Looking After My Mental Health During This Pandemic

Without a doubt, mental health is my main focus during this pandemic period. Since we cannot reach out to people physically, I have to make sure I have ways to maintain my sanity. It’s true that I did have a few anxiety episodes and I think it is a normal human reaction when we need to adapt to a new lifestyle. If you have read my first post, you know that I haven’t been reading any self-improvement books during this period. That’s because I think I have learned enough from those authors and it’s time to practice their ideas. Here are some of the things I have been doing every day and hopefully these routines can help you as well.

Journal

Few weeks before the pandemic, I started a journal to keep my mental health in check. For each entry, I have the following categories:

• Feeling – How do I feel today. (happy, calm, lost etc)
• Forgiveness – what kind of things you need to forgive yourself. (overthinking, thinking negative thoughts etc)
• What did I do for myself today – things that you have done to make you happy. (watch a movie, cook a meal, chat with friends etc)
• Qualities my higher self have – what kind of qualities do you believe your ideal self should have. (confidence, secure etc)
• Gratitude – what are the things you are thankful for today. (thankful for a video chat, thankful for your health etc)

Forgiveness is important because it helps me to identify my problems and let myself know what I need to work on. As for gratitude, it helps me to use a different lens to see the situation. It is also important to make notes on what you have done to make yourself happy. This way, you can duplicate the same activity when your mental health is not doing too well.

Music

Music plays a pretty important role in my life because different songs can help me to shift to a different mood. During this time, I have been listening to a lot of my favourite songs (old and new) to make sure I am feeling good. I also have a chill music playlist when I need to relax my mind.

The Holistic Psychologist

This is the only study I have been doing. I have been following Dr. Nicole LePera for a while but I didn’t really start studying her works until recently. Her posts really help me by digging deep into my inner self and see what mental wounds I have. The healing process can be tough at times, but I understand this is a necessary process for me to be a better person.

If you are interested, perhaps I can share more of what I have learned from her in future posts.

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A post shared by Dr. Nicole LePera (@the.holistic.psychologist) on Apr 21, 2020 at 10:08am PDT

Video Chat with Friends

I am sure a lot of you have been doing video chats with your friends so you probably know the advantage of it. These chats make me feel good because they give me a chance to talk to other individuals (especially I live alone).

Relive Some of My Favourite Memories

This brain exercise is a way to help me to focus on the goods. When you feel bored, think of one of your favorite past memories and relive it in your mind. This will gradually help you to feel good about life. In the past few weeks, I have been reliving some memories in 2000 in my mind and they help me to realize what mattered the most to me at that time. I highly recommend you doing this brain exercise and learn more about your old self.

Cooking

This I will discuss in another post.

This is the time we need to have strong mental health to survive. I am sure a lot of things will change after this pandemic so it is important to keep a good mindset to tackle the upcoming challenges.