How to take care of your mental wellness in times of COVID-19

The world is not doing well right now. The Covid-19 health crisis that began in 2020 has held the world in a vice-like grip more than a year later. Countries across the globe are struggling and so is India. Every one of us has been affected by the pandemic in some way. Entire families have caught the virus, several lives have been lost, the infrastructure around us has collapsed and in many ways there does not seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

But, as the human race has always done, it’s important to try and pull ourselves together and get on with some semblance of normalcy. In fact, it is important to do so, to keep the hope and to prepare for a future that lies after the pandemic.

Taking care of your mental health is a starting point. Here are 6 tips to help:

Limit your sources of information

We can’t help being bombarded with information. The news, online updates, social media groups, messaging apps – there is information being thrown at us all the time. With click-bait style headlines, the news often creates more panic than it informs of ground realities. This can be stress inducing. Limit your sources of information to the one or two that you trust. Stay away from unverified news or if you must, do a simple cross check to see if the bit of news is true. Rather than have alerts coming to you on the hour, restrict your news time to twice a day. This gives you time to process and get to your regular work, which often remains neglected.

Stick to a schedule

If you have the luxury of working from home, sticking to your regular work schedule can help immensely. In fact, wake up like you usually would. If you go for walks, do that on your terrace or balcony. Shower, have a good breakfast, dress up for work and settle down at your home work station. Call colleagues, have online breakout sessions. Keep the office grapevine alive. This gives you a sense of doing things like you normally would and eases that discomfort you tend to feel when been restricted indoors for many days.

Improvise your days

Being home, especially during a lockdown doesn’t mean you cannot do something to lighten the mood. Have the whole family dress up for dinner one day, as though you are headed to a restaurant. If it is safe to, order in on that day. Think of things that interest you and the family and make an evening out of it. A wine or whiskey tasting evening; a bedroom picnic, a breakfast for dinner meal, board game nights, a yes evening (where either the grown-ups or the kids have to yes to no matter what is asked of them). This gives everyone something to look forward to.

Help when you can

People around us are suffering and going through a lot. Helping where you can will ease the stress that you feel. Volunteer how much help you think you can offer. Nothing is too small and you need not step out of the house too. Ensure that those who work at making your life simpler – domestic help, drivers, milk and newspaper delivery boys, your laundry man, the security guard, your child’s school van driver – are all comfortable and have what they need. Donate to verified causes. Volunteer as a verifier for leads on beds, blood, plasma, oxygen refills and the like. Take up how much you can, when you can.

Throwback Travel

Throwback style: Travel has always been a way to unwind. With travel out of the question now, indulge in throwbacks. Do this with your family at home, or online with friends. Run through your photographs, let everyone recall fun stuff that you did. You will be amazed at how differently each person remembers the same trip. Make plans for when things come to some form of normalcy.

These are tough times, but placing yourself first is important. Stay home, stay safe, get vaccinated and prepare for a world that will be Covid-free one day.