CIPSRT | Taking Care of Your Basic Needs

CIPSRT COVID-19 Readiness Resource Project (CRRP)

Periods of high stress can be extremely hard on your mental and physical health. When that stress is accompanied by tight restrictions on where you can go and what you can do — as it is during the COVID-19 crisis — it can be even harder to manage because many of your usual outlets are not available. But there are ways to adapt the strategies that have worked for you in the past.

Below is a collection of suggestions to help you manage stress by taking care of your physical health and mental health, and practicing mindfulness. Feel free to adapt them to suit your circumstances. Pay attention to how they make you feel so you can do more of what works for you and less of what doesn’t.

Remember, you don’t have to handle it all on your own. If you feel overwhelmed, reach out to friends, family, professional support, or other resources.

Take care of your physical health

Get plenty of exercise

Physical activity is a great way to reduce stress and anxiety and improve your mood and overall health. If you are self-isolating, find safe ways to exercise in your home. If you have health conditions that prevent you from being active, ask your doctor for appropriate alternatives.

The following websites offer a variety of free online fitness programs you can do in your home:

The YMCA is offering free classes including bootcamp, barre, yoga, and more.
CorePower Yoga is providing free access to a limited collection of online classes available weekly.
Fitness Blender features more than 600 workouts. You can filter by length, difficulty, training type, calories burned, and muscle group.

Get proper sleep

Sleep can help you manage current stress and prepare to handle it in the future. Here are some strategies to help you get a good night’s sleep:

Keep a consistent sleep schedule. That means going to bed and getting up at the same time each day (including weekends).
Practice relaxation or meditation before bedtime.
Schedule physical activity for earlier in the day. Exercising too close to bedtime can interfere with your ability to fall asleep.
Reserve your bedroom for sleeping only. Keep it dark and cool, and leave electronics in another room. Avoid reading, watching TV, or using your phone in the bedroom.
Don’t lie awake for too long. If you don’t fall asleep within 15 to 30 minutes, get out of bed and do something soothing until you feel tired enough to return to bed.
If you drink caffeine or alcohol, avoid them late in the day, and avoid eating food that might keep you awake.
Avoid naps during the day if these interrupt your sleep at night.

Talk to your doctor if these don’t work as there may be other issues affecting your sleep.

Eat well

Following a healthy diet is one of the most basic things you can do to enhance your physical and mental health. It’s tempting to choose convenient comfort foods in stressful times, but these are often not very healthy. As much as possible, stick to a diet that includes a variety of fruits and vegetables, and stay hydrated.

Avoid substance use

Some people use substances (alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis, etc.) to cope with stress, anxiety, and depression. Yet these can make things worse in the long run: your brain and body may develop tolerances so that you require more and more to get the same effect. That can lead to additional harms, including addiction, relapse, and increased stress. If you are in recovery and experiencing stress, reach out for help as soon as possible.

In general:

Take prescription medications as prescribed.
Reduce or stop using non-prescribed substances if you can do so safely (always follow your doctor’s recommendations).
Seek professional help if you cannot do it alone.

Take care of your mental health

Take breaks

You can’t work continuously, so permit yourself to take short breaks. It helps to schedule them into your work shifts, ensuring you always have time to slow down and relax.

If possible, you should also take breaks from electronic devices, including phones, tablets, and computers. Constant notifications of messages that need responses and a steady stream of news and social media updates can worsen stress and anxiety. Setting aside some time to unplug can make a big difference — and adding it to your schedule can help make sure it happens.

Try to use your unplugged time to do something fun and healthy for yourself: reading, exercising, or calling a loved one. As a PSP, unplugging may be challenging because your workplace may require you to monitor your devices more closely during the pandemic, but the rewards are worth the effort.

Challenge your thoughts

High levels of anxiety and stress are often linked with negative thought patterns, which can leave you doubting yourself, feeling helpless, and dealing with even more stress. Thoughts like these can become so strongly entrenched that you start to think of them as objectively true, even if they’re not. If you find yourself thinking you’re not doing enough, there’s nothing you can do to keep from getting sick, or you won’t be able to cope, try to remember that these are just beliefs you’ve gotten used to, not true facts.

When you find yourself in a negative thought spiral, try asking yourself some of the questions below (adapted from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health). They can help you reframe your thoughts and break free of the negativity.

How do I know this thought is true? What evidence do I have for believing this thought? What evidence can I use against believing this thought?
Have I ever been worried about specific things before, and they turned out okay? What actually happened? How did I cope, and what was the end result?
What does worrying do for me? Is worrying actually helping me solve a problem, or is it keeping me stuck and feeling anxious?

If you’re worried about a specific issue, it can help to determine whether or not it’s actually relevant to you and needs to be solved right away. If it’s not, try to let it go and acknowledge that it’s not your problem. That leaves you free to focus on problems that are relevant to you, so you can identify the concrete steps you can take to address each one and start with the simplest actions.

After working through these approaches, try to come up with a more balanced thought.

For example, instead of thinking, “I am working as a front-line PSP, so there is nothing I can do to keep from getting sick”, look at it like this: “I am taking all the recommended precautions, I have a good support network, and I am taking steps to stay healthy. I am extremely likely to get through this and be fine.”

Be kind to yourself

As a PSP, you show compassion to others every day. It’s just as important to extend the same compassion to yourself. It can take time for coping strategies to become routine and effective, so don’t be hard on yourself if you forget to use a coping strategy, fall into an old bad habit, or don’t feel better right away.

Try to talk yourself out of worst-case, what-if scenarios. Overestimating how bad a situation can get is often linked with underestimating your ability to cope. Tip the scales in your favour by reminding yourself that you are resilient and able to deal with the challenges that come your way.

Practise mindfulness

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is about paying attention to the present moment in an accepting, open, and non-judgmental way instead of running on “autopilot” and letting your mind wander while you carry out routine tasks. Doing things automatically can be useful, but research shows spending too much time in that mode can dampen your enjoyment of good moments and may lead to mental health difficulties.

Practising mindfulness in an ongoing way over time can improve your mood and overall mental wellbeing, sharpen your attention and focus when you need to apply them, help you sleep better, and can increase your sense of connection and belonging with others.

How to practise mindfulness

While the concept of mindfulness is simple — paying attention to the now no matter what the now may bring — putting it into action takes patience and practice. You can cultivate mindfulness by dedicating even short amounts of time from your day to sit in a quiet place and pay attention to present-moment experiences as they arise and pass.

The following audio recordings offer brief guided meditations designed to help you practise mindfulness:

Breathing Space (approximately 3 minutes) grounds you in the present-moment experiences of your body and mind.

Body Scan (approximately 10 minutes) encourages you to pay attention to different parts of and sensations present throughout your body.

There are many kinds of relaxation strategies you can try: starting a formal meditation practise (like yoga or mindfulness meditation), taking an informal or self-help approach (like books or online videos), doing simple deep breathing exercises, or something else. Start slowly and gradually work toward a regular practice. Choose something you enjoy to make it more likely that you’ll keep it up.

Get help if you need it

This is a unique period in human history. There is still much unknown about COVID-19, including how long it will last, how many people will be affected, and if any other restrictions will be put in place. All that uncertainty can be hard to process and make it difficult to plan for the future, so it’s completely normal to feel more anxious than usual.

If your anxiety is severe enough that it’s interfering in your life (for example, you have difficulty leaving your home for food or essentials, or you can’t concentrate on anything else) it may be time to seek the support of family, friends, colleagues, or a mental health professional. This can be especially difficult for PSPs, who routinely put others’ needs before their own — but it’s critical to protecting your health.

Remember that practising physical distancing and self-isolation does not mean you should break off all contact from your social supports. Being alone can lead to spending too much time thinking about the situation, resulting in increased stress and anxiety. Reaching out through phone calls, video chats, or text messaging to people who are a positive influence can be helpful when you’re feeling stressed. At the same time, consider limiting your contact with people who are overly negative and generally increase your stress and anxiety.

Formal supports, either online or over the phone, can also help you during high-stress times. These supports include distress lines, online support groups, and community resources such as religious institutions. If you want to connect with a mental health professional, look for one who offers evidence-based approaches to your concerns.

Resources

The following resources from the Government of Canada can provide more information and guidance to help you take care of yourself during the COVID-19 crisis. For more tips, see How to identify and manage stress.

Content contributors:

Dr. Brenda Key, Ph.D., C.Psych; Psychologist, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton; Associate Professor, McMaster University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences

Shadi Beshai, Ph.D., R.D.Psych.; Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Regina