Tips for Coping During Difficult Times

23 Apr 2020

Tips for coping during this challenging time

It has now been over a month since all of our lives changed in response to COVID-19. This does not however mean that over the past month you have found ways to cope with the fallout from all of these changes. Many of us are faced with stress, anxiety, sadness and grief and are unclear about how to manage this influx of emotion and uncertainty. Here are a few tips to help guide you through this difficult time.

Firstly, take a moment to consider how you have been feeling. Often times just being able to acknowledge your feelings and label them (i.e. I am feeling anxious, sad, numb) can give you the opportunity to better cope. In addition, tuning into how those feelings manifest in your body (i.e. tense shoulders, butterflies in your stomach), is another way to open yourself up to the sensations and emotions as they are. As humans, we are programmed to not want to feel discomfort and negative emotion but often wanting to immediately change how we are feeling can make the emotions stronger. Acknowledging and giving space to your feelings by labelling them, sharing with a trusted person or writing can help you cope better with what you are experiencing. 

Once you have tuned into and given space to your feelings it is important to assess how intense those feelings are on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being minimal and 10 being intense, as this can inform what steps to take next. If you are between a 5-10 this signals a higher level of upset. This is a good opportunity to take 5-10 minutes to practice grounding by tuning into your five senses (5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste). Deep belly breathing is also an excellent tool to help lessen the intensity of your feelings. 

If you are between 1-5 on the rating scale this is an opportunity to examine what thoughts are contributing to how you are feeling (i.e. are you thinking of the worst case scenario?). It is important to remember that thoughts are just that, thoughts, they are not necessarily the truth or good predictors of the future. Ask yourself, are these thoughts based on facts? Am I watching news and social media that is unhelpful to me right now? Am I talking to people who are sparking more worry or doom and gloom thinking? Once you have done this, choose to hold onto a more balanced thought that you can repeat to yourself in times of stress.

Remember, we are in this together and this too shall pass. Take this opportunity to try some new ways of coping and be kind and gentle with yourself along the way.