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Wow! What a week it’s been, right? Whatever your feelings are about the coronavirus, it’s hard to escape the collective feelings of anxiety about how all of this will play out. Couple that with social distancing and quarantine measures being implemented and it will be easy for our mental health to go south fast. The good news is there are steps you can take to prevent your symptoms from spiraling out of control. It’ll just take some intention and thought.
So, what can you do while you’re cooped up at home to not go off the deep end? I have a few ideas.
Be easy with yourself.
I said this to my clients all week and I think it’s worth repeating far and wide. IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW YOU’RE FEELING ABOUT COVID-19, YOUR FEELINGS ARE VALID. Dealing with all of this uncertainty is hard enough, we don’t need to add judging or shaming ourselves for our emotional reactions to the mix.
Instead, let’s work to be mindful of our feelings without judgment during this time. You can use the acronym RAIN to do this. Recognize the emotion, acknowledge it and let it be present with you, investigate what’s under your emotion with openness and curiosity, and try to not to identify with it. Here’s info on that technique here.
Remember, this too shall pass.
How easy it is, in the thick of all of this, to begin reacting like things will stay this way forever. If you find yourself becoming frustrated or despondent with being at home or feeling lonely, giving yourself some perspective can definitely help. I often like to remember that I won’t have to stay in the house forever and that one day all of this will be a memory that I can hopefully laugh at.
Keep up a schedule and routine.
If you’ve never worked at home, its hard to know how easy it is to lose all sense of your routine and how a lack of routine can negatively impact your mood. I suggest being super intentional with your schedule and making sure you’re including time for work, exercise, eating, grooming/hygiene, getting outside, and fun.
It’s important to not just sit around all day watching the news or scrolling social media. This is a sure recipe for developing symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Get outside.
To piggyback off what I just said, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of getting outside as much as you can. Go for a walk, sit outside on your porch, or open a window and let the breeze in if that’s all you can manage. The sunlight and fresh air will lift your mood and help you to feel less isolated.
Learn something new.
All this time at home is a great opportunity to learn something new. You can practice meditation, yoga, piano, or learn a new language. Learning something new will keep your mind occupied and help you feel productive so you don’t fall into despondency.
Do fun things at home.
The truth is we’re all probably going to be home a lot over the next few weeks and it’ll be easy to get cabin fever and feel stir crazy. Going outside and learning something new is an important part of managing that but so is doing fun stuff at home.
This can include starting a project (or finishing that one you’ve been putting off), cooking or baking, having a movie night, or a spa day at home. Anything you can think of that will be different than your normal routine and something that you’ll enjoy. This will go a long way to managing the inevitable frustration with being stuck at home.
Get support.
Please, please, please do not try to go through these next two weeks completely on your own. We all need support, human beings are just wired that way. This is a perfect time to refocus on the important relationships in your life and give them some time and attention. That could be having a movie night or checking in via Facetime or Skype.
A lot of therapists are beginning to offer telehealth and a lot of insurance companies are starting to cover online therapy to prevent the spread of COVID-19. If you don’t have a therapist, now is a great time to start that process. (If you don’t have insurance, you can find low cost therapists here.) There’s also online support groups available so you can hear what others are thinking and feeling too. I’m offering one Wednesday’s at 12pm until April 1st that you can join here.
Educate yourself
There’s a lot of anxiety and panic going on right now and if you only get your information from social media, it will be a lot easier to feed into those feelings and overreact. I suggest checking in with reputable news sources. For those of us in Michigan, you can find updates here. The CDC is another good place to get information and you can find updates from them here.
Take a break for the news and social media
Man, how easy is it to get stuck in an online wormhole reading the same scary posts and articles over and over again? I find myself doing it more and more since this pandemic started. I also find myself feeling more and more anxious as I scroll.
It’s important to be intentional with taking breaks from social media and the news so you can unplug. That’s part of why it’s important to make and keep to your schedule so you aren’t just spending all of your free time scrolling and triggering yourself.
Remember the serenity prayer. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can, just for today.”
We can’t control what’s going on, that’s all there is to it. We can, however, control how we react to it and what we do with this time. That is literally the only power we have. It’s important to remember this as we go forward.
My pro tip for overcoming adversity is to find the lesson in this. What could these events be teaching you? I think for me it’s to remember to slow down and be mindful, even when the current events aren’t pleasant. It’ll be helpful if you can identify your own learning opportunity and work on that too.
If despite your best efforts, you do enter a mental health crisis it’s important that you seek help and don’t try to go through it by yourself. You can text HOME to 741741 for text crisis services in the United States. You can also contact the the suicide prevention line at 1-800-273-8255. Lastly, if you think you need to go to your local emergency room, please call 911 first to make sure that procedures haven’t changed.
It’s never easy on our mental health when global events negatively impact our day-to-day life especially when that includes social isolation. But with a little effort and intention we can turn a potentially negative experience into one that is full of learning and growth for us. To help yourself cope with depression, please fill out our new client inquiry to get started.
I’d love to hear what you guys are doing to stay focused and sane during this time. Drop a comment below and let’s share ideas!