Mental Health Wellbeing and Work-Life Balance with the Pandemic Situation
Recently I got a chance to participate in a questionnaire with regards to the work-life balance and the new normalcy concept. This whole article is related to my personal experience and some insights on the questions on the questionnaire.
The questionnaires first half was to fill in my details and how old was I, my designation, how long I have been working and my work hours and the type of work I’m expected to do.
The second part of it had questions like how aware I'm on mental health wellbeing, how much I rely on mental health, work-life, my leisure time activities and how I cope up with my mental health. This questionnaire is very timely in my point of view, where we have to be adopted to the new normal concept. Previously before the pandemic arises we use to commute to work, then spend 8 to 10 hours in the workspace and then return home and continue the daily routines at home.
So here are some insights into how my last year went with the covid situation and lockdowns. The first lockdown was utterly a new thing for us standing in queues to get the groceries and then started the work-from-home concept. Even though we have taken WFH once in a while, during the past few years that is mostly when you are taking an exam or you are sick. But the WHF with the pandemic was all new all coworkers was working from home and meetings all were done virtually which became a really new experience to all of us. When time passes we had identified we have become more efficient and productive, I personally was amazed by the amount of work that I had compleated from the time I started to work from home. Then I felt it was quite a bit of unhealthy time I have started to spend sitting in front of the laptop for over 12 hours some days. Then I amended my routine and make a schedule on how to workaround. I left my morning session for my jogging and exercise time and then I would spend the rest of my day to work and I try to finish work at least by 6.30 to have some time to pamper myself.
Before this covid struck I had a bit of personal turmoil towards the start of the year and I have been miserable, this is where I understood how mental health can create a huge impact on a persons’ life. During my hard days, I was mentally not focusing on anything but thinking what exactly happened and I started to lose weight rapidly, here is the best example of why people have to be mentally fit to be physically fit. Here the importance of mental health plays its part, I was wallowing and was not ready to accept the recent incident which took place, I was surrounded by my family and my close friends during this time. I'm also happy to say that I’m lucky that I had a professional counsellor that I could count on. My aunt is a professional counsellor and I was given the proper advice so that I could come out of the agony faster than I expect it to be. I'm a person with a very small circle around me and I have only a handful of people who I could rely on, all of my family was there for me.
In-person, I'm a person who loves solitariness very much, who appreciates the calm and quietness in the environment. When talking about my leisure time activities I love to tuck myself under a blanket and read. I was surrounded by books during the 2nd Lockdown here in Sri Lanka and I was looking forward to reading them just after work! This actually led to less screen time, when the whole lockdown was imposed I actually found myself understand the importance of a solid hobby to tag along with which I really interested in. The books kept me so occupied during my quiet hours or when I feel mentally unstable. Apart from that I also saw myself getting involved with Netflix, where I spend a huge amount of watching Korean TV Series and my favourite TV shows. I also had a bunch of friends who called me from time to time to check on me and we had our little chit chats over the phone and giving me the best piece of advice, my cat is the other thing which kept me so occupied and cheerful throughout the day his little mischief keeps me smiling throughout the day!
And there is another person who I rely upon when I run into mental deadlocks, that person actually is one of the best humans I have encountered in my life, I found myself quite comfortable around this person and this one actually walks me through the day even how bad the day has been, even if that person gets mad he tolerates all my mental agony and help me through it!
In conclusion, this is my personal experience that I'm sharing today, It is essential to have your spirits up during this pandemic and keep yourself occupied! Work isn't the only way to pass your time but you need to have a solid way to spend your time on and have your loved ones around you! After all Mental health is very essential to fight against a pandemic like this!
