Not only has the coronavirus pandemic shut down schools, grounded planes, upended life as we know it, and wreaked havoc on the economy, but it also has been unleashing a sinister attack on people’s mental wellbeing, exacerbating feelings of anxiety.
Anxiety manifests itself in many ways. You can feel it in your racing heartbeat, or your fitful sleep. It is that feeling of dread sitting in the pit of your stomach like a boulder or the slithering rope of unease slowly tightening around your neck that makes you feel like you can’t breathe, which scares you into thinking you’re showing a symptom of the virus when in reality, it’s just an emotional reaction.
When it comes to COVID-19-related anxiety, the problem is twofold; on one hand, the inherent uncertainty of this pandemic fans the flames of anxiety, making some people more prone to panic attacks. On the other hand, you can’t even access your usual forms of coping mechanisms such as social outings and gym workouts due to social distancing. As a person who’s had issues with anxiety my whole life, I thought I would write about this topic in hopes it would help someone.
So where do you start?
Acknowledge your feelings without judgment
It’s very easy to struggle against your feelings of anxiety. You might try to eat them away, one tub of ice cream at a time, or spend more time than usual vegetating in front of Netflix. You might try to deny them, saying that you shouldn’t be feeling this way when there are people in worse situations. But as psychologist Carl Jung writes, “What you resist not only persists, but will grow in size.’’
Recognizing and naming your emotions puts you in control so rather than denying them, give yourself permission to sit with them. Acknowledge them by asking yourself;
- What am I feeling?
- Where am I feeling it?
- Why am I feeling this way?
Journal Your Concerns
Get your worries out of your head and untangle them on paper. Or on video. It doesn’t matter what medium you choose to do this, but the idea is not to have their murky existence cloud your mind. Following up on the previous exercise, you might want to note down answers to the following questions and get as granular as you possible can:
- What am I most worried about?
- What’s the worse case scenario?
- How can I prepare for the worse case scenario?
Prepare
Anxiety exists for a reason. Alongside fear, it forms your built-in warning system that alerts you when you expect or anticipate something unpleasant. Its job is to help you prepare.
So prepare….
This could mean storing a few weeks’ supply of food and medication.
It could mean putting together a self-isolation area at home in case someone in the family gets infected.
And it could also mean putting in place wills and end-of-life directives.
Most importantly, focus on what you can control. If you really think about it, you can’t control whether you get the coronavirus or not, and if you do, you can’t control whether you’re going to show symptoms or not, and if you do, you can’t control whether your immune system fights it or not.
What you can control is adhering to all the health guidelines for prevention including social distancing, maintaining good hygiene, wearing a mask, eating healthy and exercising to build your immune system, and reaching out for medical help if you start showing symptoms.
Go on a social media detox
It has become very hard nowadays to self-isolate from the barrage of news on COVID-19. So even if you are to get your information, consciously seek it from verified sources rather than social media, because the latter acts as a breeding ground of misinformation and fake news. Personally, I used to be a twitter fan pre-covid, but nowadays, I only log on to check the news from the Ministry of Health’s account.
Be Mindful
Put your hand on your chest and feel your heart beat. Take a deep breath, hold it in and slowly let it go.
You are here, now.
Mindfulness is the experience of being aware of what you are doing while you are doing it. Instead of toggling between worries about the future and thoughts about the past, focus on the present.
While there are many practices to cultivate mindfulness that you can incorporate in your life, the simplest micro-practice I recently learnt is this:
– Take a deep breath…hold it and focus on the structure of your breath…then let it out.
– Take a second deep breath…hold it and then let it out, relaxing your body.
– Take a third deep breath…hold it and ask yourself, “What is important now?” Then let it out.
Another one I particularly like when anxiety starts to get out of control is the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown where you ground yourself by noticing things around you:
– 5 things you can see
– 4 things you can physically feel
– 3 things you can hear
– 2 things you can smell
– 1 thing you can taste
Alternatively, you can be mindful while washing your hands, cooking, having conversations with people…the main thing to remember is to just be present.
Connect With People Digitally
Just because you’re practicing social distancing doesn’t mean you can’t connect with people digitally. You could have simple conversations or have more elaborate hangouts like virtually watching movies together (Netflix Party), working out together or attending virtual house parties. If you think about it, now is actually the perfect time to revive old relationships, because for the first time ever, we have something in common to talk about.
Hang On To that Shaft of Sunlight
You know how sometimes the sky will be overcast, and suddenly, there will be this single shaft of sunlight that breaks through the clouds?
I know it’s hard to see it right now, but there are some positive things that are emerging from this situation; families are spending more time together, remote working is here to stay, people are releasing their creativity on various channels, air pollution is dropping, and we keep on hearing stories of kindness and humanity being shared, like when the company Vitafoam in Kenya gave their employees care packages with basic food items, or when landlords decided to waive rent.
To help you stay positive in this situation, keep a gratitude journal. Daily write down five things for which you feel grateful, and be as specific as possible. The goal of this particular exercise is to remember a good event, experience, person, or thing in your life—then enjoy the good emotions that come with it.
Find Hope
Yes, the toll of this pandemic on humanity is too big to imagine (and is still rising), but never underestimate the resilience of the human species. Visualize life post-covid in great detail. Close your eyes and try to imagine, how does the air feel like? What does the first restaurant meal after this taste like? How does the coffee shop smell like?
Once you complete that image, hang on to it.
Another idea is to write a letter to your future self. Log onto futureme.org and write a letter about how things are, and how you wish the world will look like when your future self receives your email.
Emirates did a brilliant ad filled with hope that you can see here.
Wrap Yourself in the Shawl of Self-Compassion
Of course, I’m going to be the first person to say that you can know all the above on an intellectual level and still have problems emotionally.
So don’t beat yourself up.
Practice some self-compassion.
You’re not able to utilize this time to upskill using online courses.
It’s okay.
You’re not able to keep up a daily home workout routine.
It’s okay.
You haven’t figured out how to have Zoom meetings without your children interrupting.
It’s okay.
Don’t be hard on yourself.
Make yourself some hot chocolate, and treat yourself with kindness, the way you would treat a friend.
The coronavirus has come to remind us that regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, we are all vulnerable, and we are all in this together. So connect with yourself, and connect with others.
And remember…this too shall pass.