Ankita Konwar drops inspiring insight on being ‘still up and running’ amid Covid

As we wrap up another Covid year, Ankita Konwar's motivating advice on anxiety, travel and ‘how she’s still up and running’ amid the coronavirus pandemic is exactly the fitness boost we need to take us through the rest of 2021

Truly deserving of the title ‘ultra runner’, fitness enthusiast and Milind Soman's wife, Ankita Konwar has been an inspiration for many as she regularly encouraged netizens towards a healthier lifestyle amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Whether it was her relatable anecdotes on anxiety and mental health or glimpses of her workout sessions, Ankita pumped us with fitness inspiration to jump out of bed and hit the grind whenever workout procrastinations towered over us.

As we wrap up another Covid year, Ankita's motivating advice on anxiety, travel and “how she’s still up and running” amid the coronavirus pandemic is exactly the fitness boost we need to take us through the rest of 2021. Taking to her social media handle, Ankita shared some excerpts from her latest interview where she revealed that she was in Japan for the last long run 2019, when the news of coronavirus broke in Jan 2020 and that she “had no clue that it was going to create a pandemic in the next 2 months ! (sic).”

Sharing a valuable tip for dealing with anxiety, Ankita asserted, “When the lockdown was first announced, I was on my way back from Alibag to Mumbai and I remember that I couldn’t breathe. Anxiety 101 - never read the news right before you start any travel if you have anxiety (sic).”

She revealed that the “breathlessness” was triggered by the thought of not being able to visit her family in case of an emergency since her family stays in Assam and her father was "a Chronic Kidney Disease patient with frequent hospitalisations.” This took her a while to adjust.

Turning away from gloomy news and finding solace in workouts, Ankita added, “Travel has been a huge part of my adult life, so staying home in the pandemic taught me a whole different aspect to life. Learnt a lot more about my husband, and my Mother in law. Exercised the body and mind each day with any way possible. Climbed some insane amount of stairs, talked to friends and family more often via video calls. Stayed away from the news as much as possible (sic).”

It was during this time that Ankita's father passed away in February 2021, though not to Covid, followed by Milind testing coronavirus positive in March along with her mother in April. Spilling the beans on how she swam out of these challenges, Ankita elaborated, “This year turned out to be one of the most challenging years of my life. Seeing the suffering of the world also took a toll on my mental health at times. But running and meditation helped immensely. I swore off alcohol and also cut down my caffeine intake to almost zero. Everyone has a different struggle and the only thing to take away from all this suffering is to be kind to everyone. Always remember, hurt people hurt people and healed people heal people. Gratitude is the key (sic).”

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being and affects how we think, feel and act. Yet, there is a lot of stigma or societal disapproval attached to it where the society shames people who live with a mental illness or seek help for emotional distress such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder or PTSD.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on people’s mental health especially on the health and other frontline workers, students, people living alone and those with pre-existing mental health conditions. According to the World Health Organization, there is a cause for optimism as the World Health Assembly in May 2021 witnessed governments from around the world recognising the need to scale up quality mental health services at all levels and some countries even found new ways of providing mental health care to their populations.

As per the WHO, fear, worry, and stress are normal responses to perceived or real threats, and at times when we are faced with uncertainty or the unknown. So it is normal and understandable that people are experiencing fear in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Faced with new realities of working from home, temporary unemployment, home-schooling of children and lack of physical contact with other family members, friends and colleagues, it is important that we look after our mental, as well as our physical health.

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