3 Ways To Feel Happy During a Pandemic
The unfortunate and very hard truth about the recent COVID-19 pandemic is that it has claimed more lives through suicide than the actual disease itself. The numbers released by the health organizations around the world should be taken with a pinch of salt because these days, everyone from the government to the media has their own agendas.
With businesses shutting down and people struggling financially or seeing their dreams go up in smoke, sometimes suicide seems like the easiest way out. It’s not, but to them it seems that way.
During these inconvenient and tumultuous times, it’s more imperative than ever that you stay positive and optimistic. Your mental and physical health are dependent on it. Here are a few ways you can lift your mood…
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Set Some New Goals
Most people are excited on New Year’s Day because they can set goals and it’s the promise of a better life which excites them. This time things will be different. This time they’ll achieve their innermost desires.
The good news is that you can set new exciting goals any day you want. Every day could be the start of something new. If you’re feeling down, set a new goal for yourself which you truly want… and which you can achieve despite the restrictions during a pandemic.
You’ll feel a sense of excitement and will want to forge ahead with your goals. It’s all about shifting your mindset from being reactive to being proactive. Once you have your new goal down, you MUST be COMMITTED to it.
Most people never reach their goals because they lack commitment. When you’re committed to achieving a goal, you’ll have no time to obsess about COVID-19 or any other extraneous and irrelevant stuff that every one else is unnecessarily worrying about.
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Self Care Is Vital
Don’t let your health slide. Do not use food as therapy instead of fuel. As you gain weight, you might feel depressed and the pandemic might seem even worse.
In fact, use this time to exercise at home. Cook your own healthy meals and eat sensibly.
Have a cup of coffee daily. It will boost your mood and improve your health, since it’s rich in antioxidants and other nutrients. And make it a pleasant ritual for yourself. Take the time to really savour it.
Hydrate often so that your body has sufficient water for its daily processes. Dehydration can cause moodiness, fatigue and make it difficult to concentrate. So, get your 7-8 glasses of water daily.
Stretch DAILY. Even a 10-minute stretching session daily will help to loosen the tight muscles in your body, and release stress and tension. Your body holds a lot of tension without you realizing it. Tight shoulders, backaches and other pains in the body could be due to too much tension in the body.
With daily stretching you’ll not only release the tension, but will release stress too. During a pandemic, when things are already stressful, you’ll want to stretch every single day to feel better.
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Stay Strong Mentally
Happiness is a mind game. If you shift your mindset, you can go from feeling down to feeling happy in seconds.
Have you ever been in a situation where you’re arguing with your spouse and suddenly there was a knock on the door?
In mere seconds, you could go from angry to calm just to answer the door. That’s how powerful our minds are… and they’re fully within our control.
So, if you’re unhappy, you may wish to practice gratitude journaling to feel better. You absolutely cannot be grateful and dissatisfied at the same time.
Another way to feel better is to make time to de-stress. Watch comedies or spend time in nature. If your country doesn’t allow you to hang out in nature because of the COVID-19 restrictions, you may try gardening at home. This might help.
Another way to boost your mood is to spend time unleashing your inner creativity. You could write a novel or play a musical instrument or do some arts and crafts. We all have inner creative energy that needs to be expressed.
When we don’t give our creativity release, it festers and grows within us and causes lots of negative emotions. You must expend your creative energy in productive pursuits… and you’ll feel much better.
Sometimes the best way to feel better is to help others. With social distancing measures in place, this might prove tricky… but it’s just a matter of figuring out what you can do.
As Mahatma Gandhi said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Serving others doesn’t necessarily mean volunteering at a home for the aged or delivering food. You can help by donating money to someone in need. Or listening to someone talk about their problems and allowing them to vent.
There are so many ways you can make a positive difference in other people’s lives… and once you start helping others, you’ll end up helping yourself too. You’ll realize that you can be happy even with the masks and restrictions and all the fake news floating around.
Happiness is always within your reach. You don’t need to find it. You just need to be it.
“If you want to be happy, do not dwell in the past, do not worry about the future, focus on living fully in the present.” Dale Carnegie