Self-Care During COVID-19

If there is only one self-care principle you follow, this is the one. Accepting and validating your experience rather than questioning or judging it is essential for resilience.

Do:

• Check in with yourself. Scan your body and emotions a few times during the day and notice what’s coming up for you.
• Are you tired, scared, sad, anxious, angry, confused, or disoriented? Accept that. State it to yourself or to another person to validate it: “I am _____.”
• Honor your feelings. Allow yourself to be sad, scared, or confused. We have feelings for a reason. What is your feeling telling you about your needs right now?

Don’t:

• Don’t try to change your feelings. Trying to replace “negative” feelings with positivity doesn’t work. You can maintain a false positivity for a while, but it takes a ton of energy and doesn’t meet your underlying need.
• Don’t use “the shoulds” (statements like “I should be more positive” and “I shouldn’t be feeling this way”).
• In the same vein, don’t ask, “What’s wrong with me?” There is nothing wrong with you. You are feeling what you are supposed to feel right now.

 Build focus in this new learning format.

So many changes can cause so much stress. This causes an overtaxed prefrontal cortex, which means you have difficulty processing information. This can make switching to a new learning format – especially if it doesn’t fit with your learning style – challenging because your information storage and retrieval takes a hit.

To strengthen your focus for online learning:

• Sleep!
• Keep a schedule and weekly to-do list.
• Set up alerts and reminders for your deadlines.
• Communicate with your professors.
• Tailor your study schedule to fit your attention span and circadian rhythms.
• Identify what distracts you and remove it if possible.
• Find a study partner to keep you accountable.

 Foster flexibility.

Crisis demands flexibility. Everything is changing from day to day, hour to hour. It takes a lot of brain energy to orient yourself and adjust to your environment.

Use these tips to help foster flexibility:

• Question your thoughts. We often interpret what we think as reality. Thoughts are not facts, however, and taking a moment to be curious about other possibilities than where your mind typically goes can build mental/emotional flexibility.
• Stretch before bed and in the morning. Your body and mind aren’t separate. Flexible ligaments, muscles, and fascia mean less stiffness both in your movement and in your thinking patterns. There are many online videos and tutorials on stretching – try one like this.
• In addition to structured, focused time, allow yourself to have creative, unfocused time too. Don’t require productivity during this time. Your unconscious mind needs unfocused time to cement learning, to create, and to work problems out. It may look like “doing nothing” but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that will appear later for you.

                   

 Rest, rest, rest!

We can take a note from a very helpful tool that people with chronic illness or disability use to understand their energy levels and needs. It’s called the spoon theory. The basic premise is that people with compromised health only have so many units of energy (“spoons”) each day. Each activity they do takes one spoon away from their limited stores. If they begin the day with 10 spoons, for instance, a spoon is used taking a shower, another spoon used getting dressed, a couple of spoons used responding to emails, and so on. Pretty soon, there are no spoons left.

The spoon theory is all about quantifying your energy in order to respond more efficiently and compassionately to your energy needs.

In times of crisis, we all have limited stores of energy and stamina. You only have so many spoons! Be honest with yourself: how many spoons do you have? Rest often to replenish your energy.

 Last but not least, laugh.

Laugh by yourself, laugh with others, laugh with your pets. Laugh every day. Even faking laughter can have positive results because of the neurochemicals that are released.

 Need to talk to someone?

As of March 25, the Carruth Center staff began working remotely for the health and safety of our students, employees, and community. We will only offer on-site services for those in immediate crisis or danger. However, we will continue to offer mental health care through various platforms depending on your location and need. Please utilize our services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to the main Carruth Center, satellite centers exist at the Health Sciences Center and for our student athletes. For students utilizing care from those centers, please reach out to your counselor for more information.

If you are in West Virginia but outside of the Morgantown area and are in need of urgent services, please contact your clinician directly or visit our website.

If you are currently outside of West Virginia and would like access to counseling services, it is also important to contact your clinician. They will talk with you about options for support. One of these options may be utilizing an online system called “My Student Support.” 

If you are experiencing a psychological emergency during operational hours (8:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.), call 304-293-4431 and ask to speak to a clinician. Our emergency after-hours services (304-293-4431, extension 1) will be available as well as the Crisis Text Line. To use the Crisis Text Line, text WVU to 741741 for 24/7 support.