Dr Foliaki offered some advice to Pacific families who continue to navigate the strains of being in lockdown, especially those still in Alert Level 3 lockdown.

“If you asked people during lockdown whether they feel more energized because they’re at home resting, most people will describe feeling tired. That fatigue is actually a side effect of feeling anxious.”

As a means of alleviating feelings of stress and anxiety, Dr Foliaki advises families to normalize checking in on each other and for parents to ask their children how they are feeling.

“Being able to have conversations; checking in with how your children feel is a really great way to start the day. If you think about most Pacific Island families, having those check in conversations is not something we do naturally. I think it’s a really good thing to directly ask them.

Ask them what they are worried about and try to label the emotion. Emotional labelling is a really important thing that we should all get better at. It will tell you something really useful in that moment of time, that you might be able to do something about.”

Dr Foliaki provided further advice to young people as distance and online learning continue to be a challenge around getting motivated.

“Movement is very important. Physical exercise is a really important way of managing anxiety and nervousness. It calms your entire nervous system and it helps your brain focus.

Have a scheduled timetable with scheduled breaks and do some things that you enjoy in those breaks. Having a bit of fun is really important to being able to focus and stay motivated in the long term.”

As for parents, Dr Foliaki encourages healthy open communication.

“Use this time as an opportunity to re-communicate to one another things that are most important to you. If either partner is not conducting themselves in a way that contributes to the wellbeing of the other partner, ask each other what they could do about that.

Sit down and make a list of things, activities and some fun activities that you might be able to do together to strengthen the relationship during this really difficult time.”

See last week’s segment here.

The Ngalu Fānifo segment airs every Wednesday at 12:40pm on 531’s Pacific Days show with Ma’a Brian Sagala. You can listen in on the radio or livestream on the 531 Facebook page.