How do you cope with a pandemic? Being human is hard on a good day, but how do you deal when a pandemic brings the world to a screeching halt? When your normal ways of coping are unavailable to you because you’re “social distancing”? Here are some tips to help get you through.
Connect to Joy and Gratitude: Our greatest weapon against fear and uncertainty is our joy. You have permission to find joy right now. In fact, you must. What brings you joy? Is it your relationships? Cooking? Making art? Playing with your kids? Watching The Office again? Give yourself space and time to be joyful every day. Often the swiftest path to joy is through gratitude. Take some time every day and think about what you’re grateful for -- try to identify 5 novel things per day.
Call Your People: Isolation is really, really hard on the human mind. We’re social animals, and we need heart-to-heart connection with others to be psychologically healthy. Call a friend, email a family member, video chat your yoga teacher. Social media and texting are great, but they’re not as good at meeting our needs for connection. Remember the people who may be really isolated right now -- the elderly, single parents, those living in rural areas -- and give them some extra love. It’s good for everyone.
Routine is Your Best Friend: Routines ground us and help us feel like life is predictable. This is especially important right now, when the world seems very unpredictable. Get up at the same time in the morning, put “real clothes” on, and create a routine.
Move and Nourish Your Body: We hold stress and anxiety in our bodies -- are you feeling tense? Your body needs to release this energy. Go for a walk, do an online workout, have a jumping jack contest with your kids … just MOVE. Get outside if you can -- nature is *naturally* grounding and calming. Nourish your body with healthy foods. When we’re cooped up, it’s easy to drink too much, numb ourselves with endless tv, and eat junk. If you find yourself doing this, have some compassion for yourself because things are hard right now, and set an intention to take care of your body as much as you can in this season.
Remember What’s Important: What gives your life meaning? Is it your spirituality? Your relationships? Giving back to your community? The beauty that you create through your work? The more you can connect to these things right now, the better you’re going to feel.
Compassion, Compassion, Compassion: Things are hard right now. We’re all stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed. When we feel this way, we often act in less-than-lovely ways — we’re snippy with our kids, critical of our partners, reactionary with our colleagues, and judgmental to ourselves. If you find yourself doing this, know that you are not alone. Remember that we’re all going through this together, and dig in to your compassion for yourself and everyone else. This is not forever. We will get through this. We have never been one world more than we are today. If there’s a silver lining in a pandemic, that’s it … it reminds us that we are all made of the same stuff.
Hang in there. Ask for help when you need it. Don’t ever ever ever give up.
Hannah