MOVE, Nourish, Connect, and Be to Maintain Mental Health During This Pandemic

In her article “Four Things to Do Every Day for Your Mental Health”, Elizabeth Markle says that, “in the absence of everything that normally dictates our days, we are called on to create the structures that will support our health, physically and emotionally, in a time of profound uncertainty.” Markle advocates that we all create our own structure using these four concepts:

Move: Build movement in your structure, at least 20 minutes per day! 

Nourish: setting up a daily structure that (mostly) fills you with nourishing, healthy foods 

Connect: Humans need to connect to other humans. Since right now it won’t naturally happen throughout the day, you have to ask for it and schedule it. 

Be: Pause long enough from the chaos of our new realities “to let your nervous system come back to baseline after prolonged activation.” Find what works for you, be it meditation, doing a puzzle or simply watching TV.  Whatever helps you just BE.

As parents we can take care of ourselves by incorporating some of this into our daily routines, as we model for and support our kids, of any age, to do the same.

​Read the full article: Four Things to Do Every Day for Your Mental Health