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Self Care and You: Coping With COVID

 


Whether you’re a parent struggling to help your children with online classes, a student struggling to keep up with the amount of assignments for school, or even an essential worker risking your life for the health of others, we are all struggling together. This pandemic has changed the way we live our lives and we are all just trying to survive. Although 2020 has been an absolute rollercoaster of wildfires, murder hornets, pandemic madness, and poor leadership in America, we are all on this rollercoaster together. It might be crazy but we have each other to look to when we just need to say “What the heck is going on?”. No matter who or what we are taking care of, the most important person to take care of is ourselves. This has never been a more important time to check in with our mental health and make sure that we are doing everything we can to stay sane. Self care and mindfulness are essential these days and I am here to help you navigate the process of finding your most peaceful self. After all, self care “promotes rest and relaxation, which benefits our overall health and wellness, and it also promotes healthy relationships. When our self-esteem and self-awareness improves, it has a positive effect on our overall mindset” (Carman, 2020).

What is Self Care and Mindfulness?

Self care and mindfulness really go hand in hand because it’s hard to have one without the other. Psychcentral.com describes self care as “any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health. Although it’s a simple concept in theory, it’s something we very often overlook. Good self-care is key to improved mood and reduced anxiety” (Michael, 2020). Some people might confuse self care for self indulgence. Although it might feel good and make you happy to drink a couple glasses of wine and order takeout, this is not self care. Self care is the focus on repairing and caring for your mind, body, and soul. It is an ongoing process rather than a quick fix of temporary happiness. There are simple self care activities that we can do on a daily basis like getting enough sleep or drinking enough water. Those are pretty simple and can usually be done if we just we set our minds to it. Some more challenging exercises might be something like meditation. Guided meditation is usually easier for those who don’t have experience sitting still and clearing their mind. You can find tons of guided meditation podcasts or videos online. 

Meditation is a great way to reenergize and just let go of all the unnecessary thoughts that cloud up our minds. Meditation is also a great way to practice mindfulness! Mindfulness is the “basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us” (Mindful, 2020). Mindfulness helps us to stay resilient during challenging times. We need to have that ability to bounce back from situations at work, school, or even just everyday life. If we can learn to remain mindful, then we will have better control over the stressors in our lives and how we react to them. 

If you search self care online, there are thousands of websites that will give you some great self care exercises you can do. It’s amazing that we have all this information right at our fingertips, but what really works? Everyone is different. What works for one person might not work for another, and that’s okay! The fun part about self care is trying out different ways to practice and seeing how you are personally effected by them. Here are just a few of my personal suggestions (out of many) that you can try:


-Yoga With Adriene — Adriene is a women who posts yoga sessions on Youtube for free! She has over eight million subscribers and she posts a variety of different yoga techniques and styles. Some of her videos will focus on strength and flexibility, but she also posts videos on relaxation and other types of yoga that are more specific such as “Yoga for Teens”, “Yoga for Writers”, and so on. Link is below:
https://www.youtube.com/c/yogawithadriene/featured (Links to an external site.)


-Podcasts — There are tons of self care and meditation podcasts out there and I am sure that a lot of them can be super informative and helpful. There is one podcast in particular by a women named Kristen Lee. Kristen is “a professor of Behavioral Science at Northeastern University, and is the author of ‘Mentalligence’ and ‘Reset.’ With more than 20 years' experience as a clinician, educator, researcher and parent, she speaks about her area of expertise: preventing and treating burnout” (NASW, 2017). On the NASW website they have podcasts to listen to including Kristen’s where she talks about self care and avoiding burn out. Link is below:
https://www.socialworkers.org/News/Social-Work-Talks-Podcast/EP17-Self-Care-and-Avoiding-Burnout (Links to an external site.)


-Stay Home Take Care — This is a website that has created a community of individuals who are looking for some extra help during the times of COVID. Most of these people are social workers from all across the country that are providing resources and tips to help with mental health. The great thing about this website is the variety of different options to look at whether you want to entertain your kids, connect with others, feel comforted, or just take the time to take care of yourself. There is a lot of information and resources on this site so I definitely suggest you check it out! Link is below:
https://www.stayhometakecare.com/

 (Links to an external site.)


Wrapping Up
These are really difficult times for everyone and coping with the isolation and stress of the world is not easy. I encourage you all to start applying some self care and mindfulness into your daily routines. Although I know this is easier said than done, the benefits of self care can truly enrich your mind, body, and soul. I wish you all safety, health, and happiness!

 

-Tess Boretti


References

Carmen, N. (2020). Why Self Care Is Vital to Our Mental Health. https://www.psychreg.org/self-care-vital-mental-health/

 

Girls Night In. (2020). Stay Home Take Care. https://www.stayhometakecare.com/ (Links to an external site.)

 

Michael, R. (2018). What Self-Care Is — and What It Isn’t. Psych Central. https://psychcentral.com/blog/what-self-care-is-and-what-it-isnt-2/

 

Mindful. (2020). Getting Started with Mindfulness. https://www.mindful.org/meditation/mindfulness-getting-started/

 

National Association of Social Workers. (2017). Episode 17: Self-Care and Avoiding Burnout. https://www.socialworkers.org/News/Social-Work-Talks-Podcast/EP17-Self-Care-and-Avoiding-Burnout

Comments

  1. Claire RevordOctober 8, 2020 at 11:26 AM

    Hi Tess! Great post! I think this time has really proven to be challenging for everyone, and it can be really hard to remember to take time out of our day to engage in self-care! I LOVE Yoga with Adriene--she is a channel I've been following since the beginning of quarantine and I've found even doing yoga "with" her once a day drastically improves my mood and just makes me feel more at ease. I so appreciate you providing additional resources, too! I will be sure to check them out!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Clarissa T.October 9, 2020 at 3:40 PM

    Tess,

    Thank you for reminding us that self-care is important. I have to keep reminding myself that I am not the only one in this world who is overwhelmed. I have been looking more into meditation and yoga and have actually found them completely useful for my busy life. They both give me a sense of peace, calmness, and a reset when dealing with stress. Thank you so much for sharing!
    -Clarissa T.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mari AvilaDecember 6, 2020 at 9:06 PM

    Thank you Tess!

    I appreciate your resources for some online self-care practices because they were different than the overly suggested face-mask and "me-time" sessions. Though virtual exhaustion is a real phenomenon, I am guilty of spending hours on social media. So if we can implement breaks from virtual work, and rather than reaching for our phones, we can use your virtual suggestions (especially the yoga one) to add those physical stretches even though we are learning and watching them virtually.

    ReplyDelete

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