COVID-19 MENTAL HEALTH & PARENTING SUPPORT RESOURCES
Thought Channeling Exercise
As the lockdown continues we are faced with new challenges and new thoughts. New worries as we adjust to the changing reality. This resource will help you channelise your thoughts during such stressful times in a way that helps you to accept the situation and adapt as best as you can.
Explore Your Imagination
If you’re feeling stressed, you can try this activity that asks you to explore your imagination to feel calmer.
Home Safety Checklist
This resource, developed by Child Safety Week, is an easy way for you to check how equipped your home is for the safety of children.
Gratitude Exercise
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or are in a situation where you need centring, try this simple gratitude exercise to feel better.
Burn Your Anxiety
Have you been feeling anxious off late?
We understand that times like these can seem overwhelming with too much on our plate and little in our control. Here’s a simple activity that will help you burn your anxiety and feel calmer.
Let’s burn the anxiety away…
Zentangle Breathing Exercise
There is a strong association between anxiety and respiratory symptoms, including shortness of breath. Here is a breathing exercise that can help you calm down.
Butterfly Hug
There’s a constant surge of news updates every minute. While it’s important to be informed, sometimes the news can be worrying. Its at times like these that we need to take a break, give ourselves the space to breathe, calm ourselves down and feel better.
So keep your phone away, pause from the worrying, take a deep breath and give yourself this magical hug!
Draw Without Looking
When is the last time you drew something? Doodled perhaps?
Here is a fun activity that will take you down memory lane, but with one catch!
Close your eyes and let your imagination take flight. Try to draw/paint without worrying about perfection. Soothe your anxious mind.
Self Appraisal & Gratitude Journal
Gratitude journaling is the habit of recording & reflecting on things for which we are grateful. We are all blessed to have some amazing people in our lives.
Family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, people who provide basic services – the list can go on and on.
Today, let’s note down some positive things about ourselves and also take the time to acknowledge and appreciate people for the value that they add in our lives, especially in these times.
Emotion Collage
In the current situation, we all run around to keep things as clean as possible; cleaning surfaces, wiping things down, sanitizing, etc.
But who doesn’t like a good mess? Today we encourage you to get creative and make a bit of a mess. Cut, paste and appreciate your very own masterpiece!
Fun with Clay
Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we feel upset with the way our lives have changed because of COVID-19. Last few times we saw how to doodle or write away the stress.
Today, let’s see how to keep our hands busy when we feel a little extra fidgety. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and play with clay/ kneaded dough (aata) again.
Relax & Breathe
Breathe in, Breathe out, Breathe in, Breathe out…
Now have fun doing this in a variety of ways and relax.
Grounding Technique
If you’ve been experiencing moments of high stress and anxiety, keep this grounding technique in mind to help connect you to the present and reduce panic.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (Grounding Technique)
Grounding is a coping strategy that “grounds” you, i.e. immediately connects you with the present moment. This activity will take you through your five senses to remind you of the present. This is a calming technique that can help you get through tough or stressful situations.
Bear Hug
Physical isolation can be difficult. Take a moment today to hold yourself and give yourself a bear hug!
Pause, Tense and Relax
We often hold anxiety and tension in our bodies. Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) helps us unwind by relaxing our body.
The best part is that you can try this anywhere!
Relax and Breath
Remember the fun breathing exercises you did some days ago?
Here are some more for you to use to relax.
Circle of Compliments
Who doesn’t like a compliment? Makes you feel good, right? It’s always wonderful to compliment and celebrate the people in our life, be it our family members or friends or others.
Here is a small group activity you can do to give compliments to each other.
Power of Togetherness
Each one of us has something that we find difficult – like, cooking, math, exercise, sitting in one place for some time, etc.
This activity will help you to explore the hardship and find the courage to face it (while being aware that it might be difficult). After all, resilience is also about trying to beat the odds.
A Personal Resilience Journal
Remember the time when we all had personal diaries, where we wrote all the little and not so little things about our everyday life? Reading them at a later age often made us realize how what seemed like an absolute catastrophe then, was just a tiny little hitch in the larger scheme of things. We think it should be a practice even now, as our everyday life has begun to look a little different.
This Personal Resilience Journal will serve as a reminder of your resilience and courage in times of trouble.
Stretch & Relax
Being at home 24×7 means the chances of sitting in one position for long increases.
Let’s try these simple stretching exercises at home as our regular physical activities such as running, morning and evening walks, etc. are restricted.
Following the steps in the activity & moving your body will help you refresh your mind and body, and prepare you to take on whatever the “real world” throws at you next.
Word Collage
While we are all spending more time at home, a lot of us are balancing multiple roles & may not get the time to truly connect with those in our homes
Take 10 minutes today to share & connect with those with whom you are living.
Letter To Yourself
The relationship you have with yourself is the most important one!
How often do we speak to ourselves?
Let’s start by writing a letter to ourselves and exploring what we’re feeling today
Unpacking Memories
Let’s revisit some memories today?
Here’s a fun and simple activity that you can do with everyone at home and make new memories while revisiting old ones
Palm Push Therapy
Sometimes the solution to your stress can be in the palms of your own hands.
Relieving stress doesn’t always require external resources. Just like the bear hug technique, this simple technique will help you relieve your stress just using your hands.
Begin with the traditional Indian Namaste that we all know and move to a palm push that is relaxing and gives a great stretch.
Spring Cleaning Play/Fun
Most of us keep postponing spring cleaning. It is a tiring and nearly endless task. The #COVID situation though has made us relook at all our cupboards, to get the best use out of things in them, and separating that which cannot be used.
Imagine if this boring activity could lead to something fun. What if we took all the discarded items and crafted something entirely new and fun? Imagine if the entire family did this together!
A cleaning up creative craft session that is also a bonding exercise. What more could one ask for?
Palm Push Therapy
Sometimes the solution to your stress can be in the palms of your own hands.
Relieving stress doesn’t always require external resources. Just like the bear hug technique, this simple technique will help you relieve your stress just using your hands.
Begin with the traditional Indian Namaste that we all know and move to a palm push that is relaxing and gives a great stretch.
Line Art
Are you anxious, confused, bored or stuck? Use this activity to simply draw lines to structure and clear your thoughts. A line is one of the simplest and most basic aspects of art, but it can also contain a lot of emotion. Use simple line art to demonstrate visually how you feel. Every single line means something.
Finger Painting
Finger painting has a lot to do with your feelings. The moment you start dipping your fingers into thick, brightly colored paint and noodling your way around a sheet of smooth, shiny paper you’ll feel relieved and rejuvenated.
Finger painting has numerous benefits. Get messy as you finger paint. Enjoy this with your children too and see how their faces light up!
This can be a great way of creating a bond between family/ friends.
Patchwork Art
In one of our previous activities, a family member/ friend suggested a word each and we all made some memorable and funny sentences. Remember long back when grandmothers made patchwork quilts? Imagine combining both on a big chart paper. Everyone gets an area that they draw and colour and together you have one big artwork that is cathartic, a team effort and a bonding activity all rolled into one.
