Building ’emotional immunity’ in times of COVID-19

A sound immune system will not only protect you from pathogens, instead, it creates ways to improve your condition when you are sick




Written by Sumit Mittal

This hour of crisis has affected our happiness along with mental and physical peace due to various reasons like a financial meltdown, job losses, heath worries and other concerns. At present, one has to maintain adequate physical distance from others to reduce the spread of the virus. This too, may increase the problem of loneliness in some people that, in turn, can affect physical and mental wellness. Even if you are not experiencing severe stress signals, COVID-19 is still affecting people in some way like one may feel more tired than usual, or more stressed about things.

Why emotional health?

Emotional health is an individual’s capacity to acknowledge and oversee feelings through challenges and transformation. A person can assess their sentiments rationally if they are emotionally healthy. Which is why, emotional well-being is significant. Individual overall health induces many factors like physical, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual aspects. People thrive when these are balanced and aligned because each one of these influences the others.

Assessing emotional immunity

Emotions are contagious because they are socially networked. If we look at history, when there was no language, emotional displays were a means of communication. Emotions are what keeps us together, whether in the past or even today.

Experts, however, say that this does not mean that being a human equals to feeling happy all the time. Instead, hard feelings give more opportunities to survive. If you are worried or upset, your emotional strength serves the mind and senses to calculate the situation and environment.

It is more important to pay attention to what is going on inside our brain. Sometimes we forget how our mind and body are coping with the new information that we are consuming to keep ourselves safe and updated.

There is an old saying that when ‘I’ is replaced by ‘WE,’ ‘illness’ becomes ‘wellness.’

Ways to build and maintain your emotional immune system

*Energise your mind every morning. After waking up, avoid using a smartphone or reading the newspaper for at least an hour. Appreciate the things around you.

*Meditate for 20 minutes. Then for the next 30 minutes, read or do anything that gives your brain harmony, love, satisfaction, confidence, and insight.

*Focus on your thoughts by spending at least 30 minutes on exercise, yoga, walk, or gym. When working out, focus on your exercise, and avoid gossiping or watching TV.

*Today all news and social media are full of information related to COVID-19. While it is crucial to be updated, try to avoid excessive usage by limiting your news consumption. Repeated news will increase pain and worries. Set a timeline for receiving updates.

*Everyone is adjusting to better approaches to living and working. They can be angry, stressed, frustrated, anxious, insecure, etc., so use your feelings of harmony and empathy in every situation to communicate them.

ALSO READ | Mental health coping strategies during a pandemic and after

*Your fitness will depend on your type of food and drink. Food and water affect vitality and emotional immunity. At present, if you are finding it difficult, here’s what you can do.

Cook food for your family and eat homemade food. Show love and care when cooking as this will help to make the food energetic and more delicious.

-Chant mantras, play spiritual discourse, or soft-instrumental music as it helps to rinse negative emotions and calm the mind.

-Enjoy eating while focusing on your food and try to avoid the use of your phone or TV.

-Rest ahead of schedule to get up right on time. Discontinue from work correspondence, devices, and screen time, one hour before bedtime. And before going to sleep, try to solve the issues in your thoughts.

-Feed your subconscious mind with affirmation and repeat them for days to teach your brain new ways of thinking and speaking.

The author is the founder and CEO, VentAllOut – vernacular mental wellness platform

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