These are very trying times for most people for more than the possibility of contracting the Corona Virus. The fact that we have all been forced to change the way we live both our private and professional lives is creating extra pressures too!
There are a number of different scenarios that people are faced with when it comes to our work and home lives such as:
- Working from home.
- Continuing to work as a key worker.
- Furlough.
- Redundancy.
- Self-employment.
- Business ownership.
As the situation continues I will be creating blogs which look at each of these situations and I am beginning today with working from home.
If you are designated as an essential person for your organisation and you have been asked to work from home to help keep the world turning rather than being furloughed or made redundant it will bring a number of possible issues depending on your personal situation.
You may find you are feeling much more anxious because of situations such as:
- Feeling isolated because you live alone and are used to working with other people, or…
- Feeling crowded because you are used to working in an organised workplace and now you have the family around you.
So why do we feel so anxious?
Well, Anxiety is a natural element of every single one of us. It is Mother Nature’s alarm clock and is designed to wake us up to danger and to tell to take appropriate action to keep ourselves safe.
It feels particularly unpleasant to make us take notice and under “normal” circumstances is a short lived experience which dissipates as soon as the danger has passed.
The problem right now is that we have a perceived danger which we are being informed will last for an indefinite length of time, and with unknown consequences.
So how do we deal with it?
For me the answer is twofold:
Firstly, learn from our cousins in the animal kingdom and get back to living in the here & now. If , like me you like to watch nature programmes you will notice that the animal world generally speaking does not suffer with mental health issues, that is unless the animal concerned happens to have been abused by humans.
Animals go about their business, focusing on what they need to do right now. We humans however, spend far too much time dwelling on what has happened in the past and then trying to predict what will happen in the future!
The trouble with this is that the past experiences will be either:
- Positive.
- Negative.
- Non-existent.
Now, if your past experiences of the current situation were positive then you will be far more likely to project a positive outcome for the future. However, while there have been outbreaks of very serious illnesses before, we have NEVER been subjected to such extensive and strict measures to deal with it.
The fact is that the large majority of people have absolutely no previous experiences to draw upon, and our memories of being ill are very rarely happy. The result of this is that instead of putting a positive spin on things we tend to see this as a very bad thing with no end in sight, in short we catastrophise!
If we can learn to focus our minds on just what we need to do right now it will help us to remain calm and balanced. A great way to start is to get into mindfulness by using guided meditation apps or even to simply stop to take time out and notice the wonderful things you have around you that Mother Nature provided.
The second thing that will help is putting things in place to help us to focus on the here & now. The way to do that is to learn to put structure in place in your life.
When you are at work you know what you are going to do when you get there because there is structure in place. No organisation can operate effectively without it and neither can we as individuals.
Building structure is simply creating a prioritised list of the things you need to do each day. When you are out of the house and at work this is a fairly simple thing to do as you only need to populate the list with working tasks, but when you are working from home you need to factor in other things such as:
- The family and their needs.
- Domestic tasks.
- Self-care time.
When you are working from home it is very easy to fall into the trap of burying yourself in your work but we must remember that, even in these trying times there are things that are just as and even more important than work!
It is easy to remind ourselves that we must remain “self disciplined” and crack on!
Well self-discipline is a two sided coin, and on the other side of the coin is the need to recognise our limitations and the ability to make sure that we take care of our personal needs so we can maintain balance.
So my recommendation to you is to start creating a structure which allows you to take care of your working tasks, your family needs, and your personal self-care needs. The way I do this is to make sure that my final task of today is to create my “to do list” for tomorrow.
This way I can relax in the evening, safe in the knowledge that my structure for tomorrow is in place and I can sleep soundly as a result.
Start now… think about the things that you love to do to relax & unwind and put time to do those things into your daily “to do list”.
If you would like a personal chat about this or any other wellbeing topic please feel free to e-mail me via mentalhealth@mhfa999.co.uk
Stay safe and well.
Andy
MHFA999 