9 Resources for Coping with Coronavirus Anxiety
9 Resources for Coping with Coronavirus Anxiety
Take a
breath and give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve successfully managed to look
away from breaking news long enough to find some resources that might actually
help with your stress.
That’s no
easy thing right now.
Experts
are recommending social distancing and self-quarantine to
help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), sending most
of us into isolation.
It makes
sense if you haven’t been doing much at all except ruminating on updates about
the virus and the availability of toilet paper.
So what
can you do about your coronavirus anxiety?
I’m glad
you asked, because I’ve collected a whole list of tools to help your mental health during
the COVID-19 scare.
This list
could also apply to any moment when breaking news headlines are
all-consuming and hard to look away from.
Think of
it this way: Reducing your stress is actually one of the best ways you can deal
with this crisis. Too much stress can
hurt your immunity and your
mental health.
Plus, you
just plain deserve to finally feel some relief after spiraling through your
anxieties for this long.
It’s OK if you’re feeling anxious
First
things first: There’s nothing wrong with you for feeling anxious right now.
Ignoring
the stress or judging yourself for feeling it is tempting, but it probably
won’t help in the end.
Acknowledging your
feelings — even if they’re scary — can help you cope in a
healthy way.
And I’ve
got news for you: You’re not the only one who’s freaking out. The news is
legitimately frightening, and fear is a normal, natural response.
You’re
not alone.
If you’re
already living with a chronic illness, then COVID-19 might be especially
frightening. And if you’re living with a mental illness such as an anxiety disorder,
then the constant barrage of headlines might have you on the edge of feeling
like you’re losing control.
There are
plenty of resources out there about
how to directly deal with coronavirus anxiety, and it’s important to have those strategies in
your toolbox when you need them.
But for
this list, we’re going to take a break from all of that.
Because science
shows that taking a breather can help interrupt your anxiety,
reduce your levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and
even retrain your brain to change unhelpful thinking
patterns.
Which is
all the more reason to be proud of yourself for ending up here, where all you
have to do is sit back, click through some helpful tools, and finally take a
break from that haunting sense of impending doom.
These
tools alone aren’t going to fix everything, and it’s a good idea to reach out for
professional help if you’re really struggling to keep your
anxiety under control.
But I
hope these apps and websites can give you a moment to break the cycle of
headline stress, if even for a moment.
1. Take a virtual museum tour
Visiting
a public space like a museum probably isn’t very high on your list of
priorities right now.
But you
can experience some fascinating museum tours right from the comfort and safety
of your own home.
More than
500 museums and galleries around the world have partnered with Google Arts
& Culture to display their collections online as virtual tours.
Explore
all of the options on the Google Arts &
Culture website, or start with this
curated list of top choices.
“A
journey to places most people never go.”
Doesn’t
that sound perfect at a time like this? It’s from the tagline for The
Hidden Worlds of the National Parks, an interactive documentary and
exhibit from Google Arts & Culture.
The
exhibit lets you take 360-degree tours of U.S. National Parks, including
secluded areas that most people will never see in their lifetime.
You can
learn fun facts from park ranger tour guides, fly over an active volcano in Hawai’i
Volcanoes National Park, dive through a shipwreck at Dry
Tortugas National Park, and more.
3. Watch wild
animals in real time
Speaking
of nature, have you ever wondered what wildlife is up to while we humans are
stressing out about the latest breaking news?
Most
animals are simply continuing to live their lives, and you can witness them
doing so in real time with the live cams at Explore.org.
There’s
something reassuring about seeing that the dolphins are still
swimming, the eagles are still nesting,
and the puppies
of the world are still really stinkin’ cute — even as you feel
like everything is falling apart.
Personally,
I’m partial to Bear Cam,
which lets you watch brown bears catching salmon in Alaska. Watch long enough
and you might even catch some adorable young cubs learning to hunt!
4. Do nothing for 2 minutes
Doing
nothing may seem like a wild idea right now — there’s so much to worry about!
But what
if you challenged yourself to really do nothing for
only 2 minutes?
The
website Do Nothing for 2 Minutes is
designed for exactly that.
The
concept is simple: All you have to do is listen to the sound of waves without
touching your mouse or keyboard for 2 minutes straight.
It’s
harder than it looks, especially if you’ve been stuck in constant cycles of
checking the news.
If you
touch your computer before the 2 minutes are up, then the site lets you know
how long you lasted and resets the clock.
This
website was created by the makers of the Calm app,
so if your 2 minutes of nothing helps quiet your brain, check out the app for
more moments of calm.
5. Learn to
give yourself a massage
What a
dilemma: You could really use a relaxing massage to help you de-stress, but
social distancing is keeping you more than a massages’ distance from other
human beings.
The
upside? This is an excellent opportunity to learn to massage yourself. Practice
regularly to build your skills and you might be able to relieve your tension
just as well as a massage from another person.
You can
start with this
tutorial by licensed massage therapist Chandler Rose, or look
up instructions for the specific parts of your body that could use some love,
including:
6. Browse a
free digital library for e-books and audiobooks
When
you’re alone, stressed, and in need of a distraction, OverDrive’s app Libby might just be your
new BFF.
Libby
lets you borrow free e-books and audiobooks from local libraries. You can enjoy
them right from your phone, tablet, or Kindle.
Check out
some audiobook hacks from
Book Riot to optimize your experience even more.
Not sure
where to start choosing from the thousands of available books? OverDrive has
lists of recommended
reads to help.
7. Do a guided
meditation that makes you laugh
There are
many types of meditation,
and depending on how much your anxiety is in overdrive at the moment, some
might be more difficult than others to relax into.
So why not
try a guided meditation that’s not taking itself too seriously?
If you
don’t mind swear words, then spend 2 1/2 minutes with F*ck
That: An Honest Meditation, which is sure to remind you that you’re
not the only one who’s coping by cursing the general awfulness of reality.
Or you
can try not to laugh at
this meditation, and when you inevitably fail, give yourself
permission to laugh all you want.
8. Breathe
deeply with guided GIFs
You can
learn all about the science behind using
your breath for stress relief, or jump straight into experiencing the benefits
by following a calming GIF that guides your breathing.
Try deep
breathing with these 6
gifs from DeStress Monday or these 10
choices from DOYOU Yoga.
9. Get your
immediate needs met with an interactive self-care checklist
Who has
time to get to the bottom of why your anxiety’s spinning out of control when
you’re busy with… well, with your anxiety spinning out of control?
Thankfully,
there are people who have already done the work of exploring your needs, so all
you have to do is follow their premade roadmaps to feeling better.
Everything
is Awful and I’m Not Okay includes questions to ask before
giving up. It’s a simple one-page checklist to remind you of some practical
feel-better strategies that you can use right now.
You feel like sh*t is a self-care game
designed to remove the weight of decision-making and guide you through figuring
out exactly what you need.
The takeaway
A period
of global panic can feel like just the moment your anxiety was waiting for to
spin out of control.
But
perhaps the resources on this list are just the thing to get your mental health
back on track.
You can
bookmark these links for future use, commit to visiting one every hour, and
share them with your friends so that you have something to talk about besides the apocalypse.
How you use them is up to you.
Remember
that it’s okay to feel what you’re feeling, but there are healthy ways to
process your anxiety, and you can always reach out for support if you need it.
I hope
you enjoy your digital hikes, virtual tours, and deep breathing. You deserve
these moments of gentleness and care.
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