As more people get sick during this COVID-19 surge, more and more things begin to change.
It’s easy to feel out of control but, there are some simple ways to handle stress and start to feel better about our mental health.
Trauma psychologist Dr. Karol Darsa joined ‘the four’ live with three ways to handle stress during these crazy times. Watch her interview above.
Her 3 tips include:
- Accept that we have a new “normal” now rather than yearning to go back. To accept a situation that is out of our hands is called Radical Acceptance. We have to accept what is going on (instead of fighting) and adapt to the new situation.
- It is important to build resilience to deal with this on-going stress. Practice daily routines that are good for the mental health. It is crucial that we come up with a daily plan (just like physical exercise and healthy diet) rather than only practicing the tools when we are in crisis. Some tools are: breathing, yoga, journaling for expression of thoughts and feelings, martial arts, expressive arts such as singing dancing, painting etc.
- Practice of Mindfulness must be one of those tools and a way to live in general. Mindfulness helps to bring our attention to here and now rather than constantly worrying about the future. There is a lot of research that shows that mindfulness helps with our physical as well as mental health. It is a way to observe our feelings, our reactions and thoughts to difficult circumstances without judging them. It is an awareness of this moment.
To learn more Dr. Karol Darsa,
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