The anxiety that people are experiencing as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) can have a long-lasting effect. The sense of unease and worry due to the continuous media coverage, panic throughout the community and lifestyle changes we’ve had to adjust to – can all create anxiety, stress, depression and sleeplessness.

It’s natural to feel a little uneasy but if you’re finding it difficult to cope, we can make a profound difference in your life.

Symptoms of stress and anxiety due to the Coronavirus

A stressful situation that continues for a long period of time triggers a cascade of hormones which can:

• make the heart pound
• make our muscles tense
• interfere with sleep
• make us irritable
• make us feel overwhelmed
• make us feel isolated and lonely
• make us forgetful, distracted and anxious
• make us cry frequently or for no reason.

These hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, increase our fight, flight or freeze reaction. It’s our body’s way of preparing for dangerous or harmful situations.

Reducing stress and anxiety

If your stress levels are high and you’re feeling restless, distracted, numb, anxious and/or reactive, it’s important to settle down the sympathetic nervous system – your alert system. When stress continues over weeks, as it has, the alert system is switched on all the time.

We need to consciously make an effort to settle this chemistry of our emotions through deep relaxation practices, exercise or talking to someone who will deeply listen to you and help you find your strengths and pathway forward.

One of the most effective ways of settling your sympathetic nervous system and activating your parasympathetic nervous system – your rest, digest and relax system – is the practice of deep relaxation.

Immediate help

• Call 000 if your life is in danger
• For crisis support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14
• Beyondblue website contains many useful forums and resources

Online course: Befriending Anxiety

If you can’t visit us in Bundanoon but would still like help with anxiety symptoms, our online course Befriending Anxiety covers much of what we teach during our residential programs and is accessible from the comfort of home.

Befriending Anxiety is a self-paced online course delivered over 4 video modules to assist you to manage your anxiety and live free from its debilitating effects. Learn practical, evidence-based tools and strategies to reduce your symptoms and live a more calm and peaceful life.

This course can be purchased as a gift for someone who can’t attend the Quest Centre in person, or by employers who want to help improve employee wellbeing in workplaces.

The Befriending Anxiety course costs $99

• 4 self-paced Video Modules
• Integrated workbook with reflective questions
• Personal Plan template and guide
• Additional resources – research and links
• Downloadable meditation MP3s

Learn more about this course

FREE services to help you settle anxiety, unease and deeply relax

PETREA KING MEDITATION GROUP
Please join Petrea for a weekly practice on Mondays 7.30pm-8pm on Petrea King Meditation Group Facebook page. Ask to join and there’s a year’s worth of weekly practices on the page. You can settle yourself in the comfort of your own home or bed to do your practice.

@HOME WITH QUEST
A free LIVEstream service on Facebook – @Home with Quest – with a program Facilitator to settle anxiety and unease. Session times are 11-11:30 am on Wednesdays.

Make sure you ‘Like’ the Petrea King and Quest for Life Facebook page to join the check-in. Sessions will cover ways to manage anxiety and fear, strategies for self-care and the things we can be doing to help ourselves and others, and deep relaxation.

Toolkit

Some of these practices can help you to calm your mind, sleep better and improve your wellbeing and can be found on our toolkit page:

• Keys to help you sleep better
• Meditation practices

You may also find some of Petrea King’s Podcasts useful to listen to.

Wellbeing resources

• Wellbeing books Including Your Life Matters by Petrea King – a guidebook for life
• Meditations including Be Calm, Sleep, Learning to Meditate

How Quest for Life can help

It takes strength and resilience to work through anxiety, and Quest for Life can help through our programs, online courses, and workplace programs.

• Our 5-day residential Healing Your Life program provides you with a wealth of practical skills and strategies for overcoming anxiety in a confidential and safe environment.
• Our Self-Paced Online Courses – Befriending Anxiety; Beyond Burnout and Healing Sleep – provide practical, positive and easy to follow guidance and advice. They encourage and help you to identify and implement strategies to build your resilience, and to incorporate these into your own personal plan for each course.
• Community Workshops to support and inspire communities and organisations dealing with the trauma of natural disasters, grief, anxiety and depression.
• Workplace Programs, including one tailored for health professionals, that deliver research-based holistic health and wellbeing approaches that equip staff and managers with tools required to operate in today’s dynamic and stressful environment.

If you are living with anxiety due to the Coronavirus, fill in the Contact Form below and one of our Program Advisors will be in touch to answer your questions or to ascertain the most appropriate program for your needs.

Quest for Life knows how to help: our internal research results show that participants feel better after attending a program and that this improvement increases over time. On our programs, you’ll be nourished, educated and supported to create an environment for profound healing.

It’s now 9 months since I did Healing Your Life, and daily meditation has transformed my life. I want to thank you all at Quest. With attention to self-care and keeping track of how I am going throughout the day, I’ve been able to live without anxiety for the first time in years.

– Mary