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Earlier this week, I was sitting at a restaurant in the Denver airport having a cup of coffee and journaling. I’d already sanitized my hands, checked the news for Montana (6 cases), and was wondering if I should sanitize my hands again since I’d just picked up the cream pitcher to pour cream in my coffee. As I took all these unusual precautions, I thought of you guys and wondered, How are you doing with coronavirus anxiety?
Note: My fork is on my journal so it doesn’t pick up germs from the table!
Are you in a frenzy? Taking precautions but not super anxious? Or are you blowing the whole thing off and living life as usual?
No matter which camp you fall into, we’re all affected by Covid-19. Either we’re in immediate danger of the virus itself, someone we love is in danger, or we’re affected by all the closures.
It’s no longer life as usual.
On today’s episode of the Christian Habits Podcast, we’ll be talking about six tips for letting go of coronavirus anxiety, stress, and boredom. These are the tips we’ll be discussing:
6 Tips to Ease Coronavirus Anxiety, Stress, Fear, and Boredom
(We’ll go into these more in depth on the podcast. Scroll down to see how to listen to the podcast.)
- Stay away from the news as much as possible (at least if you tend to be a worrier).
- Visit with God about the things you read.
- Renew when necessary.
- Plan your day.
- Place your trust in God–not fun, safety, health, or being in control.
- Every time you catch yourself being worried, bored, or stressed, pray for the person you’re worried about, thank God for five different things, or do something for someone who needs help.
Facebook Live
I’ll also be doing 3-5 minute Facebook lives for the next few weeks on Monday through Friday (and maybe Saturday) beginning Monday, March 23 at 11:00 EST. You can find these on my Facebook author page.
I think if you click the like and follow button, notices of these FB lives will appear in your notifications (you can turn the notifications off if you don’t want to be notified). You can also catch the replay of these later by going to my Facebook page and looking in the posts for that day or clicking on videos on that page.
During the FB Lives, we’ll be going through Philippians and discussing things like:
- Finding peace in the midst of chaos
- Not beating ourselves up when we’re not handling things well
- Persevering (and tips) for handling things better
- Loving each other
- Growth vs. grumpy
- Getting along with each other in close quarters (both in parenting and marriage)
- How to stop coping with food and internet
- How new trials such as coronavirus quarantine and potential illness affect our walk with God, our attitude, and our habits
- An antidote to worry
- How to dwell on the good
Free Coaching and Daily Challenges
At the beginning of each Facebook Live, I’ll let you know if I have any openings for coaching that day – and then you can leave a comment on the video if you’d like to coach. These coaching calls can be used for help with things like marriage, parenting, fear, anxiety, and procrastination. (I won’t be doing any weight loss coaching during those calls.) I’ll probably only have 5-6 openings each week but I’m hoping I can help a few of you at least.
I’ll also include a daily challenge at the end of each Facebook Live based on the topic for that day. Hope to see you Monday morning on Facebook!
How to Listen to the Christian Habits Podcast:
To listen to today’s podcast, click on the links below:
- To listen or subscribe on Apple Podcasts: click here
- To listen or subscribe on Android: click here
- To listen or subscribe on Stitcher: click here
- To listen or subscribe on Google Play: click here
- To listen or subscribe on Spotify: click here
Barb, great advice!! I’m going to share this with some folks I know that have been anxious and bored. The things you mentioned are second nature to me, and I can attest these actions have kept me sane and in good spirits. Love your idea to post on Facebook and be available to talk.
Thanks for sharing it, Karen. I appreciate that! I’m glad you’re staying sane over there!
Thank you for your advice to avoid the news if you are a worrier. I’m not a worrier but I feel no inclination to watch the news, especially now. I already know what to do and I’m doing it. If I need to know whether a particular place is open, I don’t need to watch the news to find that out. My husband pays a lot of attention to the news and fills me in on what he thinks I need to know so I have absolutely no need to go there. I have people in my life who criticize those who are not paying attention to the news; I sometimes wonder if I am not doing my Christian duty by paying attention to it. My intuition tells me that I don’t need the news and I’ve been following that. Your advice about the news relieved me of the guilt I was feeling about avoiding it.
I have been retired for a while and kept my days structured. I am still trying to structure my days around what my husband wants to do so I need to stay flexible. As I’m finding my way through this, I have started letting him know when I want him to watch movies or do something else by himself because I want to either spend time in prayer or to work on my projects which includes writing. I need to keep a balance between these two so he doesn’t feel neglected; so far everything is working well. If you’re interested, here is a blog post I wrote entitled “Quarantined at home alone”. I wrote it a week before our city was required to self-isolate about how I planned to spend this time.
Hi Monique! Thanks for sharing those insights. I love also how you’re learning to restructure your life now and also love that you’re being open with your hubby. I”ve also been in restructure mode for the last few years so I know how helpful it is to put the effort into making things work better! I didn’t see a link to the article – can you include one?
Yes, I put the link in the website field of your comment form.
Here it is.
https://kitskontemplations.wordpress.com/
Thanks for leaving a link so others could see it and read your post, Monique, in case they check the comments. That was a great post! I also miss time at church and friends. I’m fortunate in that I still get to go hiking with friends but it’s still a definite decline in not seeing people! Hope you and your hubby stay healthy!
I am on my .7th day without sugar etc I was having trouble tempted to binge but prayed instead and just found your ministry! Thank you so much for taking the time to help other Christians with this difficult subject. I can’t wait to read all of your material! Redirecting us back to God for His strength is perfect. I’m just starting and not out of the woods but am thankful I have a Christian alternative to this addiction!
Hi Melissa! I think I already replied to your comment on Facebook but wanted to reply here just in case! I’m praying for you today that God will help you continue on with breaking free from sugar! I know how hard that is!