What does mental health mean?
Mental health is the social behavior and emotional well being of a human. The sad part is that mental health is still termed as or thought of as an intellectual disorder or disability, which is the biggest myth of mankind and needs to change. Mental health needs to be acknowledged, termed normal, and not feel ashamed to talk about. Seeking professional help will make a difference when things go out of control.
How working from home affects our Mental Health?
For most of the professionals, we haven’t had any issues as our family is quite supportive and helps us to focus on our work. Since we have been away from them for quite a while, it was a golden opportunity for us to catch up with them and recreate the bond that we missed.
We miss the people in the office and the ambiance. But this experience will always be cherished in our hearts because it brought a lot of positivity. We explored different parts of us and the people around us, which is an advantage as we couldn’t do it previously due to our busy schedules.
Life took a turn, but the only complaint that we have on work from home is the ergonomics setup. The office is a work-friendly environment and has perfect ergonomic changes that prevent musculoskeletal disorders and physical stress. We realized the amount of effort put by the officials to make the workplace better for the employees. Everything has its pros and cons, but for us, work from home had a positive impact on our mental health.
A sudden impact on mental health due to this COVID-19 crisis:
The impact was immense as our rat race which we’re used to and bound to was suddenly stopped. It was a relief for some and a headache for some others. Drifting away from the normal life was hard which resulted in involuntary mental health issues.
- Irritability
- Anxiety
- Depression
These were some of the main problems I encountered during the lockdown due to the sudden crash of professional and personal life. Excessive friction between individuals due to the lack of personal space in households. Panic attacks had grown at a faster rate for people worrying about the future.
Depression got too many, and the suicidal cases were increasing rapidly which affected all of us in some way or the other. These issues are not acknowledged due to the lack of awareness among the people. It is not addressed because it is not known, mental-health awareness is mandatory. Initially, I missed the office, colleagues, and friends and it took me a while to get used to this new lifestyle and routine.
What do we do to maintain positivity and mental health?
- Wake up early Brings in a lot of positivity and feels like we have a lot of time to do work which doesn’t have pressure on us to rush into things.
- Meditate Brings us mental peace and boosts our immune system for the better.
- Do some household chores Helps to ease things and stay away from unnecessary issues and family toxicity.
- Do office work
- Exercise After a long day of sitting and working, we need to lose out the excess fat and energize yourself for a better tomorrow.
- Talk to friends Makes us happy to know that there are still people who love and care about us even after being distanced. It makes us feel validated and important.
- Sleep on time Keeps us away from a lot of health issues
Keeping yourself engaged in productive activities has improved our mental and physical health
in a lot of ways. Everything has become a bit slow and I feel wasting time on unproductive things would only lead to overthinking and to a point where we could even be pushed to have an existential crisis.
Quick tips for keeping your mental health stable in WFH :
- Get your office ambience at home. Possibly choose the place in your house where you get sunlight or windows corner it helps to keep you concentrated.
- Take breaks to balance your mood swings,it’s advisable to take a nap for an hour or some minutes in between if you have a tiring day.
- Add a peaceful fragrance to your atmosphere and it sets your mind free the entire day.
- Pick a comfortable chair to take your seats on to ensure it’s not killing your backbone.
- Every little thing you do for your mental health matters. It’s not preferred to take coffee constantly in your regular breaks.Try for Green tea and some refreshing drinks.
- Ensure you’re not getting addicted to any things during this period,the worst case of this is it will reflect even after the lockdown period shuts down.