Fear and anxiety about COVID 19 can become overwhelming and cause strong emotions in adults and children. Coping with stress and anxiety will make you and the people you care about and your community stronger.
It’s true everyone handles anxiety differently and people respond by worrying about their loved one’s health or will turn to the use of alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs, and changes in sleep or eating patterns are common stress indicators. It’s important to acknowledge your anxiety so that you can get it under control so that it won’t stop you from enjoying your life. These 8 tips can help you manage your anxiety.
- Know What Makes You Anxious – If you have specific anxiety triggers that you know, make sure you track them. When you know that going to a speak on stages makes you anxious you can help mitigate that with some preparation in advance.
- Change Negative Thoughts to Positive Thoughts – When a negative thought, unrealistic thought pops into your head focus on a way to turn it positive. For example, if it’s raining think of the fact that your grass won’t have to be watered.
- Breathe Deeply While Focusing – When you do feel anxious instead of allowing the feeling to get worse, focus on breathing in and out deeply in a relaxed way. Focus only on your breath and not what is happening around you. This is also a great form of meditation.
- Ground Yourself in The Moment – If you are in public and suddenly feel a panic attack or even milder anxiety manifesting instead of ignoring it, try to ground yourself. Look at a familiar object while breathing or touch your partner or say hello to someone to take yourself out of the feeling and putting yourself back in the moment.
- Go for a Fast Walk – Anxiety is often perceived as extra energy by your body. Your heart is pounding, and you may even be shaking or “vibrating.” If that’s the case, try walking fast to burn off that energy.
- Meditate – Taking the time to meditate or if you prefer pray will also help you lessen your issues with anxiety at the moment. Just do it right before you do anything that might make you anxious.
- Journal Your Thoughts – Every day, write down your thoughts. Describe what made you anxious and how you came out if it if you did. This will help ingrain a habit in you to work toward overcoming it.
- Get Professional Help – For some people, their anxiety needs someone who has been trained to help. You may want to hire a counselor or a life coach. It depends on how bad the anxiety is.
There are a lot of ways to help you when you are feeling anxiety or stress. You can begin by picking one way you will handle the feeling when it arises and stick to it! It will only work if you are committed to working the action. I believe we all have stressful or anxious moments in our daily lives, but the difference is how you will handle that emotion. So, I encourage you to handle the emotion as soon as you recognize it.