Tips to cope with COVID-19 Quarantine

From a psychologist:

After having thirty-one sessions this week with patients where the singular focus was COVID-19 and how to cope, I decided to consolidate my advice and make a list that I hope is helpful to all.  I can't control a lot of what is going on right now, but I can contribute this.  

Edit: I am surprised and heartened that this has been shared so widely!  People have asked me to credential myself, so to that end, I am a doctoral level Psychologist in NYS with a Psy.D. in the specialities of School and Clinical Psychology.  

MENTAL HEALTH WELLNESS TIPS FOR QUARANTINE

1. Stick to a routine.  Go to sleep and wake up at a reasonable time, write a schedule that is varied and includes time for work as well as self-care.

2. Dress for the social life you want, not the social life you have.  Get showered and dressed in comfortable clothes, wash your face, brush your teeth.  Take the time to do a bath or a facial.  Put on some bright colors.  It is amazing how our dress can impact our mood.

3. Get out at least once a day, for at least thirty minutes.  If you are concerned of contact, try first thing in the morning, or later in the evening, and try less traveled streets and avenues.  If you are high risk or living with those who are high risk, open the windows and blast the fan.  It is amazing how much fresh air can do for spirits.

4. Find some time to move each day, again daily for at least thirty minutes.  If you don’t feel comfortable going outside, there are many YouTube videos that offer free movement classes, and if all else fails, turn on the music and have a dance party!

5. Reach out to others, you guessed it, at least once daily for thirty minutes.  Try to do FaceTime, Skype, phone calls, texting—connect with other people to seek and provide support.  Don’t forget to do this for your children as well.  Set up virtual playdates with friends daily via FaceTime, Facebook Messenger Kids, Zoom, etc—your kids miss their friends, too!

6. Stay hydrated and eat well.   This one may seem obvious, but stress and eating often don’t mix well, and we find ourselves over-indulging, forgetting to eat, and avoiding food.  Drink plenty of water, eat some good and nutritious foods, and challenge yourself to learn how to cook something new!

7. Develop a self-care toolkit.  This can look different for everyone.  A lot of successful self-care strategies involve a sensory component (seven senses: touch, taste, sight, hearing, smell, vestibular (movement) and proprioceptive (comforting pressure).  An idea for each: a soft blanket or stuffed animal, a hot chocolate, photos of vacations, comforting music, lavender or eucalyptus oil, a small swing or rocking chair, a weighted blanket.  A journal, an inspirational book, or a mandala coloring book is wonderful, bubbles to blow or blowing watercolor on paper through a straw are visually appealing as well as work on controlled breath.  Mint gum, Listerine strips, ginger ale, frozen Starburst, ice packs, and cold are also good for anxiety regulation. For children, it is great to help them create a self-regulation comfort box (often a shoe-box or bin they can decorate) that they can use on the ready for first-aid when overwhelmed.  

8. Spend extra time playing with children.  Children will rarely communicate how they are feeling, but will often make a bid for attention and communication through play.  Don’t be surprised to see therapeutic themes of illness, doctor visits, and isolation play through.  Understand that play is cathartic and helpful for children—it is how they process their world and problem solve, and there’s a lot they are seeing and experiencing in the now.

9. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and a wide berth.  A lot of cooped up time can bring out the worst in everyone.  Each person will have moments when they will not be at their best.  It is important to move with grace through blowups, to not show up to every argument you are invited to, and to not hold grudges and continue disagreements.  Everyone is doing the best they can to make it through this.

10. Everyone find their own retreat space.  Space is at a premium, particularly with city living.  It is important that people think through their own separate space for work and for relaxation.  For children, help them identify a place where they can go to retreat when stressed.  You can make this place cozy by using blankets, pillows, cushions, scarves, beanbags, tents, and “forts”.  It is good to know that even when we are on top of each other, we have our own special place to go to be alone.

11. Expect behavioral issues in children, and respond gently.   We are all struggling with disruption in routine, none more than children, who rely on routines constructed by others to make them feel safe and to know what comes next.  Expect increased anxiety, worries and fears, nightmares, difficulty separating or sleeping, testing limits, and meltdowns.  Do not introduce major behavioral plans or consequences at this time—hold stable and focus on emotional connection.

12. Focus on safety and attachment.  We are going to be living for a bit with the unprecedented demand of meeting all work deadlines, homeschooling children, running a sterile household, and making a whole lot of entertainment in confinement.  We can get wrapped up in meeting expectations in all domains, but we must remember that these are scary and unpredictable times for children.  Focus on strengthening the connection through time spent following their lead, through physical touch, through play, through therapeutic books, and via verbal reassurances that you will be there for them in this time.

13. Lower expectations and practice radical self-acceptance.  This idea is connected with #12.  We are doing too many things in this moment, under fear and stress.  This does not make a formula for excellence.  Instead, give yourself what psychologists call “radical self acceptance”: accepting everything about yourself, your current situation, and your life without question, blame, or pushback.  You cannot fail at this—there is no roadmap, no precedent for this, and we are all truly doing the best we can in an impossible situation.  

14. Limit social media and COVID conversation, especially around children.  One can find tons of information on COVID-19 to consume, and it changes minute to minute.  The information is often sensationalized, negatively skewed, and alarmist.  Find a few trusted sources that you can check in with consistently, limit it to a few times a day, and set a time limit for yourself on how much you consume (again 30 minutes tops, 2-3 times daily).  Keep news and alarming conversations out of earshot from children—they see and hear everything, and can become very frightened by what they hear.

15. Notice the good in the world, the helpers.  There is a lot of scary, negative, and overwhelming information to take in regarding this pandemic.  There are also a ton of stories of people sacrificing, donating, and supporting one another in miraculous ways.  It is important to counter-balance the heavy information with the hopeful information.  

16. Help others.  Find ways, big and small, to give back to others.  Support restaurants, offer to grocery shop, check in with elderly neighbors, write psychological wellness tips for others—helping others gives us a sense of agency when things seem out of control.  

17. Find something you can control, and control the heck out of it.  In moments of big uncertainty and overwhelm, control your little corner of the world.  Organize your bookshelf, purge your closet, put together that furniture, group your toys.  It helps to anchor and ground us when the bigger things are chaotic.

18. Find a long-term project to dive into.  Now is the time to learn how to play the keyboard, put together a huge jigsaw puzzle, start a 15 hour game of Risk, paint a picture, read the Harry Potter series, binge watch an 8-season show, crochet a blanket, solve a Rubic cube, or develop a new town in Animal Crossing.  Find something that will keep you busy, distracted, and engaged to take breaks from what is going on in the outside world.

19. Engage in repetitive movements and left-right movements.  Research has shown that repetitive movement (knitting, coloring, painting, clay sculpting, jump roping etc) especially left-right movement (running, drumming, skating, hopping) can be effective at self-soothing and maintaining self-regulation in moments of distress.

20. Find an expressive art and go for it.  Our emotional brain is very receptive to the creative arts, and it is a direct portal for release of feeling.  Find something that is creative (sculpting, drawing, dancing, music, singing, playing) and give it your all.  See how relieved you can feel.  It is a very effective way of helping kids to emote and communicate as well!

21. Find lightness and humor in each day.  There is a lot to be worried about, and with good reason.  Counterbalance this heaviness with something funny each day: cat videos on YouTube, a stand-up show on Netflix, a funny movie—we all need a little comedic relief in our day, every day.

22. Reach out for help—your team is there for you.  If you have a therapist or psychiatrist, they are available to you, even at a distance.  Keep up your medications and your therapy sessions the best you can.  If you are having difficulty coping, seek out help for the first time.  There are mental health people on the ready to help you through this crisis.  Your children’s teachers and related service providers will do anything within their power to help, especially for those parents tasked with the difficult task of being a whole treatment team to their child with special challenges.  Seek support groups of fellow home-schoolers, parents, and neighbors to feel connected.  There is help and support out there, any time of the day—although we are physically distant, we can always connect virtually.

23. “Chunk” your quarantine, take it moment by moment.  We have no road map for this.  We don’t know what this will look like in 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month from now.  Often, when I work with patients who have anxiety around overwhelming issues, I suggest that they engage in a strategy called “chunking”—focusing on whatever bite-sized piece of a challenge that feels manageable.  Whether that be 5 minutes, a day, or a week at a time—find what feels doable for you, and set a time stamp for how far ahead in the future you will let yourself worry.  Take each chunk one at a time, and move through stress in pieces.

24. Remind yourself daily that this is temporary.  It seems in the midst of this quarantine that it will never end.  It is terrifying to think of the road stretching ahead of us.  Please take time to remind yourself that although this is very scary and difficult, and will go on for an undetermined amount of time, it is a season of life and it will pass.  We will return to feeling free, safe, busy, and connected in the days ahead.

25. Find the lesson.  This whole crisis can seem sad, senseless, and at times, avoidable.  When psychologists work with trauma, a key feature to helping someone work through said trauma is to help them find their agency, the potential positive outcomes they can effect, the meaning and construction that can come out of destruction.  What can each of us learn here, in big and small ways, from this crisis?  What needs to change in ourselves, our homes, our communities, our nation, and our world?

 

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

 

In social isolation, the brain begins to act in strange ways to preserve its sanity

Humans are hardwired to interact with others, especially during times of stress. On the other hand, when we go through a trying ordeal alone, a lack of emotional support and comradeship can increase our anxiety and hinder our ability to cope.

This message is forcefully driven home in the newly released thriller “Shut In.” Naomi Watts plays a widowed child psychologist who lives in isolation in rural New England with her son, who is comatose and bedridden as the result of an automobile accident. Snowed in and withdrawn from the outside world, Watts’ character descends into a desperate existence. It soon becomes difficult for her to distinguish the phantasms of her imagination from the reality of the creepy goings-on in her apparently haunted house.

“Shut In,” of course, isn’t the first movie to use isolation as a vehicle for madness. The characters played by Jack Nicholson in “The Shining” and Tom Hanks in “Castaway” found themselves in similar predicaments. Although movies like “Shut In” are fictional, the toll on the protagonist’s psyche from being so alone for so long is based on the science of social isolation.
The importance of human connection

Yes, other people can be irritating. But they are also our greatest source of comfort, and an impressive amount of psychological research underscores the importance of human contact.

Rejection by others psychologically wounds us more deeply than almost anything else, and research by neuroscientists reveals that ostracism can lead to feeling actual physical pain. Other studies confirm that loneliness isn’t good for anyone’s health. It increases levels of stress hormones in the body while leading to poor sleep, a compromised immune system and, in the elderly, cognitive decline. The damage that solitary confinement inflicts on the mental health of prison inmates has also been well-documented.

Alone in an unchanging environment, the sensory information available to us and the ways in which we process it can change in unpredictable ways. For example, we normally spend most of our time attending to and processing external stimuli from the physical world around us. However, monotonous stimulation from our surroundings may cause us to turn our attention inward – within ourselves – which most of us have much less experience handling.

This can lead to a profoundly altered state of consciousness. We may begin to question what’s going on in our surroundings; Is that creaking sound upstairs just an old house pushing back against the wind, or is it something more sinister? This ambivalence leaves us frozen in place, wallowing in unease, especially if we’re alone. When we’re uncertain, the first thing we usually do is to look to the reactions of others to figure out what is going on. Without others with whom to share information and reactions, ambiguity becomes very hard to resolve. When this happens, our mind may quickly race to the darkest possible conclusions.

Unpleasant things can also happen when small groups of people experience isolation together. Much of what we know about this phenomenon has been gathered from observing the experiences of volunteers at research stations in Antarctica, especially during the “wintering-over” period.
The extreme temperatures, long periods of darkness, alien landscapes and severely reduced sensory input created a perfect natural laboratory for studying the effects of isolation and confinement. The volunteers experienced changes in appetite and sleep patterns. Some stopped being able to accurately track the passage of time and lost the ability to concentrate. The boredom from being around the same people, with limited sources of entertainment, ended up causing a lot of stress. Everyone else’s mannerisms became a grating, annoying and inescapable source of torment.

But perhaps the strangest thing that can happen to someone in isolation is the experience of the “sensed presence,” or the feeling that another person or even a supernatural being is with us.

Sensed presences usually appear in environments with static physical and social stimulation – in other words, when you’re by yourself in a quiet, remote place, just like Naomi Watts’ character in “Shut In.” Low temperature and high levels of stress are also common ingredients.

Some of the most compelling descriptions of sensed presences come from lone sailors, mountain climbers and arctic explorers who have experienced hallucinations and out-of-body experiences. In one amazing 1895 incident, Joshua Slocum, the first person to circumnavigate the globe in a sailboat single-handedly, said he saw and spoke with the pilot of Christopher Columbus’ ship “The Pinta.” Slocum claimed that the pilot steered his boat through heavy weather as he lay ill with food poisoning.

The vividness of a presence can range from a vague feeling of being watched to seeing a seemingly real person. It could be a god, a spirit, an ancestor or a personal acquaintance. A famous example occurred in 1933, when British explorer Frank Smythe attempted to climb Mt. Everest alone. He became so convinced that someone else was accompanying him on his climb that he even offered a piece of cake to his invisible climbing partner.

Possible explanations for a sensed presence include the the movement of boats (if sailing solo) and atmospheric or geomagnetic activity. Stress, lack of oxygen, monotonous stimulation or a buildup of hormones can trigger changes in brain chemistry that induce altered states of consciousness. There’s actually exciting new evidence from a research group led by neuroscientist Olaf Blanke demonstrating that stimulating specific brain regions can trick people into feeling the “presence” of a ghostly apparition.

Although sensed presences are most frequently reported by people in weird or dangerous places, it’s not unreasonable to assume that such experiences can happen in more mundane surroundings. For example, people who have lost a loved one may shut themselves off from the outside world and rarely leave their homes. The loneliness and isolation, coupled with high levels of stress and unchanging sensory stimulation, might very well produce the same biological conditions that could trigger a “visit” from the recently departed. Studies indicate that almost half of widowed elderly Americans will report having hallucinations of their dead spouse. These experiences seem to be a healthy coping mechanism and a normal part of grieving.

What might all of this say about the way we’re hardwired?

It’s clear that meaningful connection to other people is as essential to health as the air we breathe. Given that prolonged periods of social isolation can crack even the hardiest of individuals, perhaps in the absence of actual human contact our brains may manufacture social experiences – a last-ditch attempt to preserve our sanity.

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement     

New Method to Help Predict Mortality in Elderly

Researchers have developed a method to assess the 'age' of patients' immune systems, thus predicting mortality in older adults. According to researchers, the immune age is a kind of biological clock that will help identify an early weakening of the immune system.
The new model will help devise preventive measures to reduce disease and mortality, Xinhua news agency reported. In the study, Technion scientists, along with a team from the Stanford University in California, were able to quantify the changes in the immune system that happen over the years.

 In nine years, they characterised the immune systems of 135 healthy people of different ages once a year and built a model that quantifies these changes in a specific person. The data enabled the researchers to quantify the immune age in an index called 'IMM-AGE score', which provides information that the chronological age cannot tell.

Using the new method, the team quantified the immunisation age of more than 2,000 elders. The researchers believe that with the new method, they will also be able to characterise genes that affect immunisation age, and even identify lifestyle, habits and medications that affect the 'age'.

With an increase in inflammatory processes, the human body undergoes slow and constant functional weakening of the immune system. Ageing of the immune system has devastating consequences, including an inability to cope with infections and an increased risk of chronic diseases such as cancer.

The quantification of the immune system's ageing is a complex challenge that requires multidimensional monitoring over time.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                         FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                  https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/           

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The Embodiment Method

When we feel threatened or shaken, we can see it through our posture, breathing and movement, our bodies can go into shock or sometimes even crash. Many people think that the solution to overcoming a crisis or challenge comes primarily from a change in mind, but the truth is that 98% of our thoughts come from the subconscious and no thought will be fully realized if it isn’t connected to the body. In order to easily cope with the pitfalls of our lives, we must understand that our bodies have a great influence on our behavior, and it is important that we learn how to know our bodies and not separate them from the way we act and think. Precisely this principle focuses on the Embodiment approach, which teaches us how to build awareness of our bodies and properly cope with stress and obstacles. With this approach, we will present you with exercises to work with the body that will reconnect you to your mental abilities and help you stand up any challenge.

What is the Embodiment Approach?

We all have automatic trigger responses to different situations, for example, if we were to be called to our boss’s office, we would get nervous or start feeling stress. However, what people aren’t aware of is that our bodies also react instinctually. The way we walk, breathe and stand, consciously or unconsciously, affects our mentality and our experiences. The key to changing these responses is to think of our body as a sequence of sensations and to examine more positive and calming response patterns based on listening, movement, breathing, and other physical activities. Therefore, the solution must begin with control of the body and the feelings leading to the reaction, and by changing your automatic reaction patterns you will achieve significant results that, over time, will turn into a habit. By knowing your physical experience, you will learn how to control your thoughts, how to overcome stressful situations and confront your body's responses to panic and stress.

Exercises for working with the body according to the Embodiment approach:

Working with the body is very easy and effective because the body responds to every form of distress and this allows us to "read it" easily. When you change your negative response pattern in a different format that involves setting boundaries, listening or controlling pain, you change consciousness through your body. Once you identify these familiar patterns of action, you can change the response you feel to a more responsible, and calculated response. With the 7 Embodiment method-based exercises, you can increase the space of your body's responses and move closer to realizing your personal potential.
1. Relaxation between the eyes, tongue, diaphragm, and body – it’s not for nothing that Mystics believe in the third eye and that its closely related to the knowledge and vision of humans, which is why it’s important to keep this area relaxed. Start with the area between the eyes, try to relax, and make sure your tongue is not constricted your abdomen and diaphragm are relaxed and the body is loose and not tense. 
2. Posture - the body and mind work together, so it's important to be aware of how we stand. Posture is expressed in awareness of the environment, smells and the body itself. 
3. Breathing - A short breath is a breath that brings in a small amount of air and is designed to wake us up. In contrast, a long, deep breath from the diaphragm brings more air into the body, allowing it to relax and choose the desired response more considerately. 
4. Control of pain - If you notice, when you feel physical pain your body tenses up, the pain is sharp and breathing stops for a moment. Now try to relax, practice the previous 3 sections, breathe deeply with your stomach, release your tongue and loosen up your body. When the same pain is applied this time (with the same intensity), you’ll hardly feel it. The reason for this is your relaxed body that made it easier to feel pain, try it and you will certainly be surprised by the results!
5. A new approach to aggression - repeat the previous section while another person recites annoying sentences to you ("You're weak", "You're not good enough ...") and see how you react. Try it again only this time you have to calm your body and concentrate on breathing, note that the body is not tense. Not only will you feel less pain, but you will also be less aggressive towards the person in front of you. When we are in situations of stress or confrontation, the body tends to contract and tense up. Our typical reaction is to defend ourselves (even violently). But once we bring the body's awareness into play, we change our response and can replace it with more balanced behavior. 
6. Lie - The body signals to you and the people around you when you are lying. Ask another person to push you and try to resist them with your body, at this time you will say one truth and one lie. while lying, you’ll feel your eyebrows rising and your body will have a hard time resisting. The reason for this is that our bodies are "transparent" and cannot conceal lies, the inevitable raising of eyebrows, distracts your attention from the resistance. Now consider what this means about you... 

7. Decision Making - When you are required to make a decision under pressure, the choice you make will arise from stress. When your body is relaxed, your decision may be different and much smarter. It is therefore important to train the body how to deal with stress, with limits, lies or any other challenge that may arise in the future.

Training Workshop: The three-dimensional body

We will now present 3 simple exercises from the Embodiment Training Workshop, which focuses on the three dimensions of our bodies. Each physical object has three dimensions: width, length, and depth, as does the human body. The difference between our body and a chair or table lies in the fact that we have an experience of life and energy. To begin the first exercise, stand on your feet and observe the way you stand.
Length – as you stand on your legs picture them as roots of a tree. If you sink a little more into the ground, you’ll feel heavier – usually, those who are depressed, powerless or stubborn will seem as though they can’t be moved. If you imagine your body as a tree, your trunk should grow upwards and your treetop should reach your neck. If you lift your head up, you’ll feel slightly arrogant or condescending, but, if you straighten your back and neck, you’ll feel more relaxed and confident.
Width - width is actually a perception of place, think of thin people who stand with their hands together, people who are cold and hold themselves, or people who swing from side to side (just as they do in life). Part of embodiment is presence and visibility, but you don’t have to stretch out your hands and take over a space all the time. However, if you’re having difficulty feeling your presence, try to raise your arms along your shoulders, as if touching an invisible wall, feel your width and then bring your hands back towards your body while you stay with that feeling.

Depth - in this dimension we are not talking about muscles or weight, rather about movements. For example, if you run and rush to a certain place, your body will tilt forward, however, if you look at someone your body will move backward as if hesitant. In addition, depth is very connected to your culture, for example, people who maintain personal space as opposed to people who are more open to the environment. If you try to stand still and swing back and forth without moving your legs, you’ll feel the depth of your body and the trust you feel towards the person standing in front of you.

In the second exercise, after you’ve found and explored the three dimensions of your body, take a short walk, concentrate on the dimensions of your body and examine how you respond to objects and people (e.g., do you shrink back when smiled at or do smile back).
In the last exercise, try to think of something or someone that warms your heart. Start walking again, keeping in mind the 3 dimensions of your body, and think about the person you chose. Pay attention to your walking, your rhythm, and the dimensionality your body creates. Soon you will notice the difference in your walking and posture and after that success, you will be one step closer to embodiment!

 

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                                                                
 PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                                             FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                               
     https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/                                                                                     
  FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                                                                                                                              https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com