Emotional wellbeing during the Coronavirus crisis
First published in Westmeath Independent print edition dated March 21
BY CIARA BRUTON
There is so much panic, stress, uncertainty and overwhelm right now amidst the Coronavirus crisis. While, we’re all aware that we need to wash our hands and stay at home as much as possible, we need to address our emotional wellbeing at the moment.
It’s likely your nervous system is fried right now. Every plan you had is gone, your mind is trying to figure what’s going to happen world-wide and you’re riding waves of fear, sadness, agitation, loneliness and uncertainty.
We need to manage our emotional response to this stress. If we’re overwhelmed, we’re going to send other people spinning too. If we’re calm, we can cope, find solutions, make good decisions and be of service.
Here are 10 tips to help you cultivate calm at this time:
1. Watch your thoughts: Start to observe your thinking at the moment. Are you in a thinking loop where you’re catastrophising and focusing on worst case scenarios? If so, you need to change the CD you’re mentally playing in your head. These thoughts are fears that are vying for your attention to be processed. In order to get these worries and fears “out”, have a conversation with yourself.
In a notebook, ask yourself the question “How am I feeling right now?” and allow the stream of consciousness to flow where you’ll be able to see these thoughts more objectively. Then, you can ask yourself “What can I do to feel better right now?”. Your inner guidance will be thrilled to have air time with you and you’ll be amazed at the solutions you come up with.
2. Watch your words: Observe your conversations. Are you amplifying fear and panic in the world or are you spreading calm and peace? Where possible, switch the tone of conversations from fear to calm.
3. Quieten the Coronavirus Noise: Many people are refreshing the news 100 times a day. They are bombarding their nervous system with hits of cortisol and fear each time. Whilst feeling agitated, we are scrolling social media more and more to distract and self-soothe. I would recommend listening to the 6pm news only and deleting social media apps from your phone. You can re-enable them once a day for 30 minutes.
4. Soothe your nervous system: If you imagine a cat with all her fur standing on end, that’s how I imaging our nervous systems look right now. Actively do things that will soothe and calm your nervous system eg. baths, candles, incense, piano music in the background, going to bed extra early, reading a book, time in nature, breathing.
5. Actually Breathe: When we feel stressed, we shallow breathe into our chest. If we intentionally breathe slowly, it sends signals to our body that it’s safe to relax. You might like to try box breathing: Breathe in for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four and continue for a few minutes. Perhaps practice box breathing every time you boil the kettle or go to the bathroom. When we focus on our breath, we are not mentally jumping to the past or future, we are present. Meditation is a practice that builds the muscle to stay in the present moment.
6. Raise your mood: Decide to raise your mood by putting on uplifting music in the house, having a dance around, going for a walk, watching something funny or ringing someone who lifts your spirits.
7. Get into your body: Get out of your head. When you’re worrying, your energy is all in your head. Physically move in order to bring your energy and attention into your body. This could be anything from exercise to spring cleaning. All that matter is that you are not thinking, you are doing.
8. Put your attention on the good: We need to balance out all the “bad” we see in the world, with noticing some “good”. You may notice the humanity being shown in all the community initiatives. You may feel gratitude for all the people on the front-line at the moment. You may be grateful for the birds singing. What can you notice is good right now?
9. Help Others: We’ve all been thinking about ways we can practically support others, but what about emotional support? Ask people how they are managing emotionally. Listen, validate their emotions, use the tips above to guide them to feel calmer.
10. What will we learn from this? As people who’ve been really disconnected from our neighbours, we’re suddenly looking out for one another. As people who’ve been “too busy”, many of us now have lots of time on our hands. As people who have been living on auto-pilot, we’re now having to adjust to totally new routines and circumstances. As people who’ve been always looking outward, we are now having to tune inwards. What are we going to learn from this on a personal and collective level?
Minding your mind is crucial at this time. If you’ve found these tips useful, you may like to cut them out and stick them up somewhere so that you are constantly improving your emotional and mental wellbeing at this time.
Ciara Bruton is an Accredited Life Coach and Yoga Teacher who works with clients online and in person in Athlone. She helps heart-centred sensitive people to figure their way forward in their life or business. To receive her email updates, visit www.ciarabrutonwellbeing.com or join her on social media www.facebook.com/ciarabrutoncoaching