4 Simple Steps To Overcoming Fear & Anxiety During The Coronavirus Pandemic
How will you respond to fear over the coronavirus pandemic?
by Miguel Arcanjo Saddi from Pexels So many have been affected by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, that it's easy to embrace fear, anxiety, and overwhelming stress during times of quarantine and isolation to protect against this virus.
But during this pandemic, it's important to not forget how to overcome fear and keep your mental health strong.
There are many reasons why fear sets in: The possibility of vulnerable loved ones getting sick, like children, the elderly, or those with weakened immune systems.
No one know how long the quarantine will last or how will this affect the economy, both with your pocketbook and globally. No one wants to get sick, but the illness is not what will affect us the most this year — its the financial stress this will put on everyone.
Most people will recover, but the hit this will have on the entire world is hard to wrap your brain around. When you start to think about how this could affect you, you have a choice to allow fear or love to guide you, which is more important now than ever due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Fear is normal to experience; it's part of a checks-and-balances system that ensures you take the time to think about your choices. Fear also can be crippling. Fear only becomes unhealthy when you allow it to hold you back from experiencing life to its fullest.
How does fear impact you?
Fear is there to give you the pause to think about what's happening and give you choices to weigh. This pause is such a beautiful gift because it gives you the time to objectively look at all angles.
So often, you may see these unknown options as scary rather than an adventure. Your body will have the same physiological effects, no matter what words you use: "scary" or "adventure." The only difference is one brings fear and one brings joy.
One keeps you stuck, and one moves you forward. Both bring on caution, but one holds you back.
It's so important to remember everyone has something that brings up fear for them, and the important thing is to focus on love-based living, rather than fear-based living. Your thinking keeps you stuck.
It can keep you rigid and seeing things with fear instead of opening up your perspective and responding with love and courage. So how do you shift to love-based thinking? The key is to connect with your heart and intuitive side.
You live in a world where you get caught up "doing" instead of being present in the moment. Being in a productive "doing" mode keeps you stuck in your head and not in tune with your intuitive side, which can make it easy to be afraid while you're quarantined and in isolation.
Here are 4 simple steps to overcome fear and anxiety during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
1. Take a pause.
Your intuition recognizes and understands fear, but continues to move you into a life where things just happen. By focusing on your intuition, you'll be able to move forward with the fear and know it's normal.
Fear is there to protect you and give you a "pause" to think about what is happening around you.
What does a pause mean? Rather than emotionally auto-responding to life circumstances or stress, take a moment to see everything happening around you from an observer's viewpoint and allow this information to guide your intuition.
So often you're in such a hurry, you'll forget to take a moment to see things aren't happening to you or there to make you miserable, but that they're there to give you direction or clues. This is called the "pause," and it's your friend.
How do you integrate the pause? Step into observer mode. When you're an observer, you can see many perspectives, not just yours. When you're able to see many perspectives, you can make a love-based decision.
So many times you may auto-respond with anger, hurt, or sadness. This often leads to you feeling guilty for your actions. When you feel like you want to auto respond to any situation, this is a great time to take a pause.
Give yourself some space to think before you just react.
2. Use meditation or prayer to center yourself.
COVID-19 has brought in a lot of panic for people. Instinctually, you want to respond and kick in autopilot mode. But by taking time to get silent and focused, you're not only giving yourself a much-needed pause, but also getting in touch with your intuitive side.
Fear and anxiety over the coronavirus may force you to stay in a hurry and keep busy, which means you'll end up not seeing or hearing all the signs given to you from your internal intuitive self.
Every day, take time to get quiet. Listen to the silence for answers. You may refer to this type of silence as prayer, meditation, etc. It doesn't matter what you call it as long as you know its the key to finding peace and not responding in fear.
Plus it's free and available to anyone! And when you take time to get quiet, you'll get answers in alignment with the morals, values, and beliefs of your true self.
3. Stop letting negativity influence your thoughts.
First, you need to know who you want to be and become. You have a lot of private conversations in your own head, which influence how you feel about what's happening and directly affects what you do. This is the key to making a lasting change in any area of your life. Your mind has power!
When you realize change starts with understanding those private conversations you have in your head, you stop the destructive cycle of allowing life to "happen" to you and start leading the way.
If fears are only true in your mind, then you need to decide if you'll allow it to hold you back or embrace the fear and keep charging forward. Remember, it's normal to have fear. What isn't normal is allowing the fear to stop you from doing what you want.
Take a moment today to listen to the words in your head.
4. Focus on hope instead of fear.
Take some time to think about what you want and the end result you hope to acheive. This is called "planting the seed."
Giving your mind an idea of what to think about and how to feel will help those positive thoughts develop and grow. When you plant the seed, it takes time just like the seeds you plant in the garden. Be patient, fertilize your seed, water it, and watch it grow.
It's okay to take baby steps forward, because what you're doing today is giving yourself tools or connections for the future. You may not have any idea what the future is or looks like, but you don't need to understand it to plant the seed of hope and keep yourself from focusing on anxiety and fear during this pandemic.
Teresa Brenke is a life coach, speaker, and fitness expert. For more information on how she can help you, visit her website here.