COVID19: Mental Health.

COVID-19. Coronavirus. Pandemic. Social Distancing. Quarantine.

As you read through those words, what vibe do you get? Personally, I felt a snugness in my shoulders and the need to take a more profound breath for a split second. My fears and musings about the coronavirus begin hustling through my brain, and simultaneously, I notice myself feeling baffled pretty much about the disarray and change.

On the off chance that I had to make a prediction, I can imagine you are quite worn out on hearing these words and really exhausted of discussing about the coronavirus. Everywhere you turn to you hear about it, it’s difficult to get away from it. The coronavirus itself is sadly not spreading between people only, it has spread into our daily conversations, our working environments, our mobile phones, our feeds on various social media platforms, our dms, our televisions, our homes, and most certainly our mental health. During these times, some of us would wind up exploring more elevated levels of anxiety than you have before. Managing the entirety of this vulnerability presently is hard for us all. Our minds are wired to make where we try make sense of given situations, although we are aware of numerous things that are not in our control at the moment.

I am forever an empath. In spite of the fact that I know my family is safe and sound practicing some social distancing, I can’t resist the urge to refresh my social media and get worried about every other person and what they’re doing and how they’re enduring.

There are some amongst us dealing with mental health issues, and there are some who are dealing with something much different and maybe a bit extreme. A number of us are worried about those with ED or depression who may backslide. I saw somebody question what they ought to do if their social distancing is in an abusive atmosphere. My heart just…bleeds.

I am not certain whether it’s an empath thing or if it’s an anxiety thing, yet I’m staying up-to-date with the news (get the facts not rumors ~ and listen to public health experts who can navigate the path ahead) –as heartening as it seems, because I need hope in knowing that things are getting better. I stay up-to-date with my social media to check for updates on the current situation. I watch the tik tok videos, participate in a few tik tok challenges and I laugh at the memes since I use humor as a method for dealing with stress.

Positive affirmations are known to assist us with shifting negative thoughts and can assist us with useful habits we might need to change. They are also known to calm down our feelings of anxiety, lessen our anxiety levels, improve our concentration and fixation, improve our certainty, and assist us with feeling more in charge of our well-being.

Positive affirmations are not quite the same as “toxic positivity”. Toxic positivity reveals to us that we are not permitted to feel the entirety of our sentiments, it tells us that feeling negative emotions is an awful thing. However, this just ain’t case. It is advised, for us to permit ourselves to feel all that is coming up for us at this moment. Positive affirmations are there to assist us with adapting to these sentiments and to keep us from stalling out in an unpleasant mental place.