Orientation towards Environmental change and their relation with Mental Health during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 has impacted people all across the globe in numerous ways. Apart from being quarantined in homes and facing and dealing with different types of stressors ranging from minimal to severe ones, personal to professional ones. At the same time developing coping ability to combat stress and to let oneself experience a simplistic lifestyle once again which led to an improved environmental condition in a manner which was never paid its due attention before. Focus Group Discussion Method was used for collecting data with college going undergraduates. Results showed that individuals felt a drastic change during Quarantine in Corona times in different areas like pollution levels, noise levels, quality of water, air quality index to name a few. Secondly it was also found through narratives that participants have generated a new sense of belongingness to the environment and are very much concerned about the different environmental aspects. Lastly it has also been reported that as now the environment is not having much distractions they are better able to pay attention, better able to cope through stressors, experiencing a healthy and clean environment, admiring simplistic life, they are now aware and are determined to preserve our environment and not exploit it. Implications of the work is for environmentalists, policy makers in government and mental health professionals to understand the fact that even though people were confined in their homes were facing lot of mental health issues still how they managed to pay their attention and appreciate the positive side of the environment which experiencing its new birth