If it seems like I keep harping on the mental health dimension, it's only because maintaining our mental health during the current situation is both crucial and challenging. These are extraordinary times, requiring skills and knowledge that we haven't learned or practiced to a sufficient degree so that we can rely on them. Mental health is squishy; we're all wired differently, and different things work for different people. My hope is that you will find something that works for you.
This morning, I found this terrific resource of 25 actionable tips to help support your mental health as we get deeper into our 'stay at home' order:
Mental Health Wellness Tips for Quarantine
Some examples (but definitely check out the link!):
13. Lower expectations and practice radical self-acceptance.
This idea is connected with #12. We are doing too many things in this moment, under fear and stress. This does not make a formula for excellence. Instead, give yourself what psychologists call “radical self acceptance”: accepting everything about yourself, your current situation, and your life without question, blame, or pushback. You cannot fail at this—there is no roadmap, no precedent for this, and we are all truly doing the best we can in an impossible situation.
17. Find something you can control, and control the heck out of it.
In moments of big uncertainty and overwhelm, control your little corner of the world. Organize your bookshelf, purge your closet, put together that furniture, group your toys. It helps to anchor and ground us when the bigger things are chaotic.
23. “Chunk” your quarantine, take it moment by moment.
We have no road map for this. We don’t know what this will look like in 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month from now. Often, when I work with patients who have anxiety around overwhelming issues, I suggest that they engage in a strategy called “chunking”—focusing on whatever bite-sized piece of a challenge that feels manageable. Whether that be 5 minutes, a day, or a week at a time—find what feels doable for you, and set a time stamp for how far ahead in the future you will let yourself worry. Take each chunk one at a time, and move through stress in pieces.