The start of this year has been a rocky road for the international community. At the start of this year, the World Health Organization declared Coronavirus as a global outbreak. Later in March, WHO categorized it as a global pandemic.
The whole world was launched in a frenzy of panic and social isolation. With the other natural disasters that have hit earlier this year, it has never been more crucial to pay attention to our mental health. This is the key to staying productive at home and coming out of this stronger.
A Mental Health Crisis
With many citizens of the world under lockdown, we are constantly in front of a screen. Our constant go-to activity is social media or watching the news. This is playing a key factor in destroying our mental health. Even before this pandemic, scientists believed social media caused loneliness and depression.
A study published in Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology reported that there is a link between using social media and depression. With so much constant negative news, it is easy to fall into a pit of despair.
If being disconnected from your friends, hobbies, and normal life has you frustrated, agitated or just feeling down then know you are not alone. This is a completely reasonable response to a rise in misery and isolation. "Pandemics such as the one we are currently grappling with often ignite fear, anxiety and erratic behaviors," remarks Dr. Kelly Vincent, a practicing psychologist from California.
People suffering from anxiety and depression are more vulnerable in this lockdown. WHO estimates that more than 240 million people around the world suffer from depression. With uncertainty being sky high and the lockdown not letting up anytime soon, you have to play a key role to maintain positive mental health in this lockdown.
We put this list of things together to help you boost your mental health. Science and experts have backed up these activities because they work. Incorporating them into your lockdown routine is bound to produce positive effects. Your mental health is the key to coming out of this stronger and equipped to handle the new world.
How to Improve Your Mental Health in Lockdown
Your feelings, emotions and moods are a mixture of chemicals inside your head. When there is an imbalance of said chemicals, we suffer from things like depression, anxiety, and paranoia. Chemicals in our brain are released due to our surroundings, our mindset and our interactions. It is imperative that we learn how to control what goes on in our head. This guide helps you get started.
There are 2 ways to improve your mental health during this time. The first step is to cut out a lot of negative triggers that are responsible for negative mental health. The second step is to bring in habits that not only boost your mental health, but improve the quality of your life.
What Needs to Be Cut Out?
1. Take a Break from Social Media and News
Constantly thinking about the end of the world, a deadly virus, and then watching the news or reading updates creates a dastardly vicious cycle in our heads. We keep thinking about an impending doom that changes the way we think. We start to focus on the negatives, our brain selectively perceives information to bolster this negative narrative.
Funny thing is, we choose the narrative, our brain just picks up specific information from around our environment to prove it. This is why you need to take a much-needed break from news, politics and where the world is going. You create your own vicious cycle by constantly watching news that only focuses on negativity.
2. Trust Reliable Sources of Information
Did you hear about how in Africa people started believing that Covid-19 could be spread through mosquitoes? Or how 5G has caused the spread of Coronavirus? Fake news is at its peak around the world. People have been spreading conspiracy theories to fake DIY treatments. It is impossible to stop the spread of fake news because users are used to sharing information without verifying it first.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness advises the general public to consume relevant information that you need to know only. We do not need to know every single update around the world because that information adds no value to our lives. It feeds a sense of impending doom and paranoia inside of us. Fake information can also be very deadly. In fact, a man in Arizona passed away after self-medicating chloroquine after news stated it was a cure for Coronavirus.
WHO has added a myth buster section to their website to fight against fake news, always get your news from reliable and trusted sources and do not believe anything until you can verify it yourself, this is the only way to save yourself from fake news.
Activities to Boost Your Mental Health
3. Yoga is a Game Changer
Yoga has a plethora of mental health benefits. The American Psychological Association considers it a useful tool for psychotherapy. Yoga helps with relieving stress, muscle tension and inflammation. It also helps increase your concentration and relaxes your central nervous system.
Doing yoga on a daily basis increases GABA, a natural chemical in the brain responsible for regulating nerve activity. This is especially important for those who suffer from anxiety which causes them to have lower levels of GABA. Yoga is one of your greatest tools to fight depression and a negative mindset, helping you best in this daunting lockdown.
4. Meditating is Key to a Peaceful Mind
While yoga consists of simple to complicated body movements, meditation is a much simpler mental exercise to do. Meditation is a process of controlling your thoughts and focusing your mind on a specific thought for a period of time. While it may sound easy to do, 10 seconds into your meditation and you are already in an embarrassing flashback from high school. Hence, meditation requires focus and dedication.
Meditation is not just letting your mind think freely of whatever it wants, it is to tame the horse that runs wild. Numerous studies have shown that meditation decreases stress and helps control anxiety. Also, it enhances self-awareness, increases your attention span and helps with regulating your emotions.
5. Do Workouts at Home
Exercising helps regulate positive mental health. Studies show that regular exercise can help patients combat depression, anxiety and ADHD. Scientists at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health discovered that running for just 15 minutes a day helps reduce the risk of depression by 26%. Therefore, when you work out, your body releases endorphins which is an instant feel-happy chemical for the brain.
Conclusion
Working out has numerous medical benefits. For this reason, we have put together a series of workouts you can do at home without weights or equipment. Each circuit consists of movements that help you lose weight, add mass and get in shape.
