We are living in unprecedented times, and it is completely normal to feel overwhelmed, stressed or anxious. YoungMinds shares tips on how to manage your anxiety during this period:
Talk to someone about how you are feeling, such as a family member, friend, teacher or helpline.
Arm yourself with the facts, follow government advice and be aware that fake news can be spread on social media.
Follow NHS guidance on what you can do to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Limit your exposure to the news and #OwnYourFeed – unfollow accounts that make you feel stressed or worried.
Find things that make you feel calm and fill your time with things that you enjoy. We are sharing challenges for you to follow along with, so be sure to check this page alongside our social media platforms to join in!
Some useful posters which you may find useful.
4 Week Wellbeing Challenge
The prospect of spending extended periods of time indoors can be daunting, especially as a young person. During this time, you may wish to try our 4 Week Wellbeing Challenge to boost your mental wellbeing.
Resources
For students
There are excellent resources available to support your mental wellbeing, including YoungMinds and the NHS.
For staff and parents
In addition to the NHS, Mental Health First Aid England has excellent resources for supporting your mental wellbeing while working from home. These resources, within the campaign ‘My Whole Self’ can be found on their website.
Mental Health Awareness Week
The Mental Health Foundation campaign each year with their Mental Health Awareness Week. This year, the theme is kindness.
Kindness is at the heart of the College and is demonstrated in countless ways by our students on a daily basis. Therefore, we would like to invite the SEC community to join the Mental Health Foundation this week by helping to get the nation talking about kindness and mental health.
You might like to share an act of kindness with the hashtags #KindnessMatters and #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek or share your ideas for building a kinder society.
#KindnessMatters challenges and ideas!
The Mental Health Foundation suggests:
Idea #1: Call a friend that you haven’t spoken to for a while
Idea #2: Tell a family member how much you love and appreciate them
Idea #3: Arrange to have a virtual catch up with someone that you know
Idea #4: Arrange to watch a film at the same time as a friend and video call
Idea #5: Tell someone you know that you are proud of them
Idea #6: Tell someone you know why you are thankful for them
Idea #7: Send a motivational text to a friend who is struggling
Idea #8: Send someone you know a joke to cheer them up
Idea #9: Send someone you know a cute picture of an animal
Idea #10: Send an inspiration quote to a friend
Idea #11: Send an interesting article to a friend
Idea #12: Send an inspirational story to someone you know of an act of kindness around the world
Idea #13: Contact someone you haven’t seen for a while and arrange a virtual catch up
Idea #14: Help with a household chore
Idea #15: Spend time playing with your pet
Idea #16: Donate to charity/ foodbanks
Idea #17: Reach out to a family member or friend who is experiencing loneliness in isolation
Idea #18: Offer to skill share with a friend via video call e.g. teaching the guitar or learning to dance
We are pleased to share with you this video with brilliant advice on keeping physically and mentally healthy all wrapped into a sci-fi theme. This video was shared with us by one of our Rhetoric students who has found it particularly helpful.
Mindfulness
In these difficult times, we wanted to bring a little peacefulness and comfort to you and therefore have created a short video from within the Chapel, the Heart of everything at St Edmund’s, which you can find above. You may wish to take this time to practice mindfulness or to take a moment of calm after a stressful day.
Below are lots of ideas and resources that could help students and parents alike through this period where we are at home working in isolation.
An idea which you may find of interest is the Kindness Calendar developed by the Red Cross which can be found here.
