It’s surreal and it’s terrifying. So how do we face the feelings that arise during a pandemic?
Know you’re not alone.
If you have a generalised anxiety disorder you might often feel like you’re alone when anxiety rears its head in your daily life. But whether you’re already no stranger to anxiety, or if you’re experiencing it for the first time in response to the coronavirus outbreak, you’re not alone. This is an unprecedented situation, and your feelings of anxiety are real and justified.
Allow yourself distance from the media.
Due to the worldwide nature of the outbreak, it seems like there are news updates every few minutes. And it’s tempting to keep checking constantly to keep updated. But if you’re finding yourself doing this, it could be a good idea to step back and put some rules in place:
Limit yourself to checking the news once or twice a day. Set your notifications to send you alerts directly if something big happens, but otherwise don’t let yourself fall into a cycle of constantly refreshing.
Be wary of any updates that could be false or speculative. Misinformation is spreading fast, especially through social media, so exercise caution when you see anyone posting something without a link to a reputable source.
Even if you’re social-distancing, maintain social activity.
Just because we’re all trying to stay home doesn’t mean we can’t still talk to our friends! Here are some ideas on how to be sociably unsocial:
Text or call people you haven’t chatted to in a while to find out what they’ve been up to recently. Ask how they’re feeling.
FaceTime or Skype with someone for a video-based coffee or dinner date.
Co-ordinate a movie-watching evening where you all watch the same thing from your homes, and have a group text session afterward to talk about it.
Make your own book club, where you all read a chapter a day.
Pretend to be penpals. This one seems a bit silly when it’s so easy to text or send an email, but there is some old-world charm to sitting down with a pen and paper. You might find you enjoy an old-fashioned approach to staying in touch (even if you do have to send a photo of your letter via text, but we’ll just pretend to ignore that bit).
Actually do some social stuff on your social media. Engage with your Facebook friends. Ask them a question, get a conversation going.
Set aside time for mindfulness meditation.
Whether you already have a regular mindfulness practice or you’re new to it, mindfulness can be a great way to notice what’s going on in your mind, or to help calm down the train of thought a little. In this post I described three different ways to approach meditation, including a seated meditation, mindful observation, and a visualisation technique.
For a very simple mindfulness meditation, just sit few a few moments (setting a timer can be helpful, I recommend starting with 3 minutes) and notice your breath coming in and out. Your mind will probably wander, and that’s totally normal. Just gently bring your awareness back to your breathing any time your mind wanders.
Exercise.
During this time of self-isolation it might seem difficult to keep to a regular exercise schedule, but there are still ways you can keep active. And especially considering that anxiety can reduce your motivation to exercise, there’s all the more reason to try to maintain activity. If you’re not a regular exerciser but you feel the anxiety building up, even a single exercise session could help calm you down.
So what are some ways to be active while self-isolating?
Over on the Plenteous Yoga YouTube channel, I have some gentle yoga practices that you could follow along with.
Explore YouTube for a type of cardiovascular exercise that appeals to you. There are millions of videos out there, try something new!
Put on a song and dance. It might sound a bit silly, but even just dancing around for a couple of minutes to your favourite song could help lift your mood as well as being good for your physical health.
Get outside. Unless you live in a place with a hard curfew, most cities are still permitting citizens to be outside as long as it’s not a crowded area. So providing you could maintain a safe distance to others, you could go for a walk or a run, or drive to a local hiking spot and enjoy some nature time.
Focus on what you can do.
So much is happening outside of our control that it’s not hard to be overwhelmed by it all. But in these times when something huge is happening, it’s important to remember what small things we can do to help:
Following the safety guidelines and practicing social distancing. It seems like such a simple thing, but this Washington Post article describes very effectively how maintaining distance from others can ‘flatten the curve’ to diminish the spread of the virus, to help protect others and reduce the impact on healthcare services.
Donate to those less fortunate. During these city-wide lockdowns, lots of people will be without jobs and money. Donate to your local food bank to help people who might be suffering in your town or neighbourhood.
Buy gift-cards for local businesses that have had to close during this time.
Donate to your local animal shelter or see if they need any emergency foster homes for pets.
Stream or buy music from your favourite independent bands, or donate to their Patreon accounts to support them while shows are cancelled.
If you have elderly neighbours who might be especially hard hit by this virus, see if there’s a way to get in touch with them. It might be that you’ll have to hold up signs to each other through a window pane to avoid physical contact, but ask if they need any supplies or a cooked meal that you could leave on their doorstep.
Be compassionate. People are scared, and we’re in uncharted territory. Tempers are quick to rise, and people are quick to panic. Try and be logical, reasonable, and compassionate.
This is new for all of us, so we’re all figuring out what to do and how best to cope with the emotions that go along with a worldwide event of this nature. But whatever happens, may we do our best to proceed with kindness and gratitude, with humility, fortitude and respect for all living beings.
Sending love to you in this time.