20 minutes to better resilience
The COVID 19 Pandemic has had a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of young people. It’s over a year gone now since COVID-19 made its way into the UK. For many of you, this has been the most challenging year of your lives. We are living through huge uncertainty, with lockdowns and restrictions often keeping us away from the people we love.
You have had to adapt to uncomfortable changes to what was once normal for you whilst juggling possible additional ups and down of life experiences. Many of you would not have seen your friends and family for months and this also may have affected your emotional health and wellbeing. This is because the usual activities you had in your lives for wellbeing, including socialising with others, have been stopped.
It has never been more important for you to take care of your mental health to deal with and adapt to these challenges.
How can ‘You’ help you?
By maintaining ‘Emotional Resilience’:
- Our ability to ‘bounce back’ during or after difficult times and get back to feeling as good as before
- Our ability to adapt to difficult circumstances that you can’t change and keep on thriving
With resilience, you are more able to deal with difficulties and adversities than with less resilience.
We aren’t born resilient, it is something we all can learn and improve over our lifetime. Strong relationships are important for building resilience. So is exercise and doing things that you enjoy.
How can ‘We’ help you?
Thrive LDN has worked with Dr Radha Modgil – a practising NHS GP, broadcaster & campaigner for wellbeing – to develop a short training film to help strengthen emotional resilience through positive strategies, which are tried and tested by Londoners like you. The great thing about this tool is it can be used by everyone both young and old.
Resilience starts with focusing on what you can control, essential when we are surrounded by so much uncertainty. The training tool will take you through different things you can do and simple techniques for ‘topping up’ your resilience, including:
Connecting with yourself, reflecting, building resilience through difficult situations
Seeking out activities that bring joy (for example, music and arts, creative writing)
Connecting with others and reaching out for support (either through family, friends or wider community or faith groups)
Connecting with the environment through green spaces
Volunteering
Finding different ways to keep active
Practicing self-care and prioritising sleep
In just 20 minutes, we hope that you can find just one or two simple strategies and ideas that will work for you.
Take part at thriveldn.co.uk/emotionalresilience
Credit: Thrive LDN
See more services available to support your mental health and wellbeing during this challenging time.
Believe in yourself – help boost your well-being by trying these 6 steps
Headspace – train your brain, relax and build your emotional well-being
Kooth – free, safe and anonymous online support for young people
Emoodji app – free app for the ups & downs of university life
Good Thinking – 24/7, online support for Londoners seeking mental health advice and help