Loneliness has more to do with a sense of isolation than just being alone. This can feel quite challenging when your power to resolve the problem, also seems to have been taken away. What else can you do to stay connected, feel empowered and boost your physical and mental health during this enforced confinement period? Here are some ideas that are based in science that you might like to try.

Keep a Routine

Having a routine helps our body to cope with stress and uncertainty. The very act of getting yourself ready in the morning; whether this be getting dressed or doing morning exercises helps to support the normal rhythm of your cortisol levels, promoting productive waking hours as well as good sleep at night time. A routine also creates a sense of expectation for the day, which helps us to feel safe and relaxed, which is essential for any higher functioning to take place, as well as stimulating your digestive system at the right times of the day.

Humour

You have probably noticed that laughter is one of those emotions that makes you feel good; producing oxytocin which helps us to be open to connecting more with others. Funny moments from the past that we reminisce with friends can have an equally powerful effect. Humour and other positive emotions can quite literally open up the blood vessels around our hearts, not just improving mood, but our health as well.

Use your character strength of humour to rewrite your script for its future presentation to your friends. What stories will you be able to share when you come out of isolation? Try to reframe a desperate situation with humour. Picture yourself or a member of your family that you feel safe with, humorously describing the scene. Social media has presented some examples that allow us to empathise, while we laugh out loud such as toasting a glass of wine in front of the mirror.

Opportunity to reset the balance

Most of us have aspects of our lives that we want to improve - health, fitness, work-life balance, connection with others? Confinement offers extra time indoors, for us to reflect and act in a way that helps us, to get that balance back.

Once we have a visual image of what we would like our life to look like, we need to ask whether our current actions are helping to make this happen? If not, consider talking to someone about what you are trying to achieve and together set out realistic, measurable short term goals to help you to get where you want. Studies have shown that by sharing our plan, we become more accountable and the likelihood of it happening increases enormously.

Stay Connected

We all need to work a little harder to meet our social needs during this confinement period. Depending on your personality and individual situation, you may usually be ok with meeting friends once a week, or once a day. We all have varying levels of social need, but what can we do to meet this?

Online drinks, phone-calls, social media and online games are all means to help you to reach out and stay connected. It can also be helpful to connect with your community; whether through clapping at 8pm for the health workers, or volunteering to do shopping or other errands for members of your community. Developing positive relationships and helping others are 2 ways to boost your immunity, as well as ease that feeling of disconnection at this time.

It’s worth noting that a powerful community spirit has emerged during this pandemic; evident outside your window or balcony, on social media and on the street. There is a comforting sense of unity in our challenge and a level of connectedness, related to this display of solidarity.

Loving Kindness Meditation

By practising meditation, you will train your mind to be able to detach from negative emotions that can spiral, potentially leaving you in a panicked state. Loving, kindness meditation cultivates a feeling of kindness and positive emotions to yourself and others. It sounds admittedly strange, but the scientific evidence after 8 weeks of regular practice, shows increases in positive emotions and connectedness towards others, decreases in negative emotions such as anxiety, improvements in vagal tone and the health of our hearts, as well as increases in the pace of cell renewal in our bodies.

Positive Choice Paris offers online, digital positive psychology coaching and counselling:

To reduce anxiety and cope with stress,
To explore and increase your sense of meaning and purpose in life,
To train your mind to detach through meditation.

Get in contact for more details on pricing.

Gráinne Dunleavy, MSc Applied Positive Psychology.