Guest post by: Cheryl Conklin
Edited by: Ruben Hopwood

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Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it’s more important than ever to take care of yourself. Feeling your best can help you survive and thrive during tough times like these! Fortunately, there are several things you can do for little to no money to get your mental and physical health in top shape. Whether you decide to venture out into the world or continue hunkering down at home, there are plenty of free and affordable ways to practice self-care right now.

Boost Your Self-Confidence

Clothes influence how you feel about yourself and how others respond to you. What you wear can change your focus and how you feel about yourself. Boost your self-confidence and change how you relate to yourself and others by changing your outfit or style of clothing. Your posture also influences your self-confidence and your mental attitude. Take regular breaks from staring at screens, stretch your shoulders, and massage your neck to relieve some of that pandemic tension and sit up taller. Changing body posture can affect your motivation and your ability to think creatively as well as changing how powerful or helpless you feel.

Retail Therapy

The continued uncertainty and isolation of the pandemic and limitations on socializing may leave you feeling sad, anxious, or powerless to change anything in life. Many people shop to feel momentarily happier and to feel they have some control in their lives. Buying things can help some people lift their self-esteem for a moment or temporarily escape difficult feelings, anxiety or depression. Buying things to feel good can also be overused and can lead to overspending, financial troubles, and ignoring more serious mental health issues. Taking a balanced approach to shopping for non-essentials can take advantage of the momentary boosts to mood while not causing more challenges in an already tough time.

As restrictions change, if you have been able to work at home or you have not been able to see people socially, you may decide to splurge on a few new outfits so you can socialize or return to work looking your best, feeling powerful and confident. Give yourself permission to indulge in some planned retail therapy if it does not create financial strain. Keep shopping under control by setting a budget and sticking to it. Shopping online can be too easy, and you can spend more than you wanted to pretty quickly. Online shopping offers some benefits and risks. It is much easier online to compare prices and look for deals or coupons. Be alert to deals that are “too good to be true” and use caution and discretion when paying for items online to protect your credit cards or bank accounts from fraud.

Clean Up Your Diet

Good nutrition is the key to feeling and looking great! Unfortunately, the coronavirus lockdown has meant that many people increased indulgence in unhealthy treats, snacks, and takeout meals, leading to a weight gain side effect people are calling the “quarantine 15.” Some people are also eating much less due to the pandemic and lack of access to the food they need. If you need help with food assistance during the pandemic, you can check the USDA website for resources and information.

Eating patterns and changes to them may be a way to notice there are other needs you have that are not being met. People eat to feel comforted when they are distressed and may also eat out of boredom. With continued isolation, people are also getting less exercise and may find they need less or different foods to eat. Observing your portion sizes and when you eat from boredom or to comfort yourself can also help you gain control of how, when, what, and how much you eat so you know whether your eating patterns need to be adjusted or supplemented. Planning your meals and buying the food to make those planned meals can help with balanced eating and with replacing low nutrition snacks with more nutritious options.

As lockdown restrictions change, whether you are at home or venture out, it’s time to evaluate your eating habits and regain control over your nutrition. Eating foods with minimal added or processed ingredients is especially important for your physical and mental health. If you experience depression or anxiety, you may find some foods are more helpful than others to boost your mood. Some foods can make depression and other mental health symptoms worse, such as alcohol, processed sugar, and modified fats. Whole foods on the other hand, have physical and mental health benefits. For example, the website Foodies Today recommends foods and snacks as mood lifters such as dark chocolate, berries, walnuts, avocados, and yogurt. Snack foods and a diet that improves your health and mood are available and affordable.

Despite common belief, healthy food is often more affordable than pre-processed, pre-packaged alternatives. There are healthy shopping methods that also save you money. To save money, the website EatingWell recommends buying generic brands, purchasing bulk amounts of long-lasting pantry items, and shopping for whole fruits and vegetables from the produce section of your grocery store. It helps to take your planned shopping list from your meal planning to the store and stick to it. Stay on the outer edges, the perimeter, of the store aisles where the more nutritious whole foods, produce, and meats are located. Steer clear of the center aisles where you’ll find all those impulse-tempting and low-nutrition snacks and pre-processed, pre-packaged foods! It also helps to only grocery shop when you are full so you can resist hunger-impulse junk food purchases.

Care for Your Mental Health

It’s completely normal to experience anxiety, depression, or other negative emotions during this uncertain time. But feeling stressed for days on end can wear down your mind and body. Take care of your mental health through activities like exercising daily, engaging in enjoyable hobbies, and staying in touch with friends and family. Take a hot bath, listen to encouraging podcasts or your favorite music, or read a book—do whatever relaxes you!

If you just can’t banish the stress, try something new. Begin or improve meditation practices, talk to different friends, take walks or go outside and sit in the sunlight for 10 minutes, get houseplants, get cut flowers and set them where you can see them during the day, volunteer someplace that is safe or you to help or that you can do while maintaining social distancing, try a new activity or start reading a different genre than you usually read, learn to play a musical instrument, learn to knit or sew, use time at home to clear out excess accumulated stuff (clutter) and donate useable items to others who need them or to local donation centers. Changing routines and donating time and/or resources to others helps lift your mood and increases positive self-image and hopefulness.

With changes in the laws in Massachusetts, some people have tried or are interested in using CBD, also called cannabidiol, to relieve anxiety, depression, or reduce stress. It is important to understand what CBD is and what we know about its effectiveness in helping with mental health symptoms. CBD comes from a small group of flowering plants. Medicinal and FDA approved CBD products are made most often from cannabis or hemp plants. Instead of producing a “high” like people experience with cannabis that is unprocessed, most CBD products do not have a psychoactive side effect. Medicinal CBD does have reported ability to assist with reduction of pain, muscle spasms, nausea from chemotherapy, and epilepsy of childhood. The evidence from science on whether CBD products have a beneficial effect on anxiety or depression is still very weak, though encouraging. Trying CBD products to reduce anxiety or depression is something to talk with a medical provider about before trying it out, especially since there is limited knowledge on what other effects it may have if added to other medications or in the presence of other medical or mental health conditions.

Caring for your mental health also means paying attention to the information you get and the sources you get it from. It is important to get accurate information about the pandemic as well to help reduce mental and emotional stress. There is a lot of misinformation available online and on social media and other media. Rely on credible and accountable data sources for information such as the FDA, CDC, and USDA.

The key is to try different things until you find what works for you and to have more than one method to cope with distress and manage disruptions in your life! If trying various things is not helping as much or the way you wanted, or you experience increased mental health problems, reach out to a mental health professional or your primary care provider and talk about other things that you may need to help you feel better and to regain balance in your life.

Create a routine and move your body

Movement and exercise are necessary for your body to feel good and work well. If your daily pattern has been so disrupted that you have lost all sense of a usual routine, take some time now to create or reestablish a schedule. Create a planned approach to each day; get up at a planned time. Attend to daily hygiene the same as you would have if the pandemic had not happened. Get dressed fully, not just what shows for the webcam, but all the way down to your toes. Have a healthy breakfast sitting at a table instead of leaning over a kitchen counter or sink. Plan structure into your day and time limits to start and stop work, breaks, social, and personal time.

During the week, plan in time to exercise in whatever way you are able. Walking or moving your body however is possible outside for even 15 minutes a few times a week has positive benefits to your mental and physical health. Do stretches that involve your full body however you can. Some people like structured stretching and balancing exercises like yoga. Stand up every hour for a minute during your workday if you sit all the time for your job. Consider raising your screen higher on your desk and standing to work for a while.

Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is more important to our mental and physical wellness than most people think! Sleep is crucial to learning and memory. Sleep affects your skin. Getting enough sleep can even help you look younger, keeping your skin supple and elastic. Lack of sleep shows up on your face as well as in your reduced ability to function. Sleep is needed for your body to repair itself and for you to manage stress. It affects your ability to fight off diseases and lack of sleep or poor sleep can significantly increase your chances of blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases and long-term memory issues like dementia. Improving sleep hygiene improves your total physical and mental health.

If anxiety about the pandemic is keeping you up at night, improving your sleep hygiene can help. The National Sleep Foundation explains, sleep hygiene refers to the practices that can help you get a good night’s sleep, like avoiding stimulating foods or substances, or exercise routines before bed, establishing a bedtime routine, and ensuring your bedroom is dark, cool, and quiet.

Set a regular bedtime for yourself and follow it. Your body benefits from knowing when to wind down and sleep and a schedule helps set your body clock. Plan time away from screens including computers, smart devices, and televisions. Looking at blue-light screens from computers and smart devices disrupts sleep and attention for all ages. Plan when to stop looking at screens for the night about an hour before bedtime to help your body start to relax and prepare for a good night’s sleep.

Want to quickly and easily turn your bedroom into a sleep sanctuary without spending a fortune? Clean out the clutter, wash your bedding, make your bed up in the morning so it is fresh and inviting at night, hang blackout curtains, or even a heavy blanket, over bedroom windows, and turn on a fan for white noise (and a cooling breeze in the summer).

Stay focused on your future

Don’t let your health take a back seat as you adjust to the changes in life during and after the pandemic lockdown. While things continue to shift and feel uncertain, it’s normal to feel stressed or concerned about what the future may hold. Keep yourself balanced by taking steps to improve and maintain your health and well-being every day. Focus on what you can do right now to support yourself to come out of quarantine feeling better than ever!