INSIDE: Want to know how to maintain your mental health while working from home? These tips will give you the answers you are looking for. Keep reading!

Many people dream of working from home, even though they may not have considered the serious mental health challenges that can come with it.

The COVID 19 pandemic exposed how difficult it can be for remote employees to maintain good mental health and set boundaries between work and life. Many people have struggled over the past year with emotional health, anxietyand mental well-being.

Now many businesses are going “virtual first” or require hybrid work that will keep employees at least partially home for the foreseeable future.

So today, we have some mental health maintenance tips that we hope can help bring a little sunshine into your work-at-home life.

How to maintain your mental health while working from home

As always, if you have more bad days than good, be sure to talk to your health care provider or employee benefits coordinator. But for now, here are our top tips on how to maintain your mental health while working from home…

1. Maintain social connections

Social isolation is one of the biggest challenges for any remote worker. It can be very lonely around here!

It is imperative to your mental health that you stay connected with loved ones and friends. Don’t limit your interactions to Zoom, social media, and text messages, either. Schedule regular lunch breaks, shopping trips, or movie dates. If you can’t meet face to face, make an old school phone call. It is very important to hear the voice of another person. You can also look for local support groups where you can meet with others who are also losing that social connection.

2. Set boundaries for your work and personal life

I know, it’s very hard to keep your remote work life and your personal life separate: both are always there all the time.

You can set work hours and stick to them. Please do not check emails or take calls outside of office hours. Similarly, don’t cook dinner while you work. You wouldn’t do any of those things when you worked in an office. There is no need to mix them now. It just causes more stress and less productivity everywhere.

I also recommend planning a regular activity for yourself before and after your work day to create some separation in your day, such as always starting work after a walk around the block or ending your day with an outdoor meditation.

If you’re in contact with coworkers, it’s also important to set emotional boundaries, especially if you have a negative Nancy in the group. Don’t let someone else’s problems become yours. Don’t let them start planting seeds of doubt and despair in your brain. (This doesn’t just apply to work life, either. Heed this advice at home, too! Social connection doesn’t mean sharing moods.)

3. Be physically active

When you work from home, it’s so easy to sit at your desk for hours on end without even getting up. Those quick trips to a coworker’s desk to ask a question don’t happen anymore.

But being so sedentary can have serious effects on not only your mental well-being but also your physical health. heart disease it is a serious threat to those who work remotely.

To learn how to maintain your mental health while working from home, schedule a block of time several times a week to go for a 30-minute walk, take a yoga class, or put on a YouTube cardio video. Use the time you would have spent traveling to create space to exercise.

4. Get a change of scenery

Not everyone has the best home office setup. This may especially be the case for those who have been forced to work from home during the pandemic. You may have found yourself in a dark and narrow corner simply because there was nowhere else to go.

Make it a point to upgrade your workspace, even if it’s temporary. take a job lunch break outside. Grab your laptop and sit near a sunny window during your next virtual meeting. Open a window and get some fresh air.

5. Find a new hobby

The weather is turning nice. No more excuses. It’s time to learn what you always wanted to learn. You deserve, and require, the escape. Take tennis lessons. Take a gardening or flower arranging class at your local nursery. See what non-credit courses are available at your local community college. Never stop learning. Never stop getting your hands dirty.

6. Meditate

Last year, I spent some time learning how to meditate. It was a game changer. As someone with very high anxiety, I didn’t even think it was possible for someone like me to turn off the noise. I was pleasantly surprised! Now, it’s a tool that I can pull out anytime, anywhere. I highly recommend learning how to meditate and you can learn from the comfort of your home with free online videos.

7. Get off the computer

How many times a week do you sit down at your computer to “look up something real quick” and find yourself sitting there an hour later? Or get sucked into YouTube on your phone? Too much screen time is stealing your life. Social networks may be stealing your joy.

One of the keys to knowing how to maintain your mental health while working from home is to rotate. He. Off. Put your phone in the closet if necessary.

It is vital that you find a way to disconnect. And you can! It wasn’t that long ago that we could go hours without checking our emails, text messages and Facebook…those things didn’t exist. And we survived! Probably much better than we do now.

8. See the sights

If your excuse for becoming a recluse is that there’s nothing to do, you really have no excuse. i love the website only in your state. There are probably so many things around you that you have never experienced before. Interesting places you’ve never been. Local history you’ve never learned. Restaurants you’ve never eaten at. This site is very good at pointing out small “holes in the wall”. Head out for a day trip!

9. Get outdoors

Speaking of day trips, be sure to check out the outdoor attractions featured on only in your state, also. After all, it’s no secret how important fresh air and sunlight are to our mental health. And don’t forget that our bodies need that vitamin D from the sun for our physical health, too!

Visit a new park. Go for a walk. Find a new playground for your children. Soak up the beautiful wonders of nature that God has created. Stop and smell the roses for once, literally.

Final Thoughts on Maintaining Your Mental Health While Working From Home

With these tips, you can truly enjoy the experience of working from home. It’s something we all dream of, but unless it’s handled properly, reality doesn’t always match the dream. You can change that starting today!