Can you believe it? I’ve been doing this One Minute Mindset for a whole month now. I live in California and we were among the first places in the US to go on “shelter in place” back on March 20th.
It all happened so fast and we’ve had to adapt to so many different things: working from home, or not being able to work at all; being with our families 24/7; not going out to the gym or restaurants. Plus we’re not going through this individually but the whole world is experiencing it at the same time. Every day in the news we see people dealing with this in much worse circumstances than we have.
It Is A lot To Deal With
It’s overwhelming. And it’s not surprising at all that we’ve had moments or even days of feeling anxious. I’m hearing more and more about friends and students feeling anxious.
In fact, psychologists are saying that dealing with this virus is like any other traumatic event, like losing a loved one or getting a really serious diagnosis.
So, if you’ve had some days of anxiety, it’s perfectly natural to sit down and cry, or to feel discouraged and down. It’s okay and even healthy to express those emotions.
But if you’re finding yourself constantly anxious and worried, you need to do something about it. If you don’t, your anxiety will feed on itself and become even worse and out of control.
Think about it: If you had a deep cut on your finger, would you just let it bleed day after day? Would you just ignore it and not do something to treat it like cleaning out the wound and protecting it with a Bandaid so it could heal? Of course not. You are smart enough to know that you need to deal with it, or it will fester and get infected.
Your constant anxiety is the same.
If you don’t deal with it, it’s not going to just disappear by magic. It will fester and get worse and start affecting everything in your life like your relationships, your decision-making, and your ability to cope.
Anxiety Is Contagious
Not only that, but anxiety is highly contagious, and you’ll start infecting others around you with it.
Remember that worry and anxiety is all about imaging something bad is going to happen in the future. The thing you’re anxious about hasn’t happened yet and may not ever happen, right?
Sometimes, anxiety feels general like we’re just worried about everything. But if you break it down, you’ll probably find some very specific things you’re anxious about.
Maybe you’re anxious about whether your business will survive through this. Maybe you’re worried about you or your loved ones catching the virus. Maybe you’re anxious that our “new normal” will be like the last several weeks and you’ll never get to travel, celebrate birthdays with your friends, or go to sporting events again.
None of that has happened yet.
Don't Let Your Imagination Scare You
But your imagination is scaring you with the idea that it might. And the truth is, even if some of our fears do happen, if we keep a strong and healthy mindset, we’ll be able to deal with it.
In the meantime, we’re just making ourselves crazy and wasting precious time by worrying about what hasn’t happened.
Throughout this series, I’ve given you a bunch of practices you can do to feel less anxious. In my blogs, I’ve talked about breathing techniques, having a daily morning practice, gratitude, and so many others.
If you try these—not just once but several times—and your anxiety stays the same, you might need to talk with a counselor or therapist to help you out. There’s no shame in that. If you’re in physical pain, you go to a doctor. If you’re in mental or emotional pain, you go to a therapist. And most therapists now have online sessions for their clients.
Conclusion
Do whatever you need to do to nip your anxiety in the bud. We will get through this. And when we do, we want to be in great shape physically, mentally and emotionally.
And, hey please feel free to write to me and let your feelings out. Sometimes just by writing your feelings out, just like we did yesterday when we wrote the thank you notes, writing your feelings out will make you feel better.
And, remember, we’re all in this together, America.
