Dealing with Pandemic Anxiety (or Race Day Jitters)

Anxiety can take over without warning, and it can make you feel out of control. Your pulse quickens, your breathing gets shallow, and you start to feel like you need to move.  This is totally normal, as it is our body’s response to NOT GET EATEN! It’s a fantastic adaptation from back in the days when we were being chased by lions, but when we’re just training, working, or even relaxing and it activates, we feel out of control.

The body’s sympathetic nervous system engages and floods your body with adrenaline preparing for action. If you’ve been driving down the highway and had a near miss accident, and then felt that surge and tingling, that was the sympathetic nervous system kicking in. In that situation, as you drive down the highway after the near miss, your body slowly starts to relax as your brain realizes the threat is gone. That’s the parasympathetic nervous system taking back over. 

The thing about anxiety is that the body doesn’t realize you aren’t in immediate danger.  While there is good reason to be concerned about catching Coronavirus, if you’re at home working out or working or home schooling, maintaining social distancing practices and doing everything you can do to be safe, then there is nothing in that moment that’s an immediate threat. That’s when we need to do a “Manual Reset”.

You can manually override your system to slow your breathing with deep, slow breaths, and in 30 seconds engage your parasympathetic nervous system response. This technique also works for engaging in a “Flow State”, having “Presence”, or developing “Focus”.  Whatever words jibe for you, then go with them.

Understanding the underlying process and purpose for how and why you’re feeling anxious can bring tremendous relief.  It’s taken me years to learn this, and I only wish someone had explained and shown me how to do this earlier. Won’t you let me walk you through it? Watch the video below to Regain Control in 30 Seconds.

To learn more about dealing with Pandemic Anxiety using A Simple and Fast Grounding Technique, you can watch the video below.

We are #StrongerTogether.

Yours in Health,

Coach Clare