Self Care
- nickogbonna
- May 30, 2020
- 3 min read
Following on from last week, I wanted to touch on something that is always important, but will be crucial the longer we find ourselves in this Covid-19 lockdown:looking after yourself.This sounds self-explanatory, but you’d be surprised how much it can be overlooked. With all the doom and gloom on the tele screens and on the radio at the moment, it’s very easy during this time to develop quite a negative outlook on life. It’s easy to wake up and feel a sense of overwhelm at our current predicament. However, we can put in place systems to help us manage our mental well-being and get us through this period in a better place than where we started.
Here are 6 ways you can work on your own self-care:
1. LIMIT YOUR NEWS INTAKE
If you plant an apple seed, don’t expect an orange tree to grow. If all you consume on a day to day basis is the doom and gloom currently projected onto all our news channels, then you shouldn’t really be surprised that you go into panic mode often and perceive everything happening to you negatively. If you do have the news channels on constantly throughout the day try and reduce this to a point where you’re keeping up with day to day changes, but it’s not consuming your every other thought.
2. GO FOR A WALK
Use your hour of exercise to get outside. Especially if you don’t have a garden. Goes without saying that you should practice social distancing when outside, but staying cooped up day in day out will impact your mental well-being whether you notice it or not. If you’re feeling particularly overwhelmed or
stressed then going on a nice walk through some green space could be just what you need to reset your headspace.
3. TRY JOURNALLING
Write stuff down. Write down what you’ve managed to achieve in a day or in a week, write down what you’re grateful for, write down how you’ve been feeling. Getting your thoughts and feelings down on paper can bring a bit of self-awareness to a situation that might have been sub-consciously driving your life.
4. FIND A HOBBY/AREA OF SELF-IMPROVEMENT
As much as we enjoy going on holiday or having a long bank holiday weekend off work, we, as human beings, crave having purpose. What I have noticed, just from listening to individuals, is that one of the real struggles during this time is not having a purpose on a day to day basis. If you can no longer work the way you would like to, for whatever reason, then picking up a hobby or doing a course to improve your knowledge in a certain area might be what is needed to keep some sort of purpose day in and day out. Give yourself some direction to avoid that ‘floating around aimlessly’ feeling.
5. STAY CONNECTED
Just because you’re in lockdown and are limited to physical contact with your household only doesn’t mean that you have to become a social recluse. Personally I’ve found that I have actually reconnected with social circles I’d been somewhat distant with previously. Try and make time for friends, if it’s a quiz, bingo (don’t knock it until you try it) or just calling for a chat, there’s no reason for not staying connected. Some apps that are particularly good for this are Zoom, WhatsApp and Facebook messenger.
6. MEDITATION
Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes...including you. Meditation can be a really powerful tool to manage stress, anxiety and even feelings of depression. Our minds are constantly thinking, overthinking and this is never more noticeable than when you try to quiet your mind. I really struggled with meditating when I first got into it. I felt frustrated that I wasn’t very good at it. But the aim of meditation isn’t to be really good at it and judge yourself for having thoughts. It’s about trying to stay present, accepting whenever your thoughts wander and then trying to bring yourself back WITHOUT JUDGEMENT to focusing on your breath and your body. I find doing this in the morning encourages me to have a positive day, although meditation has been known to improve sleep, so if you’re struggling in that department currently, then it could be a good tool to implement in the evening.
So try and give a few of those a go and see how you get on. Self care should be a high priority on anyone’s day to day list, so try and make time for it in some shape or form.
Comments