Want To Know How To Deal With Stress In A Pandemic? Here Is Some Therapy

The world is currently in chaos. At the time of writing, three billion people are under some form of home lockdown quarantine and are compelled to practice social distancing, covering more than 70 countries, because of the COVID-19 virus pandemic, and more than half a million people have been infected.

There is considerable doubt, confusion and fear as how long so many people will be forced to stay at home in self-isolation, and there is no safe timeline as to when their lives will return to normal. At this stage of the pandemic, the world is living in fear that even once this wave starts to falter, there is a risk of it returning later in 2020. This is even more so as some countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia have only begun to take social distancing seriously, despite the dire lessons learned earlier in the year by China.

The physical effects of this virulent disease will be exacerbated by the hidden social, emotional and mental costs caused by the unfamiliar isolation, social separation, with long periods where families have been forced to stay home together all day, every day, and even work from home perhaps for the first time.

In this article we have a look at some practical and inexpensive ways that you can alleviate the stress that this may cause.

How to deal with pandemic stress and anxiety

Consider the following issues that you might encounter and the steps you can take to deal with them:

1. Don’t binge on the latest news

Try and limit how much (bad) news about COVID-19 that you consume each day. Remember there is only so much that you can do about it, and the best thing that you can do for you and family is stay as stress free as possible. Make sure that you check your sources for reliability and trustworthy – try sites like the World Health Organization and https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ and do fact check your sources carefully. 

2. Relaxation, meditation and contemplation

The only steps that most of us can take to help fight the pandemic is to stay physically and mentally healthy, and keep our social distancing in place as recommended by the authorities.

The toll that the physical, mental and financial challenges will take needs to be addressed not only by you, but your significant others and children. This are issues for which you may need to seek professional assistance.

Getting that help in person presents a unique challenge in the current climate of lockdowns and stay-at-home shelter orders put in place to slow the spread of COVID-For this reason you may not even be able to leave your house to meet with a suitably qualified professional in your area.

However it is possible to use the internet to get help, which will also save you money, by seeking online therapy, which, very importantly during this era of social distancing, can be conducted remotely by a suitably qualified expert counselor by teleconferencing. Aside from the convenience of having your consultation in the comfort and privacy fo your own home, the cost of consultations can be 33-50% lower than going to see an in-person counselor.

This type of therapy can help you focus on improving your family relationships, and helping you and your family coming to terms with what, for the foreseeable future at least, will be the new normal way of everyday life. 

3. Physical activities are essential

In these times of isolation, you may struggle to deal with making the best of the seemingly interminable hours at home. You may become inclined to become hermit like and you may also develop a tendency to be more sedentary. This will not only adversely affect your mood, but it will damage your immune system, as even light activity has been shown to increase resistance to disease and infection.

So get up and move!

a) Breathe – most people forget the importance of deep breathing, which sends oxygen to the brain which helps you to stay calm, lowers blood pressure and body tension. So give yoga pranayama breathing a try, and do it with the whole family. The benefits are fast acting and healthful, and it is a fun activity that you can do with the whole family

b) Workout - the internet is an essential lifeline right now, and you can help improve your life by staying active. You may live in a small apartment in a city and have limited space to exercise, so why not exercise safely at home? There are some excellent free online exercise videos that you can follow in our own living room. One of the best we have found are the HASfit workout programs, on You Tube – here is an example of the hundreds of workouts they have placed on their channel:

Always make sure that you exercise according to your fitness levels, the idea is to keep your busy mobile and flexible – after all there are no Tokyo Olympics to train for until next year!

c) Clean your living space - a messy room messes with your mental health, and can trigger stress, depression and anxiety , especially when you are confined to your living spaces for an unusually lengthy period of time.

The more that your living space is cluttered, the more that your brain is stimulated and distracted, because it has more visual stimuli to process – think of it as having to choose between dozens of desserts to eat all at once. Your brain has to literally process unnecessary stimuli, which in turn causes procrastination and loss of concentration.

Use this hiatus in your usual routine to de-clutter your mind, body and living space, by sorting out the possessions that you really need around you, and to organize the things that you use every day. De-cluttering is a great stress buster, and will free up more of your headspace to focus on the people you love and the things that you love to do.

d) Keep working - If you are one of the lucky ones who can work remotely, organize your day and break it up into blocks of time so that you make time for those you love. If you are unlucky enough to have been laid-off from work, then try to stay as calm as you can, because as the saying goes, pain brings opportunity. Maybe it is time to reassess how you can make money working online, create an online course, or retrain for a better paying career with more security.

We know that 2020 is already, and will continue to be a tough year, presenting unprecedented challenges – the most difficult you will face is to protect and improve your mental and physical health. So we hope that this article has been of some comfort in these trying times, and feel free to share your experiences and your best tips in the comments below.