10 MENTAL FITNESS TIPS WHILE THE PANDEMIC DRAGS ON

Mental health in India requires serious consideration, as stated by the WHO — and disturbingly, it is the youth that looks to be the worst hit. A Lancet report of 2018 claims that suicide is the main reason for death in India’s 15 to 39 age group. With an intense pandemic producing fear and misery, it has been primarily hard for the young to stay calm and think about a better future.

So, How Would You Attain Mental Fitness?

Here are ten practices you can do in your daily life to keep yourself mentally healthy in this pandemic or else. Kindly pass this on to family and friends who might be distress from worry. In this Mental Health Awareness Month, let us rejoice in concern and look out for each other.

• Spot, Stop and Swap the Worries with Something Positive

This excellent plan comes from world well-known motivational speaker and an ex-monk, Jay Shetty. His advice is to spot the instant of stress or worry, halt it and then switch it with something positive, for example, good memories, reading a book or going on a walk.

This way has put up the test of time. One of the best consequences of this plan is that it raises your levels of awareness. Typically, we regularly slip into distressing without even getting it. With this Spot, Stop, and swap method, you can increase consciousness of your mental health and get to do something about it.

All we want is one positive action to make our day happier.

• Talk To Your Nearest And Dearest Ones

It’s a no-brainer that talking reliefs reduce stress, and when it is done with nearest and dearest ones, for example, friends and family, it is a tremendous boost to mental fitness.

Investigators say that healthy and good communication daily stimulates mental fitness. So in this pandemic, when you are bound inside your home, get the chance to build on relationships. Talk to family members about what they are going through, tell your worries and recall the good times. Get closer to friends and let them know that they are in your views.

Arrange video calls. Contact them through texts and messages. Just remain connected, not lonelier as Covid protocols have by this time made you.

• Enjoy Greenery or Nature More

Have you ever think about why visitors wait in the Green Room before appearing on TV? Though the beginning of the term is lost in history, it is supposed that the room where actors wait before their acting used to be painted green as the green colour has a calming effect on the eyes earlier than the bright lights of the stage.

As said by colour psychology, green provides serenity, good luck and well-being. Nature is rich in green. So just by seeing plants or trees, walking in the gardens if you can or listening to the birds chirping, or the sounds of waves splashing on the river banks or the seashore are sure to stimulate mental health by bounds and leaps.

Here is a pandemic when everybody is locked inside their homes, search on the internet or apps on the play store for soothing sounds of nature.

• Meditation

Meditation has helped out lots of people cope with the stress produced by the coronavirus. Meditation supports overcome not only disquiet but also advantages by keeping you serene regularly.

A simple guide on meditating: Select a quiet corner, sit easily and close your eyes. You can hook up some meditation music present on YouTube. Clear your mind of all views and concentrate on your breathing. Breathe in. Breathe out. Let your body and mind relax. Feel the peace at that moment. Please do it for 5 to 10 minutes daily. Gradually enhance your time as per your comfort.

• Do Exercise regularly

Do you know that thirty minutes of daily walking can help decrease worry, stress and depression? Exercise does not have to be complicated or uninteresting. When it comes to mental health, keep it simplified.

Each morning, if you can’t do it in the open air, walk around the house for thirty minutes. Do some Yoga. Yoga asana promises mental fitness. There are numerous online classes you can join or classes on YouTube which are open. If you feel like it, set some music on and do some simple dancing or aerobic movements like skipping.

Muscle movement makes the better flow of oxygen in the blood which further releases endorphins, the pleasure hormone.

• Stick to the Covid-19 safety guidelines.

When it comes to mental fitness, we are not only accountable to ourselves. As a part of the community, we are answerable for others’ mental health too.

As an accountable citizen, ensure you strictly stick to all the Covid safety protocols such as wearing a mask, sanitizing or cleaning your hands, sneezing or coughing into your elbow and keeping a physical distance when shopping for shopping essentials etc. It will make you feel better about caring for yourself and maintaining safe others also.

Whenever we see somebody not following these protocols, it makes us atrocious, angry and worried. Try and refute that by telling yourself that you are doing, you’re little to keep the community protected and take accountability for their physical, passion, and mental health. You are also making an example for those who are not following the safety guidelines — and when they feel like outsiders, they will shortly follow.

• Come up with What You Can Do

For many of us, fear, anxiety, and unhappiness are not inexperienced emotions — then Covid comes and enhances some more distress. When Covid activated in 2020, we had the expectation — that we would regain control of our lives afterwards a few months. And by the completion of the year, we supposed we had. But the 2nd wave is not the same story for all of us. We feel more destitute. And the feeling of weakness causes more anxiety and worries.

It’s at ease said than ended, but instead of concentrating on the pandemic like the whole world community is doing, focusing on things you can regulate. Of course, you can’t control the Covid outburst, but you can be sure to take safety measures. You can also note down what fears you the most. Then you can work on the way out.

One more proven tip is to concentrate on the moment. Individuals generally worry about the future, and at times about the past, but it is nearly challenging to worry if you are attentive to the moment. Notice the sound, aroma, lights flooding in from the window, on at all you are doing. Concentrate on being present. It’ll divert the mind from stress.

• Stay Away from Depressing News

News linked to the Covid-19 is unavoidable these days. Be it conversation groups or social media. We look all about this unseen virus and its distressing effect on life as we know it. This type of continuous exposure causes an overwhelming amount of trauma. One goes into the up-to-date Covid news to keep ourselves knowledgeable — and there goes any serenity down the drain.

Here are some tips to stop this 24/7 attack:

• First, remain away from the news.
• Mute the groups with too much info.
• Let yourself only a restricted amount of watch time for news channels.
• Request your friends and family to end over-sharing.
• Devote thirty minutes, perhaps in the morning or evening, to get the updates and leave directly. Spend your time on doing a bit positive.

• Get Proper Sleep

Sleep is a mental health improver. Also, enough sleep retains our immune system healthy and robust — and that is what we require in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Due to Covid, we are caught inside our homes, and several are incapable of getting natural daylight. The shortage of natural light plays a disaster with our 24-hour rhythm, which helps keep our restlessness and sleep cycles. So try and become some sunlight exposure each day — just 5 to 15 minutes is sufficient. Taking a “sunny disposition” is built on the fact that exposure to daylight raises serotonin, which boosts the mood. Sun also supports your body melatonin which calms you to sleep.

Getting a good sleep at night — everything between 7 to 8 hours — aids you get up on the right side of the bed in the morning, in a happy mood. Don’t spoil sleeping, though. Persons who sleep more than 7 to 8 hours usually find it challenging to get up on time, and once they do, they are tired and irritated.

• Volunteer

A lot of people want help in the pandemic. So why not offer in whatever method you can? Helping others is a sure way to make you feel well about yourself. Studies display that volunteering makes you feel respected and lifts self-assurance and positivity.

Giving also provides a sense of purpose — whether serving NGOs convey free foods to hungry families or teaching English to needy children online — every day starts and finishes with a purpose. This calms the mind and offers the feeling of unity as a community.

Here are some means to serve:

• Purchase bare essentials for the fellow citizen who are patients or isolating.
• Purchase and bring medicines.
• Help senior with online shopping.
• List elderly and others who need help for shots and schedule appointments.

Conclusion

We never enquired about a disaster such as the Covid19 pandemic. Losing a favourite one or feeling helpless while many people suffer each day for beds and oxygen is a soul-stabbing experience. By remaining physically and mentally fit, we can put out to help others. Be confident, stay brutal and know that this too shall pass — it might be stormy these days, but think that storms don’t last ever.