Do not panic and take care of your mental health as well - COVID19

I see loads of people sharing lots of interesting news about COVID19, sadly the reality is that most news evoke negative sentiments as we are globally battling a pandemic that’s of a proportion never seen in recent decades and even the best of the countries are not ready for it.

I would like to talk about the impact it has on ones mental health. Living in continuous fear, continuous negativity and in isolation can impact your mental health in no time. I am raising this concern from experience, I myself succumbed to it and have seen numerous friends going through similar sentiments. In the last one month my health has been affected adversely because of the panic I inflected on myself, in fact, I am currently taking meds for hypertension and facing panic attacks as well when I read about news related to coronavirus. I thought 100 times before speaking out about it publicly and I am pretty sure there are plenty around who are equally panicking about the situation so this post is for everyone out there requesting to stay mentally fit.

Trust what your governments are doing, there is only so much they can do and the rest depends on how we as citizens behave. Firstly, ensure you follow all government orders without any lapse, then ensure people around you follow the same. I see numerous people expecting their maids/drivers to show up even during lockdown, when a maid who works in several homes shows up at your home it beats the very purpose of a lockdown. Make people understand the necessity of a lockdown and ensure they follow it too.

there is no perfect way to go about how a government can handle covid19 so showcasing disappointment in the way your government deals with the situation can be understood but that isn’t the solution. As I said, trust your government please! It’s much needed now.

Coming back to the point, make sure to follow some basic steps to keep your mental health stable.
1. Stay away from social media, it just swallows you deep down without you realising it. There are tons of articles being thrown around with people showcasing how scared they are about the situation. Everyones negativity will keep pooling up on you and make you even more tensed.
2. Keep yourself engaged in daily activities – clean your home, start talking to people, play multiplayer games with cousins/friends, play games with your family, watch stuff on TV together with your family in your hall TV and not in your personal laptops.
3. Ensure you read only the likes of news18 or ndtv and only once or twice. If there is something important that one has to know it will be covered on the news sites. There is no point hunting down and reading all articles on twitter/facebook, I am not discrediting the authenticity of the articles but it’s just that the negativity is too much to handle.
4. Practice meditation, at least 30 minutes per day ( can split sessions). Trust me, it helps a lot to stay calm. Just the basic meditation of staying in a silent room and not thinking about anything at all can help loads. Other meditation technique that can help relieve stress a lot is ‘anulom vilom’, search for it on youtube to get guided videos.