How To Overcome Anxiety During The Pandemic With Confidence

1. Understand what you need to do and do it

Most of us know what we need to do, but few implement it well. Ensure you include practicing social distancing, washing your hands regularly, avoiding touching your face, and stocking up on key supplies in your to do list.

Assertive tip – Don’t assume others know what you want and need. Clarify your work situation with your employer. Do you need to work from home? What tools do you require and how can you prepare for it? If you employer is not communicating with you, ask for clarification.

2. Take care of your well-being

Check in with yourself and give yourself permission to take care of your needs. Women are more likely to act selfless, not look out for themselves, and suffer from overwhelm and burnout.

Assertive tip – Do not fall into the others first trap. You are the only person who knows what you need to be physically and emotionally well. Do not feel guilty of giving yourself the care you deserve. That way you will be in a better position to help others.

Schedule time to do things that energize you, practice gratitude, meditate, walks outside, exercise, and give yourself solo time to decompress. Create morning, lunch, and evening self-care routines and then stick to them. Your routine is the structure you create in your day that gives you certainty during a very uncertain time.

3. Ensure your family is safe

Check if your children, parents, siblings, and in-laws are aware of what they need to do and if they have executed it in their routines. Help them prepare, shop online, and give psychological support. Remember that people differ in how well they handle fast changes.

Assertive tip – Remember many people don’t feel comfortable expressing their difficulties and feelings. To overcome that resistance, ask many clarifying open-ended questions such as “how are you feeling?” and “what’s challenging for you right now?”, and remember to not express judgement.

4. Support your closer network

Find the people with higher risk in your circle such as friends, work colleagues, employees, clients, partners, and neighbors. Ensure they know what to do and help them execute if they are having challenges. Check in with them regularly.

Assertive tip – Expressing concern for others shows you care about them and is important to have meaningful relationships.

5. Communicate with clarity

Pandemic related topics are not a suitable time to miscommunicate. Overcommunicate with the people in your circle of influence to ensure safety as well as continuity of business.

Assertive tip – Don’t assume people understood what you said just because you said it once. It is ok to repeat a message to ensure understanding.

6. Keep yourself updated with what matters

Maintain yourself informed on a regular basis as medical advice, government and local policies will continue to evolve in a fast pace as the reach of COVID-19 continues to increase. Stay updated on relevant travel, tax, mortgage, and other policies. Use trustworthy and useful sources of information.

Assertive tip – Don’t believe in everyone or every source of information. Inform yourself and have your own perspective of what are the best precautions.

7. Focus on your work or advance personal projects

If you are one of the lucky ones who still has your job and pay, focus on keeping it. As hard as it is to focus on your work with all the real distractions that are happening, not having your job will be a lot harder. If you don’t need to work, then focus on advancing a personal project. You’ll be grateful you focused on meaningful work in a year or two.

Assertive tip – Learn to say no to conversations and requests that don’t align with your goals and priorities. It is ok to focus on yourself even if there are problems around you.

8. Minimize spending

Because there is a lot of uncertainty around jobs and the economy, it is wise to minimize spending by keeping it to the essentials. That way your savings will last you longer and will reduce your financial stress. There may be many product promotions as business struggle to stay afloat. Avoid buying through impulse.

Assertive tip – If you have a budget in your company that is affected by the decision of others, make sure you voice your opinion about how much spending and what type of spending you agree or disagree with. The same is true at home with your family budget.

9. Contribute to community

If you have extra time available, consider supporting your community using your skills or work. You can do it remotely through the internet and phone calls.

Assertive tip – Ask others how you can help them. Remember many people don’t feel comfortable asking for help but will be relieved when others offer support.

10. Don’t isolate yourself

Use free online tools like zoom, skype and facetime to stay in touch with others. We all need to stay connected.

Assertive tip – If you want to stay connected, you may have to the be the person reaching out to others. Take initiative and you’ll find it others will be delighted to connect with you.  Here’s how you can get over the awkwardness of staying in touch with your network.