Keeping mentally healthy with mindfulness and the FREE isolation diary.
How do you keep mentally healthy? And what is mindfulness? Adult colouring books have become popular over the last few years, reminding us of the need to help us to step back from the day to day bombardment of media, technology and being busy. Some people say that spending time colouring a design is the kind of ‘mindless’ activity that they need at the end of the day and that adult colouring books are a good distraction from everyday noise and business. For some, these are used during conference calls, it’s the equivalent of doodling. As isolation at home and work from home continues for many of us, it can be challenging to find ways to ‘decompress.’
What are you proactively doing to manage your mental wellbeing?
Mindfulness.
Mindfulness is a technique that Western psychology has borrowed from the Buddhist tradition of mindful meditation. Mindfulness involves bringing your attention to what is happening in the present moment, being aware of both your internal experiences as well as what you experience in the world around you. As you observe your internal and external experiences, try not to judge them as good or bad. Just be aware and present in the moment.
Many psychological studies have shown that are measurable health benefits when you practice mindfulness on a regular basis. This includes boosting the immune system, improving memory and attention skills, fostering compassion, and assisting in overcoming disorders such as anxiety and depression.
A colleague on Linkedin recently shared an attachment to “My lockdown diary.” It is a 29-page isolation appreciation diary. Author of the document is unknown, however references to ‘drawing yourself in your bubble’, indicate that the origin is likely to be New Zealand.
What you can do to manage your mental health.
So here’s what you should do:
- Set aside 5 – 15 minutes to fill in a page of ‘my lockdown diary’
- Find a time and place where you will not be interrupted
- Gather your materials to fill in your FREE lockdown diary and sit comfortably at a table.
- You may want to set a time for 5 to 15 minutes. You should try and continue your mindful practice until the alarm goes off.
- As you fill in the diary, start to pay attention to your breathing. You will probably find that your breathing becomes slower and slower, so you don’t have to try to relax.
Using the FREE isolation diary
Completing ‘the free isolation diary’ can be used as a family event, send it onto your workmates, and use as a tool to discuss insights and feelings that you are experiencing during this lockdown period. Or simply use it as a tool for yourself. It will make a wonderful time capsule to share with others in years to come.
I am totally filling this out too as its awesome. So, thought I’d share. I trust you all will enjoy it too. This could be a time capsule for us all to look back on – and will give us all something to do apart from back to back Zoom meetings. This is a perfect activity for people of all ages.
What are you doing to look after your mental health and well being? Share your thoughts and approach with us in the comment section below.
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About the author: Colleen Condon
Colleen likes to keep things creative in all that she does, often using marshmallows as a source of inspiration.
Everyone knows that ongoing learning is essential for both personal and professional success and yet, for many, this means hours of attending dead boring training or completing’ losing the will to live’ eLearning modules. Colleen’s mission is to end tedious professional development while ensuring targeted outcomes for learners and businesses.
Colleen has honed her skills over the last 20 years across multiple industries and locations. Her previous role saw her overseeing the training and development needs of over 60, 000 employees across 13 countries in the APAC region. This enabled her to hone skills that celebrated diversity and understanding human commonality through learning, and that in the absence of a common language, flip charts and coloured markers helped her to overcome most challenging situations.
After taking a ‘go away package’, in 2019, Colleen founded her own business, Facilitated Training, harnessing her global learning experiences and sharing them through ready to use learning resources, specialising in leadership, mentoring, guest speaking, creative problem solving, filling the gap of high quality, customisable training resources and tools.