Is the Covid-19 Pandemic getting to you? Yes, it is. The best way to cope with it is to acknowledge how it is affecting our relationships, results and reality. We talked to experts on how to strengthen our mental health and not just cope but also thrive in the post-pandemic world.
Here are 8 Unconventional Tips on How to Cope and Thrive in the Pandemic:
1. Attack your Regrets
Take advantage of the greatest period of reckoning in our lives. Assess the biggest regrets in your life right now and work on fixing them right away. If you have issues with the family, heal them today. If you have a pending bucket list like writing a book, do it now. Don’t die with the biggest regret of not fixing your regrets this 2020. There’s no other day but today.
2. Into the State of Mindlessness
Get into a state of mindlessness when you are half asleep either early in the morning or when you are about to sleep to tap the subconscious. Try to watch YouTube videos of things you are not interested in and allow your eyes to blur to tap the latent learning from your subconscious and get insight on how to solve your problem.
3. Focus on a Better Narrative
Take a step back and pay attention to the narratives in your head. Instead of focusing on burnout or financial difficulties, refocus on a bigger narrative on how this pandemic is able to teach you a new skill or better relationships with your family. It’s important to connect with positive people to get better narratives and to have fun to give the brain a break from all the negativity.
4. Purposeful Attention to Meaning
The brain adapts to your positive or negative situation; you can exercise it to be stronger. When fairness is under attack because of our prolonged pandemic situation, the best way to neutralize it is via acts of kindness and charity. Do more meaningful birthday greetings for your friends and family. In the same manner, make Christmas a meaningful time to connect with your family, focusing less on material gifts but more on appreciating and helping each other during this unprecedented time.
5. Create Routine to Avoid Burnout
Establish a regular cadence of your work-from-home hours, breaks, social media time, essential e-numan sessions with friends and physical exercise because your mental health is directly linked to your physical health. Create a mental environment of gratefulness for your work, your life, your relationships and small things in life. Say thank you more often and hug your wife, kids and family members more often.
6. Eliminate Anxiety Triggers
Determine what triggers your anxiety and make sure to avoid or eliminate it by muting that person, by not listening to news or by reducing your social media time. When you are triggered, get out of the situation as fast as you can. Determine the things that you can use to control your anxious situation and know that you can control how you react. Go on a timeout when relationships are involved and always review what triggered your anger so that you can avoid such situations later on.
7. Eliminate “White” in your Diet
Eliminate the things that you are intolerant of like all things white — sugar, salt (iodized), flour and dairy products. The best way is to take an intolerance test to know what these are then go on a 21-day elimination diet to determine what’s causing your body to bloat or react negatively.
8. Create Nourishing Boundaries
Create sleeping habits, breaks, nourishment for the soul with your own ME time for praying, meditating, journaling or reading the Bible or inspirational books. Feed yourself first; it is only from the overflow of our love tank that we can love and serve others. Establish your social media boundary of using it only from sun up to sun down.
Final Thoughts
I can already feel the effects of the pandemic on my mental health when I get easily triggered, or when I get mad at my family over little things or when we argue about mindless things like whether it is OK to shoot melted ice cream or not. This pandemic is far from over as we feel the financial impact of Covid-19 and how it is affecting our lives.
It would be good to strengthen our relationship with our Awesome God and join a spiritual community like the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP) Alabang Chapter because we cannot just go through the pandemic alone. Connecting with our God, our community, our family and friends is crucial to strengthening our mental health.
Live an Awesome Life with Christ,
Founder & Digital Creator, Our Awesome Planet
Disclosure: Thanks to Nikkei Team for the experience. I wrote this article with my biases, opinions, and insights.