Resilience in the most trying of times!
The latest buzz everywhere is:
Stock up on vitamins, eat healthy real food, drink lots of water, and exercise regularly - All to build and maintain a good immune system.
But what about your mental health? - What are you doing to build your psychological Resilience? Resilience is your capacity to adapt and deal with adverse, stressful, and threatening circumstances and events. It is the ability to bounce back from such events.
So, how do I build and maintain my resilience during this extreme Covid-19 lock-down times?
- Set yourself a meaningful goal. What is your purpose for doing certain things and getting involved in certain activities? What gives your life meaning?
- Challenge your own, and other people's assumptions. Think creatively. Be flexible in the way you look at what is happening around you, and the reactions of people close to you. Don't be afraid to change your perspective on areas of your life.
- Cognitive flexibility and the strength to accept the ever-changing reality of this lock-down period is important. Being in denial about the extreme situation, will not make it go away. Accept and deal with the fact that you can't do certain things at this stage.
- Allow yourself to feel the weight of the circumstances and do not be afraid to meet with these challenges head-on. A well-known saying is: what does not kill you, makes you stronger.
- Be brave, act despite your fear. This is courage that allows you to overcome difficult situations.
- Think about what you are thinking about. Stop negative thought patterns. Put your mind to it and push every negative notion out of your mind, replacing it with positive thoughts, images, sounds, and actions.
- Consider yourself as an individual, what makes you unique? You can act independently, and your actions and reactions can be different from others, as you probably know yourself better than others, and you would know what is good for you.
- Seek the support of your friends and family, keep the social network open, while consciously controlling the amount of social media interaction, as being on your phone or tablet constantly, may add to the feeling of anxiousness, the feeling of being overwhelmed by the circumstances.
- Alone-time is normally good, but try not to isolate yourself from others. Feeling lonely and detached are feelings you need to be aware of.
- Try and do something you really enjoy at least once a day.
Take care of yourself. Stay safe, Stay healthy, and Stay calm - wherever you are.