Are You Suffering from Pandemic Overwhelm or Anxiety?

Are you suffering from pandemic overwhelm or anxiety? Would you like some relief? 

Read this to understand what you're experiencing & how to move through it.

In the immortal words of Boom Crash Opera, "These here are crazy times!"

Globally, we are experiencing something that most of us could never have imagined & weren't mentally or emotionally prepared for. When the pandemic unleashed itself on the world over two years ago, most of us thought it may last a few months (at worst) & then life would get back to 'normal'. Well, weren't we overly optimistic & incredibly wrong!

After such an extended period of uncertainty, information/misinformation via a 24/7 news cycle, confusion, life changing restrictions, stress & fear, our ANXIETY levels are through the roof! I've lost count of the number of people who've told me they're feeling anxious on a daily basis & that they've been experiencing this for months. And this is happening to people who've never suffered from anxiety before.

Anxiety is one of the ways we respond to overwhelm, the other is depression. What makes our current situation so difficult is that we're trying to cope with stress & anxiety concurrently. Stress is generally our response to an external cause (a stressor) & can range from the stress we feel when we need to do public speaking to when we have an argument with someone or if we're under pressure & overworked in our workplace. Stress normally abates when the stressor is removed. Anxiety, on the other hand, is a person's particular reaction to stress, & the mental &/or physical response can still occur in the absence of the stressor.

So, watching the tenth news report of the day outlining the current Covid statistics, economic impacts & restrictions will certainly make your stress levels rise. And you may experience something like tightness in the chest, a head that feels really busy, like it's spinning out of control, or a heaviness & tension throughout your body. We all feel stress differently. But long after you've switched off the news you may still have those feelings within your mind & body, you may experience a persistent dread or apprehension about what could happen. According to Lifeline, anxiety is "excessive & uncontrollable anticipation of future perceived threats". And it doesn't only occur within our conscious & subconscious minds, the anxiety occurs within every cell of our bodies, even when we don't realise we're 'thinking' about it.

Our bodies are a direct reflection of what's taking place in our minds & brains. So anxiety can present as restlessness or irritability, anger, insomnia, fatigue, feeling 'on edge', headaches, gastro-intestinal issues, difficulty concentrating, breathing problems, amongst others.

We become overwhelmed when we no longer have coping mechanisms left to deal with something specific or, at crazy times like these, life in general. I like to use the analogy of a jug of water, where the water represents our coping mechanisms. And we fill all the different cups that present themselves to us, in our daily lives, from this jug. These cups may include responsibilities of our jobs, taking care of our children, supporting our partner, looking after an aged parent, trying to stay healthy so we can look after everyone else, trying to manage financially on a reduced income, etc. And as we pour the water out of our jug, it gets emptier & emptier & then something else happens & something else, & we realise our jug is EMPTY... we have NO coping mechanisms left. And that's when anxiety steps in!

Anxiety isn't a personal thing that only you are experiencing, it's
something that every mammal does when they can't meet an event, or sometimes their life, with the coping mechanisms they currently possess. And depersonalising anxiety, rather than completely internalising & perceiving it as a weakness within ourself, can help us gain some control over it. Just imagine that anxiety is a fist & it's chasing a thumb, which is you. When the thumb is running away from the fist, then the fist - the anxiety - is in charge. But if the thumb stops running, holds its ground & stands up to the fist, then the thumb - you - is in charge.

Whatever you are experiencing, other people are experiencing too. It's not just you! There's nothing wrong with you! We're all being chased by the same fist at the moment & we need to stand up to it. We can do this in many ways & here are a few :-

label it - give the emotion you are experiencing a name, by saying "I'm feeling anxious right now," rather than trying to pretend it's not happening or desperately trying to wish it away .. both of which tend to give it more power & more of our focus & energy.

breathe - diaphragmatic breathing (ie. belly breathing & not chest breathing) engages the parasympathetic nervous system, which slows down the stress response (the fight, flight or freeze' reaction) by releasing hormones that relax both the mind & body. The most important aspects of this breathing technique are that you breathe into & out of your belly & that the exhales are double the length of the inhales. So, inhale for a count of 3-4, exhale for a count of 6-8 & repeat 10 times.

be present - focus on the here-&-now. Focus your attention on your surroundings & notice with ALL of your senses. Notice what you can see, what you can hear, what you can touch, what you can taste & what you can smell, in this very moment. This will focus your mind & attention on the here-&-now, rather than the potential 'what- if' scenarios being created within you.

reorient - you can reorient every aspect of anxiety. If you get a tight chest, you can unclench the fists that you 'see' &/or 'feel' there; you can change the direction, speed & colour of your whirling stomach; the cogs spinning out of control in your mind can be slowed down, rearranged & reconnected together to create a new track within your head. These seemingly simple changes can make a remarkable difference to your experience. Just change whatever it is you're experiencing, to the opposite of what it's currently doing!

externalise - you can then remove & externalise it from your body & place it outside of you, to the left. This can be done in your mind or you can actually use your hands to 'drag' the feeling out of you, which can sometimes feel even more cathartic. Whatever works for you! The only thing we can totally control in situations like these is what's happening internally, inside us. So, let's remove everything that isn't working for us, that isn't resourceful, that isn't enjoyable, that isn't beneficial. Just get it OUT of you! And once you've removed it, you can acknowledge it out there, which reinforces that it's now separate from you ... & your experience will feel completely different.

As I said earlier, anxiety is something that many of us have experienced throughout this pandemic, so don't think you're alone & please don't beat yourself up about it. Try some of these quick, easy, surprisingly powerful techniques for rapid mind & body relief.

And as you utilise these new tools .. & experience rapid relief .. you can just relax .. & imagine .. 

what it will be like for you in the future .. now ..


Kim Harrison
www.mindmakeover.com.au

Location: Paradise Point QLD 4216, Australia

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