Special Edition: Coping with Corona Virus
For many Americans, we are now one week into what is turning out to be the scariest and most surreal year of our lives, the year that the novel corona virus (COVID-19) is taking over the globe. With the potential for the death toll to be higher than any war or other disaster in the last century and the economy to be plunged into a recession the likes of which only our grandparents have experienced in the Great Depression, we have reason to be scared. We are being asked to socially distance, isolate, quarantine, and even shelter in place to protect ourselves and our communities. And while these measures are necessary from a public health standpoint to best combat the spread of the virus, they’re fairly devastating from a mental health standpoint. Human beings are not meant to be in isolation, unable to connect with our fellow beings. It becomes all the more necessary, then, to get creative with our coping and connecting.
How to Connect while Distancing
Thank goodness for the internet, am I right? Most of us are lucky enough to have the ability to reach out right at our finger tips, provided you can overcome your awkwardness and/or trepidation with talking on the phone (looking at you Gen Zs) or with video chatting. Applications such as FaceTime, Zoom, Google Hangout, Facebook Messenger and many others allow us to see our friends and loved ones while still maintaining a safe distance. Now is the time to reach out to relatives whom you normally only see at holidays and to call up college roommates or friends whose Instagram stories you watch but haven’t spoken to in ages. Moving regularly scheduled activities like book club, happy hour, and family dinner to the virtual realm gives us ways to be with our people from the comfort of our own couches, and keep us from feeling the mental toll that isolation can take. Maintaining these bonds allow us to feel community in our anxiety, normalize our fears, and hopefully provides a welcome distraction when conversation wanders off to the regular topics of life (although, what did we even talk about before coronavirus?!).
How to Move When Everything is Closed
Taking time to rest, lounge, sleep and wallow is allowed and encouraged right now. As previously stated, this is a scary and unprecedented time we’re living in. But eventually, your body is going to be ready to move. And when it is, there are plenty of options to do so that still allow you to be safe. My favorite idea is to go on a walk or run in your neighborhood or nearby park, track, or trail. Maybe you have a bike or rollerblades or a skateboard and want to take advantage of those wheels. However you do it, getting outside is helpful both physically and mentally. When we’re outside, we get vitamin D, fresh air, and sunshine, while also being reminded that, even though the world is going bonkers right now and your life might feel like it’s been turned outside down, the earth is in fact still standing. The flowers are still in bloom. The birds are still singing. The rain is still falling. Through all of this, life finds a way, and so will we.
There are plenty of ways to move your body while indoors as well. Many gyms are now doing online classes for their members, and there are a ton of free classes of many types of exercise already on YouTube. You can finally use that home gym that’s been sitting in your garage, or start a pushup challenge with yourself to see how many daily pushups you can work up to. However, you don’t need to compete with your friends or social media following for who can do the most or hardest workouts while stuck at home, or be the most disciplined. Move because and only when it feels good for your body to move. Move because it creates joy and endorphins and can distract you from anxiety. And then rest when you need to rest. Sometimes rest can be just as healing.
How to Actually Work when You’re Doing WFH
By now, most people whose jobs allow them to are being encouraged to stay home and work remotely as another form of social distancing. Working from home can feel like a big shift for people, not only because of the change in routine but also because of potentially needing to learn new technology, being isolated from coworkers who (even while sometimes being annoying) provide ways to socialize and have community, and needing to create a productive space in what might otherwise be a distracting environment. To help make the transition the smoothest, and again to fight off the mental strain that WFH isolation can create, here are some pro tips:
Maintain your same routine of waking up and going to sleep every day
Maintain a regular eating schedule, stopping work to cook and eat meals at regular intervals
Have a designated office space that is separate from your resting and playing spaces, so that your brain knows you mean business
Take a shower, change out of your pajamas, and groom yourself (hair and makeup, if applicable) the same as if you were going to the office, every day
Let yourself actually get lost in your work for a few hours. You may find it provides much needed distraction
How to Continue Self-Care When You’re Extra Anxious
Even if you’re usually adept at practicing self-care, you might find yourself struggling in the days and weeks to come, if you aren’t already experiencing new or additional anxiety while worried about yourself, loved ones, your job, the world, etc. It’s okay to be anxious. In fact it’s very normal to be anxious. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, although it’s becoming more and more clear that it’s going to be a long road to get there. 2020 will likely be one for the books, but not in a way that any of us could have imagined. The only way to move forward is to go through, as the old saying goes, with all the love and compassion we can muster along the way. So when you’re feeling anxious:
Do something that will calm your nervous system, like taking a hot bath or shower, practicing slow and deep breathing for several minutes, meditating, practicing a guided body relaxation exercise, or doing slow flow yoga or tai chi exercises
Distract yourself by working on a puzzle, gardening, reading a book, or watching TV and movies
Get back into your favorite hobby or pick up a new one. Cooking, baking, bread making, wood working, playing music, and learning a new language are but a few of the many options
Boost your feel-good neurotransmitters by making love and having orgasms (partnered or solo, any way will do)
Clean your house, wash the floors, do your laundry, make those baseboards sparkle
Do those projects you’ve been putting off, like clearing out the garage or your closet or your childhood memorabilia
Let your anxiety provide fuel to your creativity and your art be an outlet for your anxiety. Draw, color, paint, sculpt, craft, sing, dance, build
Limit your news and media content. Stick to reputable sources that will give you the facts without sensationalizing them and inciting more panic
As previously mentioned, get outside. Move your body. Talk to your friends. Call you family. Try to discuss other things aside from your anxieties, (unless talking through your anxieties is helpful, then by all means, talk them out)
Set up an appointment with a therapist (we’re available virtually now!)
There’s no way around it, this is going to be a difficult time. But we CAN get through it if we lean on each other and do our best to protect our communities.
