At the time of publishing this blog post, UK residents are being told to stay at home, unless it’s essential to leave. We are currently living through the global outbreak of coronavirus. Tyne and Wear, like everywhere across the country, is feeling the impact of the pandemic.
For most, being housebound for a long period of time, often completely isolated from your friends, family, community services and regular routine is incredibly difficult. In addition, some are forced to stay home alone, care for others, or have their own personal circumstances making things even more challenging.
For these reasons, it’s more important than ever to look after your health. Luckily, if you have access to the internet and a digital device, there are many free resources to support your wellbeing. We’ve pulled together a list of articles, videos and apps which can help improve or maintain your physical and mental health over the coming months, even if you’re stuck inside.
Online resources to support good mental health
- Mental health advice everyone should follow – published on Moving On Tyne & Wear’s blog and written in partnership with Mental Health Concern
- Self-help reading materials – written and delivered by the NHS. Covers a wide variety of mental health issue from anxiety to bereavement.
- Mindfulness explained – by the NHS
- Mindful breathing exercises video – by Every Mind Matters
- Five-minute medication video to calm and relex – by Goodful
- Calm – a mobile app, available for free. Be guided throughout the day to mediate, manage anxiety and sleep better.
- The science of happiness – by edx. A free 8-week course to teach you positive psychology.
Online resources to support good physical health
- NHS fitness studio – delivered by the NHS. This website contains lots of easy to follow advice to support and improve your physical health. It’s great for anyone, from beginner to keen gym bunny.
- Follow-along yoga tutorials – by Yoga with Adriene. Yoga for all skill levels, including complete beginners. Adriene has hundreds of videos which focus on everything from mediation for anxiety to a routine you can do when you wake up.
- Health tips from the British Heart Foundation
- Seated workout – by Caroline Jordan. Ideal for low impact exercise you can do from a chair at home.
- Cardio you can do in a wheelchair – by Paul Eugene.
- Couch to 5k – by the NHS. A guided training programme to help you go from unfit, novice runner to someone who can run 5k. Generally, you can follow along through an app on your phone.
- Storecupboard recipes – from the BBC
- Healthy freezable recipes – from the BBC
Keep your brain engaged!
- Free course library in a range of topics – by Alison.
- Google Digital Garage – learn lots of online skills to improve your career prospects and enrich your CV, from website fundamentals to digital marketing basics
- Learn to code – by Codecademy. You can access 180 hours of free training content to get a grasp of the basics of web coding.
- Conquer your fear of public speaking – by Udemy. Improve your confidence and understand the fundamentals of impressing a room.
- Graphic design essentials – by HubSpot. A very quick introduction to the fundamentals of design. If you have an hour to spare, why not give it a go?
- Future Learn – Free online digital skills courses for all levels.
For the most up to date and accurate information about COVID-19, visit the gov.uk website.
If you live in Tyne and Wear and are looking for support, get in touch with us today.