Features editor Stephanie Anthony:
Positivity is vital in these uncertain times. Psychologist Charlie Unwin explores how we can stay upbeat and promote good mental health
Life is strange for all of us at the moment, but with Charlie Unwin’s advice on remaining positive we can learn to say goodbye to anxiety.
MANY PEOPLE ARE struggling to cope during the current coronavirus pandemic — cut off from family and friends, and unable to go about their normal lives without being overwhelmed by anxiety. The lockdown really has affected everyone. All of us have had to go through drastic changes to our lives and are bound to be feeling more worried than usual. If you’ve lost your motivation and are struggling to see a light at the end of the tunnel, I have some techniques that you can use to help you deal with anxiety, plus some general coping strategies. I look at how we can try to turn lockdown into something positive — a chance to take stock of our lives, appreciate what we have, and make changes for a brighter future.
A new way to look at health
Everything we do has an impact on our health, from the amount of sleep we get, to the food we eat and the way we consume social media. Despite this, most of us have a limited view of health and what it means to be healthy. The global outbreak of Covid-19 has put the health of our nation in the spotlight, forcing us to reflect on the way we live our lives. Only when we are jolted out of our daily rhythm and forced to live in isolation do we start to reflect back on what we considered normal before.
This lurch out of the ordinary has given us all a great opportunity to recognise and appreciate the things that are most important to us, but equally to question the aspects of our lives that affect us negatively and how we can rectify these.
Retrain your brain
Feeling happy and healthy has a lot to do with our mental wellbeing. Exercising and socialising are ways we can give ourselves an instant boost, making us feel cheerful and positive and giving us a sense of achievement. But these are examples that rely on external sources to make us feel better. Instead we should be focusing on ways that we can thrive from the inside.
If you want to positively change your external world, you must positively change your internal world.
The Thrive Project focuses on training ourselves in three areas: positive doing, positive thinking and positive feeling.
“Get it right and your day will be punctuated with greater energy, greater quality and greater focus”