03/15/2020
During these times, some people are feeling more anxious. Here are some strategies to help you through. And OF COURSE, if you need to, please reach out to your family doctor/EAP/therapist:
1. Making sure you are getting enough sleep. Turn off electronics as the sun goes down as not to lower Melatonin levels.
2. Exercise: 20 min of elevated heart rate does wonders for your brain, sleep, anxiety and depression (as long as your doctor says it’s ok).
Yoga is great at grounding into the present moment (mindfulness) as well as getting your heart going, and helping you breath. When scared we sometimes hold our breath.
3. Eating as healthy as you can, staying away from sugar and junk food can also make a difference. Magnesium rich foods can help with anxiety as long as you don’t have any conditions that has you minimizing magnesium.
Minimize or abstain altogether from any mood altering drugs.
4. Social connection by phone/FaceTime/Skype.
5. Disconnect from social media except for a limited time a day. So maybe set an alarm for 30 minutes. Ask a trusted loved one/family/friend to let you know if there are any big changes you need to be aware of so you don’t feel you need to be reading up on Covid-19 as much. And if you feel you need to read up on it, the World Health Organization (WHO) provides accurate information.
6. Sun and fresh air.
7. Meditation:
Insight Timer and Omvana are apps with some free meditations. If new to meditating, guided ones are generally easier to do. There is also Calm.com to check out.
Mood gym is another resource but you have to pay.
If you are on meds for mental health, stay away from meditations with binaural beats. It can be contraindicated.
I hope these strategies are helpful to you. These can be scary times for a lot of people. Know though, that through the measures our government is imposing (shut downs), with cleaning hands and taking care to stay away from others, we have got this! We may get ahead of this because our government has been so good to act sooner rather than later.
Oh, and BREATH! Deep belly breaths. Place your hand on your lower belly. As you breath in, your hand should be pushed out. As you exhale, your belly goes in.
The key is to exhale longer than inhaling. So breath in for maybe 4 seconds, hold for 7, exhale for 8. It doesn’t have to be these numbers, do what you can, but make sure you take longer to exhale. This is to engage your parasympathetic nervous system which is your rest/digest/calm state instead of your stress system (fight/flight/freeze).
Take good care!!! ♥️
Relax with Calm, a simple mindfulness meditation app that brings clarity and peace of mind into your life