Much has been written, discussed, and debated about the effects of the pandemic on our health, the economy, jobs, and society; and more is being raised about its consequences to our mental health and overall wellbeing.
Every day we learn about discoveries, observations, and insights on the impact of the pandemic on our working memory and concentration, our ability to deal with the social isolation, lockdowns, changes in habits, curtailed liberties, and so on, as well as our overall patience and ability to integrate all these changes without losing our minds in the process.
In Australia, at least, we appear to be over the worst having contained and eliminated local transmission of the virus, although we remain ever vigilant. Especially those of us in Melbourne who endured over 100 days of lockdown in 2020. We don’t want to go back there.
And it’s this vigilance that I want to explore further, especially the hyper vigilance and its effects on our senses and sense of self, including our cognitive skills and abilities, patience and tolerance, and demeanour and overall communication skills as we seek to engage and work with others.
As a business consultant, strategist, coach, and sales professional, I pride myself on my excellent listening and questioning skills, and my ability to concentrate and see different perspectives and patterns to discern meaning, feelings, content, and direction.
These senses have served me very well all my life, however, during the early days of our stage 2 lockdown here in Melbourne I noticed my concentration skills were being affected. I found myself skipping information I would normally read and absorb; I was speeding through things and not listening as well as I used to; I found my patience and tolerance was being tested; I found I had trouble remembering things. I noticed that I wasn’t operating as normal. I felt disconnected from my senses and sense of self.
Of course any reasonable person would say ‘Well we are in a pandemic and you’re working to keep your business going and delivering work; you’re having to juggle all sort of new conditions like working remotely; keeping your family functioning; getting your youngest child through Year 12; and even down to remembering when and where to wear a mask and how to avoid getting too close to people in the supermarket.’
Yes, there is lot to process and our otherwise high functioning capabilities can take a hit under such extreme conditions which is why I found it very interesting to read about the effects of the pandemic on our Working Memory.
I have read a series of articles and research papers about this and pulled out some key concepts which can help explain why we may all be losing some connection to our sense of self and our senses. This is a very good BBC article.
Here’s some of what I discovered:
- Increasing evidence indicates that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is associated with adverse psychological effects, including heightened levels of anxiety – this makes obvious sense.
- Isolated routines are not very good for our working memory.
- When we don’t get a chance to chat and exchange experiences, we have fewer stories to tell which makes it harder to remember things, people and events.
- Even if your situation is better than most, it’s hard to shake that underlying anxiety that the world has fundamentally changed and become more uncertain.
- Even though levels of anxiety peaked at the beginning of the pandemic, people’s anxiety levels have remained above pre COVID levels; there’s always some feeling of anxiety lingering which can make us feel unsettled.
- Worries tax our working memories, leaving us with less capacity available for remembering shopping lists or what we need to do for work.
- When one remote meeting rolls into another while you sit at your home office desk, everything seems the same and there are fewer things to tag your memories too – it becomes a blur.
- There’s a general fatigue that accumulates from the low grade anxiety which also doesn’t help our creating and retention of memories.
With the combination of fatigue, anxiety, a lack of interesting cues, and fewer social interactions, it’s no wonder that some of us feel our memory is letting us down.
I am sure I am not alone. This made so much sense to me and it reassured me I wasn’t going mad.
Good news is we can easily restore our senses, our memories, and our sense of self.
Here’s how:
- Get out and into nature, go for a walk (obviously observing lockdown protocols) to change your scenery.
- Move – have a mini stretch break, or do a walking meeting if you can – I get up and take my phone to different parts of my home – sitting on the back veranda, walking around my garden, going to a different room, and so on.
- Make sure you create a complete separation between work and other parts of your life; have weekends, keep meal times separate, have down time, making sure not to let everything merge into one blob.
- Do different things i.e. take up or keep your hobbies, community service, sports and other activities going
- Make time to share stories with your colleagues, friends, and family.
- Make time to reflect on your day every evening to consolidate your memories – my husband and I having been going for a walk every evening since COVID started and chat about our day – we use this time to decompress, reflect and review, we also star gaze and have become very aware of the movements of the stars and planets – we even saw a shooting star the other evening which was lovely.
- Make lists – shopping lists, To Do lists, big picture priority lists, your talents and attributes, things you value and don’t want to lose, etc.
Above all, be kind to yourself and others. Pay attention when you start to feel impatient or short with yourself and others. If that happens, stop, reflect, and check that you are making space and time to do those things that help you stay connected to what is important to you – your senses and sense of self so you can keep operating at your best.
Remember, everybody lives by selling something.
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