After over 2 months of staying home due to COVID-19 many states, including NY, are starting to open up. The days are getting longer, the weather is warmer and nicer so the pull to be outside, travel, see friends is growing and with that so are some people’s anxieties.
The idea of leaving home after being in for so long can be exciting but also frightening.
Weather you stayed home because you were sick, or you were concerned about getting someone you care about sick, or because your state or local government told you to. We all have been home in a big way the last few months while we have been fighting individually and collective the Corona Virus.
How are you feeling about opening up?
Really, take a moment and feel your way through this questions. Chances are you a feeling a number of things about opening up, and thinking a number of thoughts about what that means for you, your family, and your community.
Opening up is going to look different for different people. If you live in the city, suburbs, or more rural areas there will be different fears and different realities to attend to.
Three tips for working with your anxiety about opening up right now
- Identity your anxious thoughts and feelings: by identifying your thoughts and feelings to can begin to work with your situation in a more targeted way. Generalized fears like “I don’t want to go back to work at the office on June 15th it’s too dangerous out there”. If we can break that fear down more specifically perhaps there is a fear off all the people riding the subway close together, or too much hand/germ traffic in the bathroom. Once you start to identify what you are afraid of you can make a plan to deal with it.
- Make a plan: the idea with making a plan is that you take some responsibility of managing your fear. Maybe this means you wear a mask, or bring hand sanitizer with you, perhaps it means you leave extra time to commute to work because you might walk for part of it or won’t get on a crowded buss. Again, these are things you think about and you decide to support you while you are out and about.
- Distract and self-care: Throughout your day it is important to work on having moments when you are not lost in an anxious loop. It might not be easy but this is when distraction can be very helpful; watch that funny movie you love or clean the closet you have been thinking of cleaning. If there is a self-care practice that you have or have been thinking of starting do that. Meditation and exercise are two important ways to strengthen our mind and body while combating stress and anxiety.
For more information with about managing stress and anxiety check out this video blog by therapists Heather Colman, LCSW and Alison Pepper, LCSW
More resources and support
If you are interesting in learning more about meditation watch this guided mediation or read another blog by Alison
If you are looking for online group or individual therapy right now please get in touch. For more information about groups, read more here.
