Mindspace Mayo is a FREE mental health service for 15-25 year olds.
Mindspace Mayo, Mental Health Ireland and Mayo Mental Health Association have come together to create positive content for young people on their social media channels from fitness videos from Mayo GAA players to Netflix recommendations and much more.
Chloe O'Malley, a 20-year-old student and Mindspace Mayo youth panel member spoke to Kayte on iWeekend on Saturday about ways to mind your mental health in isolation.
Chloe spoke about Mental Health Ireland's ‘Five Ways for Tough Times’ campaign offers advice on the thing you can do every day to protect your well-being and maintain positive mental health amid Covid-19.
- Connect
Stay Connected: with family and friends, via email, whatsapp, text, video calls and phonecalls. While we must stay physically apart for now, there’s still lots of ways to chat, check in and stay connected with those we love.
- Be Active
Get as much sunlight, fresh air and nature as you can while sticking within the 2km radius from the government recommendations. Spending time being physically active can benefit both our mental and physical well being. It can improve our mood, reduce feelings of stress or anger, and make us feel more relaxed.
- Take Notice
Being mindful of how we are feeling at this time is important. Noticing these feelings can help us to address them. – Choose only to listen to reliable information from reputable sites such as HSE or Department of Health. Try and include time in the day to put your phone aside and read or get outdoors.
- Keep Learning
Keeping a good routine is important to stay focused nowadays. Aim to try and go to bed and get up at the same time each day and not staying up too late. Try to set goals for each day to get through, work in 45-minute blocks to get through college or schoolwork.
- Give
· Giving to others is good for you. Do something nice for someone else. Even saying a simple Thank You to someone else.
These are simple actions we can take to protect our mental health and well-being at this time.
For anyone who is finding it difficult to cope at this time we would ask you to reach out to someone you can trust to help you find support – you can also call Childline on 1800 66 66 66 or Samaritans on 116 123.
