5 Ways To Maintain Your Mental Health Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

With the quarantine mandate not looking to let up anytime soon, many people are starting to feel the effects of remaining stationary for too long.

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Having to bunker down isn't as hard as you might think at first, but as time continues to pass, getting back to normal life is a goal that we can't achieve fast enough. The vacation is over for most people, especially mentally. It's of the utmost importance to keep your mental health a priority right now. That is especially true considering there's no definitive timeline that shows when the quarantine will lift.

Obviously, the goal is to maintain a positive outlook as much as possible. According to a survey conducted by the University of Phoenix, there's a trend of five main ways people are ensuring their states of mind continue to live in a healthy place.

1
Keeping Up with Family and Love Ones
60%
Survey shows that 60% of people have increased communication with friends and family since the coronavirus outbreak. Keeping up with everyone, even if it is virtually, still gives you a sense of social involvement. Whether it's through Zoom, Facetime, Skype, social media, or just through text messages, keeping in contact with your people even more than you normally would will keep you sane while stuck inside.
2
Exercise
35%
You have to get moving. As previously mentioned, one of the worst things you can do during your time in quarantine is to remain stationary for the majority of your day. Not only is it bad for your physical health, but it can lead to your brain never shutting off which could be responsible for an increase in your anxiety levels.
Increasing your activity levels and exercise will produce endorphins. Remember what Elle Woods told us in Legally Blonde? Endorphins make you happy! So, logic would lead us to rationalize that the more endorphins we're producing, the happier we'll be.
3
Turn Off the TV
30%
Actually, it's not just the TV. It's anything that serves as your source of news. Everything streaming is bad, bad, bad. Obviously, if you fill your head with negativity, that's what will consume you.
Limit your daily news consumption so you're not constantly bombarded with negative stats and alerts. 30% of people have already done it and it's having a positive impact.
4
Focus On the Light at the End of the Tunnel
30%
It's true when we say "we're all in this together". We will come out of this. Things will improve. Life will, even if it's slower than we'd like, get back to normal.
Hold onto that. Plan for that. Build your vision of what you want your life to look like when this mess is overwith and set goals to achieving that. 30% of people have worked towards establishing that reality already and it's resulted in a more positive outlook of each day.
5
Be Kind
29%
It's sometimes hard to put others before ourselves when we're all struggling to find a new normal. 29% of people reported that remembering to do random acts of kindness for others had more of an impact on them than it did for the person receiving the good deed. Doing good for others always results in a feeling of accomplishment.