Top 10 Things To Do At Home During COVID-19 For Mental Wellness
I know you’re probably in the house going through the motions because of social distancing and CDC guidelines. You may have ran out of things to do and it’s affecting your mental health, therefore you could be engaging in toxic behaviors which could cause harm to you, your job or your family. During these uncertain times, it can be challenging to fully show up for ourselves and commit to these simple acts of self-love.
This is why I created the Top 10 Things To Do At Home During COVID-19 For Mental Wellness, take notes and enjoy:
1. Create A Safespace: Designate a room in the house to be your safe space, possibly your bathroom or closet. You can decorate it, and possibly create a box for prayers and affirmations. You’ll want to make it extremely comfortable (so clear the clutter) and appealing because this is where you will escape reality, mediate, pray and just take a good wooosah moment. Our Secure Yourself Magazine May Issue features 5 of our top recommended mental health apps which include meditation techniques (some people don’t know how to do to this, I was one of them until I used a meditation app).
2. Switch Up Your Diet: This is the time to explore and bring out your inner chef. People are staying in and cooking now more than ever, so why not try something different? Follow a new recipe that’s unlike your normal diet. For instance, if you’re a carnivore or pescatarian, become a vegan for a day. If you’re vegetarian, try a vegan meal. If you’re vegan, try a vegan meal inspired by your favorite continent. I just discovered this website, The International Vegan, where they showcase delicious Vegetarian Recipes from Thailand, India, China, Burma, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Greece. All of their Recipes are 100% Vegan. (Pssst, their Indian Bell Pepper Curry Recipe looks INCREDIBLE, I can smell it through the phone)
3. Visit The “Spa”: With this option, you can get REALLY creative, especially if you live with family. Have everyone sign in and write down their service requested and anyone who wants to take on the service, will grab you when they’re ready, just like they do at real salons and spas. To do this, you’ll want to grab a bucket (you can find at Dollar General or if you’re fancy, get this one from Amazon) to soak your feet in, use a sed egg, paint your toes (optional). Ladies, you can order press ons nails (I love them by the way, my favorite brand now is Nail Bae), purchase those simple manicure/pedicure kit, face masks and cucumbers and get it poppin. If you want to be extra fancy, order these fancy but frugal white robes from Amazon.
4. Color Coordinate Your Closet: I know this is time consuming, but so is scrolling through Instagram or TikTok. Plus when your closet is color coordinated, you instantly know where everything is. Organizing by color is aesthetically pleasing to the eye, creating a calmness that helps take some of the stress out of searching for an outfit for those on camera zoom meetings.
5. Grab A Coloring Book: studies have shown that coloring helps you go deeper into your relaxation state by relaxing your amygdala, the part of the brain that keeps people in panic and worry affecting their mental health, by turning those responses down and helping your brain relax. Coloring can help relieve symptoms of certain mental illnesses. Click here to see some dope coloring books. If coloring isn’t your thing, sketch your emotions, draw a picture of how you feel and how you’d like to feel. What you draw, you may actually manifest.
6. Have A Picnic In The Living Room or Backyard: picnics are fun, and to avoid having to go out in public to a crowded park, have one in your living room or backyard (if you have one). Grab a blanket, a nice basket, and cue Alexa “play birds chirping in a serene forest” it’ll create the ambiance of being outside if you decide to do it in your living room.
7. Take An Herbal Bath: In ancient times, baths were considered therapeutic and were used to create wellness. An herbal bath is a great contributor to the well-being and purification of the aura. Through this practice it is possible to reach very high levels of purification and extreme relaxation sensations of the whole body, abstracting all the bad energies that contaminate the environment and the people that are in it.The component of water and natural herbs provide freshness and affection in the soul and body. Speaking of herbs, there are several but my favorite is Rosemary, it relieves fatigue, and promotes relaxation.
8. Plan A Scavenger Hunt: Scavenger hunts are basically easter egg hunts with a different purpose. Instead of searching for eggs with candy, you are searching for miscellaneous objects on a specific list designated by the organizer. You can grab or just check off each item on the list and the first person to find them wins. This helps build teamwork, creativity, and who knows what you may find while doing this hunt. possibly a few of your missing socks or the remote.
9. Create Your Own News Channel: With all the unfortunate events happening in the world, it can be mentally draining. I don’t think I’ve ever watched the news where EVERYTHING was a good report, it’s usually a mixture. So with that being said, if you can, designate a time to share good news about the accomplishments you or any of your family members made this year, that includes before and during covid. If you have children, let them share their favorite thing they like to do (and actually pay attention). You can even let them share the weather forecast. This creates a shift in the household of positive energy, which you may not fully receive from the typical news station.
10. Mindful Walking: this is something new that I recently discovered on Instagram (s/o to Dasha Kennedy for putting me up on this). Mindful walking is meditation walking, where you make yourself consciously aware of what’s around you. This helps strengthens your concentration and connects you with the present moment. You become more aware of your breathing, your emotions, the smells around you and other things that allow you to become one with the things around you. People who do this are less likely to experience depression or anxiety because it gets you out of your head and into the core of your being, which is your happy place. It’s not easy to do at first, so I highly recommend you read this blog Mindful Walking Practice: How to Get Started.
Those are my Top 10 Things To Do At Home During COVID-19 For Mental Wellness, I hope you take advantage of these ideas. They’ll definitely help create positivity which is necessary during these uncertain times. Please feel free to comment below if any of these worked out for you. Better yet, if you take any pictures while doing these activities, please send them to my email thedavidasdiary@gmail.com. I’d love to see and share it!
To read more on building mental wellness, positivity and how to manifest certain things in your life, check out my 30 Day Manifestation Challenge, it’ll change your life!