Cuidar y cuidarnos: ideas para fortalecer la salud mental en tiempos de Covid-19.

Taking care of yourself and ourselves: ideas to strengthen mental health in the days of Covid-19

After several weeks of experiencing confinement as a measure to control the curve of cases of the Covid-19 pandemic decreed by the World Health Organization, many things have happened in our lives, we have had to adapt to this new reality. This experience has meant for many of us, times of great uncertainty about the fate of our routines and daily lives, because of the isolation, denied access to places, and suspension of activities of great importance, as well as the anguish for economic well-being.

At the beginning of the confinement decree with very little information about the disease and what to do when forced to stay home, we spent days of exploration, immersion in the news and great anxiety about how we would cover the basic needs of life. Now some doubts have been dispelled, the safety rules to avoid contagion are clearer and although It’s still difficult to understand how we will walk and live, we know that the dynamics of 2020 and part of 2021 will be affected by the changes that has brought the Covid-19.

The uncertainty and fear that this situation produces can lead us to experience, to a greater or lesser extent, negative emotions, feelings and ideas that affect our daily performance, our relationship with others and our relationship with ourselves. We must not downplay the feelings and emotions that we experience at the moment, repressing or denying them, because it can help us to understand who we are in this situation, what we want to do, what we are willing to change, to what we want to get closer to and what or who we definitely want to get away from. The situations that cause us discomfort many times are precisely those that allow us to move, review and transform our actions, helping us to strengthen and grow.

Volver a lo esencial.

Back to basics

Part of the process that will allow us to bond with ourselves and with others in these times, will be allowing us to review our routines, our habits, our ways of relating, our way of working and understanding how close these aspects and ideas are to us, such as care, self-care, solidarity and co-responsibility. This begins as an individual exercise, but it becomes a social necessity, due to the imminent need of change in our dynamics in the face of the health emergency situation.

This review of our habits and relationships requires a slow exercise of observation and understanding, so let us take advantage of the less hurried dynamics that we are living at the moment, to look and think carefully about what is essential. In other words, what is linked to what is most vital, what we eat, how we cook, where we buy food, what flavors are our favorites, how we sleep, what we dream, how much we talk to our family, partner or the people with whom we live, what we talk about, how it makes us feel, whether or not we feel the need for physical exercise, the sun. However, a complete, slow and deep journey to each aspect of our lives that allows us to ask ourselves what we like, what we can change and, above all, what we can do for and with others to improve the situation we live in.

One of the most important recommendations during confinement has been to create and maintain daily routines, not to let our days go by immersed in incessant and hopeless information, full of enormous situations that overwhelm us and leave us paralyzed, but to take the necessary information of the most reliable means to know the panorama, recognize that there is much to do and consider a simple daily routine, but that gives us certainty about our infinite capacity to create and change.

Si quieres estar informadx sobre la situación del Covid-19, visita la pagina de la OMS y de la OPS

If you want to be informed about the situation of Covid-19, visit the WHO and PAHO

This exploration and recognition exercise must pay close attention to our relationships, to the things we do every day to build a good coexistence with those with whom we live, if we are respecting our energy, providing ourselves with a space of privacy in which we do something of our own and which is in balance with the time we spend with the others. It is time to think about whether the household chores are distributed equally, taking care that all the weight is not on the shoulders of the women whom we live, asking ourselves what we do or what we could begin to do to solve a common problem in the sector where we live, or if we can help a neighbor with a particular situation.

All these questions, ideas, answers, are precisely what will allow us to create a daily routine in which we will be able to take care of ourselves according to our needs and desires, with physical exercise, meditation or a good few hours of sleep. And we also take care of others, questioning if things are fine as we have always done them or if we can transform something by helping someone, making a proposal, or taking on a task that we have never done, all this in order to stay active because there is still much to do.

En definitiva esta publicación es una invitación a la acción, a compartir con otras personas nuestras ideas y sentimientos movilizándonos desde la empatía y la solidaridad, pero sobretodo a prestar atención y reconocer que no tenemos que poder que todo en este momento, que podemos ir un día a la vez y que si lo necesitas no dudes en recurrir al acompañamiento de lxs profesionales de la salud mental.

Definitively, this post is an invitation to action, to share our ideas and feelings with other people, mobilizing from empathy and solidarity, but above all to pay attention and recognize that we do not have to be able to do everything right now, that we can go a day at a time and if you need it do not hesitate to resort to the accompaniment of mental health professionals.

Acá les dejo mi Instagram @espacioamaranta.ve
Los Gif los cree en Canva, luego podrías contarles lo básico de esta aplicación que me encanta.

Here I leave my Instagram @espacioamaranta.ve
The Gifs are created in Canva, later I could tell you the basics of this app that I love.