How to Stay Mentally Fit During The Pandemic

There’s no doubt about it, 2020 has been a tough year, and the pandemic that has in many ways defined the year has touched just about everyone on the planet in one way or another. With gyms closed and many people’s fitness routines upended, there’s been much talk of how to stay physically fit in such challenging times, but what about mental fitness? The team here at Hearfind thought we’d bring you a few tips to keep your mental fitness up, along with your physical fitness.

Make time to exercise. Wait, didn’t we say these tips were for mental fitness? Well, they are, and the fact of the matter is that exercise provides a big boost to mental health, not just physical health. Exercise also helps regulate and improve sleep, it can improve mood through the release of chemicals in the brain, and it can increase overall energy levels too.

Make time for friends and family. We may have to physically distance, but that doesn’t mean we can’t communicate. Despite the Zoom fatigue that we’re all feeling, human connection is more important now than ever, and extra effort should be made to stay in touch with those we love any way we can.

Find your personal rituals. It’s the smallest things that can make the biggest differences. Personal rituals, be they anything from an evening walk around the neighborhood to an afternoon cup of tea, can help us feel grounded and provide structure in an otherwise overwhelming time.

Looking for your daily dose of happiness? Visit our online library at Hearfind for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more. Accessible anytime, anywhere, from your favorite devices.

The Inspiring Poem to Come From the Covid-19 Crisis

Dubbed "the poet laureate of the pandemic", retired teacher Kitty O'Meara from Madison, Wisconsin never expected to go viral. Yet her poem, "And the people stayed home," did exactly that. O'Meara, who recently worked in palliative care, told The Oprah Magazine that her poem was the result of an accumulation of months worth of anxiety surrounding the global pandemic, and says her poem “offers a story of how it could be, what we could do with this time." She posted the poem on her personal Facebook page and it has since been widely shared across the world via multiple platforms. The poem offers a message of hope for those struggling with the effects of the pandemic and resulting isolation.

The poem, "And the people stayed home" reads:

And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.

Looking for some uplifting reads? Visit our online library at Hearfind for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more. Accessible anytime, anywhere, from your favorite devices.