Keeping Calm While in Lockdown

For many of us, being confined to our own houses for months on end can be source of tremendous stress. With a global disaster unfolding just outside the door, it can be easy to swept up in it. While coronavirus-related anxiety effects some people more than others, just about everyone could benefit from making a conscious effort to remain calm and happy.

Of course, if you could simply will yourself into being calm, then we wouldn’t have much of a problem. But even if we can’t do that, we can remove sources of stress, and make time for activities that take our minds off all the doom and gloom.

Mindfulness Meditation

Even before the word ‘coronavirus’ gained mainstream traction, the need to take time away from a stressful work environment was widespread, as was the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness, for the uninitiated, involves training the mind to pay attention – even to itself. It’s a great way to notice and squash unhelpful thoughts before they can become a problem.

Exercise

If you’re not getting exercise, then your body isn’t going to be healthy. If your body is healthy, then neither will your mind be. Setting yourself a fitness goal to complete over the lockdown will provide some structure to the time, and allow you to maintain your schedule. If you’re stuck for inspiration and starting from scratch, then the couch-to-5k programme is a great way to get the ball rolling.

Treat Yourself!

If you’ve gotten in the exercise, then there’s no reason you can’t occasionally reward yourself with the occasional luxury product. You can order high-quality chocolate online, alongside a host of other mood-lifting treats.

Gardening

Those of us who are lucky enough to have access to a garden have a great stress-busting asset at our disposal. As well as providing your brain with a little bit of distraction, gardening will get you out into the open air. Sunlight and the company of greenery has been heavily linked with an improvement in overall state of mind – alongside several other health benefits. If you do a good job while you’re out there, you’ll have a nice environment in which to unwind!

Turn off the News

If there’s not a great deal you can do about much of what goes on in the news. Paying close attention to it for most of your waking life, then, is likely to result in wasted energy. This is especially true if you find yourself having heated exchanges with perfect strangers on social media. You don’t have to switch off entirely – just appoint a given time of day when you’ll take in what’s new, and keep every other time free.