During this Covid-19 pandemic, there's a lot of anxiety going around. Today, I'm
going to give you 5 mental health coping skills.
For me, the mental health
aspects of this pandemic are probably more important even than the physical
health aspects. And you've probably noticed that it's having an impact on
you, on your family, on the people that you work with. Everybody is being
impacted by this on a global scale. So, let's jump into these five strategies.
Number 1, make a little shift in your mind from social distancing to physical
distancing. That might seem a little bit like semantics. But the words that we
pick are important. And we are social beings, we're social creatures. It's
important for us to connect with each other. So, that little shift could make a
big difference in your mental health. Shift from social distancing to physical
distancing. Now, notice I'm not saying that we shouldn't do it. In fact, I think
that we should. It's a strategy to help slow the spread of a pathogen. It's not
that people are dangerous. It's that this pathogen this virus is dangerous. And in
keeping a physical distance from each other, we can slow the spread of that
thing. But let's keep connected in other ways. And while we're doing physical
distancing, let's get together online. Let's say hello to people as we
see them from a distance and make eye contact. And care about people and
continue to be social creatures. That's important. The second mental health
coping skill that I have to share with you today is another shift from "I can't"
to "How can I?" It's really easy to notice all of the things that we can't do or
the restrictions or the things that are not available to us right now. Our mind
can go there really easily. And can get really depressing really fast.
And it contributes to the anxiety as well. Look, this is a challenge that we're
facing as a global community. Now, I've mentioned that twice by the way. Global
community. Have you noticed that the virus doesn't care about borders and
boundaries and walls and fences? No. This is affecting all of us. We're all citizens
on the same planet. We're all human beings who are experiencing this
pandemic together. Keep that in mind for a minute. And then go back to this
strategy. Shift from "I can't" to "How can I?" Psychologically it's a whole different
question. When we say I can't, it's kind of like there's a big power switch on
the side of our brain and we just shut her down because there's nowhere to go
after that. Honestly, what is the next step after I can't? There isn't one. And
that's my point. So, we're going to shift over to "How can I?" Instead of "I can't go
see my friends." "How can I go see my friends?" Do you see how that's different?
"I can't get what I need at the store." "How can I get what I need?" See? The shift, it
changes everything psychologically. It powers up your brain. It's like turning
that switch back on so that we can start to find some solutions. And I am so
impressed with the innovative solutions that are coming from brilliant people
like you. Shift form "I can't" to "How can I?" And that leads me right into skill
number 3. Get creative. Use that mind of yours to do the innovating and the
creation and the thinking and the strategizing that will create the
solutions moving forward. I have a number of clients... These are companies or
organizations that I've been coaching or providing trainings to who are stepping
up right now through the challenges that we're facing with the
pandemic. And coming up with new products, new services, new ways of innovating how
to do the things that we kind of got used to doing it in a different way. This
is your opportunity as well. And as you wrap your head around what you can
contribute here, start to look at the problems that people are facing. This is
where the greatest ideas in history have come from, from problems. Problems that
came up that needed a solution. And you have to have a solution that doesn't
exist yet. That's why we call it innovation or creation. This is an
opportunity. Now, you might be thinking, "Yeah, but I don't have any creative ideas."
If you're not sure what to innovate or create as a solution, at least use this
time as a time for learning. Learn something new. This is an opportunity for
you to jump on that and to find something that you didn't have before
because of the opportunities that are being creative. I just got off the phone
with one of my clients who said, "You know what? There's nothing scheduled anymore."
In the evenings, after work, on the weekends, we used to go out to the game
or out to the theater or out to the shows or out to the restaurants. But
we're not doing that right now. So, now's the time to learn something new. It's
kind of like that other point that I shared with you instead of saying "I
can't", shift over to "How can I? What's next? What's available?" Learn something.
Now, here's your coping skill number 4. You got to take care of the equipment.
And I'm talking about your brain and your mind but also your body and your
physical health. What we're doing all of these strategies for in the first place
is to try to improve our maintained physical health. We're trying to slow the
spread of the pathogen. And so, let's take this opportunity also to focus on our
own health, our own bodies. If you're completely free of the virus, awesome.
Congratulations, I'm happy to hear that. And you could use a
little work, right? Do you know what I'm talking about?
Because everyone could do a little more to take care of their nutrition, their
sleep, their exercise. I'm sharing this as a psychologist. I am NOT a nutritionist,
I'm not a physician. I'm a psychologist. And it is important to your
psychological health that you get enough sleep, that you eat a balanced, nutritious
diet. That you have regular periods of aerobic exercise. And you might have to
do that differently too. Because the gym is closed, right? That doesn't mean you
can't, figure out "How can I?" And get on it because your physical body is going to
support your mental health. And mental health coping strategies have to include
taking care of the equipment. And last but not least, stay positive. I am NOT
touting the trite, fluffy, psychologica-l motivational-thinker just think positive
thing, I'm talking about operating properly the equipment of your own mind.
And as a quick review of what that's all about,
we are constantly using our mind and our imagination to do 2 things.
Evaluation and creation. Those 2 processes are very different but they
use the same equipment. And in doing the evaluation of our world or our
circumstances, we have to create judgments. Judgments of what's going on.
Notice that you're doing this all the time. You judge yourself you judge your
family, you judge our community, you judge this pandemic. And the only way you can
do that is through comparing what you've got to something else as a standard of
comparison. So, you might compare what we've got to times when there's not a
viral pandemic going on. Well, when you compare this to times when
there's not a pandemic, how does it feel? Because it's like, "Man, this is awful." But you also
are aware of other circumstances that could be the case that aren't. I'm
thinking of a time when I got to here Immaculee Ilibagiza speak. She wrote a
book called Left To Tell. About her experiences in the genocide that
occurred in Rwanda about a dozen years ago. Can you imagine living through a
genocide where your family, your neighbors, everybody is killed. Wow,
now you can bear that to a viral pandemic and it's like, "Okay, I'll take this", right?"
And you feel better about your current circumstances. I am NOT making light of
what we're facing. I'm just calling to your attention that you're constantly
evaluating or judging your experience. And that's not all we're doing. I
mentioned there's evaluation and there's creation. Creation of what is to be. And
that doesn't exist yet. We haven't created it yet. But to create it, we have
to imagine it first. And then imagining things we can always imagine something
better or something worse than what we've already got. Now, what do you want?
Let's get intentional about creating something better from where we are.
Because there is no other starting point. It's time, everybody. Let's step up. Let's
be more positive. If I can help you with that, I'm all over it. Thank you for being
here on the channel. If you don't yet have a free copy of my book, Pathological
Positivity, go right now to
drPaul Jenkins.com
There's a link in the description where you can get a free copy of Pathological Positivity.
I want to help you to do exactly what we've been talking about on this video.
I've got your back.