Reduce anxiety during crisis

ANOTHER VIEW


It has been a long couple of weeks.

Many of you are at home with children who usually are at school or daycare. Still more of you must continue to do your full-time jobs while also taking care of your children.

Or maybe there aren’t children at home, but you are by yourself, with only the television or computer to keep you company. Humans are not meant to be isolated, children are not meant to be away from their friends, parents are allowed to feel overburdened and overwhelmed.

As a priest, I often am asked how people can let go of worries and have less anxiety in their lives. This time of pandemic is no different.

For me, it’s about finding the small moments of joy; those times when life doesn’t seem like mud and muck, but something beautiful. If we believe the divine is always surrounding us, then we can try to find those tiny divine moments of beauty.

If you are struggling to find the beauty amidst the anxiety, here are some things I suggest: Turn off the news. Read or listen to the news for five minutes in the morning if you need it, and trust you’ll learn everything else you need to know in your five minutes tomorrow morning.

Too much information can make us feel like our brains are going to explode. This virus is moving too fast for anyone to keep up, so it is ok if you don’t keep up.  Get outside every day, even for 10 minutes. Keep the physical distancing from your neighbors, but absorb the sunshine, or even the rain. It’s good for the soul. If you can’t get outside, open your window. Smell that fresh air!  Pray, or meditate, or take that quiet time. Light a candle for those who are on your heart. Get out your religious scripture, and find the poetry.

For me, it’s the Book of Psalms. The Psalms express every possible human emotion, one of them will strike you and help you speak your heart to the divine. Check in with two people every day. Perhaps they are family members you haven’t seen in awhile or friends who just popped into your mind. Checking in with someone will brighten your day and someone else’s. Be honest with your friends; it’s ok to not be ok. It’s ok to worry. Expressing those feelings can help us not to dwell in them.

It has been a long couple of weeks, and it possibly will be many more weeks. We’re in this together, we’re in this for the long haul. Let’s lean on each other to be the very best definition of community, and find the hope in the midst of the storm.

Moore-Levesque is the priest at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church.