Mental Health and Coronavirus Pandemic

By Patrice Perkins, Life Coach

Your Brighter Outlook

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Mental Health and Coronavirus Pandemic

Fueling Power-Less Into Power-Ful

During the coronavirus pandemic we have been inundated with important facts and news about precautions and information that should keep us safe. Our mental health may feel weighed down with news reports, statistical numbers and possibilities that are always seemingly dire – this constant input of information will cause us to feel power-LESS.

Why is that? Because of the seemingly unknown result. The unknown during the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc on our mental health, making us feel anxious, stressed or even scared. We get programmed into tunnel vision, and then it becomes hard for us to take a step back and review all of our options, because in this state of mind, we don’t feel like we have any options. It can be incredibly challenging to realize through this form of conditioning how much power and influence you actually do possess in your life.

While we are all practicing social distancing many people are coming up with ideas to make their place of solitude a free space to do exactly what they want to do. How often have you had the time to relax your schedule, binge watch TV shows and movies, play with your children, stay up late and connect with your family in a way that has become “the new normal” without complaints, structure and outside requests and obligations? We are all at this point in charge of our days and how we spend them. We’ve learned that all of our comforts and socializing with others have been deemed “inappropriate” and actually forbidden by our federal, state and local governments.

We deserve our family space and time. We’ve been accomplishing our job responsibilities, paying bills, sitting in traffic, dealing with the day-to-day outside of the home and giving it our best. Our families have had to learn to take a back seat because we asked for them to do their part to help the family stay strong and together.

Now, we get to put all those other things to the side (cellphones, tablets, social media and emails) and concentrate solely on home life and family and getting to the other side of this dilemma together. We get to commune, and talk to one another. We get to really lavish our loved ones with “us” face-to-face, one-on-one. Not in a text, not on FaceTime. You can engage in family breakfast, schedule time during the day for crafts, get out in your yard, watch your children play. Get that puzzle from under the bed and have a group puzzle party. Or, decide collectively on a new hobby.

Spending the time to entertain one another will be a joy in itself. You are now promoting the ability to motivate calmness and inspire broadness in the imagination of the family as a whole during our present situation by giving them tools to “overcome” this situation–not to wilt away because of it. You are fueling your family by introducing these outlets, you are tapping into their strengths and imagination, you are giving them permission to be a family by encouraging laughter and hugs now more than ever. We have now implanted power-FUL in our lives.

Ponder: Troubles don’t last, but how you get through them could leave an indelible imprint forever!