December 2019 – Lives of all the people in the world took a twist and turn. Covid-19 took a toll on people’s health, their livelihood, studies of the children, and it is also affecting the mental peace of women. More than a year has passed, but its adversity has only increased with time.
As I am writing this article, India is experiencing a second wave of Coronavirus and a lot of people are dying without oxygen.
Most of the states in India have implemented lockdown for the safety of their people. The disease, its impacts, and the curfews bring distress and depression to all the persons despite their gender.
But researchers and the latest studies suggest that the pandemic has imposed more hardships and despair on the female population when compared to the male population
- Women earning lesser than their male counterparts had to leave their jobs to home-school their kids or to take care of the elderly. Since they do not want support from the outsiders during this pandemic, all the household responsibilities fell only on to women.
- Women who work part-time or temporary jobs were the ones that are more affected since they were forced to leave their jobs or work unpaid. These women are very likely to experience stress, anxiety, and depression.
- Working women are juggling between their jobs and household routine. This makes them lose confidence and affect their mental health.
- For the moms to be and the new moms, quarantine can be very difficult and lonely. They are always bothering about what is safe for her and her new-born, this disturbs their positivity and increase the chance of postpartum disorder.
- Scheduling the vaccinations and fretting on how to make a safe trip to hospitals is an additional burden for the women. Woman tend to self-blame when something goes wrong as she thinks that the health of all her family members is her responsibility.
- Lack of sleep due to anxiety, loss of appetite, fear of infection, and constant distressing cause insomnia which in turn leads to loss of mental peace.
Women are always on the edge agonizing their livelihood, future, family’s health, food for the next day along with their job and household chores. These are the main reasons which increase the risk of mental health disorders in women.
An International organization CARE reported that compared to men, women were the ones who are most affected with mental related illnesses and challenges during this pandemic.
Ways to improve your mental health during this COVID second wave:
Following are some of the ways through which you can regain your mental peace during this unprecedented challenge:
Keep yourself active
Keeping yourself busy would give no time for you to worry. Include regular exercises as a part of your daily routine. There are plenty of online programs which provide yoga, meditation, and physical exercises which you can attend in the comfort of your home.
Set a time to worry
In general, women tend to overthink more than men. Instead of worrying all day, schedule a time frame that may be 15 minutes per day.
During this time write your thoughts in a journal, talk to someone about your problems or just think about which problem worries you the most. Once the time is up, stop worrying and do other activities. This will enable you to stay focused on other tasks for the rest of your day.
Step out for a while
If it is safe, step out of your house to take a walk in the surroundings or go on cycling with your neighbours, do not forget to maintain social distancing.
This will give you some relief from distress and anxiety. If the circumstances are not safe for you to go outside, turn on some music and shake your body.
Pay extra attention to your looks
Wake up early and get ready as usual how you would get ready for your office. Take a good shower and dress in comfortable and bright clothes. These little personal cares lift your mood in a great way and enable you to be cheerful throughout the day.
Mothers – Plan a schedule for the kids
As schools have gone online and kids can’t be left in the care of outsiders, working mothers are struggling to find ways to keep them engaged without affecting their daily job routine. Do not take your frustration on them. Kids need their clarification as well.
Explain to them the situation in a gentle way. They would be more than happy to help you or support you in whatever way they can. Teach them to do their regular chores independently without your help. Create a routine for them including some family time and make them stick to it.
By following this, you can do your work without any disturbance from them.
Have fun with your family
Quarantine is very difficult for social animals like us. So, take out some time and involve your house members in activities like board games, cards, solving puzzles, and other fun. This will not only help the kids and elderly to stay relaxed and calm, but also to feel secure and connected in these adverse situations.
Be selective on media usage
It is very important to know the facts which are happening around us but engrossing in the news channels for 24hrs is never going to help you in overcoming the difficulties of the Covid pandemic.
Video calling your friends to have interaction is good but limit your conversations about covid and try to have fun and humorous talk.
Surfing through posts after posts about the coronavirus can drain your mental energy and make you dull and sad. So, notice how much time you spend on social media sites and reduce its usage as much as possible.
What Bliss Naturals has done to help women to cope up with this situation?
The Covid-19 impacted the income of everyone, especially the underprivileged women, female migrant workers, and sanitary workers. They find it very tough to afford their hygiene essentials.
So, Bliss Naturals took an initiative by allying with the college students and rotary club to donate sanitary napkins to the women who were not able to afford them during the lockdown.
To help them more, a fund-raising campaign called “Varam”. With the help of the volunteers and students, Bliss Naturals has managed to provide more than 75,000 sanitary napkins so far free of cost to the women who are in real need.
Message from Bliss Naturals
This whole disaster appears sad, senseless, and out of our hands. But constant thinking about these things would do no good for your mental health. We must accept that some things are not under our control and focus on the things like keeping you and your family safe and healthy.
We, women, are the backbone of our family and we should not lose our minds in battling out this virus monster!
