COVID-19 Mental Health Survival Guide

Living More Fully

James Guay, LMFT speaks with AJ Gibson & Mikalah Gordon on Channel Q's The Morning Beat Radio Show about his COVID-19 Mental Health Survivor Guide.

COVID-19 has transformed our world. Not only has it led to spiked infections, it’s also instilled mass hysteria, global grief, worldwide trauma and a huge stop to our everyday normal routines.

1. Increase Self-Awareness: The first step to managing our COVID 19 stress better is getting ourselves off auto-pilot by increasing our self-awareness. We’re experiencing collective trauma and grief on a worldwide level. Mindful curiosity, without judgment, is the first step to treat what’s bothering us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
2. Attend to Thoughts, Feelings & Body Sensations: Attending to our internal landscape, we need to acknowledge what’s there, allowing for whatever exists without trying to force it to be different. When we reject what we find or judge it, it often gets more intense and lasts longer than it otherwise would. Next, by naming what we find we get closer to identifying it and attending to it in ways that are needed.
3. Take Mindful Action: There are lots of great lists out there about what kinds of activities we can do while staying at home. To read my full blog article on this, my list & linked resources, CLICK HERE.
4. Create Down Time: We are at an opportune time for a global reset on how we manage our time. For far too long, we have promoted production and DOING at the expense of balance and BEING. Both doing and being are essential in living a full life but when they’re out of balance we’re more likely to experience illness, burnout, boredom and overall dissatisfaction in life.
5. Spread Compassion: Mindfulness WITH compassion is the antidote for what ails us. When we increase our awareness in the present moment with curiosity, instead of judgment, and bring compassion to whatever we discover, we can navigate our response to real-life threats, like pandemics. We honor our organic response, get to know it, be with it and create space inside for how we can care for it with gentleness, grace and even fierceness.

To read my full blog article, list & linked resources, CLICK HERE.