Dr. Mark Swaim – Protecting Your Mental Wellbeing During Lockdown

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These are testing times for us all and one of the most important things which you can be doing for yourself doing this lockdown is looking after your mental wellbeing. Many of us will be struggling principally because our lives have been flipped upside down, and that is why now more than ever we must ensure that we are focusing on how we feel and how our mental wellbeing is. The brilliant Dr. Mark Swaim has helped me with some handy tips on how you can ensure that you are fighting fit and surviving this lock down, and here are some areas in particular which you should be focusing on. 

Personal Space/ Social Interaction 

Regardless of whether you are on your own or in a house with other people the same message remains. Being on your own or stuck to people for too long is not good which is why it is essential that you find ways to switch off, or to switch on. If you are on your own then you must ensure that you have some social interaction and you can do this with video calls to friends and family, it isn’t the asme but it’s better than being alone. If you are with people then you have to find ways in which you can switch off and get some alone time, in doing so you’ll actually be better for the other people in your home

Physical Health 

Don’t forget that physical health has a huge impact on mental wellbeing so be sure that you are also paying attention to that side of things. It can be tempting to get lazy and eat junk but if you can try and stay strong and start exercising then you are going to be greatly helping your mental health as well as your physical health. 

Goals and Targets

During this tough time it can become easy to get down in the dumps about what is happening and the perfect remedy to that is to set yourself some goals and targets for what you want  to achieve during this lockdown. This may be losing weight, learning a new language, picking up a musical instrument, whatever it is you must give yourself something to work towards. When you set a goal like this it keeps the mind busy and it gives you a sense of purpose. 

Social Media 

Everyone has to be really careful with social media at the moment because too much of it will cause you some serious problems. There is a lot of doom and gloom out there and focusing too heavily on it will have adverse affects on your mental wellbeing. Set yourself a limit each day for how long you wish to spend on social media, the best course of action is to limit yourself to just 1 hour per day. 

Work hard on your mental wellbeing and try to help others in that regard as much as you can.

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