Bright vision amidst darkness...

Pandemic is indeed a stressful experience. Added is being home locked. That's another source of depression. You picked the accurate point.

Your mental and physical health are dependent on each other. Constant stress can create irregular hormonal secretion which can cause numerous physical illness. So, you need to take care of your emotional health on priority basis.

You have to understand why stress is happening! As COVID-19 is causing serious death tolls throughout the globe, it's really scary threat for everyone. As you are witnessing rising numbers through various media, negativity is hitting your thought process heavily. Added is your confined state. Look, when we face trauma, stress works in our psychology in different pattern. Those are FIGHT, FLIGHT or FREEZE mode. Your mind can react in either way. You will experience different resistance in different pattern.

• ‘Fight’ mode is about combating the problem or threat in some way. This could manifest as becoming angered about how the situation is being dealt with, becoming irritable with others, practicing obsessive hand washing or cleaning rituals.
• ‘Flight’ mode is about disconnecting or dissociating from the fact. This can be expressed as escapism into work, being over-productive or avoiding the news.
• ‘Freeze’ mode is the inability to move or act against the threat. This might manifest as apathy, or through eating too much of the wrong foods for comfort.

This is the standard reaction method of our mind. You've to decide what are you feeling and how much irritation is functioning into your brain. If you can relate with symptoms, remedy will be easier for you. But as of today we all are lost in the thought of prevention. What you mostly can feel that your life is not authentic. You are trying to cope with situation and trying to find out the easiest resource to keep your mind fresh. You may experience

• You are living with a genuine threat.
• Daily life looks different; it’s disconcerting and you can’t make sense of it.
• You realise that life is short and precarious, and nothing is promised to us.
• You are now reading about how everything might mean nothing (but it’s definitely better for your mental health if you make everything mean something).

Don't be restless with such kind of thoughts. Better concentrate on how you can utilize this period for your betterment. I can suggest some easy ways. Check it out.

1. Don't get disconnected from normal thoughts. Take the day as a normal one. Only irritation is staying home with same faces. Think on positive side. You're behaving as a responsible citizen by taking part of breaking the contagious chain.
2. What stress you're feeling, is not for virus infection. You're depressing yourself by the fear of death. End of day we all love ourselves the most. As much as you're having the news and updates, your fear is increasing. That's what makes you restless, out of control, angry. Avoid news channels and social media updates time and again. Better concentrate on something productive.
3. Extend your helping hand for household works. Do something what you never tried for a long time. Make a favourite dish and enjoy with all other members. Whatever be the taste, the amusement will take over the situation.
4. Read some books. If you don't have the physical copy, go online. It's easiest nowadays. There are huge audio books also. You just need to select and start listening without putting pressure on eyes. If you don't have the habit, grow it. It's unique .
5. Spend some quality time with aged persons at home. As we grow older, our movement gets limited within certain periphery. Older ones are habituated to live within a circle of bedroom to bathroom. They start to lose companions with whom they can share thoughts. That's why seniors very often go for detail wherever they get a chance to express. In busy schedule you hardly have that time and patience to give them a pair of listening ears. Now you have the golden opportunity to recreate tender vibes by talking to them intimately. They also need to cherish nostalgic memories. That will add some value to their thoughts also.
6. Play with kids and pets. That's the purest form of entertainment you can have in such a gloomy period. We all have hidden kids in our heart who used to be happy without any reason. As we griw older & start calculating, we lost the kid in the process of finding profit/loss. Be a kid again and roll over the floor with laughter. Trust me, you'll never feel such enthusiastic and happy from inside. Same will happen with pets. They may not have dialect but pets understand human more than other human can. They understand by eyes and ears and express by tail. Such a divine companion.
7. Do some mediation on regular basis. It not only helps you to recollect your thoughts, but also helps to consolidate your views on some specific aspects as per your thinking pattern. Also you can make an intimate connect with yourself through meditation. You can easily scan your habit formation through growing phases. You can identify your weaknesses and plan for rectification.
8. Do some reconnection exercise. Scroll down your phone book and find out numbers of forgotten friends. Call them and apologize for not contacting so long. Start a recap of your golden relationship and naughty memories. You can't imagine your such travel down to memory lane will produce so positive vibrations and happiness in your mind that you can forbid your greatest enemy at once.
9. If you're using work from home mode, better make the schedule tactically. Do professional duties when your physic has no irritation and mind on high concentration mode. Preferably on morning or late afternoon. If your partner is also working from home, make an alternate schedule so that you both can take care of kids and elders.

Now the physical fitness part.

1. As you're having minimum movement and maximum rest, make a schedule for free hand exercises. It has two great effects. One is calorie burning and another is happy hormone secretion. Diligent people generally get tight sleep due to less irritation in brain. It's nothing but hormonal magic.
2. Eat healthy and less oily foods. Eat less in quantity and more in times. Don't go for junks. Most health related facilities are hard to avail nowadays. Most of private chambers are closed and hospitals are full of contamination possibility. Don't drag your health in jeopardy by satisfying your taste. Go for basic foods.
3. Have tight sleep. For atleast 8 hours a day. It's been seen that a person can survive without solid food for 26 days or more. But without sleep a person can survive as max as 11 days. That too by being mentally destructed. So tight sleep is very essential for physical and mental health.
4. Drink sufficient water if you don't have any cardiovascular or nefrological issues. On apparently fit clinical condition a mature human body needs 3 to 5 liters of water per day to maintain standard BMR. Avoid chilled water. It has no utility. Rather it can aggravate if there is any digestive or esophageal problems. Better to have warm water. It can help in digestion, blood pressure, acid secretion, coronary functions.
5. Avoid substance abuse like excessive smoking or drinking. It can noway reduce your depressions or tensions or anger. It's just a feel of easiness the lasts for few minutes. But it has prolonged adverse effect on your anatomy. Be on least risk. For yourself and for your loved ones also.

Don't worry. Bad times will eventually pass. But if you can grow some quality habits during tight situation, you'll upgrade yourself to a better version of yours. Remember when going gets tough, tough gets going. ??

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