Self Care During the Coronavirus Pandemic
In light of what is going on around the world and in Japan, I decided to write this, hoping that it will be helpful to all of us. Each person reacts differently to a situation like this, but I think many people have been experiencing worry and fear in recent days. Or maybe some of you have been experiencing a slight hint of sadness every day. Some of you might get overwhelmed with a great sadness that comes upon you all of a sudden. Some of you might be unmotivated or tired or experiencing difficulty sleeping.
This pandemic might be a little different from a big traumatic event that brings a sudden shock and changes, but it still affects us mentally, emotionally and physically.
From the perspective of loss
It is a loss when we can’t do what we used to do and what used to be available is not accessible to us. We can’t see our friends face to face like we used to, the event we were looking forward to is now cancelled, we can’t even go outside without worrying about the virus. We can’t go to school, our children can’t go to school. Some of you might be having financial difficulty or might have even lost a job. These are not small things. Stress is caused whenever we experience changes in our lives.
Our reactions to a loss varies person to person, but one model Kübler-Ross suggests five stages of loss: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.
Denial is basically your defense mechanism to soften the initial shock from the reality of what has occurred. You might have thoughts like, “No, this is not happening” or “This won’t last long” or “I will be OK even if other people get sick.”
Then when you start realizing that things are not changing any time soon, then you start feeling angry.
Then you try to bargain. Some thoughts might be “If I do this, things will go back to normal.”
When the situation still doesn’t change, you may then get depressed. You realize that nothing you do can change the situation and you feel helpless and discouraged.
However, as the time passes, most of the time, you will get used to the new reality and you will start adapting to the new situation and new life style. You might be able to see the benefits of the new situation, or you might be able to discover something you can enjoy, and then you will have a new hope and you can move on. Some people go back and forth among those stages and some people don’t go through all the stages. That’s OK. If you get stuck in one stage, you might have to seek help, but otherwise we will usually be able to move on eventually.
The important thing is to acknowledge and accept our own reactions to the situation. When we are sad and struggling, we need to face our feelings honestly without running away from them. It is also important to share your feelings with your family and friends. And we can think together how we can accept the reality and adopt to the situation.
Stress from our freedom being restricted and dealing with unknowns
Many people are feeling stressed because their freedom is being restricted. After facing the reality and allowing ourselves to feel sadness, you can think about what we have control over. We can’t control the Corona virus spreading. We can’t control the work situation or school situation, but we have control over our own schedule, for example. So, we can plan our day and add something to look forward to each day. For example, we can’t go to the gym, but we can exercise in our apartment/house. We can’t go to a cafe or restaurant, but we can try a new recipe and make our own cafe style lunch. We can’t go out with friends, but we can plan a video call to eat lunch/dinner together. This is an opportunity to use your imagination to think about things you can do right and that will help you experience freedom in a new way.
Also, many people have been experiencing anxiety in the current situation because there are so many unknowns. We don’t know exactly when this whole pandemic will end. We don’t know what the work situation will be like etc. You feel the chaos around you. In a situation like this, it’s important to give yourself structure. Although we can’t predict our future, we can establish our own daily routine which will give us some predictability and structure. That will help us live our daily life with a sense of security and it will alleviate some anxiety.
There are many things you can do to manage your stress. Breathing exercise, yoga, taking a bath can activate your parasympathetic nerve and help you calm down. We can talk more about this next time.
Blessing from being thankful
In Bible, you see the phrase, “Be thankful” or “Give thanks” many times. I think this really reveals that God knows our bodies perfectly because He created them. There is much research regarding this topic. By being thankful, your hormone balance is stabilized, the brain and heart become coherent, the heart beat will be stabilized, and also the antibody called IgA which protects the body from virus and germs will increase, which results in stronger immunity. When we face loss, we can also see how important the thing we lost was. We can be thankful that we had been given that.
For example, we take our freedom or our job for granted until we lose them. Losing them gives us an opportunity to look back and appreciate what we had. When we get another job, we will be able to experience extra appreciation and joy because of the experience of loss.
We can also think about what we are given right now and be thankful. One practice you can incorporate to your daily life is to take 5 to 10 minutes every morning to think about what you are thankful for as you breath in and out slowly. This will help you reduce your stress and anxiety.
From the perspective of eternity
The last thing I’d like to share is my perspective as a Christian- the perspective of eternity. I believe in Creator God. Nothing is a surprise to our Creator and nothing is a coincidence. In the midst of many changes, we can have peace knowing that God sees and knows everything, and that He is guiding us. What we can control is limited, but God has control over everything. And He is ruling over this world with love. We can find peace and hope in this truth and we can walk the path God provided with HIm.
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2Cor 4:17&18)
I hope this has been helpful. May the Lord bless you! — Yuko