Remote work can challenge your mental wellbeing. It can change you from optimistic, productive working assets into tired, procrastinating, unmotivated employees. 

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Before you hit rock bottom, learn to identify the symptoms of declining mental health and address them immediately. Plus, you can never go wrong with daily meditation and self-care routine to keep your head happy. 

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Take smart steps to improve your mental health and dust-off depression, anxiety, burnout or stress.

In the last few decades, we have swiftly started to shift doing things remotely; we are working remotely, shopping remotely and guess what healthcare services have gone online too. With the pandemic bite, with some comfortable and not-so-comfortable hassles, we survived and learnt various life-hacks. 

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The past few months were overwhelming for most of us if not all. While maintaining social distancing, we became victims of the pandemic's pitfalls, and every walk of our lives was adversely affected. From our work to our relationships to our personal mental health suffered constant hits. 

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Have you noticed a change in your behaviour and mood since you started to work remotely? Let's see what we experienced while we were working remotely and were cut off from social connection:
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1. Overwhelm: ‍

Too much noise.

Too many demands.

Too many complaints.

Too much conflict.

Too much to be. 

Staying with your family without any break can be overwhelming. There are high chances of conflicts when you cannot take a break for yourself to create a breathing space. How to cope in such trying times? One surely feels guilt to feel this way, but your feelings are valid. 

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2. Burnout: While working from home, we are always occupied; it's either office work or home chores, family time, grocery time, pet time, and the list goes on. What we miss in such settings is me-time, and when we don't get enough time to sit with our feelings and emotions, we feel exhausted, and it reflects on our behaviours, mood and productivity.
   
   
3. Anxiety and Stress: While working from home, you are multiple-hatting in roles, and you need quality time-management to shrug off anxiety, stress and frustration by having your mind busy round the clock. Switching roles and tasks, one is bound to get wearied out. 
   
   
4. Depression: Remote work often brings loneliness and isolation to an employee. Without no commute, no colleagues around to chat with, or share your lunchtime, makes it difficult to maintain sanity. Humans are social animals, and social interaction is essential to our survival. Moreover, when we work from home, we don't have a fancy nameplate on our desk, or a mirrored glass office room may bring you the feeling of an underachiever, unlike your peers. 

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Wondering why did I list all these symptoms? Because living with depression, overwhelm, stress and anxiety are not okay. First things first, ask for help, it's brave. One needs help to keep a check on their mental wellbeing. 

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In the digitalized online world, there must be a smart solution to everything. And this is where I advocate for online therapy. Want to know the perks? Well, see these

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1. No commute hassles 
2. 24*7 availability
3. No waiting lists
4. No stigma
5. Person-centric therapies
6. Remote access
7. Easy knowledge exchange
8. Low drop-out rate

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Wait, there are more!

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Self-help resources to help you maintain mental hygiene and practice mindfulness as your daily routine!

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1. Blogs
2. Chats
3. E-mail
4. Forums and social network support group
5. Gaming conducted behavioural therapies
6. Podcasts
7. Virtual reality environments
8. Interactive tele video communications such as Skype 

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Online therapies or remote therapies are definitely the next big thing. 

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Technology is already making things better. Just like we have physical fitness apps and trackers, GPS and other applications help track Dementia patients and take better care of them. Virtual reality is making significant changes to cure phobias and anxiety. Prosthetics are being used to induce positive attitude to cope with losses. 

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So, when the world is accelerating towards remote work, let's choose smart solutions to attend our wellbeing with remote therapy. The potential is limitless. You don't have to participate in things you don't want to, match your frequency with the world remotely. There might be some cons to it, but the pros are more tempting. 

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Now that you know remote working doesn't have to bring a disturbed headspace, let’s use your digital space to build a happy head. 

About Pallavi - Content expert at Healing Clouds. Pallavi is an avid reader and writer. She believes in the power of words to bring a change in society.