Mental Health and Coping while staying at home
When having a bad day, how many of us blame our entire life for it? And how many of us question our existence? How many of us say “why me”? A major segment of the world’s population does all of these, and it is normal. I know as I do too… Because it is a human impulse.
Anyone can have an unsatisfactory day. The only thing we can do is choose how we react to those situations. By choosing how to respond, we are placing ourselves in control of our lives instead of the circumstances driving us. Thus mental health is very important. It is essential at every stage of our lives and embraces our overall wellbeing, affecting us every second of the day. It plays a major role, especially today when believing one’s self is persistently questioned in the wake of poor job scenarios, lack of outdoor social gatherings, and confinement because of this pandemic. The power of good mental health helps us lead a contented, happy, and healthy life.
But pfff! What can Mental Health do to us?
Poor mental health affects our day-to-day activities, work, and relationships. It can generate a lack of interest or reduce productivity in people and often leads to the inability of a person to wisely make significant life choices, sometimes leading to engagement in criminal activities, drugs, and being a victim of or involved in various abuses. In extreme cases, it may lead to suicide. As per WHO’s report last year, India’s suicide rate stood at 16.5 suicides per 100,000 individuals in 2016, which was greater than the global suicide rate of 10.5. (WHO, 2019) We may never know what is going on in one’s mind. That is why we must be sensitive to the people around and keep a check whenever possible. The human mind is often fragile. A simple validation or act of kindness from others can uplift us. However, professional help is advised in severe cases.
Mental health is stigmatized in our ‘society’. People often associate words like ‘shame,’ and ‘embarrassment,’ to it. While in reality we often misunderstand it owing to the human tendency of being an expert of the ‘lived experiences’. Just because it didn’t happen to us doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen to anyone else. Things unravel when left untreated. But it’s never too late for anything. We all deserve to have peace of mind. So reaching out to people who love and understand you is the key to living with a healthy mind. Our minds tend to lie and hold us back. Yet they are also the source of everything good we experience. It doesn’t make anyone less of a person for experiencing mental health issues. When we value mental health, we lead better lives.
Though mental health comes from within, yet it is frequently affected by the physical settings we surround ourselves with. That is why we prefer to live in certain cities, to decorate our houses in a certain manner and have a certain routine. Such small actions and preferences feed our mental health.
Containment as a measure to control the outbreak of the novel coronavirus has made most of us feel trapped in a confined space. The pandemic made us restrict human contact and rely completely on technology to what used to be everyday conversations over a cup of tea. The government adopted it as a measure for the public good. But it has grown to have a tremendous impact on our minds and health. The key to making it through lies in the acceptance of this influence and our will to deal with the conditions we are bound to live in now.
Here are some tips that could help keep our morale high while staying at home in this pandemic.
- Learn something new
Practising hobbies give us a goal to orient our daily routine and in the process help us gain an extra set of skill. Try to develop new hobbies. Painting, sketching, dancing, exercising, cooking, writing, making videos, photography, playing instruments, anything you have longed to learn. If you are tired of repeating the same hobby every day, move on to the next. Say to yourself every day you practice — “What an achievement!” - Watch/read something uplifting
Living in a confined space can be stressful. Try seeing something that will lift your mood. Thanks to the increasing ease of access to the internet, the cable is not the only medium of our daily entertainment. We now have Netflix, TVF Play, Amazon Prime, Kindle, and the old school books. If you are too bored to watch it alone, you can organize a ‘Netflix Party’ with your buddies and watch shows together. Go for something that will lift your mood! - Declutter for 5 minutes
As humans, it is our basic urge to find peace by being in a clean and personalized space. I know through experience that if you clean for 5 minutes, you feel an urge to seek comfort after you declutter the entire space yourself. And that very sense of comfort renders you happy. Feed your human instincts by decluttering and decorating your space. Live your style! - Make a music playlist
Music is well known to lighten the mood. Spotify, Saavn, Gaana, or YouTube, use whichever app you are most comfortable with. Tune in and turn up the volume to your favourite song. You can do this even while doing a task. But go for the ones you can dance to! - Take a break from the news
News especially on cable is not less than stressful old-school drama these days and is mostly negative. If you want to stay updated, go for the digital options. Follow good pages on Instagram, Facebook, and use apps like The Wire or Inshorts. If this is something you cannot miss daily, try changing your schedule. Instead of reading news in the morning, try checking out updates in the evening and see the difference! You can also work section-wise by choosing which section of the news to read. Try cutting out the negative news! - Make a homemade meal
Cooking even for beginners is a delight and an effective way to mark your achievement for the day! If you are new at cooking, then eating something you made from scratch is very satisfying. And even more satisfying is the praise you get for your newly acquired skills. You could try making meals and desserts for your friends or family. If you are someone who absolutely dreads it, try doing it to click some good photos for your social media update! No one will have to know how it tastes as long as it looks good. Right! - Chat with someone
There are days you will feel like you can’t do this alone. There are days when you feel like quitting. Try talking to someone who understands you. It need not be someone you live with or spend most of your time me, it could be someone who you think would empathize with your state of mind and would understand what you are going through. REACH OUT! - Take 10 at a time
Everyone has their own coping mechanisms for when the going gets tough. It is healthy to practice it when the time comes, no matter how strange it is to others. Like Kimmy Schmidt says, count up to 10 and if you can make it through those 10 seconds, you can make another and another. You just have to take 10 seconds at a time. And the world would be a lot easier! - Stay Active
Nothing is more satisfying than a good workout. Figure out your interest. Yoga, weights, cardio, callisthenics, Zumba whichever suits you, and go for it! Staying active is not just for people who want to get in shape, it greatly impacts our mental health. Exercising helps us focus better, be more confident, and enhancing our mental abilities. So put on your workout shoes and get your endorphins kicking! - Don’t give up, try again!
Staying indoors, not being able to meet your friends and loved ones can be hard. Don’t give up. Keep yourself engaged and if you can’t, just try again but never give up. Slight changes in our lifestyle can fuel us to run longer. Have patience and practice these steps to make it through this pandemic.
STAY STRONG and be hopeful for better times.
YOU ARE PRICELESS!