Tag Archives: Emotional Well-being

COVID-19 Self-Care Coach

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During times of stress, it’s especially important to set time aside for self-care.

The world is facing an unprecedented medical crisis. During these stressful times, you may become so overwhelmed with work, daily life or caring for your family that you forget to take care of yourself. Remember, you must take care of yourself first so you can continue to care for others. Thus, it’s important to get into a good self-care routine to prevent stress and to enhance your emotional well-being and mental health.

There are many stressors in life such as not knowing what might happen next to your family members, friends or your community during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Those are the key ingredients to creating PTSD: having stressors where it’s uncertain, uncontrolled, and unpredictable,” says Karestan Koenen, a psychologist at Harvard University’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health

Body, mind and spirit

Your mind and body are connected. You deserve care that supports your total health — mind, body, and spirit. If you struggle with depression, anxiety, addiction, or other mental or emotional issues that interfere with your daily life, there is help.

The National Center for PTSD created an app called Covid Coach, a tool designed to help people manage stress, reduce anxiety, for meditation and improved sleep. And, it provides information about coping strategies. It offers breathing exercises and other guidance for tackling loneliness and irritability. It lets users track their anxiety and moods. It’s loaded with resources for getting help with problems like substance abuse or domestic violence. It’s available for free in the Apple and Android app stores.

Set a Personal Goal

One effective tool of the COVID Coach relates to setting a personal goal. Setting a personal goal can be helpful to ensure you’re making time for yourself. For example, you might set a goal to connect with a friend this week by phone or video, make yourself a favorite meal, or do whatever it is that you enjoy that you can do for yourself.

Stay home during the holiday season

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, many public health officials stress why not traveling and not gathering with family and friends is the safest choice for the holidays.

Throughout this challenging time, your health and safety should remain your top priority. Protect yourself and your loved ones with the help of this COVID Coach.

It’s hard to know where you’re going if you don’t know where you are.

References:

  1. https://www.wired.com/story/this-mental-health-app-is-tailor-made-for-your-pandemic-woes/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=wired&utm_social-type=earned
  2. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52eb2689e4b09fc88a61dbda/t/5fd8fa0c3843d52beda31b68/1608055314773/30DaysofSelfCarewithCOVIDCoach.pdf

Emotional Well-Being and Gratitude During COVID-19

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“Your personal experiences make up maybe 0.00000001% of what’s happened in the world but maybe 80% of how you think the world works… We’re all biased to our own personal history.” Morgan Housel, Ideas That Changed My Life

COVID-19 Stressing You Out

According to the CDC, everyone reacts differently to stressful situations such as a pandemic and lock down. As Americans experience the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic such as worry about job loss, concern for your health or that of a loved one, the need to social distance, confining yourself to your home or apartment, changing your routine, spending more screen time than normal, it’s important to practice some degree of emotional self-care.

Finding ways to practice self-care can help reduce your stress and enhance your emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthy ways to cope with stress include:

  • Taking daily walks
  • Practicing meditation
  • Making time to pray and to express gratitude
  • Knowing where and how to get help
  • Taking breaks from watching, reading, or listening to the sensationalized news stories and coverage about COVID19, protests, and political rancor
  • Reading novels and writing in journals
  • Learning a new skill or hobby
  • Eating healthy foods and getting enough sleep
  • Avoiding or reducing eating processed foods, foods high in refined sugars and carbs, and fried foods
  • Exercising and prioritizing time to unwind by doing activities you enjoy
  • Connecting with others (while social physical distancing measures are in place, consider connecting online, through social media, or by phone or mail)

Gratitude

Gratitude is recognizing the “value for favorable things or positive life experiences for which we did not actively work towards or ask for”, according to Sadhguru. Gratitude is important because it helps us see a world that is much bigger than ourselves. When we have gratitude, we can help ourselves and each other grow personally or professionally.

Psychologists find that, over time, feeling grateful boosts happiness and fosters both physical and psychological health, even among those already struggling with mental health problems. Ways you can foster gratitude by keeping a journal to write about the little joys of daily life or by writing down “three good things” that have gone well for you and identify the cause. Additionally, you can also foster gratitude by writing thank-you notes to others or going out of your way to be kind to others, according to Psychology Today Magazine.

Sources:

  1. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hope-relationships/202004/overcoming-depression-and-desperation-in-the-time-covid-19
  2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/gratitude