If so, proactively engaging with activities you enjoy may improve your mood...
If you're stuck as home during lockdown and are feeling a little downbeat, try spending more time on activities that you enjoyed prior to the pandemic.
Whilst this may require a little creative thinking (particularly if you loved hosting dinners for friends, going to see bands or other social events), research* suggests that pro-actively spending time on things that you usually cherish makes you feel happier, and leaves you feeling calmer and more balanced in these challenging times.
By contrast, engaging in mundane, but meaningless activites (e.g. chores around the house) or taking up novel pursuits simply to pass away the time may have the opposite effect. Whilst these keep you busy and help to distract you from what's going on in the world, they also lower your satisfaction with life and leave you feeling more unsettled - something that we definitely don't need right now.
So whether you normally enjoy reading, listening to music or having coffee with friends, give your wellbeing a boost by setting aside time to engage in these activities, even if this means doing things in a different way.
#wellbeing, #covid-19
*References
Cohen, D. B., Luck, M., Hormozaki, A. and Saling, L. L. (2020) ‘Increased meaningful activity while social distancing dampens affectivity; mere busyness heightens it: Implications for well-being during COVID-19’, PloS one, 15(12), pp. e0244631–e0244631. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244631.
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