Mental health experts: stay active physically and mentally

INDIANA - As stay at home orders and business closings mount, people are spending more and more time at home. Health officials have given numerous tips about how to maintain your physical health, but what about maintaining good mental health through this pandemic? A Ball State health professor said he has the answer.

"I count the three P's," said Jagdish Khubchandani, a professor of health at Ball State University. "My personal space, clean it up. My personal health, self-care, and the third one is personality. This is a time to get yourself in shape and get your spaces in shape and think about the future. As I said, the pandemic, the fourth P, will not last forever."

Khubchandani published an article with 15 tips on maintaining good mental health while staying at home during this pandemic. Those tips focus on maintaining a routine similar to what you had before the pandemic. He said staying active both physically and mentally are key.

Khubchandani said keeping good mental health is just as important as keeping good physical health because the risk of not maintaining good mental health is too much to ignore.

"My worry is after this pandemic, we will have a pandemic of depression, and that should not happen," Khubchandani said.

His suggestions include things like limiting leisure screen time like watching too much television or too many movies, going outside for a walk and being friendly to people you see and getting up at the same time as you did before the pandemic. He said if you do spend time in front of a computer screen, do so in a way that exercises your mind like with a thinking game or video chats with friends.

Khubchandani said the habits people form while at home during the pandemic are important to returning to normal after the pandemic.

"I tell people that this pandemic will not last forever, but the recovery from the lifestyle that you make now may last forever," Khubchandani said.