COVID-19 Anxiety Relief Toolkit

With breathtaking speed our world has been turned upside-down by the COVID-19 pandemic.  We are bombarded by an unremitting stream of bad news.  Uncertainty, fear, anxiety, sadness, and stress abound. 

But we can’t let this get the best of us because, if left unchecked, fear undergoes its own contagion, spreading faster than the virus itself.  Collective stress ramps up and awful implications follow:

• • Stress weakens our immune system.  Enough said.
  • Sustained stress can lead to compassion fatigue, just when we need to care for each other the most.  
  • Stress impairs access to the wise part of our brain, our frontal cortex.  This is the locus of our executive functioning:  emotional control, impulse control, and creativity.  To think clearly, and to be at our best, we need to remain calm.

Mindfulness Toolkit for Calm

Here’s how we’re going to get through this together:  each of us is going to take personal responsibility for our own psychological health.  Our combined calming presence will in turn have a calming effect on those around us.  Together, we can initiate a ripple of calm throughout society.

“I like to use the example of a small boat crossing the Gulf of Siam. In Vietnam there are many people, called boat people, who leave the country in small boats. Often the boats are caught in rough seas or storms, the people may panic, and boats may sink.

But if even one person aboard can remain calm, lucid, knowing what to do and what not to do, he or she can help the boat survive. His or her expression – face, voice – communicates clarity and calmness, and people have trust in that person. They will listen to what he or she says.

One such person can save the lives of many.  You are that person.”

Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk

The practice of mindfulness is more than up to this challenge.  Numerous studies attest to its efficacy to reduce stress and anxiety (as well as providing numerous other health benefits).

Below I provide a compendium of pertinent mindfulness practices and miscellaneous insights designed to help nurture sound mental health.  My guidance is to make use of these whenever you feel yourself becoming anxious or stressed:

Deep Breathing

Slow, conscious, deep breathing activates our calming parasympathetic nervous system, thus helping to shut down our stress reaction.

• • Sit comfortably, gently close your eyes, breathe in slowly to the count of four, hold for seven, breathe out to the count of eight.  Repeat at least three times.  You may also wish to silently repeat the words “calm” on the in-breath and “peace” on the out-breath.

Smile

Smiling, even if forced, has a calming effect and helps to counter the over-seriousness we feel when stressed.  It is known to promote the release of such helpful hormones as serotonin (calming), dopamine (positive feelings), and endorphins (natural pain killers). 

• • In my practice I sit comfortably, close my eyes, relax my body, and then bring to mind the semi-historic Chinese monk, Budai, colloquially known as the “laughing buddha”.  He never fails to bring a smile to my face.  You can, of course, use your own cue for smiling, like a dear friend or a family pet.

Body Softening Scan

Because mind and body are interconnected, consciously relaxing your muscles automatically relaxes your mind, choking off the stress response.

• • Sit comfortably, close your eyes, breathe naturally, and begin to turn your focus of attention to each part of your body in turn.  I usually start from the toes of my right foot moving on to my sole, upper foot, ankle, etc., over to the toes of my other foot and on upward to the top of my head. 
  • As you focus on each body part in turn, consciously soften the muscles there, perhaps bringing the image of melting wax to mind.
  • As a tool to aid focus, try imagining that you are physically breathing into and out of each body part that you bring into focus.

Nature Walk

If physically able, take a slow-paced stroll through a forest or other natural area and really pay attention to the sights, sounds, scents, and feel.

• • Focusing intently on our senses brings us into the present moment.  Doing so has been found to make us feel happier and more at peace.  Confining our attention to the present moment calms an otherwise anxious mind that is all too often fretting over an unchangeable past or fearing an unknowable future.

Gratitude

For evolutionary reasons designed to keep us alert to potential danger, it is built into us to focus more on the few bad things in our life rather than the many-times-more-abundant good things.  Needless to say, such an orientation drags us down and amplifies our stress.

• • Take a moment to bring to mind all the many things for which you are grateful, that bring you joy, and for which you are deeply appreciative.  These can be as simple as the sound of birds outside your kitchen window or as profoundly comforting as a deeply-rewarding friendship. 

Miscellaneous Mindful Moments

Make a point of inserting some of the practices outlined below into your daily routine or whenever you feel stress and anxiety coming on.  They help activate your calming system, shut down your stress reaction, and bring you into the present moment, thus eliminating thoughts of the past and future that tend to create mental upset.

If you wish to regiment these throughout your day, consider downloading a timing app such as the one I use, “Mindful Me”, that provides regular reminders to take a mental break: 

1. Pause, Breathe, Smile (PBS) – stop what you’re doing, close your eyes if feasible, take a few deep conscious breaths, and smile.  As with deep breathing mentioned above, you may wish to mentally repeat the words “calm” on the in-breath and “peace” on the out-breath. 
2. Seeing Red – for a set period of time, say the next hour, make a point of spotting things around you that are red (or any colour of choice).  Doing so forces you into the present moment.
3. 5-senses break – stop what you’re doing and tune into your five senses in sequence, noting each with heightened curiosity.  Doing so creates presence.
4. Practice S.T.O.P. – 1) Stop whatever you’re doing.  2) Take a few slow, deep breaths.  3) Observe your thoughts, feelings, and emotions but without identifying with them.  Simply observe them in the same manner you observe inputs from your other senses.   4) Proceed with a kindness to yourself – a gentle stroll, healthy snack, or casual conversation with a friend.
5. Find your feet – stop what you’re doing and focus full attention on the sensations in your feet.  This practice shuts down anxious thinking and brings you back into the present moment.  Why the feet?  Because stress makes itself felt in places like our belly, chest, shoulders, and face but not our feet, so focusing there moves us away from stress.
6. What will my next thought be? – this practice is from spiritual teacher, Eckhart Tolle.  Close your eyes and focus intently on what your next thought will be.  Be like a cat crouched and alert just outside a mouse hole.  If my experience is any guide, you may  have to wait a while!
7. Random noticing – close your eyes, turn your head in a random direction, re-open your eyes, and then intensely study whatever comes into view.  Be like a scientist encountering a strange new phenomenon.  Note absolutely everything about the scene engaging all your senses to take in colours, textures, feel, scents, sounds, shapes, light, dark, shadows ….
8. Mindful accessory – wear a colourful band on your finger or wrist and each time you notice it, practice PBS – pause, breathe, and smile!
9. Recovery Period – after finishing a task, don’t immediately plunge into the next.  Instead, take a mini break and do something kind for yourself.
10. Task focus – whatever you’re doing, just focus intently on the process of doing it, not on the end result.  Doing so keeps you in the present moment.

Limit News Intake

Like the guidance I used to provide my clients urging them not to pay attention to the stock market, it is equally prudent to limit your intake of COVID-19 news. 

Immersing yourself unduly in the tragedy serves only to make the challenge of stress management all the more difficult – akin to purposely exposing yourself to a virus over and over and over again.

Managing Troubling Thoughts

Anxious thoughts often get stuck in our minds, lowering our mood and triggering our stress response.  Here are a couple ideas that may help:

1. 1. In your mind’s eye, picture your thoughts inside a soap bubble that is floating in the air around eye level.  Watch it rise slowly upward and upward and then ‘pop’ – gone.  Then turn your mind and focus on to something else.
   2. In your mind, speak directly to your thought – “Hello fear, hello anxiety – I see you“.   Bringing troubling thoughts into conscious awareness often has the effect of diminishing their stress-inducing impact.

Meditations on Compassion

When we’re troubled it often helps to reverse roles.  Rather than be the sufferer, you turn yourself into the healer, extending good wishes out to all those suffering, just like you.

1. Tonglen meditation – On each in-breath, imagine you are breathing in the pain of others – all of it.  On the out-breath, imagine you are sending them (and yourself) ease of being and relief from suffering.  Imagine a feeling of lightness, brightness, and cool accompanying each out-breath.  Breathe in suffering, breathe out relief and good wishes.
2. Loving-Kindness meditation – in a variation on this type of meditation we voice the following phrases in our mind several times, sending out good wishes to all those who may be suffering:

• • • May all be happy and content
    • May all be healthy in mind, body, and spirit
    • May all be safe from mental and physical harm
    • May all have ease of being

Selected Teachings of the Buddha

The Buddha taught his followers to face reality head-on and not to look away in fear.  He also encouraged them to confirm the truth of his teachings for themselves and not to take his or any one else’s word for it.  Some 2600 years later, his guidance remains pertinent, especially in these difficult times: 

• • Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.  We experience suffering when we make a fuss over life’s inevitable troubles.  Resistance is futile in the face of something that already is.  The alternative?  Calm acceptance: whatever troubles come your way, just see them as part of life and deal with them matter-of-factly.
  • Impermanence – everything in the entire universe is in constant flux, nothing is unchanging.  Good times come to an end, but so do bad times.
  • Realistic Options – when faced with troubles we have three sane options:  1) Change the situation if possible.   2) Remove ourselves from the situation if possible.   3) If neither change nor removal is possible, the only sane response remaining is acceptance – to face reality with equanimity and deal with it with wisdom rather than unintelligent and futile resistance.
  • Our thoughts make our world –  “We are what we think.  All that we are arises with our thoughts.  With our thoughts we make the world.” – Buddha.  In other words, change the channel on your thoughts if you wish to change the program from tragedy to comedy – it’s always your choice.

Maintaining Perspective

In the midst of a crisis it is all too easy to lose perspective and become overwhelmed by the unremitting bad news.  Seeking out alternative story lines can help balance the scale, raise your mood, and give cause for hope. 

In this regard, here are some positive thoughts to ponder related to COVID-19:

• • A recent article in the Economist magazine reports that there are seven existing drugs thought to hold promise in treating the symptoms of COVID-19.  One, Actemra, is already being put to use in China.
  • Clinical trials on potential COVID-19 vaccines are reported to already be underway in China and the United States.
  • The world’s best and brightest are toiling away 24/7 to bring this virus under control.
  • The virus cannot survive simple soap and water, giving us all some degree of control over infection through rigorous personal hygiene.
  • Ultimately, if despite social distancing, not touching your face, and frequent hand washing you are still unlucky enough to contract the virus, then you can take a measure of solace from the fact that, according to the World Health Organization, roughly 8 out of 10 people will experience only mild symptoms.  Of course, the elderly and those with certain existing health conditions need to take extra precautions, but for the majority of people this virus does not pose an existential health threat.
  • On the economic front, governments around the world are turning on the money taps and implementing corporate and personal financial support programs to soften the blow to the global economy.
  • On the human front, heartwarming stories of compassion are increasingly on display.  People are reaching out to their elderly neighbors with offers to buy essentials for them.  Those in self-imposed quarantine are being tended to by friends and family.  Stay-at-home moms and dads are helping their working neighbors with offers of free childcare.  We are pulling together to get through this.
  • I firmly believe there will be a silver lining to this tragedy and can envision the following:
    • Pandemic preparedness and global cooperation will be better going forward.
    • Commercial supply chains will be designed with greater flexibility and resilience in mind.
    • World leaders who manage this crisis poorly will be turfed in favor of more competent individuals.
    • Stronger social programs will be put in place (such as paid sick leave and universal health care in the United States).
    • This crisis will bring people together and help them appreciate our shared destiny, interdependence, and interconnection.

Tend to Your Well Being

As U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, said in his stirring inaugural address delivered at the peak of the Great Depression in 1933, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself“.  I agree with him wholeheartedly.

But to be of help to others during these difficult times we first need to look after ourselves, mentally and physically.  I hope this guide goes some way to providing you with the tools for tending to your own mental well-being.

Keep safe everyone, look after yourselves, and spread your calm presence widely.

Warmest wishes,

Rob @ Living a Mindful Life