If you don’t want to read long articles, here’s a summary of just one point: During this pandemic, your stress levels are going up because there is risk to life (yours & people around you). That is activating your “fight, flight, or freeze” system. 1/

(That’s one reason why your brain may be feeling frozen & you can’t do anything. Be kind to yourself — it’s not a lack of willpower, it’s very basic human biology!!) Your sympathetic nervous system is boosting your cortisol, looking for the enemy to fight. Only you can’t. /2

So we’re all going around with high levels of stress hormones. It’s why people are picking fights and having arguments and just generally being tetchy. Our bodies want to take on the enemy, but our bodies don’t understand microbiology and virology. So we’re riled up. 3/

What we need to do is try to counter the sympathetic nervous system with the parasympathetic nervous system. Think of this as the “mend and tend” part of your brain. It’s what we are programmed to do AFTER we’ve had that big life-or-death fight. 4/

What you can do to fight anxiety/stress is Tend & Mend. Be kind to people, offer to help in concrete ways within your capacity (stay safe!). Practice random acts of kindness over the internet. Make art. Sing songs. Create. All of these positive acts will help your brain calm down