#10 Coping with anxiety
If ever there was a test for our well-being, it’s dealing with the impact of a global virus! We are all living with uncertainty and increased anxiety in almost every area of our lives:
HEALTH - the obvious one, we all need to do our bit to minimise the spread of the virus to protect the elderly and vulnerable. Although for most of us, being diagnosed with the virus is not terminal, we need to take health advice very seriously which means changing our habits.
Positive thinking = doesn’t it FEEL better to be doing the right thing rather than just thinking about ourselves? Take the opportunity to pick up the phone more, you may not be able to see all of your family members, friends or colleagues in person but you can still talk to them and check in on them. Show that you care and think about others who may be more anxious than you. Focus on your own general health - eat healthy food, find ways to exercise and don’t become a couch potato just because you are stuck in
WORK - how will this affect our ability to work and sustain income? Whether we are business owners, employees or self-employed we all need to protect our livelihood, our employees and to reflect our customers’ change in circumstances.
Positive thinking = how exciting to have a need to get creative! What can you do to adapt the work that you do in response to these different circumstances? I love to hear the stories of restaurants that are now delivering meal ingredients or services that are shifting online. We may even discover new ways of working that stick beyond the virus because they are great ideas so let’s get our brains focusing on ideas instead of worrying
RELATIONSHIPS - being forced to isolate ourselves with the people we live with is not always a good thing! We may start to act like caged tigers and be more reactive or tetchy than usual.
Positive thinking - how lovely to have a chance to spend more quality time with our loved ones. Even if you live in the same house with people, you can become like ships in the night. So with this increased time together, think about how you can do things together. Not binge-watching Netflix (although tempting) but playing games, doing the house-clearing jobs, spending more time cooking or learning something new. Try to be understanding how others are feeling and talk to each other
SOCIALISING - all of the social events that we had planned and looked forward to are being cancelled including holidays, gigs, sporting events, weddings and even groups of friends and family getting together. This is not only extremely disappointing but it means we have much more free time on our hands.
Positive thinking - many of us struggle to fit everything in that we want to do in our busy lives so now that we can’t socialise (and are no longer travelling for work), how wonderful to have more free time! Take the time to start a new hobby, do online exercise classes, read books or do an online learning course - keep yourself busy doing things that make you feel good
What can we do to cope with anxiety?
It is absolutely normal that our anxiety levels are elevated (I know mine are). Here are a few tips and considerations that are making me feel a bit better::
Put this situation in perspective - we are all spoilt and take our lives for granted so actually, having some of our comfort taken away is good for us! We are so used to going where we want, buying what we want, seeing who we want so when it is taken away from us, think about the people who live without these comforts every single day
Focus on your breathing - taking deep breaths if you feel anxious. Although this sounds too simple, it really can help to calm us down. I recommend Nadi Shodhan which is a breathing technique we practice in yoga where you breathe through alternate nostrils
Listen to a podcast - this one Pandemic Panic is from my favourite mind coach - she says it like it is and is really helping me to manage my thoughts
Don’t watch the news 24/7 as quite frankly, it’s depressing and it won’t change anything. Instead make sure you listen to uplifting music, watch something funny or read a book
Talk to others about how you feel - when else would literally everyone be in the same challenging situation? We are all going through the same anxieties. A crisis often brings out the best and the worst in people so let’s support each other
Don’t let fear or anxiety take over your life - all we can do is follow advice but beyond that, we don’t know what the future holds. What we can do is be kind to ourselves and each other and try to focus on the positive
We WILL get through this but we need to stay calm…
