10 Ways to Calm Anxiety While Still in a Pandemic
Let's get down to the point. You're stressed, anxious, and in panic. You're stuck at home, fixated on the news, and hyper-focused on your bank account. Germs are everywhere and so is fear. Here is a list of things created by a professional counselor that will help with the anxiety:
10 Ways to Combat Anxiety
Create structure. The opposite of chaos is organization. Right now, organize your world to combat the chaos. Decide what your morning will look like before you start it. If you leave it up to your brain to think of things when morning comes, you will get on your phone and become buried in stressful media and news. This is debilitating. Stick to a plan.
Do the things you wouldn’t do if anxious. When you feel anxious, it feels easy to bury yourself in social media or bedsheets, not getting up all day. However, muster the strength to do the things you would do if you felt fantastic. Bake cookies, start a craft, work on your budget. It will help trick your body into thinking that everything’s fine. Because the funny thing is, everything is fine. Your brain just hasn’t bought into that idea yet.
Worry time. Set aside a specific amount of time to worry in the day. You are feeling especially more anxious because of social media and the constant need for more information. If you are fixated on information, limit it to 15 minutes in the morning and 15 at night. You can freak out as much as you would like. You can cry, binge the internet, journal, whatever. This is your window to freak out. And then you're done. From that point in the day, you will not look at the news and harbor in worry. At this point, go back to the structure. Remind yourself that you can freak out later during your designated time in the evening.
Journal the things that are upsetting you. You know how you forget items on a grocery list if you don't write it down? And you'll be constantly trying to remember what the items were and repeat the list over and over? If you write the list down, you're set. Your brain lets it go because it knows its taken care of. Write your worries down so that your brain doesn't keep reminding you of it, afraid you'll forget.
Focus on the powerful. Create a mantra for the day so when you start to feel worried, you can repeat the mantra to yourself. Bible verses make for great mantras! Memorize your phrase and pray on it.
Focus on your breathing. Do a mindfulness or guided relaxation exercise. There is one at the bottom of the page. This is so, so important I can't even begin to explain. Deep relaxation breathing helps lower your heart rate, which tells your brain to stop sending fight or flight hormones into your brain, causing anxiety. This will calm you down. Breathe.
Exercise and diet. If you have been feeling particularly upset, cut down on the caffeine and sugar, it's making things worse. Go be active with anything that will get your heart rate up. That's key. Just taking a stroll is not as effective.
Distract yourself. If you focus on other things, it is difficult for your anxiety to feel as strong. Speaking to others is a great way to distract from anxiety. If you still feel distracted by worry, talk about it with a trusted friend. Naming your anxiety and worries out loud acts as an identification process in your brain, which will soothe the feeling.
Challenge it. Throw your efforts into challenging your negative thoughts with a guided sheet like this one. We are susceptible to catastrophic thinking, overgeneralization, and a ton of other mind tricks. Challenging those thoughts will ground us back to the cognitive present.
Be in the Word and remember who God is. If you already have a relationship with God, find all the verses that talk about God's faithfulness and promises. Pray that He will bring you His peace through the Holy Spirit.
