Carolyn Barber of Portsmouth’s Good Mental Health Cooperative, and local researcher and social entrepreneur, shares advice and resources on how to manage your mental health in lockdown.
Social isolation is usually seen as damaging to our mental health – we are all encouraged to connect with others, join local groups, find ways to meet and communicate with people. Now we are having to distance ourselves socially, to self isolate and keep away even from our nearest and dearest. Many are facing financial uncertainty, key workers are facing unprecedented pressures, families are struggling to cope. How are these different factors affecting our emotional health and mental wellbeing generally?
On the other hand, the world has slowed down. Nature is recuperating without our relentless pollution, our air is cleaner, the sea bluer. There may be time to be creative, to garden, to bake, to relax in new ways. What can we be grateful for in terms of our emotional wellbeing? Are there lessons to be learned for the gradual lifting of restrictions to come?
How do we look after our own emotional health and mental wellbeing in these unprecedented circumstances? What stresses have eased, and what others have taken their place? What can we learn from the current situation about good mental health? What are the most effective ways to support people experiencing mental distress?
The Good Mental Health Coop wants to start a ‘wider conversation’ about the different experiences people are having, what works in our own lives, what support we might need, what support we need to be offering others …
If you’d like to help us make a start, why not take a look at this survey and share your experiences. Its completely anonymous.
Click here to complete the survey
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing a range of strategies and resources to help you build mental and emotional resilience during the Covid-19 crisis.
This is just as important as our physical strength if we were planning to run a marathon! And just like our physical health, taking care of our mental health is about establishing good habits as part of our regular routine.
We’ve been hard at work updating the Resources section of the Good Mental Health Coop website – these are resources you can use to build your mental and emotional resilience during these testing times. The Resources are divided under 4 themes – Meet, Relax, Learn, Create – please take some time to browse and check them out.
Click here for Resources for Resilience
This article was originally published as a newsletter. Check out the Good Mental Health Coop website, where you can sign up to receive Carolyn’s weekly mental health updates by email, and find out more about the amazing work the Coop do. You can also follow the Coop on Twitter and Facebook, and you can read all of Carolyn’s articles for S&C here.
.
It’s OK image by @stacieswift
