Finding places where you can have space for yourself to reflect and think and feel is crucial in this moment, said Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, M.D., a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Lakshmin pointed out that all of the in between transition times we used to have to ourselves like during our commutes, and after we dropped off our kids at school are gone. So its important to create those spaces for yourself in new ways, she said.

Dr. Lakshmin mentioned meditation as a great option. And in fact, parents with children under 18 at home are more likely to meditate than the general population right now, according to a new report from the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank. Thirty-six percent of these parents say they have meditated to cope with stress in the past week, the report said, compared with 30 percent of Americans overall. If you want to receive the full benefits of meditating, Dr. Lakshmin said, consistency is the most important thing. Five minutes every day is a lot better than 30 minutes every week.

One excellent self-care idea was sent by a reader named Anne Diss. To mark the end of a good day, my husband and I have started having cocktails on some evenings: We sort through our drinks cabinet and pull out the things we never drink (like a bottle of Martini Bianco that has been with us, unopened, for decades) and try to find a nice online cocktail to make with it, Anne emailed us. Anne lives in France, obviously. We look for nice glasses, garnish them with whatever we have around and set out a few nibbles too. Our kids have a soft drink and we all gather around and toast to confinement, she wrote.

Another ritual Dr. Lakshmin suggested is keeping a gratitude, or silver lining, list, which you can either do yourself or as an activity with your family. You can put it up on a white board or on the fridge, for everyone to keep track of unexpectedly fun things that have come up during this time, she said.

To be honest with you, in normal circumstances, meditation and gratitude journals are distinctly Not My Bag. But I am genuinely finding succor in talking to my kids about their favorite part of the day at dinnertime, and by chatting with my husband about what were most thankful for every night before we fall asleep.

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Crying in Your Car Counts as Self-Care - The New York Times

The coronavirus outbreak forced people to come up with creative workouts while staying at home. USA TODAY

As more U.S. states issue stay-at-home orders to combat the spread of coronavirus, many people are working from home and spending long hours streaming their favorite TV shows and movies.

That's concerning for health officials.

Researchers have continuously found that sitting for long periods is bad for your health. It can increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer, even result in death, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Zhaoping Li, chief of the Division of Clinical Nutrition at UCLA, told USA TODAY that some of her patients have been watching too much television, not getting enough sleep, or not being active in their homes during the coronavirus pandemic.

This is the right time people need to do more active things, not just sitting around, Li said, adding that muscle loss and weight gain are among the risks associated with inactivity.Take this opportunity to do self examination, self inspection and self care. This is the time we'll have no excuse to say, I'm too busy.

Another health risk that can arise from sedentary behavior is thrombosis, or blood clots, said Dr. Mary Cushman, professor of medicine and pathology at the University of Vermont.

Maureen Lewis leads an outdoor morning exercise routine for neighbors on her street in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, on March 27. Lewis stands in the street to allow participants to see her from their driveways while observing social distancing. The workout includes light stretches and exercises for 10 to 15 minutes.(Photo: Scott Ash, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via USA TODAY NETWORK)

There are two types of thrombosis that can form in any vein or artery, slowing or blocking normal blood flow andincreasing the risk of a heart attack or stroke. In fact, on average, one American dies of a blood clot every six minutes, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Blood clots are often diagnosed in one leg or the other, Cushman said, and can cause pain, swelling and redness.

And the thing is, you don't always have to have all the symptoms, so that's where it gets tricky for patients to know what's going on and sometimes even for doctors to figure out, Cushman toldUSA TODAY.

Amid coronavirus, Cushman said shes mainly worried about venous thromboembolism. Thats when blood clots form in the veins and can lead to part of the clot traveling to the lungs and causing blockage, also called a pulmonary embolism.The symptoms can include chest pain and shortness of breath.

Mapping coronavirus: Tracking the U.S. outbreak

She said blood clots can affect anyone but VTE is about 60% higher in African Americans.

The lifetime risk of VTE after age 45 is 11.5% in African Americans, while this is 6.9% in whites in the U.S., Cushman said, attributing the difference to a higher percentage of obesity in black communities and differences in socioeconomic status. Recent data also shows that COVID-19 is disproportionately killing black people at an alarming rate.

How can you help yourself? Here are a few tips fromLi and Cushman:

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You're not 'too busy' to stay active during coronavirus quarantine: Health experts worry about blood clots, weight gain and more - USA TODAY

Eleanor Morgan: Who knew that filling your spare time with activities besides phone scrolling might feel nice? Photograph: Jean Goldsmith/The Observer

When the lockdown was announced, I worried that losing the option of seeing friends would be disastrous for my mental health. I live alone and often work from home, so solitude is my baseline. It can be lonely, of course. My dogs need for exercise and attention breaks things up even if her conversation is limited but planning to see people keeps me buoyant. The first few days were ripe with catastrophising. One afternoon, my throat felt dry. I thought: Here we go, the panic attacks are starting. That I had been silently staring out the window, eating one Digestive after another, is by the by.

Jealousy of friends with partners and gardens quickly swelled; shared meals and body warmth felt so far away. Of course, it goes both ways: my aloneness is something that friends with rambunctious toddlers envy. In lockdown, life has shrunk to the size of a few rooms, so the volume of our inner dialogue shoots up. Theres so much time to think. The elastic quality of time right now because we dont know when this ends is distressing, too, and as a self-employed person Im scared, but Ive surprised myself mentally. Im doing all right so far.

After the anxious prophesying passed (I will 100% go completely mad alone!), I started confronting a concept I have struggled to sever from ideology: self-care. Thanks to capitalism, the term has been commodified, so often sold back to us particularly women as products we never knew we needed. In reality, self-care looks different for everyone. I broadly see it as a loose commitment with yourself to eat, exercise, get outside regularly, sleep and, almost above all else, to acknowledge our fundamental need for connection with other human beings. Identifying the activities that bring us pleasure and peace is also part of the picture.

As the author of two mental health-related books, now training as a psychologist and having spent the last year in supervised practice, I have used the words self-care in relation to other people many times. In all honesty, I am not sure I have applied it wholeheartedly to myself. I mostly eat and sleep well, exercise outside daily and socialise. But despite everything I have learned about self-compassion which the notion of self-care feeds into I sometimes struggle to identify what makes me feel good.

This enforced solitude has been a wake-up call. Im realising how much properness I have attached to doing things with other people, and the sense of pathos to doing them alone; as if enjoyable stuff is only half-real if no one is enjoying it with me. As is so common, this is tied up in questions of self-worth, but as a kind of experiment, Ive been making an effort to make an effort. Who knew that filling your spare time with activities besides phone scrolling might feel nice?

Cooking has been the big one. I am a confident cook but usually eat very simply when alone. In the past three weeks I have made pho, various curries and homemade tacos. I forget that my love of chopping vegetables can just be for me. Im rummaging around in the woody bits of Hampstead Heath, connecting with eight-year-old me who loved turning over logs to see what crawled out, because why not? Ive even taken a magnifying glass out on a couple of my daily walks. Im asking people to hang out on FaceTime rather than waiting to be asked a personally significant thing. This year kicked off with a double-whammy of pain: major surgery, then a break-up during the recovery. I am also certain I have had the virus, which, as an asthmatic, felt a bit hairy. Now, in the utterly strange and frightening time that has followed, I realise that, for me, surviving probably means trying to thrive, too.

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The truth about self-care: how isolation has changed the way I look after myself - The Guardian

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Back pain is a complicated topic with as many causes as there are care options. Many people experience low-grade back pain and stiffness, regardless of their size, condition or ambition. This type of low-grade back pain is often caused by the muscles in the back. These muscles are responsible for keeping you mobile, standing straight and effectively executing your lifes demands. They flex you, extend you, and laterally bend you to provide a multi-dimensional movement experience.

The common problem today is that we spent an inordinate time sitting. We now know couch potato inactivity raises the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and initiation of full respiratory decline. This may sound shocking and a bit exaggerated, but theres honesty in the message.

Here are four simple exercises you can do to counteract simple low-back pain.

1. Low-back extensions (LBE): Place your hands on your hips so the web of your hands rest on your hips just above legs and your thumbs wrap around your back. Begin by keeping your knees extended, not locked, and bend back, using your thumbs to add pressure and provide support. Extend back as far as you can comfortably, and then return to upright position. This is a movement exercise, not a stretch. Complete 10 to 25 repetitions at a time, three to five times per day.

2. LBE with added head extension: This is the exact same movement exercise as described above, but while youre in a back extension, extend your head back for a count of two and return to the upright position.

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START THE WEEK OFF RIGHT: Self-help strategy for lower back pain - Quad-Cities Online

Since novel coronavirus became a thing, I wake up every morning with my remix of Sinead OConnors song Nothing Compares to You. This morning, it went a little something like this:

Its been who knows how many hours and how many days since you took our lives away.

I. Am. Tired. Of. Rona.

I took an informal poll on Facebook, and Im not the only one tired of hearing the daily updates on new cases, deaths and whatever other story can be crafted to tell us were in a state of emergency. I appreciate the dedicated journalists who are working to keep us updated heck, Im a journalist and public relations person by training, so I get it. However, the constant barrage of new stories and new angles can be depressing and information overload.

Here are nine ways we can ignore Rona and put some happiness back into our lives.

Journaling is a powerful healing practice that helps improve mental clarity, focus and understanding. Keeping a consistent routine allows you to explore your emotions, connect with hidden feelings and commit to goals on paper. Theres no one way to journal; it can take many forms, including writing morning pages and using guided prompts.

Many people believe that meditation requires you to sit still and completely free your mind of all thoughts. Thats false. Meditation simply means being in the present moment by focusing your mind and awareness on whats happening now not what happened yesterday or what will happen in 20 minutes. Forms of meditation come in different varieties, but the simplest way is through breathwork.

Charlottean Tesia Love is a clinical Ayurveda specialist Ayurveda is an ancient Indian practice that takes a holistic approach to physical and mental health. On April 8, Love will lead a breathwork session during Kombucha, Wine and Chill, a virtual game night. The online event starts at 7 p.m. at Bea Healthy CLT on Instagram.

Build or grow your business, heal yourself or learn a new skill through online classes. Now is the time to get the additional training you need to take you to the next level.

Some classes to check out:

With gyms closed, fitness trainers are offering free virtual workouts. Theres no reason you cant get fit and fully snatched while at home.

Looking for a free virtual workout? Check out 10-minute morning routines with @getfitwithchrys each weekday at 6:30 a.m. Cant make it that early? No worries. Catch the replays on her IGTV channel.

Want to try yoga? Charlottes Peace Filled Mama Kelly Palmer leads a virtual pay-what-you-can yoga session on Mondays at noon and Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. Yoga instructor Davena Mgbeokwere also shared 13 Charlotte-based options for online yoga classes.

Charlotte native Sahnia Oates loves to crochet. She started after getting laid off from her job a few years ago to help manage her stress. The lesson? Find what you love and do that thing.

You may not be able to do the normal happy hours at your favorite bar or restaurant, hit the club with your friends or have Sunday dinner at Big Mommas house, but you can still connect and have fun doing it.

For those who are quarantined with others in their home, consider cooking dinner together or simply watch some good television. Keep the fun going by creating an activity jar. Take a cup or old spaghetti jar and drop in activity ideas. Choose one each day and do it.

If youre thinking about joining one of the many online challenges flooding your timelines, consider the #GirlWhatchuDoing challenge started by Jenn Elaine, Ohavia Phillips and Natoya Williams. Theyre three local ladies who also give us the weekly Pardon My Chic podcast.

It can get a bit lonely if youre quarantining solo. Dont let it get you down. Connect virtually with friends by grabbing a class of your favorite beverage and snacks, then enjoy all the shenanigans that transpire. Alone time can also allow you to explore new podcasts or catch up on some of your favorites.

Expand your circle of fraaans and entertainment options by attending virtual events. Before Rona, people were planning all kinds of in-person events. Many of those events have gone virtual and include everything from free DJ sets to self-help workshops.

Heres a handful of upcoming virtual events to add to your calendar:

While many have the good fortune of still working during this time, there are thousands who are laid off or furloughed. For Black-owned small businesses, the economic slowdown could be the thing determining their existence. This can be a tough time for them and their families.

If you can support them, do it. Continue to patronize these businesses and consider making donations to those who cant work during this time. Theres the opportunity to support local creatives through the Creatives Are Essential website.

Show appreciation to the frontline workers making sure were healthy and safe. Post messages of appreciation and motivation using #Grateful2020.

Its an extremely stressful time, and its OK to just do nothing.

Brandi Bea Williams is a life and health coach, trainer and cultural curator who uses her more than 20 years experience in public relations to educate, inspire and empower people of color in the areas of public relations and holistic health.

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Journaling, meditation and other self-care things to do at home - Qcity metro

To the wellness industry, the coronavirus represents not just a loss but an opportunity for self-actualization. Miranda Kerr and Tom Brady are among the celebrities on the bandwagon.

We all have our coping mechanisms, some more productive than others. Lately Ive found a perverse form of escapism by scrolling through the Instagram feeds of wellness influencers intuitive nutritionists, adaptogenic alchemists, plant-based-lifestyle evangelists to see how well theyre doing now.

In a word, they are glowing. Miranda Kerr, the model turned organic beauty entrepreneur, is posing with a bitten apple in a leafy yard and optimizing her quarantine by spending extra time on my skin care routine and doing a daily mask. Jordan Younger, who blogs as the Balanced Blonde, is reporting from the midst of a 14-day water fast, advising her followers to go inward as this time on earth is happening FOR us and not TO us. And Amanda Chantal Bacon, a lifestyle guru who sells earthy supplements through her company Moon Juice, is ensconced in a white bathrobe, cradling a mug in one hand and an infant in the other, her beatific gaze framed by a luxe tumble of hair.

The caption is riveting. Bacon has assembled a menagerie of emoji toadstool, ringed planet, garlic bulb, DNA double-helix, lathered bar of soap, the yin and yang symbol suggesting a sordid congress between the scientific and the mystical. She proffers her wisdom as an immunomodulation enthusiast, counseling against sugar, fighting, alcohol, fear, processed foods, isolation and stagnation and instead pushing liposomal vitamin C, acupuncture, broth, one-minute cold showers and the consumption of various adaptogens a category of herbal supplements that claim to protect the body against stressors, which Moon Juice grinds into dusts and sells for $38 per 1.5 ounce jar.

Theres nothing like a pandemic to clarify the distinction between wellness and actual health. Our collective health is, most would agree, not so good. But through the logic of wellness branding, this situation can represent not just a lossof lives and livelihoods,but an opportunity. With the right motivational texts and quasi-medicinal products, well-positioned individuals are empowered to recast their quarantine as a self-actualization incubator, a chance not just to fend off the virus itself but to achieve their peak physical, mental and spiritual forms.

There is something ghastly about these efforts. Even when a pandemic is not raging, the very idea of a person advertising a 14-day fast makes me want to call the police. Yet the wellness evangelists have intuited a real paradox in this moment: As our health care system buckles under the strain of the virus, and citizens are isolated at home, self-care has never felt more urgent.

The virus has the power to kill the people it has infected, and to instill stress, grief, loneliness and despair in the people it has not. The anxiety is what is most oppressive here, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a recent briefing. Lifestyle brands invite us to regain a sense of control, if only over our nutritional intake, hygienic practices and apartment interiors.

In the past few weeks, it seems as if the entire internet has pivoted to wellness. Actors have transformed into home-cooking instructors; pop stars are leading meditations; fashion bloggers are hawking sponsored loungewear. The showbiz couple Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon have rolled out a podcast, Staying In with Emily and Kumail, about adapting to indoor life with the help of a Nintendo Switch. The public is seeking self-care tips from Cuomos PowerPoint presentations and from a loner who has lived in an abandoned mining town for 50 years. I am doing yoga for the first time ever, ending every day by bowing my head and whispering namaste to my virtual instructor.

These coronavirus self-help guides offer tips on how to maintain mental health and relationships under quarantine. But some wellness practitioners are reaching further.

Everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to Tom Brady is pushing an immune support supplement, which sure seems to imply immunity from the virus. Kerr was recently publicly shamed for sharing a virus protection guide from a medical medium who credits himself as the leader of the global celery movement. And Bacon was dinged for posting an immunity guide that intermingled hand-washing tips with Moon Juice products like Power Dust and Spirit Dust.

With just a feeble tweak of messaging, however, these same influencers have solicited praise for their epidemic response. Moon Juice is running a coronavirus giveaway on its Instagram, shipping off immuno packs to people who deliver groceries or work in nursing homes; Kerr recently donated a bunch of her brands vitamin C face serums to health care workers at the Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center, then shared grateful posts from nurses on her feed.

With a firm command of the woo-woo lexicon, a brand is capable of capitalizing on the crisis without saying anything at all. The pice de rsistance of coronavirus branding is perhaps this Moon Juice post from March 24, which offers a cosmic perspective on the situation: This New Moon offers us a date with destiny. We are being called to birth new versions of ourselves, as the world morphs around us. Let us burn off resistance and dance with the unknown. It concluded: We are learning just how resilient we are.

The text was followed by a recipe for a blend of hot milk and coffee with a dusting of Cordyceps, a bioactive supershroom, which Moon Juice claims is said to increase drive, stamina, and reduce fatigue.

The modern wellness movement in America arose in the 1960s as counterprogramming to the predominant idea of health. If health was framed as the prevention of disease, and managed through the medical system, wellness was pitched as an active, positive pursuit organized around the self. The idea was fused with productivity: Halbert Dunn, chief of the National Office of Vital Statistics, promoted the idea of high-level wellness, an integrated method of functioning, which is oriented toward maximizing the potential of which the individual is capable. And it could be spun into a whole lifestyle, complete with its own consumer accessories, from jogging gear to Jane Fonda videos, Lululemon pants to GOOP goops.

Its easy to see how this idea migrated from its nominally countercultural beginnings into a luxury feature. When Audre Lorde wrote about self-care as an act of political warfare in the 1980s, she was talking about managing her cancer in the face of a system that was hostile toward her as a black lesbian. Health care remains a pricey commodity in America, but now wealthy people have co-opted self-care as a status symbol. They have the ability to appear not just healthy but radiantly well. Now, as the health care system flails in its coronavirus response with basic needs like tests, masks and ventilators terrifyingly scarce the promises of strange elixirs and fine powders feel more deranged and seductive than ever.

Wellness content used to merely gesture at some kind of spiritual necessity, but it has now proved itself truly crucial. Moon Juice likes to say that it offers self care for communal care, and while it is ludicrous to imagine that spooning ground mushroom into ones coffee benefits ones community in any way, in this case it borders on being technically correct. Public health legitimately relies on the efforts of each individual to cope in isolation, and if it helps to lace a beverage with mushroom powder, then great. The optimism of this content borders on the delusional, but we have been told to keep our spirits up. Wellness may be fundamentally self-absorptive, but we can be forgiven for gazing at our own navels when theres not much else for us to look at.

Still, there is something disquieting about the slick translation of the crisis into the logic of branding. When a fleet of lifestyle bloggers turned a public health warning into a synergistic exercise they each held up a sign in flowery influencer script, collectively informing their audiences to Stay home for the people you love. Be kind! Wash your hands. Lets flatten the curve! they probably thought they were using their platforms for good. But they were also helping to reaffirm the reorganization of community under their various cults of personality.

We are living in an upside-down time where the president of the United States is promoting unproven virus cures on television, but Paltrow appeared in a protective mask on Instagram more than a month before the C.D.C. recommended that everyone put them on. Health may be scarce, but wellness is still in stock.

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Our Health Is in Danger. Wellness Wants to Fill the Void. - The New York Times

CNBC Make Itis posting a new financial task to tackle each day for a month. These are all meant to be simple, time-sensitive activities to take your mind off of the news for a moment and, hopefully, put you on sturdier financial footing. This is day two of 30.

Financial experts often advise tracking your spending and saving so that you know exactly where your money is going. That's partly because the stress of the current moment paired with the ease of buying things online can mean spending money you don't intend to spend.

Today, take 15 to 20 minutes to set up a system to catalog where your money goes each day and week.If you haven't completed yesterday's task, start there: Review how your spending has changed over the past few weeks and if it's still in line with your goals.

Then, commit to a method to track your spending going forward.There are a number of ways to do this, but you should pick the one that's easiest for you. Here are a few examples:

"Setting up a system to track your spending and savings is a powerful act of self-care during the current crisis,"Andrea Ferrero, co-founder of Pockets Change, a personal finance website, tells CNBC Make It. "I've been a financial educator for over a decade and one of the best pieces of advice I've heard came from a high schooler who said, 'If we don't create a plan for our money, someone else will.'"

Once you start tracking, you'll get a sense of how you are acclimating to new life, and financial, circumstances, Lindsay Sacknoff, head of consumer deposits, products and payments at TD Bank, tellsCNBC Make It.

"Keeping tabs on cash flow during this time is key to understanding your new financial norm," says Sacknoff. "More time at home requires budgeting adjustments to asses where money needs to go and where it can be cut out."

Once you've decided on the system you'll use to track your spending, stick to it. Whenever you purchase something, write down how much you spent and what you spent it on. You can also set up alerts each time your credit or debit card is charged, which can help you catch recurring expenses and subscriptions you may have forgotten about (not to mention fraud). You can do this via your card issuer's app or website, under account alerts.

At the end of each week or month, tally your spending to see where your money is going and if any of your purchases surprise you. Be sure to include subscriptions, memberships, bills and other monthly expenses. As you review your purchases, ask yourself the following questions:

Then, keep it up."Tracking is a lifelong habit like brushing your teeth," says Ferrero. "You have to keep doing it."

Don't miss:

Check out: The best credit cards of 2020 could earn you over $1,000 in 5 years

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It's easy to mindlessly spend right nowhere's the first step to take to avoid it - CNBC

Many of us have had to make significant changes to our everyday lives in the face of uncertainty and adversity. As life continues to change, its important that we show ourselves compassion through this process. Here are some things you can do to protect your mental health during this time.

Whether youre reading the news or scrolling through social, it can be hard to get away from negative news and information. Thats why its important to set healthy boundaries for ourselves. Boundaries serve an important role in our lives, especially when we are feeling anxious or experiencing a crisis. Here are some ways you can set boundaries around how you interact with COVID-19 information:

Knowing what we need and communicating our needs clearly can help to protect our own mental health and energy. Here are some examples of things you can say to set boundaries with those around you:

When we are experiencing a crisis or being bombarded with information, it can be difficult to process our feelings and emotions in a healthy way. Increased stress and anxiety levels may cause us to snap at those we love or leave us feeling physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted.

One way to process emotions in a healthy way is to practice journaling. Journaling allows us an opportunity to explore our feelings, process them and move forward. If youre new to journaling, try setting a timer for 2-5 minutes to write. If you dont fill the whole time thats okay.

If youre unsure what to write about, try one of these prompts to get you started:

As we navigate changes and work to adjust to a new normal, it can be good to reflect on our thoughts and behaviors to find bright spots and avoid landmines:

Bright spots

Bright spots are things that have a positive impact on our mood, energy or day that we want to keep doing or create habits from. To find brightspots, consider the following questions:

Landmines

Landmines, on the other hand, are things that negatively impact us. They may leave us feeling drained, ruin our mood or leave us feeling lousy at the end of the day. To uncover landmines, consider the following questions:

Once youve discovered your bright spots and landmines, write them out into two lists. Set reminders for yourself to do the things on your bright spots list and create systems to help you avoid the things on your landmines list. For instance, you can set a reminder to go for a walk every day at noon if that is one of your bright spot activities. If spending too much time on social is on your landmines list, try to set boundaries around your use. You may set a 10-minute timer or use an app that blocks certain accounts once youve hit your daily limit.

Self-care is any activity that we intentionally do to take care of our own mental, emotional and physical health. Sometimes, self-care is short term, like eating a sweet treat. Other times, self-care is more long term, like learning how to budget or getting enough sleep each night. The important thing to remember is that self-care looks different for everyone. If someone elsesversion of self-care doesnt match your own, thats okay. Do what you need to do to feel better.

Here are some ideas of what self-care might look like for you right now:

Its important to create a self-care plan that works for you. Set aside time each day or week to enjoy those activities.

If youre feeling overwhelmed, talk to someone. Reach out to a trusted friend or family member and let them know what youre going through. While we all might be experiencing the same thing, it may impact us differently. Take the time to talk to someone about your emotions and where you might be struggling.

You can also schedule a free virtual appointment with Counseling & Psychiatric Services (CAPS) by calling 303-492-2277. Services are confidential, and counselors can help provide insight, solutions and information about additional resources. Students commonly work with CAPS to address concerns about stress, sadness, worry, relationships, academic performance, family problems and financial struggles.

SilverCloud Online Mental Health is a confidential program that offers access to online programs for stress, anxiety and depression. Each module offers information, tips and activities to help better understand your emotional wellbeing. This program is available for free to all CU Boulder students, grad students, staff and faculty.

Health & Wellness Virtual Programs are available to support students and graduate students through this transitional time. Students can find resources for counseling, medical care, coaching, online fitness classes, confidential support, live events, stress-relief activities and more.

More Health & Wellness Articles

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6 ways to protect your mental health during a crisis - CU Boulder Today

Believing in ones own abilities makes parenting during a crisis easier, which bolsters a sense of self-worth and strengthsuddenly, your other problems feel lighter. If youve been a parent for any length of time, no doubt youve proved yourself able to change in ways you never thought possible before you had kids. Youve lived with less sleep than ever before. You swore youd never let your kid wear a princess dress or Spider-Man mask out of the house, and we all know how that ended. Youve already sharpened this skill, and it is a crucial tool for this new season.

Before Jake died, if you had asked me whether I was capable of labor without my partner, or bringing home a newborn without him there, I might have told you no, not possible. But crises can teach you a lot about your capabilities.

Practice makes slightly better over time. Its no practice makes perfect, but perfect is not what youre after. Youre not instantly going to be an expert homeschooling mom who also works a full-time job, nor should you try. Once youve decided what kind of mom or dad you are, do something small every day to put that identity into practice. Clear puts it this way: Prove it to yourself with small wins.

Read: Kids don't need to stay 'on track' to succeed

For me, in 2015, that meant getting out of bed (grief is physically exhausting, but grief plus third trimester is a doozy), keeping a job, taking my kids outside, and wrestling my toddler into a Mogwai costume for Halloween, by God. Every day, I got a little better at doing the things that make a home happy. Many days, my small win was a hot breakfast, and that was all I had in me. Some days, I had a hangover and it was Cheerios in my bed for the toddler until I could Skype with my therapist. On those days, I was the kind of parent I wanted to be only for a couple of hoursand that was fine too.

In the midst of a crisis, youre just getting through an hour at a time. Later, you advance to a day at a time. The idea of forever is crushing. So give yourself a shorter timeline. Get through this morning, get through Monday, get through this week, and watch Tiger King with a glass of wine when you're done.

In her best-selling book on resilience, Option B, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg recounts how she trained herself to see the possibility of light in the darkness after her husbands death: I tried a cognitive behavioral therapy technique where you write down a belief that's causing you anguish and then disprove it. I wrote, I will never feel okay again. Seeing those words forced me to realize that just that morning, someone had told a joke and I had laughed.

Youll have to make the same progression with your family now. Write your story, start small, get a tiny bit better every day, and give yourself a break.

Finally, remember how cool your kids are. My daughters got me through my crisis. Parenting is not easy, even in ideal conditions. But my responsibility to my children saved me from a worse fate. Standing in my kitchen in sweatpants, in a life that no longer felt familiar, I listened to the sound of sizzling bacon and my girls laughter, and knew that I was getting up every day to give them what they needed.

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Its Okay to Be a Different Kind of Parent During the Pandemic - The Atlantic

Weve all heard the phrase, Its not personal; its business. However, Id argue my place of business is personal. Where I choose to invest my time, energy and ideas is a direct reflection of me.

The COVID-19 pandemic is throwing most business plans off course. Organizations are figuring out how to operate, day by day, as breaking news unfolds about social distancing and government policies. While people fear the economic impact the pandemic will have on businesses and employee livelihood, a time of crisis is also an opportunity to bring to life a companys mission and values in unique ways by making it personal.

The three key tenets to the make it personal model include: using talents for good, adopting a people-first mentality and building meaningful connectivity.

Using Talents For Good

In a crisis, seize the opportunity to rise to the occasion and determine how your product or service can alleviate some of the stress in these uncertain times.

Disney is a great example. While its theme parks are closed due to COVID-19, the company is embracing its mission to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe by releasing Frozen 2 and The Rise of Skywalker early. Knowing people are suffering from cabin fever as they hunker down in their homes, Disneys small gesture of leaning in and adjusting plans is just the ticket to give people some relief.

Chipotle is committed to cultivating a better world through its food products and culture. As such, the chain is creating virtual lunchtime hangouts with celebrities through Zoom, and up to 3,000 people can join. Fueling togetherness is critical right now, given so many people feel isolated. The chain is also offering free delivery on orders of $10 or more since people cant eat inside the restaurants.

Additionally, French luxury conglomerate LVMH is using its perfume and cosmetics factories to manufacture free hand sanitizer for France to help with the shortage. This is a perfect example of a company creatively problem-solving and leveraging its tools resources, and talents for good that goes way beyond meeting the bottom line.

Putting People First And Leaning In

In a lot of industries, people are what differentiate a product. Its imperative for companies to prioritize staff needs in times like this. Lean into them, and theyll lean right back. Recognize the unpredictable conditions crisis creates, and encourage flexibility.

Many working parents could be at home trying to facilitate in-home learning while schools are closed. Show them you have their backs. This is team building at its finest. Band together. Because when you take care of your people, they take care of your business.

Building Meaningful Connectivity In A Work-From-Home World

As I explained in one of our companys blog posts, A companys talent pool is their greatest PR asset. No one is closer to your company values or brand promise than those on the inside. Loyal employees will sing their organizations praises in times of glory and come to its defense in times of crisis ... Yet, internal communication is often overlooked or not given the level of creative treatment that external communication receives.

This is especially apparent in moments of urgency and crisis. While technology enables us to be connected 24/7, it takes a little more TLC from leadership to build meaningful connectivity. Here are some quick tips:

1. Establish A Communication Task Force

Centralize where news, intel and policies take place to ensure clear, consistent messaging all throughout the organization. This team should be lean so it can act fast given the fluidity of crisis situations. Delegate key spokespeople to rally the troops and own the functionality of the business. Communicate updates early and often.

2. Empower Employees To Give Back

Figuring out how to manage the day-to-day business is challenging enough. For some, this is their only key performance indicator (KPI). However, for others, it means some projects are put on the back burner until further notice. Keep these employees engaged by encouraging them to problem-solve issues happening in the community or industry you work in. Some will eagerly raise their hands, while others will need to feel they have the license to jump in and get their hands dirty.

Help guide this team of change agents to respond to a crisis with solutions that reflect the companys mission and values. This will help build your brand and advocacy in meaningful, timely ways. Imagine if every company acted this way and the greater impact it could have on the world.

3. Encourage Self-Care

Lead by example. If employees see members of leadership engaging in virtual lunches, happy hours and daily walks, then theyll feel more secure that they can take care of themselves in the same way. Its mission-critical to nurture and advocate for positive mental health during a crisis. Humanize communication beyond email by leveraging video software, the company intranet and social media, and embrace playful memes or GIFs to connect.

Making it personal in times of crisis enables creative problem-solving, reaching a higher company purpose and employee retention. Ultimately, getting personal can lead to better business results.

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Let's Get Personal: How Businesses Can Stand Out In Times Of Crisis - Forbes