Advice and tips for living in a flatshare during lockdown

It’s important for you to look after your mental health, be aware of other people’s mental health and, ulatimately, live in a safe, nice environment that feels like your home. We spoke to two wellbeing experts for their advice on how to ensure all this during the autumn and winter lockdowns.

Cate Murden, founder of wellbeing and performance company PUSH, tells Stylist:

“It’s more important than ever to communicate. People brain’s are reaching saturation point so tolerance may well be lower. So, clarity and empathy are crucial.

“Humans do something called ‘Confirmation Bias’ where we search for, interpret, view and recall information in a way that confirms or supports whatever were thinking. As you can imagine, this means that we can end up having thoughts that aren’t actually true or indeed beneficial to us (and particularly our relationships). So, a really good tip if you’re coming up against some challenging points or unhelpful thinking in your relationships with your flatmates is to ask yourself the following questions:

“1. Is it true? Do I have any evidence for this thought?

“2. Where would I be without this thought? Does it benefit me or limit me?

“3. What could I think instead? What if I actually thought the opposite?

“Now is the time to get really creative in your relationships. Why not set yourselves a collective house goal to do together? Maybe something to do with your fitness or health which will elevate your mood and help your sense of accomplishment.

“Or maybe do things together that you never get the chance to do: cooking, a book club or journalling. Bring different experiences and passions into your relationship so you have new things to talk and share and try and create a positive experience, albeit a unique and testing time.

Lockdown 2: how to cope if you are living with flatmates this winter