Mental Health Post Lockdown

No matter how mentally or emotionally tough you think you are, there is little doubt that this year’s pandemic and lockdown will have had a profound effect on you, whether you have noticed or not. There is a stage which the mind will have had to go through this year to adapt to the changing environment and the feeling of being enclosed. Now that we are slowly lowering restrictions it is important that you are in a good place to get your mental health back to where it needs to be.

Recently many medical experts such as the wonderful Dr. Curtis Cripe have been sharing thoughts on how you can improve your general mental wellbeing post lockdown.

Getting Out

Many people will have developed a sort of Stockholm Syndrome with regards to being at home and whilst of course so many of us have spent this time desperately wishing that we could go out and about, as lockdown restrictions are eased many stay in their routine of being at home. It is essential that you get out as much as you possibly can, and that you take every opportunity available to get outside. Now more than ever is the time to reconnect with the world.

Physical Exercise

One of the best ways of feeling good about yourself is to get out and do some physical exercise and just 30 minutes per day can have an enormous effect on how you are feeling. This is no shortcut to great mental health but physical and mental health so often go together and if you are feeling fit and energetic in the body then it is likely that you will also feel this way in the mind. Get out for walks, go for runs, do some bootcamp style workouts, whatever you need to do to get the heart rate up and get the blood pumping.

Social

 Whilst many of us have been using the likes of Zoom and Skype to keep in touch with our loved ones the reality is that it just isn’t the same as actually spending time with them. As soon as you are able to, and as long as you can do so whilst staying safe, get out and do as much as possible with your friends and your family. Humans are social creatures and it is this which we have lacked over the last few months, get out there and socialize once again.

Taking Action

It is likely that over the course of the last few months you have made promises to yourself about the things that you would do when things reopened. Now is the time to cash in on that and to go after whatever it was that you wanted to do when you were locked down. It can be very easy to forget how you felt back then, which is why taking the chance to do something sooner rather than later is the best course of action right now.

Work on you and getting back to where you were 6 months ago.