Mindfulness can help you stay fit during Covid-19

The argument

In order to stay fit during Covid-19, it is important to stay mentally healthy, because the two are not separate projects. As a result of the pandemic, people have experienced anxiety and stress, and this can have a negative impact on a person's mental health while also physically impacting their health by causing high blood pressure, headaches, and insomnia. Those are not metaphors for distress; they are bodily conditions with bodily consequences, and insomnia in particular undermines the recovery on which every other kind of fitness depends. This means that mental health is central to staying fit rather than adjacent to it. Mindfulness is a practice that allows people to take control of their mental health, and therefore their physical health, by working on the mechanism that connects the two. Where ordinary forms of exercise are disrupted by the conditions of the pandemic, a practice that requires no equipment and no space is one of the few kinds of training that cannot be interrupted. Mindfulness can give people peace of mind during the pandemic. Practising it is shown to reduce anxiety and stress, and to improve memory, focus, and emotional control. Its particular value under these conditions lies in what it does with uncertainty. There is a great deal of uncertainty due to the coronavirus, and much of the strain people feel comes not from present circumstances but from rehearsing futures they cannot predict or influence; practising mindfulness can help a person anchor themselves to the present, where the problems are at least real and finite. People can practise mindfulness through meditation, observing their breathing, and focusing on their physical senses — methods that are free, immediate, and available to anyone regardless of their living situation. Although practising mindfulness will not fix every problem a person encounters, it can put them in a healthy mindset to confront their situation. That is the honest claim being made for it: not a cure for the pandemic's conditions, but the composure to meet them. Therefore mindfulness helps a person cope with their situation during Covid-19, and mental exercise is the best way to stay fit.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Mindfulness does not provide enough substantial benefits to be considered an essential practice for health during Covid-19. There are other activities that provide individuals with both physical and mental health benefits such as exercising and adequate sleep.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] The counter disputes the size of the effect rather than its existence, holding that the benefits are not substantial enough to make the practice essential to health during the pandemic. [Rejecting C] Even granting the benefits, the conclusion overreaches: the counter points to activities such as physical exercise and adequate sleep that deliver mental and physical benefits together, so mindfulness is not established as the best route to staying fit.