Keep in touch with people at work/school/college

• When studying from home, try to keep in touch with your classmates and lecturers. They are only an email, a phone call or a text away, and you can share how you are doing, and gain motivation or a sense of normality from their feedback and advice.

Free confidential chats with counsellors

• You can have online 1-2-1 chats with counsellors on Kooth (for under 26), The Mix (for under 25), and Childline (for under 19).

Phoning helplines

• Remember that you can also call Childline (24/7, on 0800 11 11), The Mix (between 4 and 11 pm, on 0800 808 4994), Samaritans (24/7, on 116 123) or other helplines.

Self help

• Take a look at the Anna Freud centre's self-care library with ideas of attitudes and thinking techniques to try out.

• You can look at self-help resources and videos on topics such as re-framing unhelpful thoughts, managing anxiety, low mood.

Your support network

• Try to talk to people around you about how you are feeling.

3. Take care of your physical health

Being active when staying at home can be more of a challenge, but it helps maintain both your physical and mental health.

You can read more on the benefits of exercise for your wellbeing here.

Here are a few things you can try:

• The Body Coach home workouts (usually 20-30 minutes workouts)

• 10 minute NHS workouts

• More suggestions from Sport England's Stay In Work Out Page

• Mind's "Get active" suggestions and challenges.

5. Build a routine

It is likely that your normal routine might change. It can easily feel like there is no more structure when this happens. Try to build a new routine for yourself. You could:

• Plan out your day or your week

• Try to stick to a similar wake-up and bed-time, and get ready as you usually would.

• Plan when you will have breaks, and the activities you will include in your day (i.e. cleaning, cooking, walking, exercising, speaking to friends and family on skype/facetime/zoom, reading, writing, listening to podcasts, etc - more suggestions here)

• Use apps to help you remember the routine you've planned. This could be a simple planner, a to do list, or apps that track how much you are managing to stick to a routine such as Streaks, Loop Habit Tracker, or Habitica (for a more game-like app).

Try out new activities.

For ideas of activities to try out, you can check out:

• Scouts' ideas for indoor activities

• Self care hobbies and activities.

Keep learning

• Check out OpenLearn for free courses

• Explore Chatter box for a very, very extensive list of things to do when isolating at home.

Do things you enjoy.

• Try to continue doing your favourite hobby if you can do it at home.

• Notice the activities you are not doing anymore. Replace your activities in a creative way. You could have a go at these "random acts of kindness".

• Visit The Mix for more ideas on self-care.