Facing Anxiety

In face of the current novel coronavirus epidemic, it is normal to feel anxious or life threatened. Being able to take good care of your emotions is one of the important ways to boost your immunity.

How can you take care of your emotions?

You can befriend with any emotions that you have. Take the example of anxiety, you can stay with this emotion in a tender and accepting way. Notice where in your body you feel the anxiousness. You can touch this body part with your hand(s) and let it knows that you are paying attention to it. You care, you love, and you can send compassion to this part. Sometimes just doing this can help to soothe discomfort and keep your parts in alignment to fight against external challenges.

During companionship, apart from feeling a little relieved, you may also notice physical reactions, such as yawning, burping, tears, trembling, vibrations, or energy flowing in the body. These are signals that the body is releasing stress. You can relax and just let it happen. If you feel it is too much or too strong, you can open your eyes to take a closer look at the environment or listen to the subtle sounds around you. Normally, this helps you feel safer as it brings you out of the imagined danger and back to the here and now.

Just like taking care of young children, after attending to your emotion long enough, you can have dialogue with it. You can ask the part(s) if it needs anything. Be patient if you don’t get an immediate answer. You can try gently again later. If your body wisdom gives you an answer, you can further ask what small actions you can take to meet this need. It just has to be something achievable and satisfying.

Once you are more stable, you can reach out to help others. This helps to build a harmonious relationship between you, other people and the world. According to the LAW of ONE, whatever you do will affect and reach everyone, including you.

Here, I will provide you with an illustration. For instance, a person may feel frustrated and helpless as all his/her work has to be postponed. The first step is to take care and validate the current emotions. Besides, it is also important to have regular exercise, balanced diet and adequate sleep. One can also have a little fun by spending time on hobby such as painting. When mood improves, one may notice that there are needs to be seen and to be able to do something. After knowing the needs, one can think of ways to meet them. For example, if one wants to be seen, one can talk to relatives and friends through video or social media. Then, without leaving home, one can have stronger connection with others. This sense of togetherness is beneficial for building resilience. To meet the need of being able to do something, one can choose to take the initiative to call a relative or friend every alternate day to show one’s care. Besides one can also develop plans to prepare for work when the epidemic is over.

Each individual will have one’s own unique way of taking care of emotions. After trying the above method, if you feel even worse or more difficult issues are triggered, it may be an indication to seek for professional help of counselling/ psychotherapy.

We are all in this and you are not alone. Wish you all stay safe and healthy.