Things to do instead of and while you are freaking about Corona virus.

I started to break out in a cold sweat. I had just left Costco after deciding the line was too darn long to wait in just to buy grapes and that fancy hand soap for $10. Upon getting home, my wife suggested, "oh my goodness, we need toilet paper."

My friend, who I had seen at Costco, assured me they were gone. All out. I panicked. Our pipes can't handle tissue paper. And we're almost out of toilet paper. Is there an app? I imagined Target was out also. Walmart. Everwhere. Next thing is maybe there won't be food. Forget all the events. Esther's Bat Mitzvah. I felt my pulse rising. I rushed to my basement to find...a brand new Costco toilet paper. It will be on sale for $800/roll.

But I thought to myself, wow! It's a great point. Anxiety builds on itself. I wasn't triggered by the disease, I was triggered by the potential that I didn't have 100 roles of TP in my basement.

I am starting to feel myself itch to check the news just to feel that fear that everything is falling apart. It's there and it's real. And the great news is that anxiety is at work in our lives at all times--and despite the fact that the economy is plunging and all the doctors are saying its not that big of a deal, perhaps those of us on the mental health/mindset end of these things could offer some value.

1. Notice your need or desire to trigger your anxiety. You check in on the news, even when you never did before. You watch for updates. You talk about it. You feel that deep anxiety that everything is going to fall apart around you. See how your fear whips you up into a frenzy.

2. Now that you're aware of how much you want to feel fear (because after all, doesn't stressing out about it feel so darn productive), recognize it in your body. Where are you feeling the fear? Is it in your chest? Your stomach? Your arms? Experience yourself feeling the anxiety.

3. Now ask, do you want to feel anxious? And will feeling anxious do anything for you? Since the answer is no and no, resolve that besides washing your hands more often, nothing productive is going to happen with you going nuts. Recognize that the world may or may not end and you have no active role in it, so you might as well enjoy the moment now.

3. Take a big breath. Take five big breaths. Close your eyes and realize that right now, nothing hurts. Everything is fine. Panic is a state of mind that people want to rush to because it relieves them of responsibility and confirms all their deep seeded fears. But its just a state of mind. And if you don't want to panic, you don't have to. Whatever happens will happen.

4. Recognize that while you can't change social or the news media, you can have a better day right now. And even if that doesn't affect anyone except you, hey, at least you aren't freaking out. And when you aren't freaking out, you can handle everything better.

5. If you're feeling better, maybe go out of your way to smile or to help someone else calm down because after all, they probably didn't go through the process described above and they are deeply nervous.

6. If you do this, and can help others do this, then you won't panic, and maybe your neighbor won't panic, and maybe that's a start. Because at the end of the day, the only control we have is what we choose to frame our experience.

And enjoy the time at home, or wherever else you find yourself because at times like this it is amazing to appreciate how an individual can free themselves or chain themselves to the feelings of the masses.