Overcoming Anxiety About the COVID-19 Pandemic Pt 1– Free 4 Part Video Course

Sam. Many of you might be experiencing anxiety right now, and this may be anxiety about your health or perhaps the health of those you love. You may have some money worries or worries about how you'll sustain your livelihood or what's happening in the economy. Now. All of this is perfectly understandable because this is a big change in our understanding of what to expect in life. It's a new experience that is very different from our normal way of living. This is where it might be useful to mention a little bit about grief, because many of us are experiencing grief right now in one form or the other. And this can be part of the grief cycle. It's something we experience after shock or loss. And right now we might be experiencing the loss of different aspects of our lives. We may experience a background feeling of discomfort, something's not quite right, and that might be the loss, the grief of losing normal life, the loss of the way things used to be, or the people that we regularly used to see. For others, it might be a loss of the ideal of life or a sense of we've lost that safety. But how could a worldwide virus actually happen as part of the grief cycle? We might be experiencing shock or we might be in denial. We may experience emotions such as anger, anxiety or depressive thoughts because the changes that are happening are not by design, they're not in our control, and there's nothing much that we can do except take responsibility for our health. But eventually, with self awareness, the grief cycle can complete, and that's by us going into a place of acceptance. This is a brave but empowering place to be in the grief cycle. What is key is to keep moving through it. We don't want the emotions to get stuck. That's why it's called emotion. Energy in motion. But through meditation, breathing, self awareness, talking to others, and what we'll talk about over the next few sessions, this can keep the energy moving and that will eventually transform that anxiety into acceptance. Recently a friend of mine confided in me that he was feeling really anxious and he was finding it hard to cope with the situation. He was having trouble sleeping and he felt helpless and he had racing thoughts in his mind. He found it hard to switch off. And then he said he felt embarrassed because normally he's strong. He thought of his anxiety and these symptoms of stress as a sign of weakness. So he was beating himself up about having these perfectly normal reactions to an abnormal event. Then we get anxious about feeling anxious. This only makes things worse. What can help is to recognize that this is a natural part of grief and also anxiety. And we approach it with self compassion. And if you're feeling this way, it's not a sign of weakness at all. It's perfectly natural to be feeling these emotions. What matters is that we acknowledge and validate our emotions and we be compassionate towards ourselves for having them. It's okay to have these emotions. It doesn't make you a lesser person at all. Normally, if we have strong emotions, we tend to do one of two things. Either we resist the emotion, so we push it away. But like a spring, it pushes back harder if we suppress it, sometimes out of control. The more we resist these emotions, the more they push back. What we resist persists. The other thing we do is indulge the emotion. We can feed it more by adding more negative thoughts, but then we go into a downward spiral. We can also indulge our emotions by perhaps projecting onto others. So we pick a fight, initiate drama, or take out the emotions of people around us. As we increase our self awareness through things like meditation, we become less reactive to our emotions. And then it becomes easier to validate and accept our emotions with our loving, wise, compassionate self. This is sometimes called our compassionate adult. This allows us to take the next step towards letting go of our feelings in a healthy way. And then we can get to a place of acceptance about the current situation. Before we go into some tools to help us let go of anxiety or worry, we need to understand what anxiety actually is. Now, stress is a short term experience. We get stressed by somebody or stressed by an event. But, but anxiety is when it continues in the medium to long term and it may come and go. In an earlier video I talked about something called your sympathetic nervous system, sometimes called your fight or flight response. And this is what gets triggered continually when we're feeling anxious. And it's a protective response, a defense response. And that response has two main aspects, a physical response and an emotional response. Physically, your body may tense up. You might notice your heart rate going higher than normal, or trouble sleeping. Emotionally, you might have racing thoughts, restlessness, trouble concentrating. This is our body's natural response to physical threats, like when a wild animal is attacking us, so we're protected. However, this physical danger response generalizes. And then we have the same physical response to emotional threats as we do to physical ones. This danger response is what I call survival anxiety. Biologically, our bodies want to survive, to pass on our genes to the next generation. But if we're under physical threat from, let's say the virus, or under financial threat from the loss of livelihood, then These defense systems, these anxiety systems, will override our logical mind and will go into fight or flight mode. The coronavirus pandemic has put many people in touch with their own mortality, perhaps even the fear of death. And this is particularly true for those in the higher risk categories, like the elderly or those with underlying conditions. Now normally this protection response, this danger response, would switch off as soon as the danger eases or as soon as we put the situation into perspective. But sometimes the brain can get stuck in a loop when we're feeding those anxious thoughts and that keeps over protecting us in an anxious way to warn us. And in these times we might be getting continually re triggered. When we watch the news or we see how the pandemic is affecting our daily lives, an anxious mind thinks of all the worst case scenarios, everything that could go wrong. And ironically, the mind does this as a way of minimizing risk. But by overdoing the protective response, so many anxious thoughts, it actually suppresses our immune system unnecessarily and affects our mood. So dealing with the anxiety is crucial to our mental, emotional and physical well being. And it's also crucial to boosting our immunity. Now that we understand what anxiety is and what triggers it, in this next section, let's go through five things that we can do to reduce our anxiety. These five things are switching off the triggers, using the inner child technique, shifting perspective, changing the channel and engaging, and of course, meditation. The first important change is to switch off the news and other anxiety producing triggers like stressful social media. This 24 hour news cycle that we have now doesn't allow us to reflect, to center ourselves and take stock of the situation. So it's really important not to get caught in the drama of all of this. Yes, we're in a challenging situation and it's important to be kept informed. But it's also important not to let the morbid curiosity of following every statistic take over us. It's our compassionate, wise, adult, loving self. That's the part that can take care of us during these times. So when you're indulging in the drama, ask yourself, is this really what I need? Or is it time to switch it all off and shift gears? I'm not suggesting that you be in denial about what's happening or that you should suddenly become a hermit. But I'm recommending that you take charge of taking care of your own mind, your own well being. And it's a tremendous act of self care and self love to moderate our temptation to watch the news. Let's Treat ourselves with the same love, self care and self respect that we would our own child. Speaking of our inner child, I want to introduce you something called parts. We all have these different parts of ourselves that play different roles. So for instance, imagine you have some cake in front of you and some fruit. Part of your mind will say take the cake, take the cake, it will taste so good. And part of you will say, take the fruit, it's healthier. Both parts are doing what they think is best for our well being. For example, our inner child only sees the emotional benefits of eating the cake, that it tastes good and it temporarily gives us a feel good high. A child doesn't have the adult perspective of the potential consequences. So both parts of us are doing what they think is best to give us benefits. It's just that like with children and adults in general, they tend to disagree on what's best for you in the moment. One is thinking about the benefits in the moment temporarily and the other is aware of the long term consequences. In a similar way, imagine the anxiety is like an inner part of you that's a front and it's trying to bring your attention to this danger. Let me introduce you to a friend of mine. He's been dying to meet you all. Mike the monkey. So Mike the monkey is this small part of us living within us that's really anxious because Mike is a kind of inner child. Mike can only see the present worry as everything. He thinks that life will always feel like this, it will always be like this. Mike eternalizes the problem and he thinks of all the worst case scenarios. It's similar to how children experience anxiety. It's just in the present moment and can be overwhelming and there isn't a balanced perspective. We often ourselves get overwhelmed by Mike the monkey and all the negative thoughts and the worries. But we can take a step back and become the wise, compassionate adult witness. And that's the muscle that we've been strengthening through meditation, through self awareness. We can better support our inner child by stepping back just like adults do and taking a broader perspective on the situation. And from that higher place, we can re educate the anxious parts of ourselves with self compassion. For more on how you can calm your anxiety using this very powerful process, we have something called the Inner Child technique. It's in your audio section and you can listen to that each day as often as you like to allow your anxieties to subside. We all react differently to situations based on our past experiences, based on our beliefs, and these inform our perspectives on situations. We can Reduce our anxiety by becoming more aware of these old perspectives and instead embrace new perspectives that are conducive to our mental health. This is sometimes called reframing. And this makes us more resilient because we can take a more calm, reflective, positive view on the events and we can become aware of our dear beloved minds. That anxiety part, Mike the monkey. We can become aware of it with compassion. So what are some of the common perspectives and beliefs which might be causing us anxiety when we have an issue in life? A challenge Our minds and especially the anxious parts, they often. That anxiety part, Mike the monkey. We can become aware of it with compassion. So what are some of the common perspectives and beliefs which might be causing us anxiety when we have an issue in life? A challenge Our minds, and especially the anxious parts, they often last forever. And the antidote here is to calm the mind and take a new perspective. So you might calm our anxious mind by saying, this is a temporary situation. This too will pass. Humanity has been through so many challenges in its history, and yet through human ingenuity and pulling together, we've been always able to get through it. We don't see the world the way it is objectively. We see it according to our filters, our sunglasses. So the mind errs on the side of caution and creates the worst case scenarios. Instead, we can remove these perspectives and recognize that our mind is overprotecting us and take on new perspectives that help us. Sometimes we can feel overwhelmed and helpless. Our mind is overprotecting us and take on new perspectives that help us. Sometimes we can feel overwhelmed and helpless. And those dark glasses go on again. And we often feel we won't have the resources to deal with a situation which makes us feel a victim. But we can take these off, think and those dark glasses go on again. Think about all the challenging situations that we've overcome in our lives. You got through it so you can with this situation. So positivity is not denying the challenge, but instead saying, whatever happens, I can handle it. And now that the situation has arrived, we can look for the silver lining. For some of us, this situation has meant we have more time to perhaps go inwards and meditate. For others, it's been an opportunity to spend more time with family and friends or perhaps take up a new hobby. For others, it's been opportunity to take a journey of self discovery. And we often feel we won't have the resources to deal with the situation which makes us so what is the silver lining for you? What is the positive perspective from this situation that can relieve our anxiety too. Let's do a wonderful exercise together now. If you're experiencing some worry, some anxiety about the current situation, let's write down some of these worries or fears under each of these categories so you can pause the video and in your notes, on the left hand side of your notes, please write down your old perspective or the worry that you're having. And then on the right hand side, please feel a victim. But we can take these off and think about all the challenging situations that we've overcome in our lives. You got through it. Let's write down a new, empowering perspective that you can have instead. This will help relieve the anxiety. And I'd also like you to write some new perspectives down in terms of the positives that have come out of this situation for you personally and also for the human race in general. So you can with this situation. So positivity. Okay, welcome back. How was that exercise for you? It would be really great to read through your new perspective every day. It really helps relieve the anxiety. So what you can do is print off your notes. You can print off these new perspectives and perhaps put them on your wall so you can read them every day. And how do we shift these perspectives if we keep having some of the old worries? Well, one way is to do the inner child technique, which we've already spoken is not denying the challenge, but instead saying whatever happens. And a second way is to use the new groove technique. And no, it's not a dance move. The new groove technique is something that we'll cover tomorrow. This is something that all adults have to take do from time to time when taking care of children. When some of the emotions get too intense or a conflict, I can handle it. And now that the situation has arrived, we can look for the silver lining for some of us rises. Sometimes it's as simple as changing the channel, switching to something productive and positive. And this is a useful strategy for all of us, children and adults alike. I'm sure we all have activities that we wish we could do more of, but we never had the time before. So let's take advantage of the situation. And the best activities that will relieve our anxiety are those which get our creative juices flowing, that really engage our mind and stimulate us and stop us thinking about the current situation. Here are some examples of things that can really engage your mind. We could take an online course. In fact, I've developed a course called the Meaning of Life Experiment which helps us find more haps. The situation has meant we have more time to perhaps Go inwards and meditate for this meaning and purpose in life. It's completely free and you can download the course or get the free app at www.themeaningoflife.tv. we can read inspirational books, biographies, historical accounts or fictional books of people overcoming obstacles. We need constant reminders that this is possible and we're not alone in this. And to can. For others, it's been an opportunity to spend more time with family and friends or perhaps take up a new hobby with that human spirit. We can listen to audiobooks, we can learn to play an instrument. Many people find gardening very relaxing or a good relaxing conversation. Any kind of fun creative hobby, even knitting, design, arts and crafts, walking in nature helps us re engage with joy. And of course creative writing can be very therapeutic. What are some other positive activities that we could do? Well, maybe we can bake that new recipe that we saw on the Facebook group or on the Instagram account. For others, it's been opportunity to take a journey of self discovery. So what is the silver lining for you? What is the positive perspective from this situation? Perhaps we can find a creative way to do something positive for others, like create a fun video or initiate a group chat. We can make more of an effort to connect to others even when we don't feel like it. And although we might be isolated, modern technology gives us avenues to overcome this. So we don't need to feel alone. We can reach out our hand first. And you can also connect with people on our Facebook group and we can energize our bodies. What a great time to do that right now. We can use this time as an excuse to really get healthy. And regular energizing of our body through through physical movement or exercise is another great stress reliever. So I hope you're getting the chance to move more. That can relieve our anxiety too. And even if you're not able to go outside, perhaps you can think of fun ways to get energised, like walking up and down the stairs to music, or running up and down the stairs, or getting into a YouTube aerobics video or a dance class. Or you could play a game that makes you laugh till your belly hurts. Perhaps you could create an obstacle course. Anything that gets you moving. You can be as creative as you can to keep your energy moving and your mind relaxed. And of course, most importantly, meditation is your life jacket through the storm. And meditation can also be a powerful tool in the moment that we experience anxiety. So when anxiety comes up, you can stop what you're doing and sit and meditate and you'll be amazed at what it does to calm. Let's do the nervous system and re center you. Although obviously persevere with it. Our mind keeps taking us into the future, worrying about what's going to happen. But meditation brings your mind gently to the present moment and that's where your peace and stillness lies. Just 20 minutes can transform your mood. I truly believe that if you employ this wonderful exercise together now, if you're experiencing some worry, some five point plan of action, your anxiety will reduce to more manageable levels, if not dissolve away completely. And then you'll feel more resilient, better able to take dynamic action in dealing with a situation. And finally, using these tools can gradually bring you more to a place of acceptance. And that's where the peace of mind truly lies. One final excellent way of reducing anxiety is to help others. And right now there may be opportunities for us to anxiety about the current situation. Let's write down some of these worries or fears, support other people in our community, elderly, the vulnerable, obviously in a safe way. And when we help others, we shift that worry energy away from ourselves and instead channel it usefully in supporting others. There's a hero within us all waiting to come out and shine. If you're feeling worried or anxious at the moment, it's perfectly normal. Let's accept ourselves for feeling anxious and be compassionate towards ourselves. We can switch off the news under each of these categories so you can pause the video and in your social media that's focusing on the virus situation, we can use the inner child technique to calm our anxious mind. With self love and compassion, we can shift perspective, look at the situation more objectively with a calm mind. Let's change the channel. Let's use this precious time wisely to uplift ourselves by doing things that engage, educate or expand us in some way. Commitment to regular meditation can gradually allow us to release our anxiety and go into your notes. On the left hand side of your notes, please write down your old deep place of acceptance. Perspective or the worry that you're having. And then on the right hand side please, Let's write down a new empowering perspective that you can have instead. This will help relieve the anxiety and I'd also like you to write some new perspectives down in terms of the positives that have come out of this situation for you personally and also for the human race in general. Sam. Okay, welcome back. How was that exercise for you? It would be really great to read through your new perspectives every day. It really helps relieve the anxiety. So what you can do is print off your notes. You can print off these new perspectives and perhaps put them on your wall so you can read them every day. And how do we shift these perspectives if we keep having some of the old worries? Well, one way is to do the inner child technique, which we've already spoken about, and a second way is to use the new groove technique. And no, it's not a dance move. The new groove technique is something that we'll cover tomorrow. This is something that all adults have to do from time to time when taking care of children. When some of the emotions get too intense or a conflict of.