Mental Health whilst staying at home

Times are currently anything but normal, and it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and anxious. We've listed some resources which give advice on how to navigate the current situation and lessen the impact on your mental wellbeing. 
 

• The NHS have guidance on how to go about looking after your mental wellbeing while staying at home.
   
• Advice from Cambridge University about looking after your Mental health during the COVID-19 outbreak. This includes links to the services the University provides internally, as well as links to external support.
   
• MINDs COVID-19 support pages have a wealth of practical advice as to how best look after your physical and mental health during this time. 
   
• Meditation and breathing inspired by Oak 
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Learning online

Although many of us have experienced some element of online learning during our academic life, attending only online lectures and seminars has been a big change. The Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning has developed some excellent guidance on learning from lecture recordings including their twelve top tips.

Working from home

Many people will be attempting working from home or in a new non-work space during this time. This section contains some links to resources to help you make your working from home time as productive and comfortable as possible.
 

• There's a lot of content out there about working from home. The Wolfson College Library's page on working from home condenses down this vast topic into easy to read chunks - they cover topics such as how to organise your time, how to get the most from your webinars and how to stay social. 
   
• It's important to be able to separate your working week and your downtime. HuffPost has some excellent advice on how to separate your week from your weekend whilst working from home. 
   
• Keep in mind your digital wellbeing. We recommend looking at Wolfson College Library's excellent Digital Wellbeing page and also this MMIT blog post on the topic.
   
• If you are struggling to block out some of the noise around you or need a motivational boost, try out one the Engineering Library's wonderful playlists on Spotify or the ChilledCow YouTube radio channel.
   
• If you are finding yourself sore and stiff from working at your home desk set up, have a look at these Desk stretches from Bupa. Bonus, this page also contains advice on how to set up your chair and desk to avoid back pain,

Keep the kids entertained

Some fun resources for entertaining kids during lockdown! 

• Follow LEGO_Group on Twitter for daily build challenges
• Free stories for all ages on Audible
• Drawing tutorials with Rob Biddulph on Facebook
• PE with Joe Wicks on YouTube

Entertainment and leisure

It's important to take breaks when working - here are some suggestions of things you can do during your downtime from the comfort of your home.
 

• Free content on the British Film Institute player
   
• Audiobooks on Audible (Some free while schools are closed)
   
• CILIP's National Shelf Service YouTube channel makes daily recommendations of books that can be borrowed as ebooks via Library service websites. 
   

• The Sketch A Day app has a new prompt everyday, great for getting some inspiration (Android, iOS).
   
• Join in with the Garden Bird Watch with the British Trust for Ornithology.
   
• Chatterpack contains a huge variety of links, from virtual museum tours, animal webcams and music streams. There's also links to advice on mental health and wellbeing.