The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically disrupted our routines, for better or for worse. Many people have managed to adapt their lives to fit in with the “new norm,” but sometimes those adjustments aren’t enough.
Being unable to alter one’s routine to adapt to drastic change can lead to negative impacts on a person’s mental health, and in some cases lead to depression or other mental disorders, according to a December 2020 article in the Journal of Global Health.
In order to reduce the chances of having poor mental health, health experts strongly suggest that people develop daily routines.
“Regularized routines…can buffer the adverse impact of stress exposure on mental health,” according to the article.
You can look at a daily routine in two ways: primary and secondary routines.
Primary routines are considered to be something you do to maintain your livelihood and biological needs, such as eating, sleeping and hygiene.
On the flipside, secondary routines are activities like exercising, hanging out with friends or family or meeting personal goals and targets, according to the article.
Mental health officials explained that primary routines have a greater impact on your mental health because those activities lay the foundation of one’s daily life.
For example, if you stopped getting enough hours of sleep a day, you would feel tired and fatigued, right? Same goes for if you didn’t feed yourself regularly or stopped showering. There needs to be some kind of routine to keep your life and mental health in balance.
“By establishing a daily routine, we can set aside time to take care of tasks and focus on our mental and physical health,” wrote Dr. Brad Brenner, co-founder of the Therapy Group of NYC, in a September 2020 blog post. “They help us cope with change, create healthy habits, improve interpersonal relationships and reduce stress.”
So you might be wondering why Zeus Beard is talking about mental health and daily routines. We want you to take care of your beard and/or mustache, so why not work that into a daily routine. Your facial hair, and more importantly your mental health, will thank you in the long run.
Some routines could include shampooing and conditioning your facial hair, trimming stray hairs or cleaning up your hairline. Heck, one daily routine you can do is place a warm towel with a few sprits of eucalyptus mist on your face for a few minutes before going to bed.
Whatever you decide to do, make sure you develop a routine to keep your mental and physical health in check. The world may be reopening slowly, but it’s important to do small, daily routines to create a normal, healthy living pattern.
