What’s on My Mind?: COVID-19: Coping with COVID-19

April 6, 2020

Coping with COVID-19

What’s on my mind? COVID-19. This is a time to focus on feelings. Monitoring yours will help you reach out for help, or reach out to others who may be feeling bored, frustrated, depressed, or angry. Turn those negative feelings around by doing several things:

1/ Get out of bed, make your bed, have a shower, brush your teeth, wash your hair, and get dressed. Returning to familiar routines is a smart start.

2/ Think about what you’d like to accomplish, today. Cleaning the house? Shopping online? Answering emails? Going for a walk? Set a realistic daily goal and a realistic time frame in which to complete it. Computer games are fun, but become depressing when that’s how you spend your day. Having a drink can be a stress-reliever, but alcohol and pills can quickly become a depressant if you have too much, too often.

3/ Plan ahead. You need to eat. Think about lunch and dinner. Grocery deliveries can take several days. Buy extra.

4/ Examine your finances. If you need to make some changes, don’t delay. This, too, will take some time to complete, so get going!

5/ Read that book you’ve always wanted to. Play Sudoku. Write letters of love and forgiveness. Paint the house. Weed the garden. Do whatever it is you’ve been putting off because you “haven't had time.” Spending hours online every day can be a downer. Try to avoid that trap.

7/ Keep on top of the news, but set a realistic time limit and stick to it. Try not to become addicted to bad news. You know most of it isn’t good, right now, but - as the old saying goes - if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

6/ Call friends and acquaintances to ask: “How are you coping? Everything okay over there? What have you been up to?” It needn’t be a long call. Just letting someone know you’re thinking of them will boost their spirits and yours.

7/ Practice kindness. Give. Share. Love unconditionally. Pray - not just for you and your family, but for people in places you’ve never been and have never seen.