While staying in, I would recommend some therapeutic activities to help stimulate and ease yourself. A lot of my patients benefit from the app “Calm”. It allows you to clear your mind and stay present. Some physical activity like light stretching, reading an enjoyable book, and watching some positive or humorous TV can help you stay away from spiraling.
A technique that works well in helping us stay centered is the idea of thinking that “it could be worse”. This scenario could be worse. We could be staying in without some of the luxuries we have access to; wifi, electricity, delivery.
Structure can help you feel focused during a time when feeling motivated might not come as easily. The goals we set for ourselves during this time do not have to be extreme or challenging by any means. If you tell yourself that your going to spend even just five minutes working on something, then spend those five minutes and chances are you will feel immersed and spend more than that.
Try to focus on “What Is” instead of “What if”. For example: I am healthy so I don’t need to focus on what if I was not. The second we start think about what if and what could happen is when we start to go down that negative pathway that leads to anxiety. Anxiety exists in the future and we end up scaring ourselves about scenarios that aren’t actually happening in the present.
It’s important that we thank ourselves and that we are It’s important that we thank ourselves and that we are kind to ourselves during this time. Taking the initiative to practice self-care and stay home to better our communities isn’t the easiest thing because it’s not our normal behavior. It’s a courageous act.
I like to tell my clients that they aren’t ‘Fortune Tellers.’ We don’t know the future and we can’t predict it. If you’re going to try and figure out what is going to happen in the future you might end up causing fear and fear doesn’t benefit us.
A very useful technique is “Thought Stopping”. You actually give yourself those boundaries. Maybe you say to yourself that you wont think about a specific topic until later in the day. When the mind starts to fill up with the negative news and feelings of coronavirus, you essentially shut it down by prolonging until later.I would recommend creating boundaries surrounding the amount of time and information you allow into your orbit on the subject of the corona virus. Try to feed your mind and energy with uplifting information.
