Undeniably, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has affected many people’s mental health. In fact, officials have reported more cases of anxiety and depression during the crisis.
Recently, Demi Lovato has reflected on the ways in which this pandemic has actually improved her overall mental health.
In a new essay for Vogue, the 28-year-old singer revealed that her anxiety “skyrocketed” at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She wrote, “I was suddenly confronted with all these questions: ‘When are we going to go back to work?’ ‘Are more people going to have to die?’ ‘How bad is this going to get?’ Everything was so suddenly out of my control and not just for me individually, but for us as a global community.”
However, she explained that she asked herself a few important questions about her mental health while quarantining for COVID-19.
“I started to ask myself questions: ‘What’s important to me?’ ‘What’s going to get me through this?’ ‘How can I remain positive?’” Lovato wrote. “I knew that I wanted to learn something from this time that could actually better my life, my mental health, and my emotional wellbeing in the long term.”
The Heart Attack singer said she started embracing mental health practices such as yoga, meditation, journaling, painting, and spending time in nature. She credited her fiancé, Max Ehrich, for helping her stick with these practices.
She said she had trouble sleeping due to anxiety but she is now able to sleep with those practices. She wrote, “Now I light my candles, put on an affirmation meditation tape, I stretch, and I have essential oils. Finally, I’m able to fall asleep easily.”
Lovato continued, “There has never been a more crucial time to spread awareness about issues that matter,” including mental health as well as the Black Lives Matter movement. She added, “Having so much downtime during quarantine has given me the space to realize there’s so much more I could be doing to help other people.”
The Confident singer said she did not attend Black Lives Matter protests due to asthma and other health issues that could put her at risk of COVID-19, but she has been using her platform to raise awareness.
In her Vogue essay, she said that focusing on her mental health allowed her to have a better perspective on how to be a supportive ally to the Black community.
Lovato wrote, “After taking some time to educate myself, what I’ve learned is that to be a good ally, you need to be willing to protect people at all costs. You have to step in if you see something happening that’s not right: a racist act, a racist comment, a racist joke.”
She said she now wants to put her energy back into her music and advocacy work. The Camp Rock actress wrote, “Moving forward, I want to put my energy into my music and my advocacy work. I want to continue to strive to be a better person. I want to inspire people in many different ways to do the same. Above all, I want to leave the world a better place than when I got here.”
