Coping with Anxiety During COVID-19
Guest Article- Reflect
SIOV is excited to announce our new content collaboration with The Reflect Organization, a nationally recognized mental wellness nonprofit. Today, we’re sharing the first blog in a new series of articles about how to take care of your wellbeing and mental health, such as managing during COVID-19.
With chapters at multiple colleges and universities, Reflect is dedicated to empowering students to foster a culture of authenticity, self-love, and allyship on campus.
“We envision a world in which college students are proud to be who they truly are – a world in which they live authentically, forge real connections, and genuinely support each other.”
-The Reflect Organization
This nonprofit believes in the power of students to transform campus culture. Reflect’s mission is to host innovative, proactive programs that provide college students with a safe forum to engage in open and honest discussion.
A Doctoral Student’s Perspective on Anxiety Around COVID-19
Today, we’re sharing a recent article by one of this amazing nonprofit’s contributors, Boston University clinical psychology Ph.D. student Danielle Moskow!
“While professionally, I am a therapist specializing in treatment for anxiety disorders, I am also human. And as a human, brimming with thoughts, feelings, and emotions, I find it both perplexing and distressing to have now spent nearly half a year in quarantine.
COVID-19 has left most of us physically isolated within our homes, away from our friends and loved ones. As a result, this pandemic has also led many of us to experience feelings of social isolation and disconnection.
This uncertain period of social distancing has resulted in feelings of a lack of control over our lives and our future, undoubtedly leading many to feel panicked, fearful, and lonely. An additional layer of complexity and emotion has also been added on with states and companies reopening, corresponding with an influx of cases.
As an individual who understands what it is like to both love and fear expressing difficult feelings, I believe the best way to support others and stay connected is through talking about our emotions.
The Power of Vulnerability
By embracing vulnerability, we can have real, meaningful conversations that normalize what each of us is going through. My hope is that initiating authentic discussions will eventually lead to many people feeling less alone and emotionally isolated in their struggles.
An essential first step in this process is acceptance and acknowledgment of what is. It is true that COVID-19 has altered our daily routine.
Changes due to the pandemic can bring up several emotions, such as:
- Sadness
- Grief
- Anxiety
- Fear
These feelings are valid and to be expected. While it is natural to want to push unpleasant emotions aside, emotions serve the important function of communicating messages to our brains.
For instance, I often share the following with my patients:
- Sadness and grief can reveal we have lost something meaningful
- Fear tells us something frightening may be ahead
- Anger indicates we may have been wronged
Many of us are going through a roller coaster of emotions due to COVID-19. Tuning into what we’re feeling can help us start to understand 2 important concepts:
#1: These emotions make sense
#2: It’s ok to be feeling this way right now
I would like to introduce some strategies that may help with becoming more in tune with our emotions and relate to how we are feeling in a given moment at a deeper level.
COVID-19 Anxiety Coping Strategy #1:
Mindfulness
The first strategy is adopting a practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness is a state in which we can cultivate present-moment awareness in a non-judgmental and non-reactive way. This non-judgmental way of being is imperative in order to truly practice mindfulness.
We are often quick to judge ourselves when we feel sad, stressed, or anxious. We may rush to label how we are feeling as “bad,” telling ourselves that we “shouldn’t feel this way.”
What if, instead, we shifted our language to something like this:
“I notice I’m feeling sad. Why might I be feeling this way?”
By noticing our emotions in a curious, rather than in a reactive and judgmental way, we can curb the cycle of self-judgment during that moment.
5 Ways to Practice Mindfulness:
1: Self-Compassion
2: Mantras & Positive Affirmations
3: Meditation, online or offline
4: Progressive Muscle Relaxation
5: Loving Kindness/ Metta
Self-compassion is another great way to relate to our emotions more gently. Some individuals find a mantra to repeat to help cultivate a sense of warmth and love towards oneself. Many people enjoy practicing self-compassion through meditation.
One popular self-compassion meditation is called loving-kindness meditation, or “metta.” There are also meditations to soothe the body, such as progressive muscle relaxation. These meditations can be accessed online through recordings, apps, and videos.
Mindfulness On Desktop:
Check out some popular channels on YouTube. Three examples are listed below:
1: Daily Calm – 10 Minute Meditations
2: 3- Minute Breathing Meditation
3: 20-Minute Mindfulness Meditation for Being Present
Mindfulness On Mobile:
Whether you have an iPhone or Android, there are several paid and free mobile apps you can download to help you incorporate mindfulness into your daily life.
Check out 5 of the most popular options available on the App Store and Google Play:
1: Headspace
3: Mindfulness Daily
4: Calm
5: Stop Breathe & Think
Reflect is dedicated to sparking open and honest conversations. I believe it is important to speak candidly to others about the raw and difficult emotions we are experiencing. We are all grappling with emotions at various volumes and frequencies.
As loving-kindness meditations explain, suffering is universal. Challenging times like the current COVID-19 pandemic only further highlight this point. It can be difficult to know who to turn to during uncertain times. Often, we might hold back out of fear of causing others more pain.
I urge you, now more than ever, to take that leap of faith. Reach out to someone close to you. Spark this type of conversation. Lend an ear to support someone else.
As Reflect has so poignantly stated, it would behoove us to view this time as one of “physical distancing,” rather than “social distancing.” We all want to continue to feel connected and less alone while doing our best to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 Anxiety Coping Strategy #2: Establish a Routine
With many people returning to campus or work in a remote fashion, it can be helpful to establish a new COVID-safe routine. Creating a routine allows us to feel more in control, which in turn may lessen anxiety’s impact.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Set an alarm for the same time each weekday while working from home
- Take a walk to get some exercise during the time you’d typically dedicate to your morning commute to work or class.
- Schedule Zoom lunches with friends to simulate an old routine
- Host video chat with friends while playing games
At SIOV, our team has been using video conferencing tools like Zoom and Google Hangouts for planning and catching up!
All of these options can provide an opportunity to stay connected.
COVID-19 Anxiety Coping Strategy #3: Healthy Activities
Finding activities that bring you joy is also important.
Have you tried any of these yet?
- Learning to play or practicing a musical instrument
- Watching a new movie or TV show
- Cooking
- Gardening
- Playing a card game
- Reading a book
- Creative Writing
I believe that bringing mindful awareness into lives by scheduling a routine is an excellent way to stimulate our senses.
Limit Screen-time to Reduce COVID-19 Anxiety
If you’re in need of a media break, set times to turn off news updates. Putting our phones down half an hour before bed and reading a book gives our eyes and minds a rest from the screen.
Offline Activities to Try Instead:
Why not try one of these ideas to help you reduce stress?
- Sit down to enjoy a warm cup of coffee each morning
- Take a warm or cool shower
- Listen to relaxing music
- Apply lavender oil to your pillows
- Integrate exercise into your weekly schedule
- Try meditation
- Practice yoga to allow the mind to unwind.
Advocacy During COVID-19:
If you are passionate about a cause, consider finding a platform or space to become an advocate. By supporting nonprofits, charities, and advocacy initiatives, you can help make the world a better, fairer place.
I believe we can create a space in which we acknowledge the good, the bad, and the ugly in our world. Concurrently, we can also find solace by commiserating and empathizing with one another during a time of universal suffering. Feelings of anxiety and sadness are to be expected during times like these. You don’t need to push these feelings aside.
Try to notice when these thoughts and feelings arise and acknowledge their presence and function under these circumstances.
We may not yet know when a vaccine will be widely disseminated or when quarantine will fully come to an end. By living our lives as mindfully and connected as we can, however, we can reduce anxiety’s impact and find ways to cope with anxiety and other challenges during this disconcerting time during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Author Bio – Danielle Moskow:
Danielle is a clinical psychology Ph.D. student at Boston University (BU). Danielle is originally from right outside Philadelphia and graduated from Emory University in 2015. After working as a research assistant for several years, Danielle received her Master’s degree from BU in 2019.
She is currently conducting research in Dr. Stefan Hofmann’s Psychotherapy and Emotion Research Laboratory. Danielle is also a practicum student at the McLean Behavioral Health Partial Hospital Program. In addition to utilizing CBT strategies, Danielle leads groups and conducts individual therapy using dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) techniques.
Once she receives her doctorate, Danielle hopes to continue conducting research, teaching, and treating patients with emotional disorders, with a particular interest in the young adult population.
This article was originally published here on the Reflect Organization’s blog! Visit their platform to see similar content and learn more about what they do.
dmoskow@bu.edu
Stay tuned for upcoming articles and posts featuring impactful stories from college students. Let’s start an open and honest conversation one