In our latest guest blog, Kelly Aubrey-Harris, Health and Wellbeing Manager, shares how she’s been dealing with her anxiety during lockdown.
I have experienced feelings of anxiety before in my life. My triggers relate to feelings that I am losing my foundations, the points in my life that I secure my ropes to: my job, my family and friends and my structure and routine. Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that a global pandemic, which threatens our normal way of life, unlike anything previously experienced, was going to cause a stress reaction.
As I sat listening to the Prime Minister instructing businesses and schools to close and looked at pictures of empty supermarket shelves, my anxious brain sped weeks, then months into the future. I imagined a post-apocalyptic UK where everything we knew had vanished and we were left with an unrecognisable future. Yes, I do watch too many movies!
The first two weeks of lockdown were tough. I kept things ticking over at work and home, but it wasn’t easy. Feelings of anxiety can make you feel very isolated. Even though we are all experiencing the same storm, we are all in very different shaped boats, and some seem more seaworthy than others. So, searching for the comfort of routine and something I could control, one evening I started planting seeds as I do every year in March. It struck me that even if everything else was an unknown quantity, these seedlings would still grow and give us something to look forward to in the autumn.
This was my springboard moment. I began focusing on what I could control and what I was grateful for. I based my approach on the NHS 5 Steps to Wellbeing, as I often advise people to do as part of my role as Health and Wellbeing Adviser at the University. These steps are Take Notice, Give, Connect, Keep Learning and Be Active. The important part is to take notice of how you are feeling and to keep learning about yourself, discovering what helps you to feel better.
Everyone can use these steps to find their individual solution, a different way to fix their leaky boat! For me those fixes were: walking every day, re-discovering music, appreciating how lucky I was to be healthy and that I still enjoyed my family’s company after 6 weeks of lockdown and gardening, gardening, gardening.
The Health and Wellbeing team provide a range of advice for staff including team resilience, guidance for vulnerable adults, setting up your home workstation and maintaining positive wellbeing whilst working from home.
