As I write this it’s been more than ten months since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic.

I’d say I’ve generally kept on top of my psychological wellbeing - and have coped with everything much better than I would have anticipated. But some days are definitely more difficult than others. This is especially true at the moment as we experience a full lockdown, working from home, home schooling etc. These are challenging circumstances.

As part of my wellbeing efforts I’ve recently re-read (or ‘re-heard’ as I have it as an audio book) How to be miserable: 40 strategies you already use. There’s a lot of good advice in this book. One piece of advice that is working well for me at the moment is this:

This phenomenon can be so pronounced that I offer it as a general principle to clients suffering from misery. When you are feeling down, the majority of temptations you experience will lead you even lower.

It is as though our emotions mutiny and jump ship, switching their allegiance to our worst enemy: despair. By following the siren song of their exhortations (“Call in sick and close the curtains, you’ll feel better”), we will only erode our mood further.

Instead, when our mood darkens we need to treat our instincts with suspicion. Usually, we will experience relief only when we learn to act against our temptations, often engaging in what psychologist Marsha Linehan (developer of dialectical behaviour therapy) calls Opposite Action. We feel tempted to withdraw, and so we approach instead. We feel exhausted, but we use this as our cue to get more exercise. Itching to defend ourselves by attacking others, we instead cultivate compassion. Agitated and antsy, we take ten minutes to sit quietly and meditate.

We notice the impulse, know that it leads downward, and turn right rather than left. - Randy, J Patterson. “How to be miserable: 40 strategies you already use”

This seems really true.