With the current pandemic, and all the social distancing and self-isolation measures it has brought, many may be feeling stressed and concerned about their health. However, while certainly a cause for concern, it’s important to take care, not only of your physical health but also your mental well-being, and not let this concern turn into damaging levels of stress.
There’s a range of different products and practices that can help you stay calm during Covid, alleviating anxiety, promoting relaxation, and ultimately protecting your mental health and well-being.
Practise mindfulness
One of the major concerns that come with anxiety, especially in the current situation, is the fear of a future threat. When anxiety gets bad, it can lead many to catastrophise thoughts of the future, which can cause significant damage to your mental health and overall well-being.
By practising mindfulness, you can help to focus your thoughts on the here and now, helping to detach from anxieties about the future by existing solely in the present. There’s a range of different apps that can help you to practice mindfulness, helping to promote calm and relaxation, which can transform your experience during this time of lockdown.
Optimise your living area
Like many around the world currently, you’ll most likely be spending a lot of time at home. Your environment can have a significant impact on your mental well-being. Therefore, in order to help promote this, it’s important to create a space that’s enjoyable and relaxing to live in.
You can optimise your living area in a range of simple ways – including opening the curtains to invite lots of natural light in, keeping the place clean and tidy, and having scented candles and calming music on during the evening.
Investing in comfortable furniture, as well as pillows and throws, can also help you to optimise your living area for relaxation. Weighted blankets can help to alleviate stress and anxiety, and further promote relaxation, providing the brain with proprioceptive input to help it better understand the body’s surroundings, subsequently preventing agitation and stress.
Weighted blankets provider Calming Blankets claims that they have seen ‘a surge in enquiries for our products during coronavirus. Everyone is at home now and sitting on the sofa or in bed – and anxiety is taking its toll. Uncertainty over work, finances and health is affecting daily stress and sleep levels. People have been quick to order our blankets and we have received very positive feedback.’
Stay connected to loved ones
While you may not be able to visit family and friends at the moment, it’s important to stay in touch with those closest to you, whether that’s over the phone, through messaging or a video call. Staying connected to loved ones can help keep your spirits up through this difficult time, promoting your well-being.
While staying connected could help you to alleviate your own issues, it might also help your loved ones to alleviate theirs too. Mind claims that ‘In England, 1 in 6 people report experiencing a common mental health problem (such as anxiety and depression) in any given week.’
With so many in the UK suffering from mental health issues, even before the COVID-19 health crisis began, staying connected and checking in with friends and family may be more important now than ever before.
Dennis Relojo-Howell is the managing director of Psychreg. He interviews people within psychology, mental health, and well-being on his YouTube channel, The DRH Show.
