26 Apr Best Friend Handbook: 5 Tips for Managing Panic
My friend Katherine Stuart writes a wonderful blog,”Best Friend Handbook,” everything from fashion and beauty tips to nutrition and recipes – including recipes for success in life – which she feels are ramped up by practicing gratitude every single day.
This week, Katherine offers helpful hints (with sources) for managing panic, including hypnotherapy downloads here. (Difficulty meditating? This link could be your answer.)
“Trying to stay calm these days can feel like a full time job. Lucky for you, I’ve spent the past two years accumulating a slew of tricks for managing the panic and fear that are the natural result of living in a state of uncertainty. Here is what’s working for me these days. I hope that they can help you too.
“Stay safe. Stay home,” says Katherine.
5 TIPS FOR MANAGING PANIC:
One of the few positives of having cancer (a sentence that I never thought I’d write) is that I’ve spent the past two years living in a state of total unknown in terms of my health. And yet, thanks to these 5 tips for managing panic, I am the calmest that I’ve ever been. Like cancer, COVID-19 is invisible, unfair and potentially lethal. There are also way more questions at present than there are answers. In short, it’s the perfect recipe for panic. So, here are the things that help me stay sane. Let me know if they work for you.
Find Your Rituals
Embracing rituals is one of the easiest ways for me to keep my panic at a manageable level. There are certain things that I do every day that help give me a sense of calm amidst the chaos. The first is that I take my temperature. As a post-menopausal woman who is going through chemotherapy, I would wake up with a racing heart, convinced that my night sweats, body aches and funky mouth taste meant that I had contracted COVID-19. It didn’t matter that I have been living with these symptoms for over 2 years now. Taking my body temp allows me to calm the F— down. Afterwards, I use an alcohol wipe to swab off the thermometer and use the flip side to wipe down the faucets, toilet flush, doorknobs and light switch in my bathroom.
Next, I head into the kitchen and clean my counters. Since I can’t use Clorox (even if I could find any in the store, the smell literally makes me sick), I typically use good old soap and water. According to my oncologist, if it works on the hands, it works on the countertops. Then, every other day or if I’ve brought in a package and rested it on the counter, I will wipe down all of my high touch surface areas with Briotech Topical Skin Spray.
Gentle enough to spray on your face and hands (which I do if I’ve been around people or in lieu of hand sanitizer), it kills close to 100% of coronavirus OC43, a close relative of COVID-19. You can read more about the science here. It smells a tad odd, but gets the job done and doesn’t make me want to vomit. The only downside is it’s expensive. However, it’s much kinder to your body and the environment.
Salt Water Rinse
I recently met a healer from Egypt who shared his pandemic prevention ritual: a salt water rinse in the mouth and nostrils, 3 times a day. Since Egypt has a long history of plagues and pestilence, I figured that his advice was worth taking. Making your own salt water rinse is easy:
• Fill a 4 quart sauce pan with water and bring to a boil
• Add 6-8 teaspoons sea salt
• Let cool, pour into a pitcher and place in the fridge for useThis healer suggested pink Himalayan sea salt, but honestly, any brand will do although the pink does give the rinse a cheery hue (Hey, I’ll take my positives where I can get them).
Pink Himalayan sea salt to make a salt water rinse as one of 5 tips for managing panic
If you have a squirt bottle or a neti pot, you can fill them, but I just use a square condiment dish. The corner makes it easy to snort the salt water up my nose. It doesn’t feel great, but it’s not horrible either.
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