{"id":14961,"date":"2020-04-17T15:42:37","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T15:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/squad\/?p=14961"},"modified":"2020-04-17T15:42:37","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T15:42:37","slug":"tips-to-meditate-and-calm-anxiety-amid-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/meditation\/tips-to-meditate-and-calm-anxiety-amid-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips to Meditate and Calm Anxiety Amid COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

COVID-19 has swept across the nation. In its wake are major health concerns, financial hardships, and an uncertain future. It\u2019s not surprising that this virus has caused a lot of stress and anxiety for many people.<\/p>\n

“Anxiety is not right, and it is not wrong. It is just part of the human experience,” says Kristin Lothman, a mind-body counselor with Mayo Clinic’s\u00a0Department of Integrative Medicine and Health<\/a>. “Healthy anxiety calls us into action to be safe, to take care of the people that we love and to arrive at the present moment experience with resilience.”<\/p>\n

To help manage the stress, Lothman suggest creating a self-care routine<\/p>\n

Pieces of a self-care routine<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s important to take care of your mental health during this time. Lothman says suggests these activities:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Journaling<\/li>\n
  • Exercise<\/li>\n
  • Yoga<\/li>\n
  • Mediation<\/li>\n
  • Prayer<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Meditation tips<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    If you\u2019re new to meditating, here\u2019s how to get started:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Sit for just two minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      For the first week, sit for two minutes at a time. Add two minutes to your meditation each week until you\u2019re up to 10 minutes<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Do it first thing in the morning<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        It\u2019s not always easy to work meditation into a routine. To make sure you squeeze it in, meditate after you wake up.<\/p>\n

          \n
        • Don\u2019t worry about how to meditate<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Wondering what you should be doing while you meditate? Don\u2019t get caught up in the action of meditation, just sit and be.<\/p>\n

            \n
          • Check on your feelings<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            Once you\u2019re comfortable sitting, do a mental check-in with yourself. How do you feel?<\/p>\n

              \n
            • Count breaths<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              Take nice deep breaths and count them as you go.<\/p>\n

                \n
              • Let your mind wander<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                Your mind will wander. If it drifts to feelings, let it be. If you start creating a mental grocery list, start counting your breaths again to keep yourself calm.<\/p>\n

                Be grateful for your time<\/strong><\/h3>\n

                After your meditation time is up, be grateful for the time and go on with your day. These tips should help manage anxiety amid the COVID outbreak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                COVID-19 has swept across the nation. In its wake are major health concerns, financial hardships, and an uncertain future. It\u2019s not surprising that this virus has caused a lot of stress and anxiety for many people. “Anxiety is not right, and it is not wrong. It is just part of the human experience,” says Kristin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[695],"tags":[1195,1196],"class_list":["post-14961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meditation","tag-covid","tag-meditate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}