Managing Uncertainty, Anxiety and Emotions during the COVID19 Crisis

Managing Uncertainty, Anxiety and Emotions during the COVID19 Crisis

To put it mildly, these are interesting times, If you are anything like me, your emotions have been on a pendulum during this global pandemic. I have moments of gratitude, compassion and ease. Gratitude for my health, safety, friends and family. Compassion for the frontline workers and people losing loved ones. I feel ease with time to myself, for the quiet for the time to find stillness. And on the other end of the pendulum I feel fear, fear of uncertainty, fear of the unknown, and grief for my former freedom. And all of these emotions strike every day, sometimes almost every hour. 

Humans are biologically driven by certainty. The certainty to know we are safe, cared for, going to live to see the next day. It’s built into us. And when we don’t have certainty we are prone to discomfort, stress and anxiety. All of these emotions we are feeling contribute to our overwhelm. 

And what do we often do when faced with it? We cope with our comforts….social media scrolling, snacking, binge watching. I get it. And you know what. It’s okay. We engage in these behaviours because we need to comfort ourselves and feel held. And if you are like me, the mind gets in there with the guilt trip. The guilt, and the narrative of the mind, doesn’t allow us to fully enjoy these moments of comfort. When we start the guilt we don’t get what we need from these comforts and a dangerous cycle begins. 

The thing is, it's okay to feel down. It’s okay to need comfort. It’s okay to hunker down sometimes. We are being forced to slow down right now for a reason. What if we allowed it. What if we took pleasure in it? What if we acknowledged what we needed and gave it to ourselves. Guilt Free. When we fully relish in the moment it feels satisfying. And then we can move on.

By seeing these desires, these comforts for what they are we give ourselves the grace to feel and honour what our body and our soul needs. It releases the tight grip on us because we take the power away and become the one in control again. Then we can move on to all the things we truly want to do and the things we know are good for us. 

This self-awareness, this grace. These acts of loving kindness to ourselves builds trust. Builds self-compassion and self-love. From here we can move on and have the discipline for other good stuff. The sustainable habits that will fill us up for the long haul. In order to let go of the shame when we fail at doing ‘the hustle’, we need to be willing to let go of how we were trained and taught. The sooner we let go of the idea of what it ‘should’ look like, the sooner you can embody the true essence of your being. 

Fear doesn’t allow us to think as clearly. The secret to manage difficult emotions in times of crisis rarely rests in doing more. It starts with being. Being, then doing, then having. And we don’t need to hustle to get there. 

Five things you can do right now to manage difficult emotions

Rest 

We are being asked to rest right now. To go within, to retreat. Allow it. While you may not feel as physically active as your regular routine being confined to the home, the emotions, the mind, the nervous system needs to rest. Solitude is a gift. Let solitude allow your body and soul to rest, recalibrate, reconnect. We easily think of rest as the reward for hard work and I invite you to reframe that and think of rest as the spark for creativity, discipline and sustainable action. 

Accept  

We can’t deny how we’re feeling. Before we can learn from our feelings we sit with them and feel them. Yes, it is uncomfortable. I get that and I feel it too. In fact, the more we try to convince ourselves not to feel a certain way, you can be sure it starts a tornado within. To stop the tornado from overtaking the mind, cultivate self-awareness of your thoughts and feelings during this time. The best way to start if you’re not sure what you’re feeling is to name it. That’s it. Notice it. Name it. And Allow it. Even emotions we think of as negative or bad, need to be felt. By feeling it, we allow it to move through us. 

Turn Negative Self-Talk into Self - Compassion  

Simply becoming aware of the way we speak to ourselves in the mind gets us onto the path of true inner freedom. While we can’t control what is outside of us, we do have full control over our internal world. We deal with our incessant mind chatter by first becoming aware of it. Then we can begin to change our emotional reactions and or core beliefs about ourselves. Reframing the negative self-talk into soothing words of self-compassion builds self-trust, connection, happiness and lessens anxiety and depression. Self compassion means radically acknowledging and accepting that things we feel bad about, judge ourselves for and cause pain then rather than criticizing ourselves, recognizing that it is part of a difficult situation and part of being human. When you are kinder to yourself you will naturally begin to feel happier, more energized and motivated. 

Meditate

Actively practicing being in stillness allows us to cultivate the ability to witness ourselves as we really are. Awareness helps increase the gap between stimulus and how we respond to it. While becoming more in tune with our bodies and minds is not easy, meditation can help — and techniques such as visualization and breathwork can help us achieve the health and wellness benefits we are seeking. With meditation we are gently invited back to the present moment, we notice unhelpful thinking before it gets away from us. And to put it plainly, people who meditate areI calmer,  happier and more connected to others in their life. 

Serve

Being of service to another feels really really good! Take a break from your own mind and ask “how can I serve? How can I help”. Coming up with creative ways to take care of others does wonders for dopamine, the feel good hormone. 

There is no right way and no wrong way to process this. Every single one of us is living through something we will never fully understand. And each one of our experiences will look and feel different. It’s a complex time to be a complex human. This is a great opportunity to get to know ourselves better. And if now more than ever, you may find yourself saying, "I need help." I want to and I’ve got you. Book a clarity call with me and we can discuss how to implement some of these tools right now.