Life is looking a lot different for many of us these days. The rapid changes over the past two weeks may be creating some stress and anxiety in your life. We’re all being asked to dig deep and show up in ways we haven’t before. How can we be calm and respond to the needs in our lives with love and attention? Here are five tips to help support your mental health in this time.
1. Connect and Communicate.
Humans are relational beings. We exist in community with others, and whether we’re introverted or extroverted, we need each other. In this time, many of us are being asked to isolate ourselves in order to slow the spread of this virus. This can feel very lonely.
This is a good time to remind ourselves that we are not alone. Although we may be acting individually, we are taking those actions to collectively benefit the vulnerable people in our society.
If you are home alone, this might be a good time to explore other ways to connect with people. Social media can be very passive—looking and liking may not help you feel connected to other people. But phone calls, texts, emails, and FaceTime or Skype may be good ways to have a conversation with people you love. Check in with the people in your life. Reaching out will help you feel less alone, and will also let other people know they aren’t alone either.
If you are home with your family, use this time to practice being truly present and to pay attention to one another. Take some walks. Make some art. Play some games.
Think about ways to express gratitude and care for those who are still required to work: people who work in healthcare, grocery stores, post offices, and gas stations. Be extra patient. Smile and make eye contact. And if you are sick at all, please stay home. Do not risk passing anything around at this time.
Think about ways to tell people in your community that you care about them. If you can, buy gift certificates from small businesses that may be struggling. Maybe this is a great time to organize Christmas in March, and go caroling on the sidewalks outside of a nursing home, or hold up posters to tell residents that they are not forgotten even though we are keeping our distance to keep them safe.
At TruBalance, we have a monthly membership called TRIBE, to encourage your journey to better health. There are videos, a sleep meditation, affirmations, and recipes. This might be a way to connect with others and get some inspiration and encouragement. In order to make this accessible to more people in this time, we are offering a 50% discount this month. Check out DrTraciKiernan.com and enter TRIBE50 as a coupon code to take advantage of this offer.
2. Create structure.
Structure creates freedom. It might seem counterintuitive, but letting everything become a free-for-all does not actually create freedom. It creates chaos. Especially if you are working and schooling from home, a consistent schedule will ensure that you can focus on your tasks rather than be overwhelmed by decision making. The routines of your daily life, such as a consistent bed times and wake times, plans for meals and snacks, and even getting dressed and ready for your day each morning will be an anchor. Take a few moments to jot down a good rhythm for your day, and follow through with it. You will be less stressed and more productive. Here’s an example of a rhythm for a day that includes kids and working at home.
6-8 AM Waking up, morning routines, quiet time, planning, exercise.
8-9 AM Breakfast, morning chores, get dressed, and brush hair and teeth.
9-9:30 AM Movement time. Find a joyful way to move your body.
9:30-11 AM Academic and work time.
11 AM-12 PM Creative time: art, music, writing.
12-12:30 PM Lunch.
12:30-1 PM Clean up: dishes, wipe down most used surfaces such as tables, light switches, and doorknobs, tidy up.
1-2:30 PM Rest and quiet time, perhaps with a snack at the end if you have young children.
2:30-4 PM Academic and work time.
4-5 PM Outside time, more movement.
5-6 PM Dinner.
6-8 PM Free time and family fun time (walks, games, playing).
8-10 PM Bedtimes and wind down routines as appropriate to ages.
This is just a template—feel free to modify it to suit your circumstances! The point is to take the time to map out the important things to include each day and to build them into a structure to support your day-to-day life and goals.
3. Be creative.
Creativity is one of the ways human beings experience joy. When we are creatively engaged, we enter a mental state known as flow, where we lose track of time because we are fully immersed in whatever it is we are doing. Children lost in play are experiencing flow. Creativity can be about making art, writing, making music, planning and problem solving, and even cooking. Finding a way to play in your day will improve your mood and help you meet challenges with flexibility and creativity.
4. Learn something new.
Having something positive to focus on will give your brain something to do besides worry. This might be the perfect opportunity to dig into a new hobby, a new book, or an online course. If you are looking for a deep dive into health and nutrition, our Lifestyle Mastery for Health is a ten week online course, complete with videos and worksheets to help you work through your own plan for better health. This can be found at DrTraciKiernan.com. If you’ve been planning to spend some time figuring out how to prioritize your health, this is the perfect opportunity to go for it. You can change your life for good.
5. Move your body and sleep.
These two things are so important for mood and mental health. Moving your body helps move those stress hormones through and out of our bodies, and allows us to release stress and tension in a positive way. It also releases endorphins, those feel-good hormones, and we could all use a little more of that right now. If you don’t do anything else for yourself, find a way to move for the health of your brain. And sleep. The restorative and healing powers of sleep are needed now more than ever, and stress and anxiety might be making it difficult for you to sleep right now. If that’s the case, it’s even more important to focus on a wind down routine and a consistent bedtime. It might be helpful to have a journal to just jot down all your worries before settling in to sleep. A brain-dump like this helps you get those things out of your head and onto the paper, and can help you relax and get to sleep.
Take care of yourself, take care of your family, and take care of those around you. We’re all in this together, even when it feels like we’re on our own.