10 Tips for Managing your Mood while Working in Lockdown
With the greatest number of Australians currently in lockdown since the coronavirus pandemic begun, we thought we would bring you our 10 tips for managing your mood. These are free, simple strategies that you can use anywhere at any time to help to lift your mood.
Influence your Emotional State:
1. Be mindful
There are a lot of simple mindfulness techniques to help you to stay in the present moment, when things become stressful. Counting five things in your environment that you can see, hear and feel is a simple strategy for helping to ground yourself when your emotions become heightened.
2. Slow down your breathing
Slowing down your breathing helps to change the way your body reacts to feelings of stress or anxiety. To temporarily slow down your breathing, take three slow breaths, counting to four while breathing in, then counting to four again while breathing out.
3. Choose your music
Listening to music can have an immediate impact on your mood. Choose music that you know tends to make you feel good. That might be classical music, 90’s R&B, rock opera, love ballads or heavy metal, it is completely up to you.
Take Action:
4. Take a break
When you’ve got a lot of work on, it can seem counter-intuitive to stop trying to tackle all the tasks on your to-do list. However, taking short, regular breaks can keep your mind fresh and alert, so that you are better able to remain productive throughout the workday.
5. Move about
There is growing evidence that regular exercise has direct benefits for mental health. Incorporating movement into your workday by intermittently standing to work, getting a household chore done or going for a walk at lunchtime, will help you to feel better.
6. Get social
Humans are not programmed to be socially isolated. Whether an introvert or extrovert, we all get pleasure from supportive social interactions. In these times of isolation, it has become important to be deliberate in incorporating social interaction into your day. Thankfully, the technology is available to help you with this. Schedule a regular video chat, create some informal banter over email, text or social media or pick up the telephone to create the opportunity for an enjoyable conversation. Just be picky with who you reach out to. Find those people who you know will have a positive impact on your mood.
7. Be kind and helpful
Did you know that acts of kindness or helpfulness have been shown to improve the mood of the person performing those acts? Reach out to someone who is struggling, give someone a complement or make a donation to a good cause and you will reap the benefits by feeling good about your actions.
Catch your Thinking:
8. Rationalise your thinking
What we think has a direct impact on how we feel, so if you’re ruminating on something negative, you are likely to be in a bad mood. If you are getting carried away with negative thoughts, you can challenge them by asking yourself “what evidence do I have that what I am thinking is true or not true?”. Considering both sides will help to rationalise your thinking and reduce its impact on your mood.
9. Notice your thoughts
There is evidence that using methods to distance yourself from your negative thoughts can help you to stay focussed on taking positive action. When you find yourself hooked by negative thinking, catch one of your negative thoughts and create distance from it by saying to yourself “I am noticing that I am thinking…”.
10. Thank your mind
Our minds are “thought machines” and they produce negative thoughts as a way of warning us about something that could potentially harm us. This can often be helpful for keeping us safe, except when these negative thoughts become overwhelming and distract us from taking positive action. When you notice yourself having negative thoughts, thank your mind for trying to keep you safe. This is another method for creating distance from your thoughts, to reduce their impact on your mood.
