A few important steps to protect your mental and emotional health.
In these stressful, overwhelming, and dark days, it is more important than ever to protect your mental and emotional health. Here are some tips you can engage starting today:
- Begin with self-care (adequate sleep, daily movement, balanced nutrition, time in nature). These are essential building blocks to mental well-being. (I’ll discuss sleep tips in a future post for those who struggle here!)
- Maintain social connection and community support. When it seems everyone is conspiring against you, surrounding yourself with like-minded people can be an enormous comfort and reminder that you are not alone. Check in on friends in marginalized groups who may be more directly impacted and feeling even more scared, attacked, and alone.
- Find simple actions you can take to both make a difference and activate a sense of agency and power. Write to your senator and congress-person; donate to the ACLU, Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and other agencies that support your values and are actively fighting back against attacks on our constitution, environment, healthcare, and civil rights; share grounded, fact-based information to counter misinformation. Focus on the one area where your personal gifts, talents, interests, expertise, and connections allow you to make the most impact, and trust and support others in their lanes. It’s a team effort. We’re in this together.
- Make mindful decisions about social media and news consumption. Set an intention before starting that screen time – is your purpose to learn, inform, connect, persuade, find humor? Let that intention guide your screen use. Stay informed, but do not allow despair to overtake you through endless doom-scrolling. Choose sources that provide fact-based and actionable information and that do not simply aim to inflame or stoke fear for the sake of clicks & likes (add any recommendations in the comments below!). Be mindful of timing, neither beginning nor ending your day online. Log off after an intentionally chosen length of time (perhaps set a timer to remind you) and take deep, calming breaths before re-engaging with the world around you.
- Be present. There is much to fear, but fear can paralyze. Ground yourself in the present by noticing the good things in your life that remain unchanged, and allow yourself to hold gratitude in your heart for these. Hug your loved ones and furry companions. Savor food. Wear your comfiest clothes. Luxuriate in warm showers. Notice it all.
- Be the change you long to see. As so many of our fellow citizens embrace hatred, counter that energy with love. Pursue opportunities for simple acts of kindness and connection with those around you. Do not let federal attacks steal the love, beauty, and joy that are in your power to create and share.
- Create; make art or food (for some talented individuals, these categories overlap!). Remember when we all felt helpless at the start of Covid? It’s no coincidence that many took up making bread or watching art tutorials on YouTube. The act of creation is innately empowering, which we need in a time when the news inspires fear and freeze and despair. Or map out your Spring garden plans, start your Winter garden or windowsill herb garden, organize that messy closet or drawer, fill a donation bag with old clothes, clear out the garage. Finding a project that will give you a sense of accomplishment will remind you that you are not powerless. This empowerment may inspire engagement on a broader scale, as well.
- When you become flooded, use your 5 senses to come back to the present. (I’m practicing this every day.) Look around and notice visual beauty. Tune your ears to hear various sounds: here in California, I’m appreciating birdsong, but some may rather notice the quiet and peace after a new snowfall. Inhale deeply and notice the smells, positive or negative, without resistance. Notice the physical sensation of your clothing, your body connecting to the ground or your seat. And again, find gratitude in your heart (or in a prayer, if that is part of your spiritual practice) for the simple gifts you notice with your senses.
- Most of all, hold onto hope. Even in the darkest of times, there is always hope, when we work together and maintain vision. Though that hope may be as dim as a single candle in a dark and cold cavern, let it continue to shine and guide your heart and steps forward.
What would you add to this list? What is helping you stay grounded during these turbulent times?
Please share with those in your circles who might need some mental health support right now, and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss future posts! Let’s stay connected and unified.