Photo by Faye Cornish on Unsplash

Just Breathe: How to Reduce Anxiety in the Age of COVID

SK Camille
5 min readSep 11, 2021

--

By taking control of your own stress response to the crisis, you can carve out space for yourself to be calmer and clearer.

I don’t mean to stress you out, but there’s a second pandemic going on along with the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s probably affecting everyone, to one degree or another.

It’s a pandemic of stress and anxiety.

If you’re experiencing trouble concentrating, sleep problems, irritability or nervousness, or constant worrying, or if you have little interest in pleasure or in doing things, or if you’re feeling down or depressed, you’re far from alone.

Most people are experiencing these symptoms during the pandemic.

“Fear and anxiousness about [COVID] is normal, real, human. This cannot not affect your emotions. This is you being human. It is uncomfortable, not weak or unhealthy.”

— Therapist Monica Blume

Trouble concentrating is the most common difficulty: Before the pandemic, about one in ten people reported trouble concentrating — or “brain fog” — but during the pandemic, it’s been three out of four people. Trouble concentrating has become much more common among…

--

--

SK Camille

I cover general-interest professional topics in clear, actionable briefs. I also write about change, growth, and faith with warmth and optimism.