Mental Health & COVID Resources That You’ll Find Helpful

Here are some useful mental health, COVID recovery resources that’ll make you more equipped to deal with current times.

Caution:

The below-mentioned resources are products of my research and study. It can be possible that you don’t find it practical and purposeful. Hence, I recommend reading the websites carefully and assess other references of your trusted sources before you try any of these.

Mental Health Resources:

During the lockdown, our mental health is affected the most. The isolation, disruption in our daily activities, being stuck up in the small area of our houses, working from home with our toddlers crying and jumping are adding follies to our emotional wellbeing. At the end of our day, we become exhausted mentally and we want nothing but some peace of mind.

First I want you to take a deep breath. You're not alone in this, we are all suffering one way or other, but the isolation has put up a wall between us, so we can’t see each other’s sufferings. Thankfully we are in an age where we can access help easily than at any other time in the history of mankind. We have the internet which can connect us to anyone anywhere in the world. Just like that, you can access multiple mental health resources across the web.

Below I have listed some resources you can use to take care of your mental health.

1. Mind Tribe:

This is an initiative taken by India’s leading Psychologist, Dr Prerna Kohli. Mind Tribe provides counselling by certified psychologists, at a minimal price and conducts workshops on various mental health issues. The first counselling is free and you’ll be under no pressure to continue after the first counselling.

Click here to visit their site( It’s a Linktree site). You can also visit their Instagram profile

There are self-assessment questionnaires on their site that will help you to get a better view of your emotional state. Last but not the least, they have different rates for students, so they can afford the expense of their mental wellbeing.

2. 7 Cups:

7 cups was founded to lend ear to people who want to be heard. This was the primary goal of Glen Moriarty — founder of this site. He believed that by hearing out people, we validate their emotions and express compassion, especially in a world where it is hard to find a listener.

Here, you can get compassionate, verified, trained listeners to hear you out for free. There are self-help guides, communities where you can discuss any issues with people who will understand you. The best part is that the whole process is anonymous on 7cups. There are professional therapists also available to support you at an average price.

Click here to visit the site

From my personal experience, I advise you to be a little patient to find a good listener and always check the stats and feedback on the listener’s profile before initiating chats. And if you come across an indecent listener, you can always complain to the community.

3. Self-Screening Tools:

Nothing comes in handy than self-help tools when you know this is just a temporary blue mood. This certain low is manageable in long run. Knowing our emotions well sometimes solve half of the problems alone. This is where self-screening emerges as a useful tool.

Mental Health America has self-screening tools which are crafted by experts after research. Click here to know more.

4. WHO's Toolkits:

This one is another set of self-help tool by the World Health Organisation. They have toolkits for older adults, young kids and medical professionals. It’s more based on the current ongoing pandemic rather than general mental health. Like in the toolkit for older adults, they have put down thorough guides on how to deal with COVID as older people.

Access The Toolkits here

COVID Resources:

In midst of this unprecedented medical emergency, we are all confused and scared. Misinformation is everywhere. It's better to know from trusted sources and to have the correct information. It'll reduce our panic and we'll be more practical in our response to this crisis. So, I have gathered some useful links that you may find helpful.

1. ‘What to Expect After COVID?’ This is a blog by Harvard Health Publishing, where experts have shared their valuable opinions on the aftermath of COVID Symptoms, duration, different kind of symptoms, post-COVID health advice — these are some of the topics you can read in this blog.

2. WHO has a whole episode series on many subjects related to COVID along with PODCAST. I’m personally linking the ‘Immunity After Recovery From COVID’ episode where you can hear Dr Maria Kerkhove’s opinion on this significant subject.

3. Are you worried about how to boost your immunity in the pandemic? Then you may like to read these guidelines by the Ministry of AYUSH India. They have written down simple lifestyle changes that you can add to your daily routine for better health. Check them and choose what’s best for you.

We reached the end. Thanks for sticking around till the end and I hope these resources may help you. Let me know what you think or maybe share something you have found useful in the comments below. I’ll be glad if you leave a message on our social media handles (IG - @bhavanayoga.co, Facebook - Bhavana Yoga - Yoga Mindfulness Lifestyle).

On another note, I have something important to share with you. We all know that India is battling with a terrible second wave and the situation is disheartening. people are desperately in need of medical care, oxygen and hospital beds. During these challenging times, many NGOs are doing the groundwork of providing these facilities.

We would like to call on our global yoga community to join us for a fundraiser yoga event — 'Help India Yoga Marathon' to support two NGOs we have tied up with - @Goonj and @KhanaChahiye.

The online yoga event begins at 2 pm Germany, 5:30 pm India, 8:00 am EST on 16th May 2021 and we bring together 6 teachers from all over the world! 100% of your contribution goes directly to the NGOs who are doing the groundwork in India.

For more information and to contribute click here.

Stay safe,