Self-Care Strategies to Look After Your Mental and Physical Health During Pandemic

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Thursday, 13 October 2022

Written by Luke Douglas

Self-Care Strategies to Look After Your Mental and Physical Health During Pandemic

In the last couple of years, our lives have been heavily influenced by the ongoing pandemic. Unfortunately, no part of the world was lucky enough to avoid it as the news about the pandemic became the most important one in Asia, America, Europe, even Australia and the rest of the globe.

Moreover, even the people who haven’t actually caught the virus and got sick, have still felt and are feeling the negative psychological influences of it, as our everyday lives have been completely changed. That is just the reason to pay extra attention to our health, both physical and mental. Keep on reading to find out a few self-care strategies that can help you improve the quality of your life and health, as the pandemic is still a part of our everyday reality.

Stay active

Unavoidably, as we work from home and generally spend much more time at home than we did before the pandemic started, as a consequence, we nowadays have less physical activity. This can have a toll on one’s body and mind, as working out, jogging, or going for even a half-an-hour walk lowers the risk of many chronic illnesses and help us easily combat an acute illness even if we catch one. Moreover, a nice walk in nature will get us plenty of fresh air and will help our mind relax. Generally speaking, exercising boosts our immune system as well as our mood. Luckily, gyms across the world have started working again, so as long as you keep up with the safety measures, you can go for a nice session or opt to work out in the open, whenever possible.

Get enough sleep

With almost every aspect of our daily routine being disrupted by the pandemic, our sleeping schedule is no exception. This may seem like an insignificant factor and you may even be thinking that you can function perfectly normally with only four hours of sleep per night, but you will be wrong. Getting approximately eight hours of quality sleep and being consistent with the time when you go to bed and wake up is essential for not only your immune system, but also your mental well-being. However, you may find that anxiety prevents you from achieving this goal. As almost everyone is getting more relaxed with keeping their social distance, you may worry if you have accidentally caught the virus, even if you live in a country with great preventive measures, such as Australia. To be sure, you can do an antigen test before bed. Therefore, you should know the trusty places where to buy rapid antigen test kit in Australia, as you want to be sure that the test is reliable and be anxiety-free, and go easily to sleep once you get a negative result. These kinds of tests are great to have by your side at any time and easy to use, so do use them to get this worry out of your way and enjoy some quality sleep. You will see that enough sleep makes you feel less emotional and stressed and helps you have more focus and energy.

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Be kind to yourself

With the pandemic being a worldwide problem, you may think it is a bad thing to focus on yourself and treat yourself with kind words and things you love. But, the truth is: If you are not going to take care of yourself, no one else is. So, this is the best time to read the books you like, listen to great music, and even start learning a new skill or language you always wanted to speak. Moreover, be kind to yourself and don’t reproach yourself for every little mistake or thing that you could have done better. Instead, practice saying “good job” and/or celebrate with a little dessert every little accomplishment. Learn to appreciate and love yourself, and do use the time to take a spa day, meditate, binge-watch your favorite shows, or go shopping, if these are the activities that make you happy. Being a friend to ourselves improves our mental health immensely, reducing anxiety and depression. Doing what you love and being kind to yourself also improves your confidence, which in turn has a positive impact on your physical health. Therefore, you are never being egoistic if you are being good towards yourself.

To sum up, we can say that a few simple tricks and established healthy routines are the best strategies for keeping and improving our health during the pandemic. Do the best you can, take care of yourself and others, and don’t stress about the little things, but enjoy them.