Are you feeling anxiety, fear, and overwhelm due to the current pandemic? If so, I’ve created this article in hopes of helping ease your mind and shift your thoughts towards being calm and empowered. As a Mindset and Manifestation coach, helping you harness the power of your thoughts is what I do, and I’d love to help you through this challenging time.
Please share this post with anyone you think would benefit from reading the tips below. And I’ll be sharing a Support Guide with even more support soon.
*VIDEO* 7 Ways to Help Overcome Anxiety/Stress/Overwhelm During Difficult Times
Click here to watch this video about overcoming anxiety/stress/overwhelm during turbulent times if the above player doesn’t work.
Panic vs Love
The current pandemic is very serious. So it’s important that as a baseline, we are staying informed and doing our part to flatten the curve and support our community and loved ones.
With that being said, this is also a time that many of us are spiraling into negative thinking, and this post is intended to help with this. Operating from a place of panic and fear does not support your highest good nor the highest good of your community and/or loved ones.
Now is the time we can choose our intention for how we want to get through this. I believe that operating from strength, kindness, and love is the best way we can be there for ourselves and come together as a cohesive drive for good for our community, our loved ones, and the world holistically.
From strength, kindness, and love, we can do amazing things.
Tips to Overcome Pandemic Anxiety/Fear/Overwhelm the High Vibe Way
Here are my tips for how to overcome pandemic anxiety, fear, and overwhelm the high vibe way. Rather than forcing our way through and pushing through this time with the theme of struggle, I believe there is a better way. A way to manage with loving kindness towards ourselves and others. Read on to learn how.
#1 Let Yourself Feel Without Judgement
With all emotions, it’s important to let yourself feel whatever’s coming through without judgement. Beating yourself up about feeling anxious isn’t going to do any good. And anyways, feeling anxious and upset at this time is totally normal. So there’s no need to judge anyways. Show yourself the same love and kindness you’d give a loved one.
Also remember: You are not your thoughts. You are *you* experiencing certain thoughts. And that’s okay.
When You’re Ready to Release These Thoughts…
Let yourself feel whatever is coming up and when you’re ready, decide that feelings of anxiety, fear, and overwhelm do not serve your highest good and that you intend to choose thoughts that do support your highest good. You can choose better thoughts with the intention of love and kindness for yourself.
When you catch yourself in low vibe thoughts, affirm your choice for better-feeling thoughts by saying:
“I release thoughts that do not serve me and choose thoughts that do serve my highest good.”
Repeat this affirmation, as needed.
#2 Be Informed *Enough*
Consuming information to stay informed is good. But it’s also important to recognize when you’re reaching a level of information consumption that is overwhelming you (or is about to / is starting to). For most of us, there is a very small amount of information that is necessary compared to all the information available. Consume what you need and let go of the excess.
“Being tuned in to the 24 hour news cycle may fuel a lot of negative feelings like anxiety, sadness and hopelessness,”
says Dr. Jana Scrivani, a clinical psychologist. [Source]
Here are 3 tips for staying informed without the overwhelm:
- Check the news only once a day
- Use trusted sources only (there’s a lot of misinformation that is causing unnecessary fear)
- If you need extra help, ask a trusted friend/loved one/etc. to give you updates so you can stay out of the news altogether
And remember your intention. You can choose to check the news because you’re worried and flipping the eff out, or you can check it with the intention of strength, love, and kindness. The latter being so you know what to do to best support yourself, your loved ones, and your community.
#3 Recognize What You Can and Cannot Control
If you’re reading this article there’s a good chance you’re an empath and/or light worker. Which means you’re really in tune to the feelings and experiences of others. Which also means that you may be feeling even higher levels of stress.
Whether you’re empathic or not, you may be feeling lost and confused because you’re feeling out of control.
The important thing to recognize here is what IS and IS NOT in your control. AND for anything outside of your control, remember to acknowledge that you can’t do anything about it, and release it.
For example: you may find it very stressful to hear stories of medical teams running out of face masks and having to fashion face masks out of bandanas that aren’t as effective. Or you may feel frustration at hearing that there are teenagers going on spring break trips, potentially spreading their germs to others unnecessarily.
Here’s the thing, and I know this is frustrating, and I know this sucks, but…for the most part, you can’t do anything about medical teams running out of masks just like you can’t force those teenagers to not travel.
It’s important to not get worked up about things outside of our control, because doing so only lowers your vibe, gives you stress, and does NOT change the situation.
Being upset about medical teams running out of masks doesn’t get them more masks. Being frustrated about teenagers going on spring break doesn’t prevent them from potentially spreading their germs.
So what can you do? Focus on what you can control.
I like to ask myself,
“Is there anything I can do about this?”
For example: If you have masks to donate to your local hospital, donate them. If you’re close with the soon-to-travel teenager, maybe you convince them to skip their trip.
But for most of us, the best thing we can do is stay home, wash our hands, and practice social distancing (or whatever the latest best practices are).
Now…here’s another potential area for feeling out of control…
Within social distancing, there is a potential for feeling out of control. You may find yourself feeling anguish at being stuck at home. But remember what we talked about. Can you control whether you have to stay at home or not? You cannot.
So rather than getting worked up about that, choose to focus on what you can control – the quality of your time spent at home and what you do with that time.
#4 Remember to Belly Breathe
The simple act of taking a deep breath can be incredibly relaxing. Your breath is actually quite powerful after all.
On top of that, when we’re stressed out, our type of breath can actually change, and we can start to breathe from our chest.
“With shallower breaths, less oxygen enters the blood, hurting digestion, increasing the heart rate and tensing muscles.Chest breathing is most common when we feel stressed, anxious, or in pain.” [Source]
By focusing our breathing to the belly through “abdominal breathing”, we can actually engage our breath to help relax. This is why if you’ve ever done yoga or meditation, you may remember your instructor directing you to breath from your belly.
Here are 3 tips for using your breath to de-stress
- Next time you catch yourself stressing out, remember to take a deep and slow breath in and out.
- If you want to take this further, try belly breathing by focusing on filling your belly with air when you breathe in and emptying your belly of air when you breathe out.
- You can also use an app like Calm, which has a breathing feature to help you practice deep, slow, and relaxing breaths.
Bonus tip: remember to leverage the power of intention. As you breathe, affirm:
With this breath, I am bringing calm and peace to my mind, body, and soul.
And if you want to take these even further, consider trying meditation.
#5 Focus on the Good
When challenging and sad times happen, it can feel like all the bad parts of society are acting out. Sometimes, the worst of people is what gets highlighted in the news and on social media. But you may have noticed something else. Something I personally like to pay more attention to because it helps calm me. And that’s focusing on the good.
On the good stories, the good acts, and the good people who also come out of the woodwork when things are falling apart. It’s like that famous Mr. Rogers quote:
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” ~Fred Rogers
Focusing on the good reminds me that even in our darkest times there are still beacons of hope. That the world hasn’t suddenly shifted to all bad things and bad people. And that there are still so many good people doing amazing and beautiful things.
Simple stories, like the woman who stepped in to buy groceries for a family who couldn’t pay at checkout. Or all the people I see offering to help those at risk with grocery shopping and dog walking on the Next Door app. Even the person who posted needing a laptop charger who received offers from multiple neighbors within just a couple hours.
I’ve also loved hearing that people are putting up Christmas and holiday decorations to spread cheer. And that people are having balcony parties and Zumba classes that span multiple backyards for proper social distancing.
When we come together from a place of strength, love, and kindness, amazing things happen!
#6 “This is good because…”
Since we’ve already established that we need to release what’s outside of our control and focus on what is within our control, let’s talk about how we’re spending our time.
You can either mope around, complain, or get worked up about being stuck at home, or you can choose to do something good with this. The time will pass one way or the other, but YOU get to decide how that time goes.
Next time you catch yourself feeling down about being home, say:
“This is good because…”
And find a reason that being home is good.
Here are some examples of why it’s good to be home
- I get to spend more quality time with my family
- Now’s the perfect time to finish that book I started (last year)
- I can try that at-home workout I bought awhile back
- We can do a Star Wars movie marathon
- I can use my commute time to meditate instead
- This is a great time for me to do some self-work
And I’m sure if you put your mind towards it, you can come up with a long list of ideas for yourself.
Finding enjoyable ways to pass the time will make your experience better, and you may even come out on the other side stronger. That’s what I’m hoping to do, at least. But that’s how I try to handle all of life’s challenges. This approach has helped me get through some really dark times, and I’m going to do my best to apply it here, as well. Maybe this approach would help you too?
Choosing to do something good with this time will also help you go from feeling out of control to feeling empowered. From here, you can further operate from a place of love and kindness.
#7 Practice Gratitude
Gratitude is one of the most powerful practices on the planet. It can very quickly raise your vibration and help you feel more strength, love, and kindness.
While it may seem difficult to practice gratitude when there’s so much going on around the world, this is actually an even more important time to get into the habit. Focusing on lack generates low vibes, scarcity, and even fear. Whereas focusing on gratitude generates high vibes, abundance, and strength.
On top of that, studies show that gratitude enhances your immune system:
“Clinical trials indicate that the practice of gratitude can have dramatic and lasting effects in a person’s life,” said Robert A. Emmons, professor of psychology at UC Davis. “It can lower blood pressure, improve immune function and facilitate more efficient sleep.” [Source]
Want to know how to practice gratitude? I have videos and posts to help you!
Simple Gratitude How-To: Choose one thing per day to be grateful for. Let yourself feel the energy of appreciation for that thing.
Want more tips…I got you!
How to Practice Gratitude
- How to Start a Gratitude Practice (6 Easy and Fun Ways)
- How to Practice Gratitude When You’re Too Busy (5 Quick & Easy Ideas)
I believe that if each of us (or at least a lot of us) practiced gratitude on the regular, we would lift the vibration of the world! Imagine what that could do!
Summary
Whilst this is a difficult and challenging time for so many of us, giving in to panic, fear, and overwhelm does not support you. When you can overcome these low vibe feelings and operate from a place of strength, love, and kindness, you can best support yourself, your loved ones, and your community.
If you found these tips helpful, please consider sharing this with a friend or loved one who could also benefit from this post.
Join the Community
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Click here to join the community
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Follow me on Instagram (@thechiclife) for daily high vibe posts to support you through this time
More Support and Positive Inspiration
Get my High Vibe Turbulent Times Support Guide Support Guide here
Click here for 10 Health Affirmations to boost your health the woo way
Click here for 5 High Vibe Steps to Get Out of Despair
Click here to learn How I Overcame My Back Injury Using Law of Attraction
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Thank you so much for reading about How to Overcome Pandemic Anxiety/Fear/Overwhelm the High Vibe Way. I hope you found this post helpful and it helped you get to more calm and peace.
Questions? Comments? Please dd them below, and let’s chat!