TL;DR –Just as physical care packages provide tangible comfort across distances, this digital collection of resources serves as emotional support during COVID-19's collective trauma. The pandemic creates a unique mental health challenge—we're facing a marathon-length crisis while our nervous systems sprint at high alert, burning through reserves we'll need for the long haul. Running on constant anxiety about health, economics, and uncertainty isn't sustainable; it's like trying to run a marathon at sprint pace, guaranteeing burnout and physical impacts from chronic stress activation.
This digital care package acknowledges there's no "right" way to feel during a pandemic—anxiety about the unknown is natural and expected. Yet we still need to support our nervous systems through this extended stress, finding ways to downshift from constant high alert. The curated resources—meditations, self-care suggestions, comfort essays, and grounding tools—aim to help regulate overwhelmed nervous systems and provide moments of ease amidst chaos. While we can't control the pandemic's trajectory or timeline, we can offer ourselves small comforts, gentle regulation practices, and reminders that we've survived hard things before and will survive this too.
One of the things I love most about my mom is how wonderful she is at sending care packages.
TL;DR
When the world is in upheaval and ordinary comfort is hard to find, a care package—metaphorical or literal—can be a meaningful act of self-tending. This post offers a curated collection of mental health-focused practices, perspectives, and resources designed to support you through the particular stressors of a global pandemic: the grief, the anxiety, the uncertainty, and the nervous system overload that come with sustained collective trauma.
Across my college days, my Peace Corps days, and even into my mid- and late- twenties, my mom would, wherever I lived in the world, send me thoughtfully curated, beautiful care packages.
Tins of homemade cookies, scented soap, socks and underwear, favorite magazines, and always a handwritten note from her with maybe a sticker or two on it.
Across my college days, my Peace Corps days, and even into my mid- and late- twenties, my mom would, wherever I lived in the world, send me thoughtfully curated, beautiful care packages.
Tins of homemade cookies, scented soap, socks and underwear, favorite magazines, and always a handwritten note from her with maybe a sticker or two on it.
These packages were like tangible hugs across the miles and sometimes oceans.
Comfort in a box. Something sweet amidst hard times.
Today, the world collectively turns its attention to COVID-19.
As we feel and face our way through it all, you may be struggling.
You may feel anxious about getting sick. Concerned about your vulnerable loved ones.
You may feel worried about economic losses and what you see the stock market doing.
You may have your trauma triggers rearing up right now. Impacts triggered by all the not knowing.
You may be having trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, feeling grounded, feeling steady.
You may be having a really hard time.
Please know that this is normal and natural.
There is no one “way” we’re supposed to feel amidst the COVID pandemic.
Anxiety is a normal and natural response to the unknown, and let’s face it, there’s plenty of that these days.
And still, though, we want to try and support our nervous systems however we can as we cope with this added stress.
When you can’t calm down your nervous system, when you’re running on high alert all the time, it’s like trying to run a marathon at a sprint pace.
You will burn out. You will feel the huge physical impacts of it.
We may be facing a proverbial marathon-like situation since we don’t know how many months it will take for COVID-19 to become manageable.
It’s a proverbial mental health marathon right now and we can’t have your nervous system on high alert (aka: sprinting) across all of that time.
To that end, while I can’t send each of you an actual tangible care package, today’s post is my 2020 equivalent of what my mother has always done for me. A digital care package of comfort to see you through hard times.
It’s a curated “package” of my words, thoughts, tools, and resources. (Including a guided audio meditation spoken by me and a book I’m making free to you.) All designed to bring you a little comfort, a little more ease for your nervous system. And more peace for your mind in these trying times.
I hope that any, some or all of it feels supportive to you. That even one post or one sentence can help support your nervous system to regulate. I hope that this post feels good to you.
Signs You May Be Carrying Relational Trauma
Take this 5-minute, 25-question quiz to find out — and learn what to do next if you do.
I care about you. We will get through this.
Here’s to healing relational trauma and creating thriving lives on solid foundations.
Warmly,
Annie
A Care Package Of Comfort For Trying Times
- A grounding and nourishing meditation. (spoken by me, for you)
- A recipe for robust mental health: 13 ingredients. (one of my articles)
- A pep talk for those times when you’re struggling. (one of my blog posts)
- A few words of comfort on very hard days. (one of my blog posts)
- When life feels impossible. A note from me to you. (one of my blog posts)
- 101 self-care suggestions when it all feels like too much. (one of my blog posts)
- 101 reasons why it will all be okay.(one of my blog posts)
- 99 Uplifting quotes to spark your soul and see you through hard times. (one of my blog posts)
- Adulting’s not always easy. And humaning can be hard. (one of my blog posts)
Creating Comfort Through Crisis-Oriented Therapy
When you arrive at therapy exhausted from weeks of pandemic hypervigilance, describing how you can’t turn off the anxiety even though you know this could last months, your therapist helps you understand that trying to maintain crisis-level activation long-term is like attempting to feel all of your feelings as the key to a more enlivened life—but in reverse, where feeling everything at maximum intensity constantly leads to numbness and burnout rather than vitality.
Your therapist introduces the marathon versus sprint metaphor. They explain that your nervous system is doing exactly what it’s designed to do—mobilizing for threat. The problem is duration, not activation.
Together, you create what they call “regulation breaks”—small windows where you intentionally downshift your nervous system. Not pretending everything’s fine, but giving yourself permission to rest between waves of anxiety.
They teach you pendulation—consciously moving between activation and calm. You practice noticing when you’re spiraling into COVID catastrophizing and gently bringing attention to something neutral: the temperature of your tea, the softness of your sweater, the rhythm of your breath.
Your therapist helps you understand that comfort isn’t frivolous during crisis—it’s necessary maintenance. Just as care packages provide tangible relief to someone far from home, small comforts provide your nervous system with evidence that not everything is threat.
You work on creating your own “comfort protocol”—a list of reliable soothers you can access when anxiety spikes. Hot baths, specific music, pet videos, calling certain friends. These aren’t cures but circuit breakers, preventing your system from staying locked in alarm mode.
Most importantly, your therapist normalizes the full spectrum of pandemic responses. Some days you’re anxious, some numb, some oddly productive, some completely frozen. There’s no right way to feel during collective trauma.
They remind you that offering yourself comfort during crisis isn’t weakness but wisdom. Your nervous system needs periodic relief to sustain long-term coping. Through small acts of self-soothing, you’re not avoiding reality but ensuring you have the resources to face whatever comes next.
Related Reading
- What does it mean to be an ambitious, upwardly mobile woman from a relational trauma background?
- Attachment Trauma: How Early Relationships Shape Your Adult Connections
- Trauma and Relationships: When Your Professional Strengths Become Your Relationship Blindspots
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does a pandemic feel so traumatizing even if nothing dramatic happened to me personally?
Collective disasters like pandemics create widespread nervous system dysregulation through multiple simultaneous stressors: threat to life, loss of routine and social connection, information overload, grief, and the particular stress of an ongoing situation with no clear end. You don’t need to have experienced individual disaster to feel genuinely traumatized by the cumulative impact of these conditions.
How do I take care of my mental health when I can’t do the things that usually help?
The goal during acute stress is to prioritize the minimum effective dose of self-support: enough sleep, adequate nourishment, some movement, and at least one honest human connection per day—even brief and virtual. When your usual resources are unavailable, the nervous system-level basics become more important than ever.
What helps when anxiety feels unmanageable during a crisis?
Nervous system regulation practices—slow breath work, cold water on the face, brief vigorous movement, orienting attention to the physical present environment—can interrupt the anxiety spiral at the physiological level. These aren’t solutions to the underlying stressor, but they can bring you back into a window of tolerance where you can function and make choices.
Is it normal to feel worse about old wounds during a large-scale crisis?
Yes. Crisis states tend to activate older unprocessed material—particularly for those with childhood or relational trauma histories. Your nervous system recognizes threat, and threat activates all the old threat-response wiring. This is why crises often surface old grief, relationship difficulties, and mental health challenges that had been managed.
How do I support someone else who is really struggling during a crisis?
Presence over advice. Most people need to feel less alone and more seen, not more information or solutions. Checking in consistently, listening without immediately trying to fix, and being honest about your own limits are often more valuable than any specific resource or recommendation.
This is part of our comprehensive guide on this topic. For the full picture, read: The Complete Guide to Relational Trauma.
DISCLAIMER: The content of this post is for psychoeducational and informational purposes only and does not constitute therapy, clinical advice, or a therapist-client relationship. For full details, please read our Medical Disclaimer. If you are in crisis, please call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line).
You deserve a life that feels as good as it looks. Let’s work on that together.
