Addressing Our Current Mental Health Situation
I know a lot of my members are struggling with their mental health right now; things are weird and we aren’t sure how we are supposed to process and respond to the weirdness. Of course, some things aren’t weird at all, in fact they are just the same as they always were. Trying to balance our responses to both the usual and the newly unusual has left a lot of us dealing with cognitive dissonance - where the universe shows us that something we held to be true turns out not to be true after all and in so doing makes us question everything else we hold true - it is a major cause of mental anguish.
As human beings, we strive for psychological consistency, a mental homeostasis, if you like, and when the universe messes with that (like introducing a global pandemic to planet Earth and forcing us all out of our regular routines) we become psychologically uncomfortable and we respond with (or without) logic, emotion and behaviour. Either we make proactive changes to reduce the feelings of anxiety the cognitive dissonance evokes (this action can be positive or destructive) or we avoid situations that amplify the feelings of cognitive dissonance (this is inaction).
In short, we all feel slightly wrong at the moment and most of us have chosen one of two paths to follow. 1: we change our behaviour and routines to justify and make sense of the new reality, in either a helpful or destructive way or 2: we avoid any situations that highlight the new reality. Both are designed to limit the damage our cognitive dissonance generates and protect our mental health.
Let’s have a look at both methods.
In method one, a positive response might be making new routines that embrace our new reality. This might mean joining Zoom RomWOD sessions every morning and doing the CrossFit Uckfield workout of the day in the garden instead of the gym, for example. What this does is allow us to take control of our new reality in a positive way that is good for us mentally and physically. Taking control is ultimately what gives us peace of mind and a sense of calm amidst the storm.
A negative response to method one might declaring 10am to be cheese o’clock and having a gin and tonic for elevenses, with a packet and a half of jaffa cakes for good measure. It might be deciding to get up at midday instead of 6am because you don’t need to catch a train into work any more. These are proactive responses to your cognitive dissonance and make you feel like you are in control of the changes that have been imposed on you but they aren’t a healthy response and won’t result in a cheerful outlook or a healthy state of body or mind.
In method 2, we try to ignore the changes that have been imposed on us by removing ourselves from any situation that highlights it. We might neglect messages from friends or we might avoid Zoom workouts with people we previously enjoyed spending an hour a day with. Far from being a proactive method, this method is passive, requiring no action, and therefore only serves to highlight our impotence. It further removes control and doesn’t help to make us feel better, only worse.
The COVID-19 Lockdown has imposed physical and financial restrictions on us that result in physiological, psychological and rationally and irrationally emotional responses. The Lockdown has taken control away from elements of our lives that we normally manage personally. Losing control is the single most psychologically difficult thing for our brains to handle and a loss of control can come from myriad different sources and manifest in a myriad ways. This particular stripping away of our control has come from COVID-19- uninvited - how it manifests and how we regain control is up to us.
Over the course of next week, I will release some helpful tips, tricks and techniques to help us all feel more in control, to feel mentally and emotionally more stable, to be better able to sleep well, to feel physically less exhausted and t feel stronger and ready to work out!
We got this. ❤️