Reduce Your Covid Anxiety With These Techniques

Strangely enough, ignoring the likelihood of global disaster is built into the human psyche as a means of ensuring one's own survival. During times of high work pressure, I frequently daydream of taking a month or two off by myself, so that I may reconnect with my creative side, spend more time with my extended family, and rediscover the lost art of solitude. However, worry and stress take up much of our time, and although there are many factors outside our control during this unusual time, the following strategies are within our sphere of influence and may help make the Coronavirus quarantine period somewhat more bearable.

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Think of what you're going through now as an opportunity to grow and change, to protect everyone around you and not just yourself. The practice of gratitude is easy to implement and may be quite helpful in alleviating anxiety. Make it fun by making an effort to look on the bright side of situations (no matter how scary or bad). Evidence suggests that people's moods are instantly lifted when they reframe bad situations as opportunities. Putting one's own conflicts within the context of society as a whole might help lessen their perceived threat.

Estimate

Anchoring is a tool for managing Covid anxiety and avoiding panic attacks. It is crucial to use facts and evidence to ground oneself and control one's fear at a time of societal panic. This strategy has solid scientific backing. Using numbers and hard evidence may help engage the parasympathetic nervous system and quiet the emotional brain areas that might hijack your thoughts.

Allocate

Make a schedule for the day so that your schedule is both balanced and predictable. The goal of this strategy is not to increase productivity. On the other side, establishing routines may help calm the mind and reduce tension, worry, and sleeplessness. When stuck indoors due to a national tragedy like the coronavirus, it's important to feel that you have some control over your life.

Meditate

Mindfulness activities, in particular beginner meditation exercises, may significantly reduce emotional distress. Over 19,000 studies on meditation have been reviewed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, and they have concluded that it is beneficial for reducing psychological stress, anxiety, depression, and pain. As part of a regular routine, even five to ten minutes a day spent using an app like headspace might have profound effects. Another stress-relieving technique with solid scientific backing is guided imagery, which has been shown to improve health in a variety of ways (such as decreasing blood pressure, stress hormone (cortisol) levels, and pain levels). Guided imagery is a method of improving one's mood by conjuring up positive images in one's mind that engage several senses (taste, music, smell, and sensation). One way of looking at this is as "finding your happy zone."

Cultivate

Make the most of this lull in the action by investing in new relationships, gaining useful knowledge and abilities, renewing old interests and starting positive habits. This time alone might be used to do long-postponed tasks, since our hectic culture makes it difficult to concentrate on anything except work at other times. The books on your nightstand are there for a reason; read them. Learn to play an instrument. Make time for exercise by making a plan. Play a board game together as a family. Now is the time to take things slowly, to set personal goals, to create new habits, and to acquire new skills that will serve you well for the rest of your life.

 

Make an appointment with a mental health professional who specializes in treating anxiety disorders if you or a loved one is experiencing severe anxiety symptoms such as insomnia, loss of appetite, constant worrying, ruminating about the future, feelings of panic, shortness of breath, and/or physical symptoms such as stomach pain, headache, or fatigue.