शुक्रबार, १६ चैत २०८०
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शुक्रबार, १६ चैत २०८०

How to Take Care of Mental Health during Corona Pandemic?

दैनिक नेपाल २०७७ वैशाख ४ गते १७:५९

Dr. Archana Pokharel

Much been talked about the physical safety measures to limit the spread of virus: washing hands, social isolation and frequent hand washing with soap water etc.

However the toll the virus is taking in mental health aspects have been underestimated while focusing on death scores during the period.

The result of social isolation, fear/anxiety due to widespread death rate and positive corona cases, fake news and rumors in social medias, unemployment and uncertainty for future are all contributing to mental health problems like anxiety, panic attack and depression to name a few.

In addition, this rise in domestic violence, increase in divorce rate and disharmony in the family is further compounding the problem.

Whenever anxious feeling surge in us, instead of running away and distracting ourselves in various physical activities let us feel them in our body. As we slowly start feeling the wave of emotions in our body without resisting them, they tend to slowly loose their intensity after sometimes. Every time we repeat this, the intensity

However the steps to be taken to address mental health problem during this crisis period is overshadowed and neglected aspect.

It is imperative we take few preventive measures to keep our mental faculty fine and fit before it is too late.

As the saying goes ‘Prevention is better than cure ‘ ;the timely measure can save our valuable  Time, Energy and money in the near future .

Below are few measures to keep in check of our stress/anxiety and keep our mental faculty robust and healthy extracted from psychology today dot com, therapist aid dot com and psych central dot com are mentioned:

  1. Avoiding too much media exposure: Especially if the news makes us Anxious and worrisome.
  2. Limiting Social media Use: Especially if the comments shared makes us uncomfortable
  3. Accepting Inevitable: Whatever we resist in life persists. So the mere acceptance and nonresistance of present chaos/crises helps to cool us down bit. There are certain aspects in our life (like this pandemic ) which we don’t have control over, so they must be accepted apart from taking preventive measures as been advised by WHO/Health System in our country.

Stress /Worry is the primitive protective mechanism our brain been hardwired to save us from harmful situation. So to be abnormal (having anxiety /Stress) during such chaos is quiet normal .So let us not self beat our self for such emotions like fear, anger, anxious feelings.

  1. Feel the Uncomfortable feeling: Whenever anxious feeling surge in us, instead of running away and distracting ourselves in various physical activities let us feel them in our body. As we slowly start feeling the wave of emotions in our body without resisting them, they tend to slowly loose their intensity after sometimes. Every time we repeat this, the intensity
  2. APPLE Technique:

This fantastic methods mentioned in anxeityuk.org.uk are following.

ACKNOWLEDGE (A): Just acknowledge the presence stressful/Anxious thought without analyzing it .

PAUSE (P) : Be still , pause and take few deep breaths

PULLBACK (P): Tell and assure yourself (being your own best friend ) “ This is just a worry / anxious thought “ “ Thought may not be necessarily a fact “ .

We can also self assure our self by positive self talk like “This too shall pass “ or “ Every problem has solutions “ etc.

LET GO (L): Let go the anxious thought. We can visualize the particular thought going up in a balloon or going away on a leaf in the flowing river.

EXPLORE (E): Explore and be present in the present moment by observing your surrounding like observing different objects and wall color  in our room or  listening to sounds .

Spiritual Practices :

Prayers : Asking the almighty to give power to face and power to tolerate along with serenity and calmness .

Meditations:

  • Raj Yoga Meditation: Very powerful Technique of connecting we (a spiritual being of life Energy) to the Supreme powerhouse of Life Energy and getting the power and peace from the Supreme Soul (GOD: Our Supreme Father).
  • Mindfulness Meditation: To be aware and attentive of present movement. The present moment awareness decrease the worry/stress
  • Relaxation Techniques :
  1. Progressive Muscle Relaxation Technique (PMR): First contracting then releasing all the muscles of our body from toe to head.
  2. Body Scan Technique: To ascend our attention from different group of muscles Toe to head by silently saying ‘relax “to our self and feel the relaxation accompanied by this.
  • Deep Breathing: Few deep belly breathing for few minutes calm us down immediately.
  1. Visualization Technique: To visualize any serene, calm place (like garden, riverside) and imagine oneself to be in that place using all the five senses; so that it feels real.
  2. Venting out Techniques /Catharsis: We can vent out our pent up emotions by followings:
  • Journaling: Jotting down all the emotions in a note book continuously for a few minutes or so. Later the pages can be discarded. This immediately makes us feel light.
  • Dancing: Dancing to beats of our favorite music.
  • Drawing sketches even though we are not an artist.

6. Self Development programs :

We can utilize this time for self improvement which will later aid in our academic and professional field.

The first step is thorough evaluation of our weakness and strength by self introspection. We can also take help of our family members/Close friends to facilitate the process.

Then we should focus on removing negative traits and strengthen the positive traits.

We can take online Course / study e-books on following methods to modify our habits / personality

  • Subconscious Mind Programming (SMP)
  • Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)

Similarly we can further foster our qualities by learning

  • Fast reading and writing methods
  • Memory Boosting method

7. Other Miscellaneous measures:

  • Moderate Intake of News updates: Excessive news may predispose us to anxiety or stress disorder. So while it is fine to keep update of recent events, too much information may do us more harm than good.
  • Bonding with friends and family members: though various techniques like video chatting through skype , zoom, viber, whatsapp
  • Involving in our Hobbies: Hobbies like Singing, gardening, cooking as per our preferences both keep us busy and healthy. Added benefit may be We may gradually become Expert in those activities
  • Doing Household Chores : like cleaning cupboards , making our rooms tidy and clean

Last but not the least, Let us make our mental Health robust and healthy along with physical body so that we come up being more stronger and optimistic individual when finally we step in to the world which would have changed drastically by the after effects of this Corona Pandemic; we could face all the challenges life throw at us and turn them to opportunity and make our world a better place for us as well as our fellow beings.

Author is Psycho-spiritual Counselor

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