How rituals like yoga and deep breathing can keep us calm and grounded and lower stress

Amid the insecurity and unease brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, certain ‘life hacks’ can help us regain inner peace and stability

Daily rituals are one of the mental exercises we can use to trick ourselves into dealing with fear and worry better

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Daily rituals like yoga can help us to stay calm and keep Covid-19 stress at bay. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 7:15pm, 13 Oct 2020Updated: 3:35pm, 14 Jun 2024

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March this year, Bindiya Surtani experienced a bout of anxiety, accompanied by insomnia and heart palpitations.

Almost overnight, the boundaries between work and home blurred; the Singapore-based mother-of-two felt overwhelmed at having to attend to her children all day every day for weeks on end, and worried about how the pandemic might affect her family, including her elderly parents who live in Indonesia.

“Due to the flight restrictions, we couldn’t travel to see my parents and they couldn’t visit us in Singapore,” says Surtani, who is a an ayurvedic practitioner – a follower of Ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine. “On top of worrying about my family’s well-being, I just didn’t have time for myself any more. I felt like the walls were closing in on me. One afternoon I actually broke down in front of my husband and kids.”

To “get back to herself”, as she calls it, Surtani decided to dedicate an hour each day to yoga and meditation – two things she did regularly several years earlier when she was going through a stressful period.

Bindiya Surtani manages her anxiety by doing yoga. Photo: Courtesy Bindiya Surtani

“These activities require me to focus on the present, so I have no choice but to put aside any distractions and worries,” she explains.