You’ve got been right here earlier than. The flurry of headlines declare a “variant of concern(opens in a brand new tab).” The speaking heads urge you to not panic as chyrons under them repeat the phrases mutation and breakthrough. And, no, you should not emotionally unravel as a result of this is not a repeat of March 2020 when there have been no efficient vaccines and little understanding of how COVID-19 unfold. The concern of the unknown, nonetheless, nonetheless has the ability to knock you down. 

You thought you have been completed with this uncertainty, even when secretly you knew that was unlikely. You hoped the Delta variant of COVID-19(opens in a brand new tab) can be the prelude to the tip of our pandemic nightmare. However now you are confronted with Omicron, a variant(opens in a brand new tab) that South African scientists dropped at the world’s consideration round Thanksgiving(opens in a brand new tab), proper as you have been settling into being with household safely for the primary time since COVID-19 started infecting and killing tens of millions of individuals. The primary confirmed case within the U.S. surfaced in San Francisco on Wednesday(opens in a brand new tab). One other case found in Minnesota, in a affected person who hadn’t traveled internationally(opens in a brand new tab), suggests home transmission of Omicron is already underway. 

It is cheap to really feel unnerved by this surprising flip. There’s lingering doubt about what Omicron means to your well-laid plans: the long-delayed wedding ceremony, getting again on a relationship app, returning to an workplace office. Simply as you’d gotten acquainted, possibly even snug, with the stakes of Delta, there are new questions.(opens in a brand new tab) How properly do the vaccines stand as much as Omicron? Does Omicron, on common, infect extra folks than Delta, which is already fairly contagious? Do Omicron infections actually result in solely gentle signs? 

You’d wish to make choices primarily based on this data, however you may’t — not but. The specialists say they will know extra about Omicron within the coming weeks(opens in a brand new tab). They are saying to maintain calm, get vaccinated or boosted, and proceed practising prevention measures(opens in a brand new tab), like masking indoors and testing earlier than gathering. They don’t seem to be flawed. The rational response is to not spiral. In spite of everything, you’ve got been right here earlier than: The downward slide into breathless anxiousness would not serve you, or anybody else you like, properly. However the fact is that people are horrible at managing uncertainty. They love realizing what is going to, or is more likely to, occur subsequent. You are no exception. 

So that you search for methods to handle. You possibly can play fake, ignoring the specter of the virus since you’re exhausted from fear, like so many others. You possibly can let the anxiousness of the unknown spin you into both hyperproductivity or deep despair. The primary is a kind of distraction. The second is usually what occurs after we really feel relentlessly uncontrolled.

However between the extremes there is a calmer path. Go searching and be aware of what you observe. Information protection and social media content material about Omicron may be alarmist. If consuming that heightens your feelings — grief, anxiousness, anger — soak up correct, measured tales and commentary as an alternative. Flip off notifications. Mute accounts that hype as an alternative of clarify. The purpose is not to really feel nothing in regards to the uncertainty, however to restrict how a lot exterior influences push your feelings to the breaking level. 

Now think about what you’ve got already realized from previous tumultuous durations following a brand new variant of concern. Did you fret over Alpha final winter after which overlook it existed as soon as Delta comprised most infections?(opens in a brand new tab) Maybe the alternatives you made following Delta are ones you can also make once more now, like avoiding indoor eating, masking on the health club even when it is not required, and being significantly cautious round unvaccinated kids and immunocompromised however vaccinated folks. If these actions made you’re feeling extra answerable for your destiny and extra like a superb citizen, attempt them once more. 

Make a listing of issues that enhance your temper and do these, too. Safely socialize with individuals who make you chuckle. Transfer your physique with the aim of releasing the stress that is stiffened your joints and limbs. Sleep and eat properly, in the event you can. Be absolutely current when doable, and breathe. Strive a meditation app, or a brand new meditation course, if that is your factor. Observe the methods specialists say it’s best to: radical acceptance, self-compassion, mindfulness. They will maintain you grounded within the current actuality somewhat than caught in a round hell of your individual nervous pondering. 

Be form to your self when you find yourself there anyway, regardless of your greatest efforts. Be particularly mild in the event you’re a well being care employee or on the entrance strains in one other capability, like as a cashier, flight attendant, or DMV worker. You’ve got been worn down by fixed publicity to threat. Some strangers you encounter solely make this worse with their carelessness or callousness. You, of all folks, deserve extra certainty on this pandemic, not much less. If that is how you’re feeling, merely acknowledge it. Say you would like this was lastly over, since you’re not alone. 

Above all, do not forget that we’re not beginning over once more. Variants of COVID-19, together with Omicron, are unlikely to completely evade the immune system, in keeping with the specialists(opens in a brand new tab). We all know that masking can stop an infection. Fast exams, although obscenely costly and generally exhausting to seek out within the U.S.(opens in a brand new tab), can be found, as is polymerase chain response (PCR) testing. We’re not going again to March 2020, no less than not with this virus. As for Omicron, belief that you will know the solutions to your questions quickly, as a result of you’ll. It is only a matter of time.