What a year!
Not many could have predicted the extent to which our lives would be forced to change over the last 12 months. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that, for the majority of us, ‘social distancing’, ‘lockdown’, ‘furlough’ and ‘home-schooling’ have become common parlance. Now “you’re on mute” and the ‘zoom wave’ form a ritual part of every meeting of family, friends or colleagues. The impacts on us as individuals has been significant. I’m sure you’ll have experienced a change in your mood or emotions as you’ve had to deal with these unprecedented times. For many, these changes will have had a more lasting effect. For all of us, our moods and emotions affect our mental health and wellbeing. How we deal with these determines our levels of bouncebackability! Let’s have a look at how you can spring back better, ready to make the most of the roadmap out of lockdown.
Wellbeing
A helpful way to look at wellbeing is to split it into three areas. Each is reliant on the other to achieve a balance to your wellbeing. These three areas are:
- Mental wellbeing
- Physical wellbeing
- Financial wellbeing
Having worked with businesses to put in place solutions to support the wellbeing of their employees, this is a tried and tested way to approach improving your wellbeing.
Given the year we’ve had and the hope we now have of an end in sight, let’s take a quick look at the first of these three areas – mental wellbeing.
Survival of the kindest
You’ll probably be aware of the concept, derived from the work of Charles Darwin, of ‘survival of the fittest’ or ‘survival of the most ‘agile’. Recently, I came across a really interesting tweak on the concept of how we’ve evolved as human beings. Rather than the fittest or most agile, anthropologists have suggested evolution is, in fact, based on survival of the kindest.
Why’s this relevant to your mental wellbeing?
Well, our mood and emotions which shape our mental wellbeing, can be positively affected when we give back. When we sense that someone needs our support and we give that support, it’s not just they who benefits. We benefit positively too! Doing something nice for someone releases oxytocin which is one of the happy hormones. It literally gives you a boost to give back to someone.
You can test this out really easily. Pop out for a stroll (this will help your wellbeing too!!), and smile and say hello to those you meet (at a safe distance of course, for now anyway!!). Pop into a shop and make a point of thanking the member of staff at the checkout. Wait and watch what you get back. I guarantee you will walk away from these encounters with a better, more positive sensation.
Light at the end of the tunnel
So, you can make a positive difference to yourself by making a positive difference to others. That’s pretty cool right? We now have a roadmap out of lockdown and provided we remain on course; we could be back to something close to pre-pandemic life by the end of June. This alone, I’m sure will have boosted us with releases of dopamine. Add to that the lengthening days and sense that Spring is upon us and our serotonin releases to stabilise our mood. Put all this together and we have much to look forward to for our wellbeing. We haven’t even looked at our physical or financial wellbeing. But being in a better place with your mental wellbeing should make you feel more resourceful to focus on those other two areas as we approach the light at the
end of the tunnel.
Best of luck with your own roadmap out of lockdown.
