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California Releases Stress-Coping Strategies For Adults And Kids
People are out of work. They're stuck at home. Maybe afraid to get sick. Or they're stuck risking their health to carry out essential jobs to take care of the rest of us. However you look at it, living through this coronavirus pandemic is stressing us all out.
With that in mind, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state has released a new guide to help people manage stress while at home. For adults, the guide includes:
- Supportive relationships: Maintain supportive relationships wherever you can, including virtually.
- Exercise: Engage in 60 minutes of physical activity every day, if you can. It doesn’t have to be all at one time.
- Sleep: Get sufficient, high-quality sleep. This may be particularly hard right now, but going to sleep and waking up at the same time each day can help.
- Nutrition: Ensure you are getting proper nutrition to help combat stress.
- Mental health support: Resources available here.
- Mindfulness: Practice mindfulness in whatever way works best for you. This could be things like meditation, yoga, or prayer for 20 minutes, two times a day.
For parents and kids, it includes:
- Talk about what's going on: As parents and caregivers, it’s important to talk to children about emergency situations in age-appropriate language and approach the discussion in a calm and sensitive way to help them cope.
- Keep kids connected to their networks: Video chat play dates, write letters to send, text silly pictures back and forth, video messages, whatever works – but helping kids stay connected to their networks is as important for them as it is for you.
- Build a routine for you and your family: Your schedule should include set wake up and bedtimes, regular meals (including snacks), quiet time for schoolwork and reading as well as regular movement and exercise.
- Keep to your routine: Not every moment of every day needs to be scheduled, so take a moment to reflect on your program and how it’s working for your family.
The governor announced the new guides during his daily update on the state's response to the spread of COVID-19. Here are the new numbers he shared:
- 15,865 confirmed cases positive — a 10.7% increase over yesterday
- 2,611 total hospitalizations so far — about 4.1% more than yesterday
- 1,108 in Intensive Care Units, or a 2.1% increase
- 374 deaths — 31 since yesterday
Newsom said though we aren't flattening the curve yet, we may be seeing at least a decrease in the slope of COVID-19's spread:
"We want to see that number go down, not up, but these are not the double digit increases we're seeing in hospitalization rates or ICU rates that we saw even a week or so ago. That's not to suggest by any stretch of the imagination that we'll continue to see these declines. It's to only reinforce the importance of maintaining physical distancing and continuing our stay-at-home policy that has helped bend the curve in the state of California."
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- California Surgeon General's Playbook: Stress Relief during COVID-19
- California Surgeon General's Playbook: Relief for Caregivers and Kids during COVID-19
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