Activities To Help With Your Anxiety During Quarantine
As of right now stress levels are at an all time high. Many people are getting sick and our lives have drastically changed from what was once the norm. Since we are all taking precautions to stay home and help prevent spreading the disease further, it has caused us to go into a bit of a survival mode. We are preparing for the worst, so it’s causing us to stalk up on supplies. Our bodies are on high alert and most of us are stressed to the max. There is a very real fear circulating because we are anticipating the unknown, and we don’t know what’s going to happen. Our worst fears are coming into place with questions like, Is this Doomsday? Am I going to get sick? Will I survive this? Will there be enough food? We need to stop with those negative thoughts because it will worsen your anxiety and the possibility of your worst fear coming true is very slim. We ARE going to survive this!
I have faith that we are going to get through this faster than our anxiety driven minds are telling us right now. People are going to have compassion towards payments and there are options on how to get food and supplies, if you can’t afford them. This may be a bump in the road however, we are surely going to make it over that bump. Telling you that it’s going to be okay may help a little however, it’s important to have activities to help relieve your stress. Discover some activities I recommend to de-stress:
Get up and move!
The most important thing you can do to help with your anxiety is get up and move! When you’re active it releases endorphins into your brain, giving you that happy workout high. Being active also reduces your cortisol levels and just makes you feel better mentally.
The thing that usually helps me to de-stress is taking a walk. The current mandates do not prevent us from taking a walk and going outside. We do however need to practice social distancing and staying at least 6 feet from each person. If taking a walk or hiking is giving you anxiety instead of helping, you should walk around your neighborhood or backyard. If that option is still giving you a bit of anxiety then try opening a window and do some in home workouts.
Some at workouts to try if you feel safer inside:
Dancing, Jumping Jacks, Yoga, Planks, Sit Ups, Use Weights (If you don’t have weights, get creative!), Sit ups, or just anything involving moving your body and getting your heart rate up in a good way. There’s also a wide collection of workout videos on Youtube you can browse and add to your favorites. I personally went out and bought a cycle bike off of Amazon. I usually attend Grit Cycle in Long Beach, CA. They have adjusted their workouts and now offer online videos, so anyone can ride with them and not miss out on their normal routine.
When you’re stuck in your house and being stagnant, it can ignite your stress so get up and move! Being active will help with your mental health the most out of any other activity out there.
Take a bath and relax!
Taking a bath is not only relaxing, but is good for your health! When you take a bath it helps kill bacteria/viruses which is especially helpful during this time. Taking a bath helps with circulation and blood flow in the body. Steam from the bath can help with breathing and can help with colds. If you take a bath right before you go to bed it can also help you get to sleep faster. Along with many of those health benefits depending on what you put in your bath, it can also do wonders for your skin.
You can prepare your bath however you want. I love to prepare mine with Epsom salt and some drops of lavender oil. When I can get my hands on some I also love to drop a deliciously scented Lush bath bomb in my tub — my absolute favorite. Your bath time is there for you. It should help with your anxiety and slow your mind down.
Meditate!
Meditation is something I have fought for years. I honestly thought it was stupid and just couldn’t get on board. When I tried to meditate I wasn’t able to slow down my anxiety. Instead I was just frustrated that I didn’t feel like I was doing it right, which caused me to have more anxiety.
My opinion on meditation changed after I was at the point where I was very invested in getting help with my PTSD. I was going to therapy 2 times a week, doing EMDR therapy, not working, doing outdoor activities by myself all the time and just really taking healing as my number one focus. My therapy was really intense and at the end of the session she would have to use a guided meditation to bring me back to normal and take me out of fight or flight mode. When someone who I trusted who is also really good at guided meditation helped guide me through it, I started to like meditation.
It’s been 3 years since I started enjoying meditation and now I have fallen in love with it. Meditation helps with my PTSD so much along with my generalized anxiety. A lot of the times if I have been triggered, I lock myself in my room and do a guided Youtube meditation. About 90 percent of the time it will take me out of fight mode and bring me to a relaxed state. I really recommend checking out guided meditation on Youtube. There’s also free apps you can download on your phone like InsightTimer or Calm. It has been a game changer in my life. Try different meditations and don’t give up in the beginning if you don’t like it. Practice makes perfect and the more you do it, the easier it will be.
If you have given meditation over 30 tries, where you really gave it your best effort, then you either need someone to guide you in person or your need to adapt movement in your body. Sometimes the anxiety is stuck, so you need to move in order to move around that energy.
Cook A Healthy Meal!
Cooking is a great way to spend time during this quarantine. If you are already a fantastic chef, then you can get creative and experiment with new masterpieces. If you are not the best in the kitchen, then you can take this time to learn something new and distract your mind from what’s going on around us. Cooking uses a lot of creativity and the right side of the brain. The right side of the brain also functions out of your emotions so it’s great to distract your brain with a healthy, creative activity.
When you’re cooking a meal a lot of the time you are more aware of what you are putting in your body. Eating healthy can be beneficial to your brain function. Eating certain things with Vitamin B and omegas has shown to help with depression. Eating healthy in general helps with our everyday health. If you feel healthy right now that will give you a bit more peace of mind that you will survive this if you did get the virus.
Get Dolled Up And Have A Zoom Hour!
There’s nothing like having friends that you get along better with than your family members. Your friends are your friends for a reason and it’s so important not to forget that you have them during this time. We are all in this together so it’s important to keep in communication with each other. Normally we would be planning to go out and see each other so why not continue to see each other even if you can’t do it in person.
We are in the modern age, we have so many ways to communicate and see each other’s faces even though we’re miles apart. Let’s take advantage of that modern technology and check up on one another. You can also get ready like you were going to go out so that you can create that normalcy so it doesn’t feel like that part of you has changed. Also when I get dolled up it always gives me a bit more confidence and makes me feel better.
Writing!
Writing can be so cathartic. There have been times where I have written letters to people and have gotten out how I felt about them. Writing has helped me get closure on so many things and come to realizations that I wouldn’t have otherwise seen. It’s just a way to get out all the emotions that are running around in your head and get to the root of what’s really going on. There are so many benefits for your mental health from writing so it’s important to write down how you feel.
If you want a creative way to heal in your writing during this time. I recommend writing 3 letters to yourself. I recommend writing one where you write down as if you were talking to yourself in the mirror and telling yourself every negative belief you believe about yourself. After you have written that letter, you are going to write a 2nd letter to anyone who has ever made you feel that way and find a way to thank them. You need to thank them in a way that you were able to change that negative belief and proved them wrong. The third letter you will write will be one to yourself 5 years from now talking about what you picture your life to look like. This was the most therapeutic writing exercise I have done and recommend everyone to try it.
Writing also means that we are creating history. Whether it’s a timeline of your life , poetry, or any other form of writing. Your poetry might be a great hit in years to come or you could be studied from years from now. Anne Frank kept a journal and her story has been one of the most powerful stories in time. Keep writing it is more powerful than you may even know.
Start Gardening!
Gardening like many of the other activities I have recommended is so therapeutic. It can be so relaxing as long as you’re okay with getting a little dirty. When you’re gardening, you are soaking in vitamin D. Getting vitamin D into your system can help promote healthy bones, can help in breathing better, can help promote healthy sleep, and so much more!
When you garden you are also giving back to the earth! You are creating oxygen and depending on what you are growing you could be cultivating food to eat and replenish your body. If you grow plants to eat and you are also helping to cut back on gas and trips to the market. When you grow in your backyard or balcony you also are cutting back on the emissions used to transport from where it was grown which sometimes could be thousands of miles. Growing your own food is great for you and the environment.
Whether or not you take my advice on these activities, you should do the things that make you happy right now. Finding things to do that make you happy and keep you from getting bored is crucial during this time. Boredom is at an all time high and it can be detrimental to your health. What are some ways you’re staying sane or getting creative to maintain or even improve your mental health during this time? Please share!
Thank you for reading, I hope this was helpful and that you’re staying safe out there!