5 Ways to Lift Your Mood During the Coronavirus Pandemic

5 Ways to Lift Your Mood During the Coronavirus Pandemic

By Maggie O’Neill in HEALTHY LIVING

APRIL 24, 2020

1. Ask what made you happy before this started, then do more of it. It’s getting really challenging to remember a time before all of this madness started, but it can be helpful to think back to your normal routine, pre-pandemic, and question what it was that brought you joy. That will look different for everyone of course. It might include spending time with your family members. getting in a good workout, or connecting with your spirituality. Once you identify what made you happy before all of this, make a plan to do more of it. Think of what you like and want to do and then do more of it.
2. Remind yourself of all you have to be thankful for. Bad news is everywhere right now, and if you spend any time at all on the Internet, you’re likely going to confront a lot of horrifying reports. But you can intentionally try to balance the scale of positive and negative news in your life. Try app called Three Good Things. The app will remind you to log three things you’re grateful for every day (think journaling but on your phone instead.) There’s no shame in keeping it simple. You don’t have to come up with three big wins everyday-just three parts of your day that went well. If technology isn’t your thing, try jotting them down in a notebook, or just stopping to mentally count off three things you’re grateful for.
3. Treat yourself-especially first thing in the morning. Being stuck in quarantine can cause you to develop a maddening sense of repetition. Getting up and doing the exact same thing day after day can be both exhausting and irritating, especially in the morning routine, trying something you normally wouldn’t treat yourself to. like a new breakfast recipe or coffee creamer, for instance, or a spa-like shower instead of your normal 15-minute rise off, so you start your day off with a positive outlook. You can also opt for a more mindful wake-up by starting your day with a morning meditation.
4. Use any pent-up energy to your creative advantage. Doing something creative really can help you through this troubling time because it distracts you, especially if you pick a creative exercise that forces you to learn a new skill. Creativity helps you focus on something that takes all your attention. If you’ve been meaning to teach yourself to knit, get to work on that coloring book you got for Christmas, or dig into more creative writing now’s the time to jump into it. That said don’t make whatever creative activity you try into a competitive exercise. While trying new things can be a refreshing distraction, it’s important not to get caught in the trap of comparing how you’re spending your quarantine down time with the way other people are spending theirs. Your number one priority right now should be keeping yourself healthy and well-not racing to get ahead of the rest of the world.
5. Schedule time to worry (because you’re going to do it anyway). This might seem counterproductive at first, but, if done correctly, it can actually help you worry less. Scheduling time to worry is an evidenced-base practice used by some with anxiety. But this doesn’t mean you can just pick random times throughout the day to wallow in the bad news you hear, Instead, the practice hinges on structure: Pick a 20-minute time slot each day to allow yourself to worry. Get as detailed as you can-even down to planning what chair you’ll sit in and what you’ll do during this time (such as journaling). Use your allotted worry time to fret about everything that’s making you nervous but set a timer so that you know to snap out of it when worry time-this won’t necessarily help you if you allow yourself to keep worrying for the rest of the day. If something worrisome creeps up later in the day after you’ve already had your scheduled worry time, remind yourself that you can worry about whatever this new problem is, but that you’ll have to so during the next day’s worry time. There’s a chance that you will have already forgotten about it by the next day’s worry time-which might even tell you how insignificant it was in the first place.