How to Boost Your Mental Health While Self Isolating
For some of us, stay-at-home parents or even self-employed entrepreneurs working from home is our norm. For others, it might be a whole new reality. Suddenly the four walls that surround you are where you eat, sleep, work, exercise and plain exist. Regardless of whether staying at home all day is your norm or completely new, there are ways everyone can minimize any negative impacts of the situation.
Create A Routine And Stick To It
When you have to head out to work in the morning you have a set time to wake up and get everything ready for the day ahead. This isn’t the case when working/staying at home. Without a fixed routine it doesn’t take long until our sleeping patterns become erratic and our productivity drops. That’s why it’s important to carve out a routine and stick to it. This means waking up at the same time each day, completing exercise and essential tasks to stay productive. While it will seem like a pain at first - a routine will keep you focused and happier for it.
Self Care
The term ‘self-care’ has been bandied around a lot lately. What it really comes down to is making sure you don’t always put yourself last. That you take some time to look after your wellbeing. When we spend time at home it’s easy to throw self-care out of the window but in truth, it couldn’t be more important. It can be as simple as still bothering to get dressed and look presentable to taking a few minutes to meditate to relieve stress. Whatever self-care steps you take, make sure you do them to keep your mental health looked after too.
Go Easy On The News
These days notifications come thick and fast to our TVs and phones. While it’s essential to keep up to date, it’s so easy to get caught up in endless scrolling. When we excessively expose ourselves to negative news reports this can take a toll on our mental health. Knowing when to switch off is key, especially if you find yourself watching the same news report over and over. Before you know it, hours have gone by and your mood is deflated. So, our top tip is to get the information you need to know but don’t linger there for hours. That way you can minimize the effect on your mental health as much as possible.
Get Social
An ironic piece of advice to give in a time of ‘self isolation’ but hear us out. These days we’re all connected via social media, email, skype, etc. But, how many of us routinely connect with all our contacts? Now is the time to reach out, call each other and stay in touch. Some have even gone as far as creating group exercise and even singing classes! Even a quick call with a friend or relative can ease feelings of frustration or loneliness, so be sure to give it a try. You can also reach out to work colleagues or business associates to lend them your support too.
To Sum Up
Being cooped up at home can be testing on everyone's mental health. The key is to establish boundaries for when you do things and where you do them too. Incorporating exercise not to mention self-care can go a long way in boosting your health. Whether you’re self-isolating or heeding advice to stay home - we can all get through this by following the advice as well as taking care of ourselves.
We’d love to know how you’ll be spending your time at home. Maybe you’re doing some projects around the home or learning new recipes. Perhaps you’re just catching up on quality time as a family. Whatever you’re filling your time with right now, be sure to share it with us! Leave us a comment below.