hello I'm dr. Aden Waddell and I'm an
NHS GP and broadcast on radio and
television and I would like to share
some tips with you
about how to protect your mental and
emotional well-being during this time at
times of crisis and his challenge it's
super important to look after your
mental and emotional health because with
good mental health we have better
resilience to cope with whatever
pressures and challenges come our way in
the future we are all in this together
so we can help each other and help
ourselves to try to remain well mentally
and emotionally my first tip is to
realize what you are in control of we're
not in control of everything at all but
we are in control of some things and we
can be proactive about those and being
proactive actually helps reduce anxiety
and fear levels when we're doing
something to help a problem or a
situation so for example following the
expert medical guidance around how to
stay safe working out with your work
around how you gonna work and when
you're going to work and also thinking
about financial pressures and talking to
organisations and reaching out for
support about the practical matters of
day-to-day life will help reduce your
worrying my second tip is to then
realise what you're not in control of so
we can't fix everything we're not in
control of certain things and it's
almost good to make it a daily practice
to sit with those and if you get a
thought around something you can't
control your worrying around to sit
close your eyes do some breathing
exercises and almost visualize those
thoughts leaving you it's really
difficult but if you try to make it a
daily practice and notice and be aware
of your thoughts and try to let those go
then it will really help you stay
mentally well my third tip is to create
a daily structure and timetable humans
like routine we like structure because
it makes us feel safe and we can realize
or we can see but there is some
normality going on in the world when at
the moment it's very difficult to find
any of that so structure your day get up
at the same time every day have a shower
get dressed
make sure you're working at certain
times if you are working or you're doing
something to occupy your mind during
those times and boundary off different
sections of your day for different
activities so for example you might make
a third of your day something creative
or something to relax but it's very very
important to try and regular
your sleeping patterns your eating
patterns and try to find a sense of
normality because that will help you
with your anxiety my fourth tip is to
get creative so to take your mind away
from those worries and those thoughts so
for example it might be learning a new
online course it might be crafting it
will be painting it might be doing some
physical activity it might be listening
to music or reading a book for example
anything that takes your mind away from
those sorts is really really helpful
keeping busy and keeping active is one
of the most important things that you
can do to keep your mental health well
and also just to stop worrying and keep
your mind quiet and relax so do try that
and if you need to do that of other
people their loads of online groups and
online forums and loads of stuff from
social media where they're doing lots of
communal and group exercises all
together and activities together so do
structure your day have a timetable and
have a routine to help you and my last
tip is very very important we as humans
are social creatures we're social
animals we like connection we need
connection with each other and obviously
this situation is making that really
really difficult but we can find ways of
connecting in other methods or other
modalities so online groups social media
the radio the television and a peer
group an online group for example on
your phone that you've created and you
speak to someone or one of those people
every single day or two to three times a
day that's super important for two
reasons
so you actually connect with other human
beings you hear their voice but also you
can talk to them about how you're
feeling if you are anxious if you are
worries you can talk that through with
someone realize that you're not on your
own and other people are feeling that
way and again just getting that
emotional and human support will really
really help your mental health
you