Coping with The Current Virus Chaos – Anxiety
How To Manage Uncertainty in Uncertain Times
Things have changed incredibly for us all with this current pandemic. All the uncertainty can be difficult to cope with.
You may feel anxious or stressed right now and therefore you may be finding it difficult to rein in worrying thoughts and you may feel insecure about your future.
But help is at hand – you CAN discover how to cope with uncertainty.
Facing Uncertainty is Scarier than Facing Unavoidable Physical Pain
A recent study shows that the uncertainty of something bad happening can be more stressful than the knowledge of something bad happening.
Uncertainty Stirs Up Our Basic Survival Impulse
If we can’t defuse a perceived threat, we become occupied with the unhelpful activity of worrying.
We wrestle with the particular issue to find solutions to the threat, but there aren’t any.
Instead of making us feel better – it makes us feel worse!
We are naturally wired to ‘catastrophise’ i.e. we think about a circumstance as being worse than it actually is. This leads to worry, which ends in anxiety.
Our modern brains struggle to differentiate between real threat and supposed threat. This leads to our primitive brains taking over and triggering our primitive, fight or flight, survival instinct.
It asks questions:
What’s going to happen?
Is my business going to collapse?
Supposing I lose my job?
Could I fall ill from the virus?
How can I cope?
A lack of answers can lead to all sorts of emotions such as:
– Anger
– Resentment
– Frustration
– Depression
What Can we do to Allay Uncertainty?
There are a number of things we can do to reduce the effects of uncertainty:
Awareness is your secret weapon:
- Be more consciously aware of your feelings and emotions
- Notice the “worry narrative” you are telling yourself – try to distance yourself from it
- Focus on breathing – take long slow breaths – breathe out for longer than you breathe in
- Recognise the need to conquer your basic instinct for fight-or-flight
- Accept uncertainty rather than trying to battle against it
Stand up to Anxiety with Some Mood-Boosters
- Get some exercise or movement
- Do some meditating, self-hypnosis
- Find a purpose – volunteer or doing something for someone, achieve something
- Find something pleasant or fun to do
Just 15 minutes a day, focusing on yourself, will help you regain a sense of balance.
The more you practice all these strategies, the better you will become!
For further information and details of how to download my FREE Anxiety Release recording click here Anxiety Release
