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Rodsky told \"GMA\" that she was not surprised by the findings of the KFF poll that women appear to be shouldering the extra stress and anxiety brought on by the outbreak of COVID-19.

\"Women in good times are diagnosed with anxiety disorders twice as much as men and it's because we’re holding the conception and planning of every household activity,\" she said. \"[A woman's brain] is a brain that doesn’t shut off\".

\"The problem during a pandemic is that emotion is high and cognition is low,\" Rodsky said.

Rodsky and Ali shared five steps women can take to help reduce their anxiety and make sure they are carrying a fair domestic load as we see our way through the coronavirus pandemic.

1. Give yourself five minutes to write down everything that is worrying you at the moment, Ali said. Next, look at your worries and see if you can pull from each one something that is in your control, something that you can manage.

Then, acknowledge in each worry the things you cannot do anything about, i.e., not being able to control when schools will reopen or whether someone at the grocery store may have coronavirus.

\"Manage what you can and release what you can’t,\" said Ali. \"Recognize what you can do and focus on the ability to do that.\"

2. Practice self-love in the form of deep breathing and mindfulness and gratitude practices.

\"These are things that don’t take a lot of time and cost us nothing and even five minutes is better than not doing anything at all,\" Ali said. \"Find those little times throughout the day to find your center so you can better help yourself therefore your partner and your children.\"

3. Find community in this time that you may be physically alone.

\"It’s really important to recognize that social distancing is not social isolation,\" Ali said. \"Even if you have individuals in your home with you, it could be helpful to reach out to siblings and friends and colleagues and make a connection.\"

4. Start where you are now and realize there is no one way to handle a pandemic, Rodsky said.

\"Understand that your home is going to look different than other homes and it doesn’t have to look like others’ homes,\" she said. \"Start where you are and where and your partner are, accept what’s important to your family, what your priorities are and it is what it is.\"

5. Spend 20 minutes every night debriefing about how everything is going.

\"Sit down with your partner and say, \"How are we doing? How’s it going with us? How are we doing with homeschooling? Who’s doing laundry tomorrow?'\" she said. \"Ask open-ended questions.\"

\"PHOTO:
Walt Disney Television
PHOTO: Eve Rodsky, author of the book Fair Play, shows couples how to build a stronger marriage through sharing the workload at home.
>

Rodsky said asking open-ended questions and starting by explaining why something is important to you instead of just why something has to get done.

\"If you can focus on why it’s important to you in your nightly check-in, it’s the most important communication tool in a crisis,\" she said, noting that couples also need to agree that \"all time is created equal,\" i.e., we all only have 24 hours in a day.

If you don't have a partner, the nightly check-in is still a valuable tool to help you see what's going well, what's causing stress and what you can control versus letting go of.

What to know about coronavirus:

Editor's note: This was originally published on March. 26, 2020.

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