My stress levels were holding up well during this crisis – until this past week. Whether you’re working from home, your gym is closed, or your grocery store trips end with only half your list crossed off – this pandemic has hit home. When I finally began to crack this past week, I found myself turning to meditation apps for anxiety.

We’ve all had our lives impacted in some way by this Virus-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named.

I’ve always known that mental health is important, but nowadays it’s more important than ever. We have to take care of our minds.

As I felt the strain increase, I realized I had a ton of options. And they were literally at my fingertips.

Let’s talk about managing social anxiety.

Imagine this scenario:

You’re at some sort of social gathering, talking to someone you barely know, when you literally can’t think of anything to say next.

You frantically try to wrack your brain for anything you have in common – anything semi-interesting to say. To make matters worse, you look around to see everyone else in absorbing conversations, laughing and having a merry ole’ time.

Unfortunately, I’ve experienced this plenty of times. And in these moments, my first thought is usually, “What’s wrong with me? Why is everyone else so dang charismatic?”

To me, mindfulness seems extremely broad. It’s become a big buzzword, but do most of us know what it even means?

My general grasp of the concept was that mindfulness is a mixture of self awareness and being fully present in your day-to-day life. But I felt like that was only a very basic understanding of the idea. So let’s see what the experts say!