5 Tips To Maintain Your Mental Health While Staying At Home

Photo by Beach Babe Stock

COVID-19 is definitely the most unexpected thing we are facing in 2020. During the lockdown period, it is normal for any of us to experience negative feelings such as stress, anxiety, frustration, or loss of interest.

Here are 5 tips to maintain your mental health while staying at home. 

1. Maintain your day-to-day activities and routine
Regular routine can help you take more control of your daily life, bringing positive impact on your thoughts and feelings. It is important to maintain your day-to-day activities:

• Get enough sleep
• Eat healthy meals 
• Do physical exercise 
• Allocate time for working and resting

2. Develop new skills or habits
The lockdown restrictions may make you feel depressed (including me!) especially when we found out that we cannot hang out with friends or travel around after finally finishing exams. However, by shifting our focus to what we still can do, or what we always wanted to do can give us a refresh. Grab this opportunity to either learn some new skills or develop 1-2 habits, this can give you a sense of achievement and make you cheerful. Here are some ideas for you:

• Learn a new language
• Play new instrument
• Read a book 
• Find new recipe to cook/bake
• Train your patience and observation skills via doing puzzles
• Even decorating your room (try green plants!) can be a good one

 3. Spend time taking care of your feelings
Always remember that it is normal and ok to have negative feelings! Try to leave 10 minutes or more in a day to do meditation or journaling. This will allow you to explore yourself and express what you are feeling. By practicing, you can learn to let your feelings come and go in their own time without being overwhelmed. 

• Download the apps like Smiling Mind or Calm for guide meditation
• Question Diary is another useful app for daily reflection.

4. Stay connected
Physical distancing never means social disconnection. During this difficult time, it is important for all of us to support each other and get through challenges together. Although meeting up with friends is temporarily not possible due to the safety reasons, there are still many ways to stay connected with each other:

• Text or video chat with friends/family
• Hold a virtual party to catch up and have fun. You can still get the snacks, drinks, and even host online games together. 
• Share your life on social media and play the challenges game with friends, for example, 21 days challenge for exercising/cooking. 

5. Set limits on social media and news
It is good to keep updated on information regarding COVID-19. However, when you cannot help but keep checking on information, you should notice that this behaviour may leave you stuck in a Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) trap, bringing in more anxiety. Therefore, set limits on social media and news can help you focus on living and managing your life. This can be done by: 

• Plan your time ahead
• Set daily time limit reminder on Instagram
• Download an app like Forest to help you utilize your time at the right place

Rooms International understands that now is a tough time especially for students who are away from home. We hope these 5 tips can help you get through the lockdown period with a healthy and peaceful mind. 

Stay connected, look after yourselves and your neighbours and let’s all get through this together!