Reem Shaheen, psychologist and founder of Be Psychology Center in Dubai, has some simple tips to help us deal with all the uncertainty, helplessness and stress we are feeling about Covid-19.
- Develop a structure to your day. A lot of people are being asked to work from home, children and teachers are not going into school so your usual daily routine is gone. Try and give structure to your day by dividing up the time and alloting specific slots for all your tasks.
- Maintain social contact through text messages and video calls, just to keep the connection going with your loved ones.
- Keep doing some form of physical exercise. Many trainers are posting online training routines that you can do at home. Or go for a walk. Any kind of physical exercise will get the blood flowing and the endorphins going.
- Schedule more time for self-care, for meditation, for yoga, for things to ground you.
- Try to avoid watching too much news or taking in too much information from too many different types of media. Pick one reliable source of information, check it out maybe once a day and leave it at that. Everything else is just fuelling the anxiety and a lot of the uncertainty that we are already going through because of the current situation.
- Set aside more time to practice stress-relief exercises. This can mean doing a puzzle or drawing. Whatever brings down your stress levels, make sure you make time for it.