The Harvard Medical School in the US has suggested yoga, meditation
and controlled breathing as ways to cope with anxiety related to coronavirus
epidemic which has already claimed over 100 lives in the country.

In a health guide published earlier this week, the University
encouraged its students to take up yoga, meditation and controlled breathing
exercises.

“Not a yoga person? No need to start now unless you’d like to
try it. Sometimes trying new things and discovering new activities you can
benefit from and enjoy can be a welcome, healthy distraction. Yoga Studio and
Pocket Yoga are good apps to consider,” wrote John Sharp, a board-certified
psychiatrist on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and the David Geffen
School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles.

The deadly coronavirus has hit all the 50 states in the
country as the death toll there reached 108. There were reports of a sudden
surge in the sale of guns with panic-stricken people anticipating riots in the
event of the Covid-19 persisting and leading to an acute food shortage crisis.

Regular meditation is very calming. Many apps teach simple
forms of meditation, such as Headspace or Calm, Sharp said in the article
titled ‘Coping with coronavirus anxiety’.

He also touched on controlled breathing exercises. “One
simple technique is called square breathing. Visualize your breath traveling
along a square. As you follow the instructions to inhale, hold your breath, or
exhale, count slowly to three on each side. Try it now. Inhale up the first
side of the square. Slowly count one, two, three. Hold your breath across the
top. One, two, three. Exhale down the other side of the square. One, two,
three. Then hold your breath across the bottom. One, two, three. After a few
minutes of this you should be feeling calmer and more centered,” Sharp wrote.