How To Calm Yourself And Others In The Face Of The Coronavirus Threat
Whether you are a father, mother, co-worker or roommate, in the classroom or not, we all transmit our emotional states through non-verbal language, expressiveness, mood or through language.
Collective panic or constant worry and alarm both for health and for the impact on the family, local or national economy; It is generating a collective anguish that, above all, floods the children who cannot even fully understand the danger.
Of course, perhaps the youngest are the least vulnerable regarding the impact of the coronavirus on health, but they are the most in need of a safe environment to be able to stay calm.
How to take psychological care of yourself and take care of others in the face of coronavirus
The care system is activated and developed through behaviors that prevention measures precisely limit, such as contact, closeness, touching, caressing, kissing…
We are overexposed to an enormous amount of information, before which We become experts on the subject or we become overwhelmed by data indigestion or we fall into obsessive control rituals So making responsible use of both the medical and psychological guidelines of the measures that are coming into our hands is essential.
We can start by observing our body’s response, how thoughts are triggered, and try to connect with our breathing.
Small exercise to calm down in the face of a collective threat
Look around you, if you have children in your care or elderly people, your fears reach them through psychological contagion without saying words. Don’t continue reading, just breathe, imagine how when you expel the air your fears and alarms are reduced, they fade away like the smoke from a match.
Now, smile, smile to yourself, smile at that emotional ability to calm down and relax, smile also and warmly accept the fear experienced. Then turn to your children or the elderly people in your care, smile at them too, also welcome the fear that they have experienced without being aware of it, speak to them delicately, smile at them with your eyes, address them with delicate and careful words, Don’t be afraid to put words to their fears and yours.
To the extent we express, we tame our innermost fears and in this way we favor our calm and that of others.
Realizing the alarm that goes off in us every time we look for signs of calm and do not find it helps us value what is important, which is that we ourselves do not become alarm triggers of danger to help keep everyone’s spirits calm.
Other tips to maintain control
Shared acts such as group meetings on balconies and windows allow us to keep contact alive in isolation, share the joy of togetherness and generate a shared state of joy.
If we have to rescue something from this experience it is how we are updating and prioritizing our social mind-body, which extends beyond ourselves and links us in the distance.
Shared resources, shared humor, shared states, even if a distance of one meter prevails, we share our states.
As a psychologist, my personal and professional challenge, at this time, is to help us realize how emotions, thoughts and responses transcend beyond ourselves. Vitaliza, as a health center, is still sensitive to the need to have close human support Those who are alone or overwhelmed or who want to continue with the support received until now, have the opportunity to find their open doors online at Vitaliza.
