Managing Your Anxiety in Covid -19 Era
A pandemic is a fertile ground for those who suffer from anxiety—here’s a short guide on how to manage it.
1) Avoid the (Health-Related) News
We all want to keep up to date, but when you have health anxiety, the need to check and read the latest updates can become compulsive, feeding the anxiety. Try having a news detox, or allocating yourself a time limit for reading or watching the news. If you’re anxious about missing something crucial, you can always tell friends and family to contact you in the event of an emergency situation in order to keep you informed.
2) Try Not to Seek Constant Reassurance
Seeking reassurance can make you feel calmer for a little while, but in my experience, it is always temporary. Your brain creates a feedback cycle where you become increasingly reliant on reassurance, which only serves to reinforce the anxiety. It’s natural to want your loved ones to tell you things will be OK, but when you start needing that reassurance several times a day it’s time to take a step back.
3) Introduce an Absolute Ban on Googling Symptoms
Dr Google is not, and never will be, your friend, especially not when you are a sufferer of health anxiety. Nor will message-boards and forums. Try to remember that people visit these places when they have reason to be concerned. Once you start understanding it’s a skewed lens, you’ll be better able to put things in perspective
4) Try a Countering Technique
This is a CBT exercise which involves giving a persistent thought the courtroom treatment, by confronting it with a rational counter-statement. For example, if your persistent thought is something like “Everyone I love will die from this virus” you can counter it with factual statements such as “Actually, most people who get Covid-19 are likely to make a full recovery, and that’s assuming mum, dad and my little sister will even catch it at all.” As my mother always says: “Just because you think something, doesn’t make it true.”
5) Do Some Exercise
Even if it’s just star jumps in your bedroom, or shaking your body parts like you’re in the warm-up section of a hippie acting class, exercise will help get the adrenaline out of your system and channel the panic elsewhere.
6) Breathing and Grounding Exercises
From guided yogic breathing to using a strong smell (I favored lavender oil), grounding exercises can help bring you back to reality. I also found bending over to touch my toes and then very slowly standing up starting at the base of my spine to be beneficial, as it centers me. You can look for examples online, but sometimes, something as simple as sitting on the floor can help.
7) Allocate Yourself a Daily ‘Worry Period’
Give yourself half an hour to worry about this to your heart’s content, and then you have to go and do something else.
8) Treat Yourself
Anything that will give you a little boost can help. It doesn’t need to involve spending money: you can also cook yourself something nice, have a hot bath, or listen to a song you love.
9) Remember That Your Anxious State Isn’t Permanent
When you are in it, anxiety always feels as though it will never end, but it will. It’s hard to remember this, but do try. I genuinely thought that I would never recover, and now even though we are in a public health crisis, I feel calm and have things in perspective.
It’s a worrying time, and many of us, myself included, will have loved ones who might be showing symptoms, but the tendency to jump to the worst-case scenario very rarely reflects reality. Be kind to yourself. It may be a bit cheesy, but this too shall pass.
Health and Fitness for Busy People
Don’t expect anyone else to be bothered about your entire well being. Times are hard, and everyone is busy chasing the next coin.
Truth is, the busier we become, the shorter our days seem. In our daily hustles, we fall deeper into neglecting the important things, like our general health and fitness. It begins slowly; neglecting diets, skipping or postponing exercise routines and sacrificing ‘beauty sleep’ to finish a work project. It becomes harder to notice when you are earning a lot of money.
All that massages your ego but your body will never forgive you for it. One day you will look at yourself in the mirror, and a tired, depressed, overweight and overworked person will stare blankly back at you, and you won’t forgive yourself.
You might be busy and thinking of ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but you really don’t know where to begin. Here are a few easy tips to begin with;
Drink water
Drinking water when you first wake up is a great way to kick start your metabolism. You can carry a bottle to work, school or wherever it is you are headed for the day and stay sipping. It is highly recommended to keep the body hydrated so as to remove waste, lubricate joints, aid in digestion and fight off headaches/migraines and dizziness.
Water also keeps you full, so you are less likely to eat in between meals, hence regulating body weight.
Work out on the go
When you hear working out, don’t limit your imagination to the gym only. There are simple routines that can boost your energy and health even if you are busier than a bee. Try using the stairs more as opposed to elevators, sometimes walk to work, avoid wearing high heels for longer periods (for women), try standing more instead of sitting behind a desk all day and also practice the arm strengthen technique. This is where you sit up straight in a chair and bring up your hands to the front, and put the palm of your hand upward.
Plan your meals/menu ahead
It is important to keep a time table or a personal menu of your food. This will help to make sure you don’t skip any meals and also make sure that you maintain discipline when it comes to what you put in your body. Your meal preps should be diverse but healthy. Make sure it is a balanced diet and your body will thank you for it.
Cut off unhealthy habits
Reduce or do away with unhealthy intakes of alcohol, drugs, sweets and junk food. These will only slow down your metabolism and leave you with diseases that will drain your wallet and productivity.
Unhealthy habits also include hanging around people who push you further into the world of partying every day, drugs and alcohol. Surround yourself with optimistic people. It is easier to live a healthy lifestyle when everyone around you shares the same ideals and values.
Self-care
Pressure from work, school or relationships can drive one crazy. Not knowing how to handle this pressure can cause harm to your body. You need to be able to recognize when you are under stress and take some time off. Self-care does great justice to the mind and body. Practice it, religiously. Spend time alone, meditate, practice yoga, listen to music, write, relax and laugh.
Leisure activities
Apart from self-care, you should be able to find a hobby to unwind at the end of a long time. Take up that dancing class, sing, play football, go to the spa, go hiking, swim or stay in a sauna, take up gardening or farming, go bowling or any other sport. Your body needs to let out steam and vent at the end of the day. What you do after work sets the pace for how the next day will be.
Visit a doctor often
You can never be too busy to get a checkup from a doctor. You need to be so intuned with your body that you notice even the smallest of changes. If something feels off, make that appointment and see a doctor. It is much better to make that time and get a check-up, than allowing a condition to escalate into something deadly and incurable. Love and put yourself first, always.
Keep your working space comfortable
Whether you are working from home or from work, your office should be like your second home. Make it as comfortable as possible. Let it be well lit, ventilated and clean. A disorganized office negatively impacts your mind. Lack of proper ventilation can affect your breathing function and slow down your productivity. A warm, vibrant and clean space does wonders to the mind, and body as well. You will find yourself more proactive and healthier.
Spend time with loved ones
Whether a family, friend or a partner, make sure you have someone to vent to. Life’s challenges can take a toll on you and if you don’t have someone to talk to, it can affect your mental health. Depression kills. If you are a man, don’t keep everything bottled up. Destroy the notion that a man has to be strong. It is ok to be vulnerable, to be sensitive and to cry. If the day totally knocked you out, curl up next to a loved one and just talk it out.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money on a gym membership or private classes in order to be fit and healthy. There are simple tricks to it, as long as you maintain discipline and motivation. In the age of social media, there are so many apps to help you exercise, guide you on how much intake you should have and what to eat (I have an app that reminds me to drink water! ) and basically guide you through life if you are a busy person. Take advantage of that. Take care great care of your body, and it will take care of you too.
At Longonot Place Serviced Apartments, we have a gym facility that will come in handy anytime you think of doing some exercises and at your convenience. Visit our facility today!
Written by, Michelle Nzilani, Actuate Digital Blogger
