McLean County

 A message from Dr. Weikle: 

Most of us are feeling more stress and anxiety this year as a result of COVID  and how it has impacted our personal and professional lives. We’ve all heard that we need to take care of ourselves and sometimes it feels like we can’t because we have too many things on our plate.  I encourage you to truly take steps to care for yourself.  Below are a few simple practices that can have multiple benefits:

• Drink more water-improves your energy level, brain function and can reduce stress.
• Practice mindfulness.  There are a number of free apps that can help us find some peace through the practice of mindfulness.  I’ve used Calm, Headspace and recently discovered My Fitness Pal has a free mindfulness section.
• Exercise-even 5 minutes of exercise can boost your energy and mood.
• Write down 3 things you are grateful for everyday.  Sometimes we think that we have to identify big items that we are grateful for and that is fine, but it can be the smallest of items such as that your family was able to sit down for a meal at the same time.