Upkeep for your mental health during Lockdown

 

 

Topic:  Upkeep for your mental health during Lockdown

Lockdown can be stressful for many and can hamper mental well-being of few others, particularly affecting the youth.

We understand that this nationwide lockdown, is a period of uncertainty and carries a fear of future, anxiety due to illness, daily challenges to be dealt with, among other things.

Here are few tips to remain positive, to keep up your mental well being and preparedness for future success.

To remain positive follow *'PERMA'*, a concept given by renowned positive psychologist Martin Seligmen. ie

*P: Positive Emotions;* It is of utmost importance to generate positive emotions, which one can do by practising positive affirmations for self and others. Find the goodness in every work you strive to take up. Spare your valuable time to think, talk and discuss about the positives in each other, share your laughter, see old albums and  reminiscence your memories, praise each other for even small efforts put in the tasks.

*E: Engagement*: Going with the flow, what comes naturally to self. Engage wholeheartedly to the tasks taken up.Find joyful and novel ways to complete it.Be fully engrossed in whatever you strive for, be it household chores,work from home,or enjoying indoor playing.

*R: Relationships*; Another important feature to keep up good mental health and positivity is to have relationships based on mutual love, respect, trust and non violence. Nurturing relationships can be particularly fruitful during lockdown. Always spare time for positive conversations with your partner, parents, children, friends, including listening and understandings to their feelings, their plans, help to overcome difficulties, co- jointly indulge into daily activities, share laughter stories and crack jokes, play each other's favourite songs etc. 

*M: Meaning*: Have a purpose and strive to have a meaningful life.Prepare a monthly to do list to carry out daily. Prepare a thankful journal and write in daily. Along with family members set up and follow a discipline regime, and develop habit of reading books [or anything else that you are interested in doing, that's helps you find meaning and passion in life].

*A: Accomplishment*; Make a plan for future success and do some online courses to upgrade your skills, set achievable targets and strive to accomplish ,when working from home. Challenge yourself to look out ways to exchange your work performance. Take 10-15 minutes break to do breathing exercises , relax yourself tore-boast yourself for future work.

*Follow some Do's and Don't's:*

*Do's:*

1: Make a Gratitude journal and fill it on a daily basis.

2: Keep calm, listen carefully and practice patience

3:Compliment more and be more accepting, be flexible in your attitude, thoughts and actions.

4: Spare time to re-think, re-shape & re-value yourself in your 'Me time'.

5:Relax and enhance your concentration through indulging into Mindful meditation, Yoga and Deep breathing exercises.

  

*Don't's* 

1: Avoid being judgemental, else it will increase conflicts.

2: Avoid feeling helpless and thinking that the situation is out of control.

3: Avoid being lazy and sleepy all the time, else this may lead to mood swings.

4: Avoid having high expectations and demanding from family members.

5: Avoid using excessive use of gadgets and following traumatic news throughout the day.

Bhavna Mukund

Clinical Psychologist

The Five D's for Being Successful

 The Five D's for Being Successful

Every individual aspires to be successful in their endeavors. Success is not about being fortunate or lucky but about learning, practicing and imbibing certain qualities to achieve success.

Here are five D's one may ingrain in one's personality to lead a successful life.

1: Discipline:  If you make and follow a strict schedule for your household chores and at workplace ensuring that you have a daily routine, it will not only make your day hassle-free but also save you from unnecessary anxiety. Practicing  discipline will keep you relaxed, help you to think better and act in a  responsible way. Discipline in life  will keep you away from distractions and helps you to manage  and utilize your time effectively.

2: Determination: Determination helps to set priorities and enables  you to strive hard to achieve them. Strong determination leads to  persistent efforts towards  achievement of the desired goals. It also helps one to explore and create more opportunities for oneself. Determination is like fuel for intrinsic motivation, a drive to follow one’s passion.

3: Decisiveness: It’s the ability or power  to  make a clear decision at the right moment.One needs to practice to be decisive. Reaching to a conclusion, after every important discussion keeps the mind clutter free and helps in development of  a rationale. Being decisive instils clarity and helps you to be planned and  organized. One can be decisive by gathering relevant information about tasks at hand, arranging meetings and  understanding different viewpoints. Decisiveness helps in building  one's self-esteem and self-confidence.

4:Development: Focusing on self-development by learning new set of skills or modules  fosters growth and progress. By working hard on improving both the quality, quantity of work and aiming for positive change, you can let the process of development to function. A developmental approach enables capacity building, stabilization and effective use of resources, leading to advancement and success  in the desired  field.

5:Dream big: Do not limit your imagination, ideas or thoughts. Those who dream big will try to achieve big. Thoughts have immense power to make things work, so let your thoughts flow. Give time to your thoughts to be creative, productive and imaginative. Dreams allow you to have wings to fly, set goals, look for innovation and transform them into a reality.

To conclude, all the five D's combined together will help an individual to shape their personality in order to prepare themselves for future success and save themselves from unwarranted stress or tension.

Bhavna Mukund

Clinical Psychologist

Psychological Well-Being: Relishing Motherhood

Recognize Your Strengths

Recognize Your Strengths

The word ‘Strengths’ evokes a positive response or meaning in our minds signifying qualities both physical and mental that one could perform and is of genuine interest to oneself.

Knowing exactly, what one is capable of doing, tends to boost one’s self-confidence and hopes are held high to execute better. 

Discovering your strengths enables you to determine your future aims, plan for success, and do time management effectively. Focusing on your strengths enables you to cope well in difficult times, in stress or adversities  and help you to be resilient. Therefore, it’s important to know and focus on your strengths and abilities. 

Here are a few ways through which one can try to discover one's core strengths.

Know Your Passion: Work that drives you intrinsically to consummate, cherish and let you be creative may define your passion for it to some extent. Activities that naturally motivate yourselves to strive for perfection, go with the flow,  let you be fully engaged and involved could be your passion for it. Being passionate about your work is one of the determinants to discover your strengths.

Frequency and Time Spent: If an individual tends to carry out  activity of one’s choice within a fixed regular routine and feels a sense of accomplishment, then this may indicate your strength in it. Also, frequently sparing time to indulge into your favourite activity and striving really hard in mastering the skills leads to unravelling your strength in that field. Activities that you tend to relish even amongst your busy schedules and find it mentally relaxing could be your inner strength to carry out that particular activity with ease and be more productive.

Acknowledging Qualities: Qualities that one possesses, can have a great impact on one’s perception about self and on developing personality as an entity. If one is known by and praised for his/her particular set of quality/qualities such as being a philanthropic, social worker, leadership qualities, etc. amongst friends, relatives, respected elders, in community and is embedded in one’s own belief system, then acceding to it, would not only build your self-esteem but also helps to know your personality attributes. 

Source for Relaxation: Having access to plenty of resources, when one tends to practice a particular habit such as indulging into philosophical readings or staging dramas, etc., because it’s a constant source for mental and physical relaxation then it may be indicative of one’s genuine interest and core strengths. Your inclinations to carry out any activity with great fervor as it revitalizes you in search of your inner quest could be your strengths. 

Unfeigned Endeavour: if an individual puts in sincere efforts to nurture one’s prowess through finding several ways and means speaks volumes about one’s desires to be an expert in that activity. Desiring to learn through enrolling in various courses to strive for perfection and to horn on one’s skills could be your strengths for that activity. 

Experimented and Creative: if one is ready to explore and experiment with one’s thoughts and ideas for learning new techniques to master skills, for example, experimenting with cooking, drawing, weaving, composing music, taking risks in stocks exchange, newer methods of poetic expressions, etc., can help to identify one’s strengths. Indulging and carving creative tools to refine on cherished aims could be your signature strengths.

To conclude, knowing one's strengths  may open new horizons for self-  connectedness,self-management, higher  self-esteem and to achieve greater heights in both personal and professional lives.

By: Bhavna Mukund

Clinical Psychologist

Nurturing Relationships

               Nurturing Relationships

Happy Relationships are an integral part of human lives to remain productive, joyous and enhancing positive well-being. Healthy Relationships are the core component for building  a healthy society, for personal growth and happy living. Relationships that are embedded with mutual trust, affection and respect  acts as a  buffer to adversities.

Here are 5 Effective ways to nurture relationships with significant others in our lives: 

 

Be Empathetic: Understanding others  pain, emotional agony, challenges  and feeling emotions of others with same intensity but remaining calm and compose, may  generate a sense of security to enable to overcome hardships. Being empathetic in attitude foster emotional bonds and deep trust for each other.

Open Communication: Practice active listening, avoid being judgmental and impulsive in jumping to conclusions, these tools would generate a mutual sense of affection and a sense of being respected. Positive communications are the key to unravel ones likes and dislikes, strenghthening understanding and co-existing in harmony. Learning to agree to disagree is a tool to open communication. Effective communication points must include relevance , selections of  words, framing of sentence, clear intentions, rational  points for discussion are needed to have an effective communication thus fostering connectedness and like-mindedness amongst each other.

Be Solution Focused: Almost every relationships goes through upheavals, conflicts, emotional turmoil etc., therefore for conflict resolution, one must focus on solutions rather than the causes of the problems. Specifically putting efforts to know the strength i.e., What can be done together to overcome the situation rather than focusing on weaknesses i.e., What cannot be undone or gone wrong. Avoid blame gaming rather share the burden equally. This solution focused attitude would instill mutual interdependence, agreeableness and foster togetherness.

Be Complimentary to Each Other: Most relationships do not always  share similar thought patterns or think alike.,But investing time and energy to  encourage the other person to follow his/ her desires and be passionate about each others success, would enable to develop a sense of mutual care and respect for each other. Filling each other with qualities that one isn’t possessing are ways to enrich each other lives and strengthening personal bonds.

Value Each Other’s ‘ME Space': Too much of involvement in others lives may be regarded as ‘interference’ and could be suffocating for them. Giving space ( read time )that one feels required would pave way for self-introspection, healing,  rejuvenating oneself to bounce back, and to become creative. This valuing of each other’s ‘'me space' attitude would foster affection, sense of freedom, and happiness in relationships.

The above ways if practiced diligently would enable human beings to bloom their relationships to some extent.

By: Bhavna Mukund 

Clinical Psychologist