So as we all know we are all in this quarantine, where we feel we cannot do much to take care of ourselves. As I mentioned in my last post there are so many ways, we can take care of ourselves during this time. I think something that has come to mind for me is skin care during this time while being cooped up, we aren’t really getting the vitamin C for our skin and are eating a bunch of junk food (which is completely fine). Below I will share some skin caring steps you can follow if you feel that your skin needs some self-loving during this time.

1. Exfoliate your skin! I can personally say that my skin has been breaking out like crazy right now, and I am sure that it has to do with not getting enough vitamin or the stress that we feel. Exfoliating your skin can helps unclog your pores, it can prevent future acne and can help your skin feel nice and smooth.
2. Find a good face wash that will help soothe your skin as well as your mind (yes this can happen). At the moment I am currently using Steli cosmetics pure face wash, it is an organic face wash and super healthy for your skin.
3. Give yourself a nice face mask! This can give your skin good hydration and can give you a fresh look.
4. SLEEP! Sleep should have probably been number one, but sleep is so important to help you feel better and to also help your skin, body , mind everything. According to a book written by Michael T. Murray, N.D. a lot of the world wake up feeling unrested and moody and this is due to not getting enough sleep.
5. Moisturize your skin with a hydrating moisturizer that also gives you some Vitamin C.
6. WATER! Drink lots of water, this can absolutely help you feel good and can help your skin and body in so many ways. I usually try and drink a gallon a day , which is really hard but I suffered from acne and I feel that replacing soda with water helped my skin way more than I could have imagined. According to Wiley library if we reduce our intake of sweetened caloric beverages such a soda and juice, and replace it with water we can increase our energy intake instead of lowering it.
7. Reduce your social media intake. Yes social media is probably one of the first things that we turn to when we are bored , but with everything that is going on this can cause more stress which in turn will lead to skin breakout.

I hope you enjoyed some of the tips I provided, these are currently some of the steps that I follow to help my skin especially since stress has played a huge part during this time for me and I am sure for all of us. Reducing any stress during this time is so crucial to our health , this is a hard time for all of us and believe that pampering ourselves in some way shape or form can greatly help reduce any sort of depression and or stress that is taking over.

This pandemic has really brought down a lot of our spirits and to say the least has caused a lot of stress. Not being able to socialize with friends in person, or even go to places you liked to go to during the weekend can cause situational depression for some. I think as we all know the entire world is going through this pandemic right now, and I personally know that I have had my days of breaking down because I started to feel depressed or felt my mental health wasn’t the best during this time. Below I will share a few tips that have gotten me through this thus far, I know some may not be things you are interested in doing but why not take this time to learn more about yourself but stepping out of your comfort zone to help you feel better.

1. Take some you time to learn how to meditate (granted this takes practice, but everything counts) . You can meditate anywhere in your house like your room, bathroom anywhere just make sure you give yourself the space where you can really concentrate. Sit down on your bed or the floor, close your eyes and download this app called Headspace which will guide you through 3 / 5/ 10/ 20-minute meditation sessions to your liking. 
2. Listen to music and go through new albums on your apple account to see what new music you haven’t listened to. Music can be very soothing depending on your mood, you can listen to a “chill” playlist or if you , you can pull up an old school Nsync playlist or album and sing your heart out. Apple usually creates different playlists for different occasions and/or moods so there are many options.
3. Clean your room! Your room during this time is probably the place you will spend time in the most. Switch it up, maybe paint your room ( if you have any extra paint laying around at home). I know I personally have started putting flowers in my room because they have made me feel happier, so after I clean I admire how beautiful the flowers in my room look!
4. Journal all of your feelings and thoughts! I cannot stress enough how important writing is, and how much of a difference it actually makes to a person once they have been able to write down their feelings. Also writing down each day , 3 things that you are grateful for even if it’s that sip of coffee in the morning can really put things into perspective. According to The Journal of Positive Psychology , writing down what you are grateful for amplifies it’s well-being effects.
5. Virtual exercise! Keeping our bodies active during this time is so important overall, of course have your lazy days but make sure to push yourself to get some exercise in. Now on Instagram many gym trainers are providing FREE virtual workouts. In the American Family Physician website, they stress the fact that many people turn to exercise rather than taking medication which obviously at this time you can’t get since we are all quarantined but they state that exercise like yoga for example can improve any symptoms of anxiety or depression. 
6. Read a book, I am sure that there are many online books that you can look into reading OR you can also read old books that you have enjoyed in the past and re-read them just to get the good feelings that you go from reading it the first time.
7. Play games with your family! This time has really shown us how much time we DON’T spend with our loved ones. This is mainly because we are busy with our daily schedules, like school or work. We should really take this time to reset , and really wine down with our loved ones and talk about embarrassing family stories etc.

This has been a very difficult time for all of us, and I hope that each and every one of you are home safe and healthy. There are so many ways to keep yourself busy during this time, and I know that it is definitely hard to feel like there isn’t. WE are all human and have every right to feel disoriented at this time because there is so much scary stuff going on BUT we will get through this. 

Why does exercise improve your mental health? It is shown that exercise releases chemicals, such as endorphins and serotonin that improves your mood. When dealing with depression and anxiety it is easy to find oneself feeling sluggish and not wanting to even get out of bed, to either go to work or to do any physical activities such as working out. Study shows that working out even if it is just taking a walk, helps your mentality tremendously. According to the National Library of Medicine , researchers have found that exercising can alleviate some symptom’s associated with depression. 

Exercise is a natural and effective anti-anxiety treatment, so where you would originally have to wait for a medication such as Lexapro to work (which can normally take weeks and months) exercise will take effect right away in helping your overall mental health and physical health. Not only does it help mentally, but physically as well and you will feel much better about yourself overall. A few things to focus on when working out that can help you feel levelheaded and can ground you, is by focusing on your feet hitting the ground when running or doing jumping jacks, your breathing when you are inhaling and exhaling air. This will not only help you physically but will also interrupt all of the worries and stress that is currently running through your head. 

Have you ever felt stress to the point to where it physically affects you? Where you have a knot in your stomach from the anxiety?

Anxiety along with depression can cause you to physically feel ill, this happens from all of the worries and negative thoughts that run through your head on a daily basis. Distracting your mind and shifting your thoughts can help, exercising can do just that. As mentioned above, being mindful of your feet hitting the ground when running or your breathing can help appreciate the small things that help make you feel better. A study done by Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, found that even taking a walk for 15 minutes a day can decrease major depression by 26%. Needless to say, it is very important to be active when experiencing anxiety/depression.

According to Motor PMC a study was done with a young man, who was diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia. He was entered into a 12-week progressive exercise program, and at the end of the program they saw a significance increase in his communication, physical abilities, and his motivation. When you feel motivated you feel as you can accomplish almost anything that gets in your way. There are many positive effects to exercising such as, more energy, better sleep, stronger resilience, higher self-esteem, sharper memory and thinking (this is because all of the endorphins that help you feel better).

Although exercising may seem like a big obstacle to accomplish when dealing with depression/anxiety, it is a very healthy way to get yourself back on track and to help motivate you to get through hard situations. Even taking a few minutes while on lunch break or before class, to walk for a few minutes is very beneficial. It is better to do even the smallest things than to do nothing at all.

There are so many different ways to cope with anxiety and depression that can truly be life changing. Some specific ways are to journal your thoughts/feelings, see a therapist, take a yoga class, meditation and so many more. Journaling your thoughts can help you express yourself without any limitation nor judgment. Taking yoga class goes hand in hand with meditation, it helps you be still and be one with yourself. Being able to practice mindfulness is something that will help become more aware and understand your thoughts more. According to Journal of Psychiatric Practice, “Mindfulness practices have become increasingly popular as complementary therapeutic strategies for a variety of medical and psychiatric conditions.

Exercise in general helps release the endorphins from your body, which help trigger positive feeling in the body. Studies have found that yoga can help tremendously when dealing with depression/anxiety. According to http://www.aafp.org/ “Many persons with clinical anxiety or depression turn to nonpharmacologic and non-conventional interventions, including exercises, meditation, tai chi, qigong, and yoga”. These exercises have become more popular because there are no side effects as oppose to taking prescribed mediation which we know sometimes may cause negative side effects.

Although exercising definitely something that will help get your body moving, giving yourself positive affirmations is also another powerful tool. Our thoughts usually consume us, and especially when you are dealing with negative thoughts it is very hard to get out of that rut. I find that listening to podcasts with speakers that teach you how to implement these affirmations is very helpful, the more we listen and practice these steps eventually they stick in our thoughts and they become a positive part of our lives.

I believe something else that is very important when dealing with depression and anxiety, it is to be gentle, loving and patient with yourself. Sometimes it is easy to blame ourselves for feeling the way that we feel, this is something that I personally have learned over the years. Treating yourself as you would treat one of your best friends when they are dealing with depression/anxiety is how you should treat yourself as well. Give yourself all of the love and positivity that you possibly can. There are also many apps on your phone that provide well being apps such as mediation. One meditation app that I have found very helpful is called headspace , you can choose to do a cook 3 minute, 5 minute, 20 minute mediation depending on the time you want to give yourself to do this. Most importantly taking deep breaths can be something that can help immensely when you are overwhelmed , with all of the thoughts that are crossing your mind.

In this day in age, mental health is viewed as a “taboo” and people who don’t really have the knowledge on what mental health illness really is automatically think that there is something physically wrong with the person. There are many different conditions of mental health such as; depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, PTSD and so many more. According to  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ , It has been reported and estimated that 25 percent of the worldwide population is affected by a mental or behavioral disorder at some time during their lives. Whether you are properly diagnosed by a doctor to have a specific mental health issue or not, we may experience it as some point in our lives due to situations or problems we may be facing. Due to mental health illness being viewed as something negative, many who are dealing with this type of illness often get discriminated easily and their lives are negatively impacted by this. According to http://www.cambridge.org/ people with mental illness face stigma and discrimination in a variety of settings which can have an economic impact. So this “taboo” that many people feel on mental health illness or issues, can negatively affect the lives of those dealing with this illness because it causes a lot of negative discrimination from others which can cause the person who is going through this to feel much worse because there is no support from the outside. This can also cause those dealing with this illness to avoid getting the treatment that is needed to help them get through this, because they may be scared of what others will think of them. There are so many ways to turn these negative stigmas around to positive ones, by educating yourself and those around you on it. Something I believe is also helpful is, if you or anyone knows of someone dealing with any type of mental health issue let them know that you are there for them and keep an open mind on what it is that this person(s) is going through. Educating yourself on what goes into mental health is very important, and with that comes so many ways to get through the mental health issue/illness. Therapy is probably one of my favorite ways to cope with any struggles that I am dealing with, and many people are often scared to voice that they would like to seek therapy or are going to therapy because of what others will think. There are so many different sources to help with overcoming this illness and a few of them are; therapy, psychiatrist, meditating, yoga and more. Therapy and meditating go hand in hand, being able to sit down with someone who is an expert but also wants to listen to what it is that you are going through is very refreshing and helpful. Meditation will help with sleep and can help cope with mental health disorders while it can also help focus on your breathing. Sometimes all you need is to take a step back when feeling overwhelmed and take deep breaths to help sooth you.