Managing Your Stress During a Pandemic

The world has been in the grips of a pandemic for several months, and regardless of where you live or what you do for a living, my guess is your life has been impacted in a multitude of ways. With the potential (or reality) of getting sick from COVID-19, stay at home orders in place, schools and businesses closed, and unemployment at record levels, we're all under unprecedented levels of stress.

What can we do to manage this stress and stay healthy during this time? Well, first, we should think about this quote from Wayne Dyer: "You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside." Wow! That's never been more true than right now! We have NO CONTROL over what is happening outside with COVID-19, stay at home orders, school closures, job losses, etc. But we STILL HAVE CONTROL over what goes on inside of us - our thoughts, our focus, our emotions. That's huge!

So here are 5 concrete steps you can take to manage your stress by controlling what goes on inside:

• Get plenty of sleep: Feeling rested will make it easier to deal with the stresses of your day.

• Make time to exercise: Exercise releases endorphins, lowers anxiety, improves sleep, and increases self-confidence - and all of these help lower your stress levels.

• Eat healthy meals & snacks: Being home all day makes it easy to snack on junk food, so keep easy & healthy snacks around instead. And avoid the temptation to skip meals - eating regular, healthy meals supports both your physical and mental health .

• Stay flexible: Right now, it's futile to make plans because things change daily, so try to stay open to possibilities and be as flexible as possible with yourself and others.

• Focus on gratitude: It may be hard right now, but try to focus on all the things in your life you're grateful for - this change in focus will also change your stress level.