Managing Stress and Promoting Wellness During

COVID-19 Pandemic

Nancy Legow, Ph.D. Behavioral Health Consultants, LLC

Agenda COVID-19

▪ Emotional challenges ~understanding stress and anxiety ~understanding secondary traumatic stress ~signs of burnout

▪ Managing stress and anxiety ▪ How to take care of your colleagues and

yourselves ▪ What can be done to promote emotional wellness?

What are the emotional challenges ?

How we process stress

•Our “old brain” first takes in information through the limbic system

•Survival instincts are triggered (fight, flight, freeze)

• Increase in cortisol and adrenaline

•Higher order thinking will take over if the situation is deemed safe

•Human beings have the flexibility to move from a reactive to a more thoughtful response

Living in a Pandemic

▪ Ramps up anxiety, stress and fear for the safety of ourselves and others

▪ Financial insecurity

▪ Secondary traumatic stress

▪ Can lead to burnout and trauma reactions

Signs of Burnout

▪ sadness, depression, apathy ▪ easily frustrated ▪ irritable, blaming others ▪ lack of feeling, indifferent ▪ isolation, disconnection ▪ poor self care, substance abuse ▪ tired, exhausted, overwhelmed ▪ low self esteem, feeling like a failure, hopeless,

helpless

Signs of secondary traumatic stress

▪ excessive fear or worry about something bad happening

▪ easily startled or “on guard” ▪ physical signs of stress (know your stress

reactions) ▪ nightmares or recurrent thoughts about the

traumatic situation, difficulty sleeping ▪ identifying with others’ trauma

What not to do?

▪ deny or ignore the pandemic’s emotional impact ▪ discourage discussion and support ▪ devalue the importance of seeking emotional support ▪ value thinking over feeling ▪ tell someone you know how they feel ▪ focus on blaming and politics

What to do

▪ Allow time and space for expression of feelings ▪ Breaks ▪ Open communication ▪ Empathy, compassion, understanding ▪ Clear work structure and goals ▪ Allow time for decompression ▪ Set clear boundaries

What else to do?

▪ Promote communication, coping strategies, and resilience training

▪ Understand mind/body connection ▪ Decrease exposure (limit news) ▪ Build social connections ▪ Focus on exercise, nutrition, sleep, meditation,

yoga ▪ Allow for recovery time and humor ▪ Let go of self criticism

▪ Letting go of what we can and cannot control ▪ Increasing communication, reach out, socialize ▪ Decreasing judgement ▪ Get some sunshine ▪ Increase self care ▪ Understanding that we are grieving, all facing

multiple losses ▪ Breathe, positive self talk ▪ Write in a journal/make a video

What can be done?

Understanding the cognitive model can aide in quick stress relief

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Thoughts

Feelings Behaviors

Mind/Body connection

▪ Our mind and body play off of each other

▪ Illness and injury can have a negative affect on mood and thinking

▪ Regular exercise, good nutrition, adequate sleep and hydration have a powerful impact on emotional well being and decision making

Mindfulness Meditation ▪ Mindfulness skills offer quick stress relief

▪ Mindfulness is a process of moment to moment awareness without judgement

▪ Provides an opportunity to step away from the immediate stressors, de-escalate and access coping skills

▪ There are many meditation apps to guide you

Grounding Techniques:

▪Breathing: box breathing, 4 in 8 out for two minutes ▪Soothe through the senses, have soothing things

with you, 5-4-3-2-1 ▪Water ▪Exercise/move/dance ▪Community and socialization ▪Humor ▪Relaxation and visualization of “safe space”

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•government-developed, free mobile app

•designed to provide resources

• enhance emotional support during this pandemic

•private, secure, no email or password required

•anxiety management tools, mindfulness, deep breathing, exercises to address trauma and anxiety

 Developed by the National Center for PTSD at the VA, it joins other free, widely-used mental health apps like PTSD Coach and Mindfulness Coach. 

“COVID Coach” available on Apple and Android App store

Meditation Apps▪ Calm ▪ Headspace ▪ Tap-in, ▪ Insight Meditation Timer ▪ Smiling Mind ▪ Inscape ▪ 10% Happier ▪ Mindshift ▪ virusanxiety.com has meditations and tips

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Behavioral Health Consultants

Open Discussion Questions or Comments?

Employee Assistance Program for referrals call 1 - 800 - 864 - 2742

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