Tips for Managing Anxiety and Stress During the Coronavirus Pandemic

1. Focus on what you can change: Staying home and not being able to do the things that we usually do in our lives, provides us with a lot of time to think, it is easy to start to worry. One thing that you can do is to consider the things that you have control over and the things that you do not have control over. Being able to differentiate this will allow you to focus your energy on problem solving the things that you can control and letting go of the things that you don’t have control over. 
2. Focus on the fact that we are all working together to take care of our community. You are not alone. We are all in this together. There are a lot of people working hard to take care of us and there is a lot of solidarity in that. If you live Downtown you are hearing everyone cheering for our health professionals and other essential services and this can allow you to feel connected to something bigger than yourselves even though you are in isolation. This also provides you with a great opportunity to reflect on your values and how you want to live your life when this is all over. Consider your values and how you will want your actions to match these.
3. Keep a regular schedule for sleep and meals. Many of you are probably not going to work and not going to school, but it is important to keep a regular schedule for sleep and eating. You also will benefit from having structure in your day. Otherwise, it can be very easy to disengage from living your life. Structure also provides some certainty in the vast amount of uncertainty we are all dealing with. It is especially crucial to children and youth during this time. 
4. Another important thing is to maintain your connections with others. Even though we can’t go out of our homes, we are lucky that we have the ability to connect so easily with telephones and video conferencing. My new motto this week has been “a facetime meeting a day keeps depression away”. 
5. Many people are struggling with the idea of having to stay home. I have been told a number of times this week that even for people who usually prefer to stay home, now that they are being told they have to stay home, they are struggling. If this is something you have been thinking about too, you can work on reframing self-isolation as a time to take care of yourself and have some down time in your life. Consider this as a break, we know this is temporary and we will return to your lives shortly. This is a great time to work on those projects that you didn’t have time to complete before. 
6. I’ve already mentioned the importance of regular sleep and food, but make sure that you are still getting lots of exercise, even if you have to do it at home. There are a lot of workouts that you can do at home. Me and my family have been doing Yoga on YouTube. You can also keep going outside for walks and connecting with nature as long as you keep the social distancing rules.
7. One thing that some people might be tempted to do is to drink more alcohol during this time or use other substances. However, you want to be careful with this as many substances are depressants and can make you feel worse. Some substance will also significantly increase your anxiety.
8. As you are self-isolating, you might start struggling with the uncertainty in this situation. If this is a challenge for you, you can work on focusing on one day at a time. Remind yourself that you are managing today and that you have food, you are safe and you are healthy. You will deal with any problems as they arise instead of trying to predict how bad the future will be. One of the challenges that we all have right now is to accept the uncertainty of the future. 
9. Another thing that you can do to help manage all of this uncertainty is to think about what you would like to do when you can come out of self-isolation. One idea is to write down on slips of paper all your ideas and fill a jar with them so you can keep a hold of the future you want. 
10. Another tip is to limit the amount of time spend on electronics. I have had many people tell me over the last while that they are using electronics to distract themselves from everything. However, like I mentioned before,  there are still a lot of things we have control over and we don’t want to avoid these. Lastly, distracting ourselves from reality only works for a short amount of time, eventually we still have to come back and face our lives and currently this is our reality. We have to work on accepting it and managing it.
11. One of the ways to help ourselves manage this is to be compassionate with ourselves and with others. We can focus on self-care. We can work on relaxation using breathing or other methods. Keep in mind that anxiety is part of our flight or fight response so we need to use strategies to help us reduce this physiological response during this time. When you breathe try focusing on bringing your breath into your abdomen and make sure that your abdomen moves up and down with every breath. Do this about 10-15 times to help bring your physiological arousal down. There are many YouTube videos and apps that can help you relax.
12. Consider altruistic acts. Research shows us that when we behave altruistically towards others, it improves our own mental health.
13. You will notice that you might be feeling difficult emotions, don’t be too hard on yourself  – it is normal to feel scared, confused and grieve the things you have lost, such as graduation ceremonies, weddings, vacations, birthdays, jobs, or freedom in general. Allow yourself space for these feelings, but don’t get stuck inside them. You can take action to plan for the future or do self-care to get through this. 
14. For those of you who were struggling with your mental health prior to this, you might notice that you are struggling more than before. There are a lot of resources online (AnxietyCanada is an excellent source) or a mental health professionals. There is nothing wrong with needing additional support through this extraordinary time. There are numerous skills and strategies that you or your family members can learn to make this process easier.
15. Lastly, limit the amount of time that you spend reading the news – 10-15 minutes a day online and make sure that you are turning to reputable sites and sources. It is important to keep in mind that many people are putting information out there that is sensational, to get attention, and you don’t want to believe everything you read. Use your critical thinking right now. Look at the real statistics that are available rather than the one story that aims to sensationalizes the issues. 

A helpful resource is AnxietyCanada

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