The lockdown brings its own kind of stress to everyone.We face a mix of physical and psychological stress due to extended periods of Physical inactivities and limited social interactions .
Yes, there would also be a concern about our monetary levels and employment challenges.
The stress arising out of lockdown can be managed by a systematic approach which involves both physical and mental well-being activities .
Here we are bringing a set of recommendations which will surely help you in these challenging times.
Physical Health
Lockdown brings hell lot of physical inactivity in us.Being physically fit is the first step for the mental well being.The WHO recommends 150minutes of moderate-intensity or 75-minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week.
We can achieve this with simple exercises like Squatting, standing breaks,domestic chores,Gardening and cleaning. At the end of the blog, we have given a link to help you in performing simple exercises.
Eating Habits
Prolonged inactivity brings boredom,increases your food consumption without your realisation.Be watchful of your food intake.
Possibly take one portion less of your regular intake.
We need to be sufficiently hydrated, irrespective of our physical inactivity.
Take water at regular intervals (1-2 ltrs per day).
Reduce your intake of coffee,tea.Caffine affects your sleep pattern and as well dehydrates.
Avoid/Reduce soft drinks ,chocolates, saturated food like cakes,biscuits,packaged food like potato chips(high sodium level is not recommended).
Reduce your dairy intake like milk,ice creams.
As well avoid/ reduce your alcohol intake.The lockdown can make you alcoholic.
Instead take more fresh fruits, salads or juices.
Being a summer, citrus fruits keep you hydrated.
You can practice intermittent fasting to bring a right eating habit.
Mental Health
Lockdown can bring lot of stress, anxiety due to extended periods of confinement in a limited space, being isolated from family, work related stress, financial concerns , doing repetitive task for the whole day , getting bored due to lack of psychological engagements or some unknown/unexplainable fear.
While we would not be able to provide a good advice for the financial concerns, we can help you in managing the stress ,otherwise .
By the time of adolescence, Many of us have sacrificed our hobbies for some other goals.Now is the good time to start it again.
Hobbies like photography could not be pursued in this lockdown period,that’s another sad part.Yet,You can learn drawing or music or Singing or calligraphy through online classes.Drawing doesn’t require much resources though, except a pencil and paper.Here is a list of online materials to learn drawing:
SkillShare.com, Domestika.org - Offers online classes for drawing and many crafts.
This blog teaches very easy way of drawing.With few steps,you can create some simple objects. http://edemberleydrawingpages.blogspot.com/
Here is another free class, which teach step by step drawings.
Reduce your watching time for movies, Netflix, Amazon Prime etc,as it affects your sleeping cycles.A continuous flow of visual entertainment will block your creative imagination skills too.You end up looking for high-adrenaline dramas to keep yourself occupied, bringing lot of boredom.
Instead pick some book and start reading.If you are not into reading habit, try audio books.The websites like Audible, StoryTel has a good Audio book collection at affordable price.StoryTel has good regional language Audio book collections from Tamil,Hindi,Telugu etc.,. Check them out.
If you like to write, start writing.You can do a journaling in a dairy or start a blog.You can write fiction, your personal stories, your fears,cinema,music, everything under sun. If you wish, share them with your friends and family as well.Writing is a stress buster.
Enrol into some Poetry appreciation classes.Poetries not only make you enjoy your life,it will rekindle your imagination.
The online education websites like Coursera, Udemy, Open University UK offers many interesting courses.Pickup some course related to History or Buddhism or Art or Medieval Islam, or Leadership and start learning.Lot of courses available, costs you nothing.
Start listening to variety of music .The Hindustani, Ghazals,Arabic, Western, Carnatic classical all bring different kind of experience.Start breaking the habit of listening only to your favourite musicians or songs.Spotify,Amazon has interesting playlists for the starters.Try it out.After all ,both music and culinary taste are all habits and can be broken easily.
Reduce your time in social media- Facebook,WhatsApp,Twitter etc.,.Many unverifiable memes, hate or vulgar contents are propagated without any sense of guilt or shame.With repeated exposures to such content, You end up believing them and start criticising everyone around you for everything.At the end of the day, it adds to your mental stress.Possibly, a daily fixed time routine to see the Facebook or WhatsApp etc will help.
Reduce your time, watching news channels.The debates in news channels will end you up in confused state.While the anchors, opinion dwellers make money by participating in the debates, you end up getting yourself into stressful form of entertainment.
When we are confined by limited physical space which doesn’t have any natural environment, our stress level increase.The Work-From-Home can bring more stress than a relief due to lack of physical and mental breaks.Getting ourselves to meditation, religious chants will help.
Viniyoga teaches Yoga in a traditional way.You can check with them on the offerings.
Mindfulness is one of the technique followed by Buddhist monks for more than 2000 years to bring peaceful state.This website contains the practice details.
If you are not able to sleep regularly or you getting stressed due to some unknown fears, you may need a psychological counselling .In the lockdown times, getting a professional help may not be an easy one.Your family doctor even if they are not qualified for psychological counselling, can help you in tackling the problems at the first level.Perhaps,you should consult him or her and act based on their advice.
The best way to handle the stress or boredom is to break the corrosive habits.By following or performing various mix to tasks, our routine gets broken and this instigates our creativity.
A creative mind is a happy mind, always.
We would like to end up with this beautiful Buddhist saying
If your problem has a solution, there is no need to worry.If your problem doesn’t have a solution, there is no point in worrying.
We would like to thank Professor Dr.Anbumani Narayanaswami MBBS,MD,PhD for her various inputs, clarifying the doubts, showing right pointers to look and support in making this blog.
Useful links
Simple Exercises in Lockdown times:
Recommended Nutritional Tips :