How Protecting Your Mental Health is The “New Normal”

With the lockdown, we’re spending more time in isolation. We may also be spending more time worrying about things beyond our control. The economy, the world, our future—the list seems endless and suddenly,it feels like everything hangs in the balance.

An NHS Mental Health Clinical Lead, Owen O’Kane gives us the tools to manage unwanted fretting and advice on how to stabilize our mental health, in his bestseller, ‘Ten Times Happier: How to let go of what’s holding you back.’ Because ultimately, less worry = more happy!

Let’s take a look at his top tips to keep the blues away during this trying time. But first, grab a pen and paper!

List, list, list…

congerdesign/Pixabay: List everything that bothers you

Put all those bothers to paper, preferably as a list. Free your mind and heart of all the tensions troubling you.

Question Yourself

fizkes/Shutterstock: Are your concerns even valid?

Have these concerns ever come true? Chances are, you’ll answer ‘No’ to more items on that list than you’d think.

If the answer is, indeed, a ‘Yes,’ then shifting the focus from ‘what if this happens’ to, ‘what would I do if it did.’ This breaks you away from feeling helpless about the trouble and equips you with the skills and thought pattern to face if it ever comes true. Maybe even a feasible action plan that makes your fear die away because now the distress has a resolution, so it won’t render you to stay in worry-mode anymore.

Mind Tweaks

Look Studio/Shutterstock: Allowing yourself to feel positive

Do you believe worrying is positive? This belief might be causing you to lose sleep over them, and is probably stealing away at your happiness. Who said talking to yourself is bad? Making yourself realize that dwelling on unease is only negative, might help you break away from the usual pattern.

Have a Slot to Park Your Worries

Dedicating a time ‘to worry’ and making yourself write through the day’s agitations during this slot only is the final tip Owen presents. It’s a good way to stop yourself from being overwhelmed with burdens while you’re working or are otherwise occupied.

By hitting pause on the worries that occur along the day and returning to them when the mind is less cluttered—it would likely make you drop or forget upsetting occurrences you thought needed a reaction at the time. This most probably means that the particular concern was not even warranted.

We hope these tips help to break away from ‘Generation Anxiety’ and form a new ‘Generation Happiness.’ Because life should be enjoyed, and let’s face it,  there’s so much to do even in this time of isolation.