breakfast, lunch and dinner at regular times. Even a simple banana for breakfast is better than nothing. Try to reduce sugary drinks like coke, and unhealthy foods generally, as much as possible.
Thankfully, grocery shops and supermarkets are open in countries like India at least, and some might even deliver. So it is better to use one day a week in one’s routing to visit a shop and stock up on fruits, veggies and other essentials.
It is good if one knows how to cook, but if one is new to cooking one can improvise by downloading various recipes from the internet. A simple rice cooker can suffice for creating many dishes, one can search in youtube for the recipes.
Mental health tip 4: Avoiding panic
It is important for the sake of mental health to avoid panic during these times. One important action one can take is to not keep checking or reading the news about the virus all day. Just learning about how bad the situation is wont help our health in any way, and only leads to heightening the feeling of helplessness and loss of control.
One should limit the times one reads virus related news to once or twice a day, that too from official channels such as the government website or WHO advisories. It is better not to pay too much attention to potentially alarmist or false news coming from social media like Whatsapp or Facebook.
Mental health tip 5: Keeping in touch
One good thing about these times is that everyone is at home. It definitely helps to use this time to call one’s family and friends, especially get in touch which those in our social circle who are alone or more vulnerable.
One can schedule a daily call with one’s loved ones, such as parents or extended family. Such calls would help in both yours and theirs mental health.
Mental health tip 6: Meditation and/or prayer
Meditation has proven benefits in calming the mind and helping one to cope during difficult times such as this.
For those who already are familiar with a meditation practice, it is beneficial to have meditation sessions daily in the morning.
For those who are not familiar, one can go to youtube or SoundCloud and search for online guided meditation sessions, or use a meditation app such as Calm or headspace. Or one can buy online books from Amazon and learn about meditation.
Even ten minutes of meditation practice daily can be beneficial.
For those who have a regular religious practice, online communities are available. For example, many churches and temples have put their services online, on Youtube or on Facebook live.
Mental health tip 7: Being creative (or learning to be)
Creativity has the potential to vastly improve one’s mental health. What one does can vary as per one’s interest.
One can keep a blog or dairy, write a story or compose a poem or song, paint the view from one’s house, learn a new recipe, learn origami, the possibilities are endless.
One can sign up for a drawing or poetry or cooking or photography course (Sites like Udemy have a few such courses).
Buying and reading books (from Amazon and google play, for example) is another nice way to pass the time and expand one’s mind.
Mental health tip 8: Helping out
Helping out others in need can be beneficial for one’s own mental health. We might want to keep the virus our of our lives, but the truth is that we do not live in a vacuum. If there is widespread social or community transmission of the virus, it will effect us sooner or later. Hence, it is important to do what we can to help others too. It is our responsibility as a society to take care of the most vulnerable.
There are quite a few charities going round which are distributing food and other necessities to the homeless or poor or unemployed people, those who are less fortunate than us.
One can donate money or other goods or volunteering time (if one is able) to such charities. One can also use official channels: donate to the national or state funds such as the PM fund.
Mental health tip 9: Being thankful
Expressing gratitude can have a very good effect on our mental health. We still have a lot to be thankful for: we are safe, have a job, have a house, have loved ones, can work, have education and skills, have at least sufficient money etc. It is beneficial to bring these things to mind.
At the end of each day and/or upon waking up, it helps to give gratitude .One can express gratitude by saying a prayer, or writing a gratitude journal. One can also install a gratitude related app for the same.
Mental health tip 10: Improving employable and transferable skills
Coursera, EdX, Futurelearn, Udacity, Khan academy, all are places where one can learn or brush up employable skills and maybe even get some qualifications to put on one’s resumes.
Knowing the uncertain effect of the situation on the economy, it cannot harm one to use the available time during the lockdown to brush up one’s skillset and become more employable.
Mental health tip 11: Virtual travel
Some of us may be frustrated at not being able to travel in this nice spring season. But thankfully, one can do virtual travel instead. One can just search Youtube or vimeo for videos of guided walks to places one always wanted to visit.
Google arts and culture website has a lot of world famous museums which have put their collections online, such as the Louvre or Guggenheim or British museum.
Conclusion
To conclude, those of us who pay attention to mental health are more likely to come out of this stressful situation with a good or sound health. So let us all try to do what we can to improve our mental health too, along with any physical health related precautions we might be taking.
