Keeping our seniors healthy during COVID-19 is a top priority for us at the Mission at Agua Fria.
Keeping
our seniors healthy during COVID-19 is a top priority for us at the
Mission at Agua Fria. It’s also very important to us that our seniors maintaining mindfulness during this time. Being mindful helps us decrease stress, anxiety, and depression while working to increase our ability to regulate emotions. It also helps with focusing and being observant. All of these are important attributes to have, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are four tips for maintaining mindfulness during COVID-19.
1. Practice Gratitude
Remembering to be grateful during this time is a challenge, which is why practicing gratitude is a great way to help maintain mindfulness. How can you go about doing this? Take a few minutes each day to think about things that you’re grateful for. If you like, you can even start a gratitude journal where you write down anything you’re grateful for. It can be as small as having ice cream after dinner or as big as getting to talk to a loved one.
2. Meditate
Take some time during the day to meditate. Sit in an area that is quiet and familiar to you (such as your apartment) and find a relaxed, comfortable position. Then find something to focus on, such as your breathing. If your mind begins to wander to anything else, bring it back to your breathing, or whatever you’ve decided to focus on. This will help center you. It will also give you a few minutes of “just being,” where you don’t need to do or worry about anything else.
3. Finding a Routine
During this time of uncertainty and change, there’s comfort in the familiar. Creating some kind of daily routine will help with this. This routine can be anything from meditating at the same time each day to starting your day off by making coffee or tea and sitting on the couch reading or calling a loved one at the same time each day. Maintaining a routine will give you control over something during a time when control is hard to find. There is a special contentedness to having something that happens at the same time every day, no matter what else is going on in the world.
4. Go for a Walk
Getting out of the same four walls of your home can give you a great reset. Going for a walk also benefits your physical health. You don’t need to have an end goal in mind, just simply go for a walk and see where you end up. Take notice of things around you that you may not have noticed before, whether it’s new flowers planted, new decorations for the season, or small wildlife, such as squirrels and birds. It’s important to get fresh air during this time, and going for a walk (while remaining socially distant and adhering to the state’s COVID guidelines) is the perfect way to do this.
We’re living in unprecedented times, and so maintaining mindfulness right now is even more important than it has been in the past. These four tips are a great way to remain mindful.
