As we face the rise and rise of the Omicron variant, your risk of getting severe Covid may depend on how stressed you are. Now is a great time to look after your mental health.
You don’t need to pick up exactly where you left off; you can think about how you want your life to look.
Thomas Barwick/DigitalVision via Getty Images
After more than a year of idealizing life without COVID-19, people are starting to reenter ‘normal’ life. Clinical psychology provides guidance on how to prepare for your post-pandemic reboot.
Don’t assume that something you’re uncertain about will have a terrible outcome.
LWA-Dann Tardif/Stone via Getty Images
Feel like you’re facing too many pandemic-related unknowns? Reframing what it means to not know can help you break the uncertainty-anxiety connection.
Rhetoric that casts COVID-19 as a Chinese virus stigmatizes Asian people and plays into racist tropes of a ‘yellow peril.’
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Stating that COVID-19 is a “Chinese” disease, dehumanizes and reinforces well-worn stereotypes of Chinese people as the “yellow peril.”
Shannon Rose, left, joined other demonstrators calling for Gov. Gavin Newsom to end the stay-at-home orders during a protest at the state capitol in Sacramento, Calif., on May 9, 2020.
(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
From political ideologies, conspiracy theories or “reopen” protests, when faced with uncertainty, we seek reassurance in the face of mortality through efforts at containment.
Going back to work during COVID-19 brings challenges to both employers and employees.
Getty Images / iz ustun
When urban spaces work well they are highly social spaces. How do we safely manage them and people’s fears about mingling when ‘being together but apart’ is the norm?
Anxiety and loneliness affect many people at the best of times. The pandemic-induced isolation and stress won’t be helping, but cities can do many things to improve the ‘emotional climate’.
Don’t just tell us how many new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, tell us how many people you tested as well. That helps us to know if things are getting better or worse.
As the pandemic moves us indoors, it’s time to reconsider our understanding of ‘screen time’ – especially since we’re relying on our devices now more than ever.
Most people felt they were doing OK – with lots of TV and news updates.
Erik Mclean/Unsplash
As if attacks on health workers weren’t upsetting enough, reports indicate broadband engineers are now also being abused - as conspiracy theorists link 5G technology with to COVID-19’s spread.
Working from home requires the right balance.
MoMo Productions/Getty Images
Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology; Daniel Angus, Queensland University of Technology; Timothy Graham, Queensland University of Technology, dan Tobias R. Keller, Queensland University of Technology
The social media spread of news, information and myths about coronavirus can help keep the public informed but can also stoke panic.
Disasters and times of crisis bring out the best in most of us. Despite the media focus on initial panic at the COVID-19 pandemic, we are are starting to see a more heartening community response.