“Springing forward to your best mental health” after COVID-19
Now that spring is right around the corner, it’s a great time to focus on achieving your happiest and most productive life. It’s time to take a reflective moment and process that you survived a historic pandemic event. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll, reported anxiety has increased by 70%, and one in four older adults in the United States report anxiety and/or depression due to COVID-19. A federal emergency hotline has seen an astonishing 1,000% increase of callers dealing with emotional distress during COVID-19. The National Recovery Month recently reported a 55% increase in alcohol and illegal drug consumption among Americans to cope with stress, boredom, and mental health issues during the pandemic.
There has never been a better or more important time to focus on our mental health. One of the ways to improve and sustain your emotional/mental health is to learn to think about difficult issues that you have endured in a different and positive way. We know we cannot change an event or situation like COVID-19. Many of the consequences will affect us in a negative way for some time. We can learn and practice thinking about it differently, though. That’s our power.
We can remember that we are designed as humans to do difficult things, and we are able to overcome anything. Healthy, productive, and successful people learn to think about things they can’t change differently. They do this their entire life. As a therapist who has worked with people for many years who have survived and flourished in spite of abuse, addiction, depression, suicidal events, and trauma for accidents and illness, I have had the distinct honor of watching people not just survive or overcome horrible and unfair tragedies but actually live a joy-filled life full of purpose and peace.
For starters, use the mindset of “back and better than ever” to cope with the effects of COVID-19. You can’t change the situation, but you can identify the good that came out of it, no matter how minor. You can improve your mental health by doing simple and inexpensive activities every day. Decide to stop surviving and start living. Begin every day by investing in yourself by walking, exercising, or reading something motivational. Equip yourself with positive thoughts needed to deal with the stress that is likely to come your direction. Podcasts and phone apps can become a normal way to start your day.
To improve your mental health, it’s important to remember the four As of Stress Relief:
*Avoid too much overactivity and stimulation from technology
*Alter what you have overcommitted to
*Accept your mistakes and challenges as part of growth
*Adapt your standards that are unrealistic
Decide and believe that your best days are ahead, and live it in spite of what life throws at you.
