The most important thing is to be gentle with yourself. While some people’s goals and to-do lists are quite ambitious, please remember that as long as we stay at home then we are succeeding at quarantine. A new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 45% of adults say the pandemic has affected their mental health . There is a lot going on in the world. Our routines have majorly been disrupted allowing us a lot of time to re-evaluate our lives. It is absolutely permissible to take as much time as needed for your mental health.

One of the best things you can do during this spare time is talk to a professional: they can help you sort out your thoughts, recommend coping tools, and point you in the direction of other resources. If you have a therapist established already, check to see if they have moved over to video or teleconferencing systems.

Open Path Collective  offers sliding scale therapy sessions for between $30 – $60 for the uninsured, which is a pretty typical of what insured patients pay.

Mental health professionals were deemed “essential workers”, so if you don’t have the privacy to talk with a professional in your own home, several therapists offices have maintained open hours with responsible social distancing policies. This way you can talk to your therapist in private.

It’s also super important to get out of your head and into your body with movement and exercise. Something as simple as a short walk, or a 15-minute stretch session can make a huge difference to your well-being. If you have a normal work-out routine try to emulate it at home, or as similar as possible with what you have at the house,  when you have the mental capacity to do so. Any movement is good movement.

If you are unable to do any movement, meditation is another great way to quiet the mind. There are many guided meditation resources (link to a page on social distancing central site). You can also use apps that remind you slow down, breathe and meditate at least once daily. 

“Calm” is a free meditation and mindfulness app that is easily accessible with a smartphone as well. We encourage you to try one and see which program works best for you to calm the mind during quarantine.  

In conclusion, it’s important to put your quarantine mental health first, and there are plenty of resources available to aid in this. I hope you find one that works for you.