Coping with mental health during coronavirus

Photo by Craig Adderley on Pexels.com

Dear reader,

I’d be lying to you if I said this coronavirus situation hasn’t had a deep impact on my life. I remember first hearing about coronavirus around January time and not thinking much of it until cases started to appear in the UK. It was at that point that I started to dread my morning commute on the London tube because let’s be honest, personal space is non-existent there so if I was going to get corona it was likely to be on the tube rather than in the leafy suburb where I live.

I remember things getting so bad to the point that I started getting chest pains the night before I was told that I could work from home. I was so grateful as I didn’t know how I was going to cope coming into the office every day.

To say that coronavirus has had an impact on my mental health would be an understatement. It has torn my world upside down. For a while, I felt like a prisoner in my own home and was so overwhelmed with what was going on. Slowly but surely, I’ve found ways to cope and I thought I’d share these with you for anyone else going through the same thing as me. If you take one thing away from this post, may it be the fact that you do not need to function ‘normally’ as the current state of the world is far from normal.

So here are my tips for coping with mental health during coronavirus:

Limit your media consumption

So, the first thing I’d recommend is limiting your media consumption. The news is a big trigger for me. At the start, I felt so overwhelmed watching the news every day and just hearing about how many lives had been lost each day. I decided to limit my media consumption and I now feel so much better.

Eat well/ Exercise

To tell you the truth, when this all kicked off it was crisps galore. I ate as a way of ‘treating’ myself during this incredibly hard period. But then I started to feel sick and realised I needed to kick this crisp habit XD So I started to eat treats in moderation- step one not eating crisps everyday XD, step two finding recipes to try out so I could experiment with healthier options and enjoy cooking/eating. This has helped me so much as my body is feeling so much fresher.

Exercise goes hand in hand with healthy eating. It’s my way of de-stressing my body. I was so devasted when I found out we could only go out twice a day since going out for a simple walk had always been a simple way to clear my head. But there are a ton of things you can do at home. Try youtube for Zumba/pilates/boxing videos and you will find some ways to unwind and exercise at home.

Write

There’s a hell of a lot of things going through your mind and sometimes you need to let it all out. Some people can get everything off their chest simply by talking to others, but for me, writing has helped. Whether it is journaling or writing poetry, I find that writing helps ease tensions. Get yourself a cute little note pad to inspire you to write.

Connect with others

This is my last but most important point. It may be tempting to hide away from the world at this incredibly hard time but I must urge you to reach out to others. It can be incredibly lonely during this time as we can’t see our friends or loved ones but there are so many ways to connect with others- phone calls, WhatsApp, and zoom calls are just a few!

So those were my tips. We are in a new phase of life, but our strength and perseverance will get us through it. I hope my tips can help you have peace at this time.

Until we meet again,

Charlotte

Advertisement