Stress is always challenging! And when it comes to emotional stress, it can get painful to manage during a time of crisis. Also, it can take a toll on your physical and mental health. Hence, it is necessary to discuss your emotional turmoil with your friends, family, or people you can trust. It might help you to come up with useful solutions. Moreover, it will enable you to discover a coping-up mechanism to your existing problem, which can help you manifold.
People with emotional stress tend to ruminate more, and that increases their stress levels. Hence, it is always helpful to have coping up strategies to redirect yourself from rumination and excessive thinking. Stress management has become essential during this pandemic phase, when the world is healing from the deadly impact of a merciless virus.
Emotional Stress Due to the Pandemic – Insights by Eric Dalius
No one anticipated that the world would witness such a pandemic outbreak suddenly. Also, the after-effects of the pandemic were dangerous and evoked fear worldwide. On one end, people were losing lives, getting infected at the drop of a hat, and on the other, there were subsequent lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. In addition, the economy had taken a massive hit in 2020. That is not all! People also witnessed salary cuts and job losses.
Currently, people are sailing through the second wave of the virus and anticipating the third one. Unfortunately, even though the vaccination drive has been successful for many countries, there are places where there’s a shortage of vaccine which is resulting in a havoc.
According to Eric Dalius, the pandemic situations are resulting in immense emotional distress and stress in many people. And hence, it is essential to address the same so that you can ultimately remedy it. However, it is not possible to fix any situation overnight. Hence, you can’t expect your worry and anxiety to reduce overnight.
By implementing apt measures and coping mechanisms, you can gradually reduce your emotional stress during such turbulent times. It is essential to opt-in for the best measures else the emotional distress will take a toll on you. Some of the best ways to address and remedy the emotional and mental stress during the pandemic phase include:
- Practicing mindfulness
Most often, mental and emotional stress has a physical manifestation as well. For example, people might feel a sudden unsettled feeling in their stomach, a heavy chest, and at times a dull headache. The first reaction for most people is to escape these feelings. However, the solution lies in getting deeper into the feeling. It is helpful if you delve deep into your emotional turbulence and use mindfulness to note the physical manifestation of your emotional disturbance.
This practice has its benefits. First, it can help to release the physical discomfort. At times, people can notice the feeling of discomfort becoming intense before completely vanishing, after which the emotional stress gets reduced.
Mindfulness is an essential tool today that helps to get us to the core of any discomfort and remedy the same. For instance, you might just get triggered by the news updates, and you might not know about it. Mindfulness can help you discover this pattern in you and allow you to arrive at a solution.
- Distract yourself
The prevalent belief was that if we didn’t express each and every emotion the way we felt, it would get manifested in various ways. And in most cases, the belief is true. However, there are certain advantages to reviewing our emotional states to learn what exactly our emotions are trying to tell us. Also, “stuffing your emotions” is not a good way to address the issue.
However, studies have found out occasionally distracting oneself from any emotional pain with healthy alternatives, for instance, engaging in a fun activity with a friend, watching a feel-good movie or taking up a social media challenge, can help in lessening the emotional pain. It can help us feel better than before.
Hence, if the constant unfavorable news updates is making you feel depressed, switch to something positive like watching a comedy show. You can also read a book. It will enable you to feel better and constructively address your emotional stress.
- Take some time off
At times, the emotional stress and the rumination can eat away into your awareness a lot more than you had expected. Also, the distracting method might not work. In such a situation, you need to block off sometime, where you give yourself the permission to think about your worries dedicatedly and come up with a solution. So here you are facing the issue instead of running away from it.
One of the best ways is journaling. It can help you to explore your emotional space and also come up with a potential solution. If you want, you can also speak to your friends about this situation. Maybe they can provide a way out.
This process works for two important reasons. First, if you have the habit of delving deep, it will enable you to think about the topic as much as you want. Second, once you have given enough attention to the thought, you might have a solution and go about your day better than before.
- Practice meditation
Meditation is beneficial for managing several stressors. And when you are trying to manage your emotional stress, meditation will help. It enables you to take a break from excessive thinking and rumination. And gradually, you also learn to choose your thoughts and eliminate stress in the long run.
- Speak to a therapist
Is your emotional stress interfering with your daily activities? Is it affecting your well-being? If yes, you might want to speak to a therapist who will help you deal with your emotional issues. Irrespective of the cause of your emotional stress, you can talk to a therapist to manage it better. It might help you to lessen your stress and lead a balanced life. You can opt-in for an online counseling session with your therapist.
The pandemic phase can make people emotionally heavy and worried. If you find yourself here, you can opt-in for the suggestions mentioned above and manage your stress better.