A pandemic is a confusing and scary time for everyone but especially parents. They have to wade through an online landscape pitted with misinformation in their search for the best ways to keep their kids safe.

However, children also face their challenges. The pandemic brought a shocking rise in teen suicides, and 53%of employees with children say they missed at least one day of work a month to help their child with mental health struggles. What can you do to improve this outlook? Here are five ways parents can support their children’s mental health in the age of COVID-19.

1. Look For Wholesome Activities

Do you know what happened after previous pandemics, even world wars? Life went on. It does for you and your children, too. Maintaining a normal routine is one of the best ways to demonstrate this principle to your kids.

If you’re homeschooling, imitate the traditional classroom as much as possible — including taking your kids on virtual field trips. You can find tons of online resources where your kiddos can learn to code or knit, applying what they learned in their daily classes to real-life situations or exploring fun new hobbies.

2. Spend More Time Outdoors

Mother nature has healing powers. Studies show she can do everything from improving your mood to boosting your immunity — both vital during a pandemic. Your kids will benefit from the fresh air and fitness in body and mind.

Taking your kids to the playground helps them meet their exercise quota for the day. They can run, skip and jump to their heart’s content. The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines state that children aged 5 through 17 need at least 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity. You can squeeze in a workout, too — try a few monkey bar pullups or use a picnic bench to guide your squat depth.

3. Validate And Help Them Process Emotions

Kids aren’t immune from world news. Even if you keep television to a minimum at home, they’re sure to encounter mixed messages when out in public. Some of them may leave them feeling afraid.

Please don’t invalidate your child’s feelings by saying things like, “there’s nothing to worry about,” or, “don’t be a scaredy-cat.” Instead, let them know it’s natural to feel uncertainty, informing them that adults get frightened sometimes, too. Invite them to talk about their feelings and help them process their fears.

Then, brainstorm healthy ways to deal with these big feelings. You can suggest things like coloring a picture, writing in a journal or finding a way to help someone else in need.

4. Introduce Them To Healthy Stress-Reduction Techniques

Just as children aren’t immune from adult feelings, they’re not too young to learn how to regulate their emotions in healthy ways. Learning stress-reduction techniques as a child stays with them for life, providing them with coping mechanisms through countless ups and downs.

For example, even young children can practice deep breathing and yoga. Schools that have implemented such programs as an alternative to discipline like detention have seen significant improvements in behavior.

Mindfulness pulls children away from fears of an uncertain future or ruminations about an unchangeable past. You can teach them exercises like performing a body scan or slowly savoring a square of chocolate.

5. Consider Professional Help

Finally, there’s no shame in seeking professional help. Your child’s brain is an organ like any other, and problems can arise when things go wrong with it. The right treatment can get them back on a healthier path.

Fortunately, you have options for coverage, even if you don’t have health insurance yourself. You can apply for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through the Marketplace. If you qualify, you’ll get access to free and low-cost services, including mental health.

Ways Parents Can Support Their Children’s Mental Health

Being a parent during a pandemic is tough. So is growing up during one.

As an adult, it’s your job to do what you can to support your little ones. Follow the five tips above to support your child’s mental health in the age of COVID-19.

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Two years into the pandemic, another variant poses threats to people everywhere. It’s only natural to feel distressed and worried, even if you don’t run a severe risk of complications.

What can you do to mitigate your stress and keep a cool head? Here are six anxiety management tips to follow during the COVID-19 Omicron surge.

1. Mitigate Your Risks

The best way to ease anxiety about the omicron variant is to mitigate your risk as much as possible. This process starts with vaccination. If you haven’t yet gotten your shot or a booster, you can do so for free. Check the government’s free website to find a location near you — many chain drug stores and health clinics offer the jab.

Vaccination isn’t a guarantee against infection, but it can prevent severe illness. Roughly 85% of COVID-19 patients develop no symptoms or those resembling the flu. Your chances of landing in the hospital increase if you have no antibodies.

Please continue to wear your mask in indoor public spaces, even if it isn’t required. Doing so offers you protection, not just those around you. Besides, you don’t know who’s vaccinated, who’s not, or the reason for their status. It takes little to protect someone you don’t know, especially since you could spread the virus without knowing that you’re sick.

2. Talk To Your Employer

Have you received the “all hands on deck” email yet? Many companies have already returned to in-office work while others vacillate back and forth. However, you might never have a better time than now to request more flexible working conditions if you feel uncomfortable clocking in and sharing that much time indoors with others outside of your immediate family.

Consider your options even if your role typically involves facing customers. For example, some nurses never see the patients that they treat. They work in telemedicine, helping people decide whether to go to the emergency room or treat mild-to-moderate symptoms at home. Even folks who work in food service might be able to switch from serving to delivery driving, depending on their employer’s business model.

3. Move Things Outdoors

COVID-19, including the highly contagious omicron variant, spreads through respiratory droplets. Inside, these aerosols have nowhere to go, particularly in buildings with inadequate ventilation. Outside, they have unlimited space to dissipate. Your chances of infection go down considerably when you participate in outdoor activities.

Winter weather can make it more challenging to move some activities outdoors, but you can get creative. Firepits, specialty lamps and heated floors can transform patios from frozen tundras to pleasant collaborative spaces.

4. Establish Check-Ins With Vulnerable Individuals

Your anxiety during the COVID-19 omicron surge might have less to do with your fears of getting sick than they do with your worries about vulnerable family members. The solution? Set up check-in times to connect with those who don’t live with you.

Doing so can help you ease stress in two ways. One, it assuages your fears that the person you love is okay. Furthermore, people are social animals, and loneliness can increase anxiety symptoms. Connecting with someone you care about reinforces your support system, making you feel more secure.

5. Keep Your Body Moving

Exercise may be the ultimate way to mitigate anxious feelings. Why? It taps into the mechanism mother nature blessed humans with for escaping danger, fight or flight. It lets your body release hormones like cortisol before they build up in your body, causing adverse effects that further elevate your stress levels.

This advice doesn’t mean you need to lace up your tennis shoes and head out in a blizzard. You can get plenty of workouts in the privacy of your living room. Check out one of today’s top fitness apps if the thought of digging out your car to drive to the gym leaves you shivering before you reach your front door.

6. Switch Up Your Nightcap

You might think, “If I can just get through this day, a nice drink will relax me into sleep.” Please reconsider that notion. While alcohol temporarily produces calm by impacting neurotransmitter levels, your anxiety returns with a vengeance when they try to return to equilibrium the next morning. You could find yourself feeling more nervous right before you have to head out the door.

Instead, end your day with a soothing cup of chamomile and lavender tea, perhaps with a touch of warm milk for good measure. Valerian, lemongrass and passionflower are other relaxing herbs to add to an evening cuppa to ease your nerves and help you sleep without the morning-after anxiety backlash.

Anxiety Management Tips During Omicron

After two years of living through a pandemic, few people would blame you for having slightly raw nerves. However, you can’t let fear prevent you from living your life. Mitigate your fears by embracing the six anxiety management tips above during the COVID-19 omicron surge.

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For many people, the uncertainty surrounding coronavirus is the hardest thing to handle. It’s the constant stream of questions that we ask ourselves, such as, “How am I going to cope financially?”, “Will I get COVID-19?”, “Will I lose my job?” that takes a toll on our mental wellbeing.

Since the start of the pandemic, anxiety amongst the Irish public has been more common than you may have originally thought. In March and April 2020, Maynooth University and Trinity College studied 1,000 people (during the initial restrictions) and found that 20% of the respondents reported clinically meaningful anxiety and 18% reported clinically meaningful post-traumatic stress. Also, a peer-reviewed study of 847 members of the public in Ireland between March and June 2020 (during restrictions) also found significant increases in depression, anxiety and stress compared to before restrictions.

Roll forward to 2021, and we’re still in the midst of the pandemic, and it’s no surprise anxiety is still taking a toll on our mental health. Some of the most common factors that have contributed to high levels of anxiety during the coronavirus pandemic include:

• Loneliness
• Sex
• Marital status
• How safe people feel in their home
• Whether work has been affected by COVID-19.

You may not realise it, but your mental health also affects your physical health, so now it’s more important than ever to focus on these — and one of the best ways to look into this is by using hypnotherapy.

Read on to explore how hypnotherapy is becoming a popular option to help tackle anxiety related to COVID-19.

The Dangers Of Anxiety During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Did you know Chronic stress can weaken your immune system? The more stressed and anxious you are, the weaker your immune system will be, and during a pandemic, this is not good news. With a weakened immune system, your body will be less able to fight COVID-19 if you ever come across it. This is why it’s now more vital to focus on your mental wellbeing than ever before, and hypnotherapy is a valuable tool to help tackle this issue.