Spending time online
The negative impact of social media on wellbeing has been widely reported. However, people are now coming together to celebrate the positive impact that being online can have on your life if physical contact with others is restricted.
You could use this as an opportunity to research and use some of the many online resources available to seek out comfort at a time of great uncertainty. This may help you to bring positivity into your life. Now, we will explore the different ways to do this in more detail below.
Video calling
If you are unable to visit your family or friends, being able to see them and talk with them can help you feel less isolated.
Though nothing is as good as real personal contact, the next best thing is being able to talk to people using video calling, for example Skype, WhatsApp and FaceTime. There are numerous online tutorials which can help you set these services up. Always ensure you use a reputable product. You may wish to agree regular check in times so you can feel connected to the people around you.
Learning something new
Is there something that you have always wanted to know more about? Are you able to use this time to enhance existing skills or learning something new? You could try:
- Learning a new language by watching online videos for support or downloading a foreign language app on your phone or tablet.
- Finding out more about the history of your local area. There are lots of special interest history group websites, blogs and forums online.
- Enhancing your current skills by watching online videos for advice and support.
- Enrolling in an online course to learn more about a subject you are interested in. There are lots of free courses available on a variety of subjects.
Take a virtual trip
Have you ever wanted to visit the MET in New York, take a trip to a famous zoo or enjoy a West End Musical but for one reason or another not been able to? In response to the pandemic many organisations across the world are now offering online experiences. You could try:
- Taking a tour through an art gallery or museum. Examples include the British National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, the Louvre or The Vatican Museum.
- Watching a play online with both the West End in London and Broadway in New York making several experiences available online.
Looking after your health and wellbeing
Our lives can be extremely demanding at times. A balancing act trying to juggle everything may mean that we forget to take care of ourselves. Prioritising your own wellbeing is important.
Self-care comes in many forms and what works for one person may not work for another. For some, the act of being online and taking some time for themselves may be enough. Self-care is a good place to start when thinking about health and wellbeing. There are many different podcasts you can listen to, videos or TED talks you can watch and apps you can download. These will guide you through self-care exercises including mindfulness and meditation.
Many fitness professionals are also making their exercise classes free online which range from yoga and Pilates. These will help strengthen your body and focus your mind to high intensity interval Training (HIIT) which will get your heart pumping.
Internet trolls
Internet trolls are people who want to provoke and upset others online for their own amusement. They make intentionally inflammatory, rude, or upsetting statements online to draw strong emotional responses from people or to steer the conversation off-topic.
You’ll find trolls anywhere online, including on social media. Sadly, they are quite common. The best way to handle a troll is to ignore them. Hopefully, they will feel frustrated for not receiving a response and will go somewhere else on the internet.
Don’t take a troll personally. These people spend hours trying to upset people and their comments should not be taken seriously. They are not worth losing sleep over. If a troll becomes a problem, you can also report them to the site’s moderation team. This may help to dissuade them from trolling on that site. It may even result in the troll being temporarily suspended or their account might be banned entirely.
Mental health and the news
It may be useful to limit the amount of time you spend reading or watching things which aren’t making you feel better or to decide on a specific time to check in with the news.
In addition, we don’t want to avoid all news altogether so that we can keep informing and educating ourselves if new information comes to light. If we want to read the news, we should ensure we access reliable, quality information about it that doesn’t attempt to sensationalise it.
'Just as you can avoid the news you have the power to seek out comfort and avoid situations and conversations that are doing more harm than good. Leave situations that you find overwhelming.'
Talkspace, 2020
An online blogger’s experience
Sometimes it can be helpful to know that other people are feeling similar things to you. The internet is a great place to be able to express yourself. It is a place where you can share your feelings with others and interact with people in a similar situation to you. Make sure you are in a safe environment where you feel able to do this. There are many blogs and forums online with a focus on mental health. One of the students at a local recovery college has created a blog with a focus on how you are feeling and improving your wellbeing. She writes about things that she has found to be helpful to her. About her experiences of being online and writing her blog she said:
Personal experience
‘I think it’s down to every individual how much they share. When making my blog I became conscious about what I was sharing; was I sharing too much or sharing not enough? I think you just have to do what works for you – obviously keeping things safe. Things that could trigger other people unintentionally should be avoided to make being online a safe place for all. It is also important to keep personal information like family and friends to a minimum as once it’s posted there is no going back. Saying that it is also so rewarding helping someone that you have never met and I hope that reaching out online has not just helped me but other people.’
Consider more:
- What will you do to protect your wellbeing when online?