Nowadays, there are more and more people experiencing anxiety, stress and negative emotions. Many psychiatrists say it has increased many fold because of Covid-19. People are not used to living under restrictions, unable to go anywhere outside their home. Even though the illness may not have caught up with you, you may have experienced some changes in your everyday life. A lot of people are constantly dealing with stress and anxiety at work and the Covid-19 was just a cherry on top.
In a recent study by Debra Trampe called “Emotions in Everyday Life”, the star of the list was anxiety – people experience it 29% of the time. Then comes sadness – 20% of the time. The last one was disgust – 11% of the time. People start to feel negative emotions not at the start of the business week, but on Sundays. This is because we live in such a fast-paced moving environment and often people load their to-do list with more than they can handle.
Negative emotions like anger, frustration, and fear are all part of the human experience. Of course, too many negative emotions can lead to mental health problems. They can unfortunately all lead to stress and are often avoided, ignored, or otherwise rejected, but they can be healthy to experience.
People often think that they can help themselves, but sometimes simply thinking does not help. You have to accept reality and start making some changes. If you leave unhealthy emotions untreated you may end up seeing that your physical wellbeing starts to suffer too. Mental health plays a huge role in your overall well-being. A study has shown that poor mental health can lead to strokes, heart attacks or any other heart diseases. Also, poor mental health can lead to chronic diseases like diabetes, arthritis or even cancer. The mortality rate is higher in people who suffer from depression. Having poor mental health can worsen your sleep. Then, not getting enough sleep might worsen your negative thoughts and become a negative cycle. Finally, people with mental health conditions are more likely to start smoking. People with depression have a smaller amount of dopamine than a normal rate would. Nicotine triggers the points in our brain which produce dopamine. But this is just a temporary relief, so it may lead to addiction.
People often want a fast result of getting back into their usual life, so they start taking medication. There is nothing wrong with that, you have to remember that it also takes time, so while starting your journey to a healthy life you should consider other options, too. For example, taking up more physical exercise. A 10-minute walk may increase your mental health by leaving you energetic and in a good mood.
Another thing you might try is avoiding alcohol and drugs. It disrupts our normal 24-hour cycle – in that case, you might not get enough sleep or will not eat healthily and this eventually leads to an even lower mood.
Try relaxation techniques, like meditation, deep breathing or yoga. At first, you might feel uneasy and shaky, because it is the first time you are doing this, but persevere. Most importantly, it is the first time you are doing this for yourself, for your healthy mind, not by some vain excuses why you need to exercise. According to professor and vulnerability researcher Brené Brown – vulnerability is the core, the heart, the center of meaningful human experiences. Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity.
Mindful living can be expressed in different kinds of ways, but the most important one is that you live here and now. You enjoy every second or maybe shed tears when life is not going according to plan, but that is ok. It will all pass; you cannot change anything, so there is no need for us to get angry, mad or annoyed. Mindfulness is the concept of becoming more aware of our surrounding environment, events, and people. We become more sympathetic and see everything through a clearer, simpler lens.
Meditation therapy helps tremendously. You can try by sitting down alone in a peaceful and uninterrupted environment or you can try group meditation sessions.
Breathing exercises provide additional help here. If you do not know how to start, there are lots of videos on the internet and different kinds of apps, such as Yours App. There is a feature called “breathing clocks” that visually support people through a variety of breathing exercises. You can start by opening the content suggested for beginners.
In addition, if you cannot get a good seven or eight hours of sleep, the sleep stories feature could help. There, you will find everything that suits your needs, from relaxing to emotional stories. Or you can even open the ASMR music tab and let yourself fall asleep by listening to that. Remember that the most important part is that you start to help yourself, no matter how. Loving yourself is the best practice that you can give yourself because at some point it evolves from softness to power.
