Online Well-being and Mental Health Courses to Help You Through Lockdown

For anyone interested in online learning during lockdown, there is currently an abundance of free courses on offer dealing with well-being and mental health. Both Open Learn & Future Learn offer a wide range of options (see our links below).

Courses vary in terms of their level & length of study. Some are more basic, ‘taster’ courses, whilst others involve study tasks & the opportunity to obtain a certificate at the end.

Examples of courses include Managing Mental Health and Stress, Understanding Anxiety and Depression, Thrive at Home (offering a better understanding of work/life balance), Mindfulness, Managing Relationships, Panic Attacks and What to Do About Them. You can explore these for yourself by clicking here:

Free courses at Open Learn

Short online courses at Future Learn

Coronavirus: Guidance on Dealing With Feelings of Helplessness

In this five minute video Bessel Van Der Kolk, world renowned authority on trauma and author of The Body Keeps the Score, talks about how to deal with feelings of helplessness during these difficult times. He emphasises the importance of structuring your time and of retaining a sense of agency. We don’t know what’s going to happen or how to control it he says ‘so the only thing that we can control is our own reactions’.

Singing, Dancing, Yoga and Other Ways of Coping During Coronavirus

Drawing on expert opinion in the fields of anxiety and trauma, cultural commentator David Brooks writes about the importance attunement in maintaining psychological health - attunement both with ourselves and with others. But he points out that this takes effort on our part.

He quotes university professor Martha Welch who says that ‘Being together is not the same as being connected’. It is important to have conversations where you can be open about your own feelings, but also where you genuinely listen as well. Allow time for each of you to take in what the other is saying. When used appropriately the internet opens up great opportunities for this kind of connection.

Experts also highlighted anything rhythmic as a way of combatting anxiety and creating an experience of attunement: singing, dancing, yoga, deep eye contact, daily rituals and games.