Protecting your mind amid crisis

Exhale, emptying your lungs of air. Now imagine drawing a box with your finger in the air. Inhale to a count of four while drawing the left side of the box from bottom to top, allowing your lungs to fill up with air. Hold that breath to keep the air in your lungs for another 4 seconds while you draw the top of the box with your finger from left to right. As you draw the right side of the box, exhale, emptying your lungs, while counting to four. Now hold your breath to keep your lungs empty for another 4 seconds as you complete the bottom of the box, closing it with your finger from right to left.

Box breathing is just one of eight quick and easy interventions designed specifically out of concern for the mental health of frontline workers during the current pandemic and made freely accessible on the new NHS in Mind platform. Box breathing relieves stress, but can also heighten performance and concentration. These mental exercises on NHS in Mind are meant to help switch off the fight-or-flight response of our bodies when we experience fear, anxiety and stress—feelings that are likely in excess for frontline workers coping with COVID-19. The creators of the NHS in Mind platform highlight that the ‘threat’ state of ‘fight or flight’ narrows our attention and sends more blood to our mucles, preparing us to either fight or ‘take flight’/run away—but also, turns off ‘non-essential’ functions as our instincts take over, one of these functions being the ‘thinking brain’. Being able to think rationally on the job is of course integral to providing competent care, as well as to remaining safe, for example, in terms of following correct procedures regarding personal protective equipment.