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Wellbeing expert who's no stranger to adversity shares online tips on how to stay resilient amid lockdown

April 6, 2020

Lucy Hone, who lost her daughter in a car crash, is creating free resources to help us cope during the lockdown.

A wellbeing expert who's no stranger to adversity is sharing tips online on how to stay resilient during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

The New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience (NZIWR), which is dedicated to improving the wellbeing of communities and organisations across the country, is giving people advice on how to cope inside their bubbles, including lowering their expectations of others and recognising stress.

They also advised people not to minimise the gravity of the coronavirus pandemic.

"We're all struggling right now. It's totally exhausting - that's one of the things I think people don't realise, that it's OK to feel tired," NZIWR co-director Dr Lucy Hone said.

Ms Hone has worked in the field for a decade. Her own resilience was put to the test five years ago when her 12-year-old daughter was killed in a car crash.

“So I've just had this peculiar kind of academic insight, professional applying strategies to help others, and then having the absolute full whack of parental bereavement which is known to be the hardest of all losses,” she said.

She says many of the coping strategies apply to the current crisis.

“This pandemic is going to change the world, but then you've got to put yourself onto a survivor mission to say, ‘Whatever it takes, I'm going to get through this.’”

The NZIWR have also come up with a checklist with tips, including choosing where we focus our attention, talking to people who make us feel good and allowing ourselves one minute to worry and then moving on.

“Ruminating, wallowing, absolutely doing the full ‘oh my God, this is all too much’ for a minute is absolutely human and normal.”

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