During Covid-19 it’s a time for love and kindness to ourselves and to others!
Right now some of the most kind and caring thing we can do for others and ourselves is practice proper hand hygiene and social distancing.
Chanting a simple mantra on love and kindness 2-3 times while washing hands can be covid-19 self care, can ensure we do a thorough job and give us a sense of hope in these tough times.
A mantra may be something like this:
Thinking about someone we love or are concerned about during hand washing we can say to ourselves:
May they be happy
May they be healthy
May they be safe
May they live with ease
Next while continuing to wash our hands we can moving onto others or even society as a whole.
May they be happy
May they be healthy
May they be safe
May they live with ease
Finally we can move onto ourselves and wish.
May I be happy
May I be healthy
May I be safe
May I live with ease
This simple practice may promote wellness and also help us to wash our hands in the right manner.
This is something that is in our power and in our interest to do right now.
Listening to the proper advice from government and health officials can be crucial for Covid-19 self care. Good information is available from the HSE and the HPSC.
Our Covid-19 self care can involve practicing how we can protect our selves but also realizing how we can impact others. Realizing that our behaviors can influence others getting sick but therefore taking the right precautions is doing all that we can.
Changing our habits by not shaking others hands, not hugging and not sneezing into our hands and touching things are simple things we all can do.
Elbow bumping or saying Namaste instead of the traditional greeting can be awkward but may also help us break the ice.
We may never know what harm we prevent by making sensible and considered choices now.
At a time like this where anxiety, stress, uncertainty and worry are rampant these are perhaps some of the things that are within our control.
Many other things are not so we need to recognize what we have control over and what we dont.
Worrying excessively about things we don’t have power over means we are going to overload our bodies with anxiety.
For Covid-19 Self Care I recommend cutting down on over exposure to news and media that feeds anxiety while also making sure we can think about other things.
Talking to friends and family about the situation may help but if we think/talk about nothing but the current public health crisis then that’s not very compassionate to ourselves.
We need a break and we need to be self compassionate which is why positive mantras and positive visualizations like the one above can help.
And in all this remembering that the small changes everyone makes combined could save others from death, bereavement and irrevocable damage.
Mind each other out there!
Throughout the crisis we will remain open and can do online/phone sessions with any individual who is struggling with self isolation, illness or Covid-19 anxiety.
To find out more please feel free to message our Facebook Page, call/text me on 087 063 0948 or email: info@anxietyireland.ie.
Some of our other articles that may be helpful include on Catastrophizing, What if thinking and Covid-19 Anxiety.
Thanks for reading and please share, like, tag friends or comment if this was useful.
Cheers,
Michael Ledden
Founder – Anxiety Ireland
