We are faced with uncertain times like none of us have seen before. Despite being isolated in confinement, we need support and a sense of community more than ever right now. As a coach and leader of a team of coaches, I want to provide a chance for my team and clients to come together and have some meaningful interaction. I recently hosted a free webinar for JMA clients along with Executive Coaches Anna Bray and Nancy Scheel to discuss how to adjust to uncertainty.

Our intimate group discussed the challenges we are all facing and how we are dealing with them. My clients have expressed to me that they are feeling stressed, exhausted, panicked and some have even lost their jobs. Other clients are finding the extra time relaxing and productive.

how to deal with anxiety

But the most common theme I’ve heard from my clients is anxiety. They are distressed and can’t seem to stop worrying. They can’t focus while working from home and aren’t sleeping well. Here are my top three strategies for dealing with anxiety:

Life is on pause right now

We are all trying to make sense of the current situation. Anna shared that some of her clients are expressing anger, which is totally understandable. We’ve all had plans that have been cancelled, from vacations to weddings to school graduations. Everything in our lives is on pause right now. Some of those clients who are feeling angry also say that it seems selfish to be angry, but as Anna said, it’s okay with whatever you are feeling right now.

Sharing pain points

A few clients attending the webinar spoke up about their pain points, the things in their life that aren’t working for them during this time of crisis. It really helped this event become a real conversation about sharing ways we can help each other.

Sarah (not her real name) recently moved 1000 employees to working remotely, and these were individuals who didn’t know how to work remotely. She talked about the feeling of having two types of brains working simultaneously – the one focused on the emergency and trying to get through it and the other trying to process the situation and make sense of it at the same time. She spoke of feeling exhausted after spending her days immersed in Zoom meetings, only to get up and to it all over again the next day. Anna and I suggested bringing more positive structure to her days:

Once you are able to nurture yourself, you can start to shift your attention to focusing on how you can serve others. One easy way to do this is to focus our attention on gratitude. Wake up every morning and spend 5 minutes writing down three things you are grateful for in a journal. This simple exercise is a great way to start the day and remind ourselves of how lucky we really are. Then, check in with yourself every evening as well.

Related: Now is the Time to Tackle your Tolerations

The life we thought we were going to live next week and next month has changed, but you can take control of your thoughts, your moods and your behaviors with our MindMastery program. To help you experience this during the current climate of uncertainty, we are offering a deeply discounted virtual version of our full-day MindMastery training (normally priced at $2,000) for just $375 per person (limited time only). It’s called MindMastery™ for Unprecedented Times: JMA Stress Management Training.

It is an online course with Anna and is comprised of three (3) 2-hour virtual sessions. One program starts in April, another starts in May. (Recordings will be available for participants for one week after each meeting.)

Dates and registration links:

April/May (6:00 – 8:00 pm CT):

  • Wednesday, April 22
  • Wednesday, April 29
  • Wednesday, May 6
  • Registration deadline: April 17th
  • REGISTER HERE

May/June (6:00 – 8:00 pm CT):

  • Wednesday, May 20
  • Wednesday, May 27
  • Wednesday, June 3
  • Registration deadline: May 15th
  • REGISTER HERE

I hope you are able to join us. Stay tuned to our social media channels for more free webinars in the coming weeks as we create a safe community for sharing our situations and dealing with the current crisis. Stay well.