How to take control of your mental health: a hot topic in pandemic times

Image: zeljkosantrac/Getty Images

Anxiety, stress, depression, and unhappiness are direct consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been going on worldwide for more than a year. While health professionals continue to sound the alarm about this public health problem, consumers seem keen to take their personal wellbeing in hand and find ways to be kind to themselves in uncertain times.

Self-love and self-acceptance — two notions gaining traction in the media — seem to be of particular concern to the world’s population right now. According to data published by Pinterest, searches on the network for the questions “how can I love myself?” and “how can I heal myself?” have increased six- and four-fold, respectively, in recent months. It seems that people have decided to take control of their mental health, tackling these issues head-on to keep themselves afloat during the crisis.

Amid the various lockdowns, curfews, and periods of restricted movement, people are searching for ways to learn how to love themselves and to take care of their emotional wellbeing. This has been seen in an uptick of searches for positive ideas and inspiration for boosting mental health. Pinterest has seen strong growth in searches for “mental health painting,” which have doubled compared to last year, as well as searches for “mental health journaling,” which have increased tenfold.

Autosuggestion also seems to be riding high, with users of the social media site indirectly showing interest in this technique for guiding thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In fact, inspirational quotes are particularly popular, with searches for “self-love quotes” up seven times, and searches for “self-acceptance quotes” up 80% last year.

“People have always come to Pinterest to discover different ways to practice mindfulness or meditation and to find mental wellness inspiration. Since last year, searches for ‘mental health check in’ (12x), ‘healthy mindset quotes’ (5x), and ‘accepting yourself’ (+40%) all continue to rise. It seems people are finding stability within themselves more as the outside world becomes less predictable,” explains Pinterest Insights Manager Swasti Sarna.

Back in September, the social network highlighted how users were looking for ways to take control of their emotional wellbeing and happiness. Yoga, feng shui, occupational therapy for kids, ASMR, food, and mindful eating were just some of the popular search topics. NVG

RELATED STORIES:

What in the world is ‘green care’?

Go outdoors to help beat lockdown blues, says study