Staying mentally well when you’ve been locked up for 12 weeks

I’m over my four walls.   Everyone I know is over their four walls.  For me, mental well-being and propping myself up when I was wobbly used to look like getting a pedicure, going out with a friend for a cocktail or something delicious to eat, or dancing till my legs hurt and my ears were ringing.

I feel like I am almost always wobbly these days and we are still keeping predominately to our four walls so we can protect each other and our health system from the pandemic.

Here’s some ways you can care for yourself, within your home(ish):

1. Take yourself out for coffee, support local, walk to the café and really look around your neighbourhood, are their trees or bushes in bloom? Teddy bears in windows?  Lights up for Diwali?
2. Spring clean, hit a spot that’s been bugging you for ages – if you no longer need it, let it go and if you don’t complete the task, remind yourself that making a start is the hardest part!
3. Mindfully eat something you enjoy – engage your senses, take in the smell, pay attention to the texture and how it feels in your mouth, the flavour
4. Host a bubble dance party in your living room – get some mood lighting happening and enjoy a tasty beve
5. Mix bubbles and meet a friend for a socially distanced walk/hike/picnic
6. Set a really easy to do list for the day – include eating meals and drinking water, then spend the day ticking things off
7. Schedule a video call with someone that always makes you smile or laugh – forgive yourself as well as them if you don’t smile and laugh as much as you usually would
8. Resolve to be okay with not being okay, these are trying times and not being okay is really mentally healthy – promise!
9. Escape through a good book or TV series – not for the next 12 weeks but a few nights in a row won’t hurt
10. Make a list of all the things you are grateful for today

Though we feel like we’re on opposing teams - vaxxed/non-vaxxed, Auckland/the rest of the country - I encourage you to practice radical empathy, with yourself and those around you.   We’re all struggling with our own battles and we will all get through them.

Kia kaha e hoa ma x

Disclaimer: I'd like to acknowledge that I am now in the privileged position to miss having pedicures and frivolously throw money at my mental health - this was not always the case and I know that lacking the disposable income to practice these kinds of self care adds an added layer of stress.