Posted on:Jan 29 2021
Looking for your fourth-and-counting wind as this pandemic wears on and on and on?
If a deep sense of weariness has set in - caused by winter and darkness, stress and frustration, economic hardship, conflicting attitudes towards social distancing and mask-wearing, difficulty balancing work and online school, breaks in our rituals and traditions, and uncertainty over when a sense of normalcy will finally return - well, you are not alone.
Now, as we might finally be heading into the home stretch of this pandemic life, we must muster our resources to override that weariness.
You’ve probably heard the term “second wind” — that thing that happens when an athlete who is out of breath and too tired to continue suddenly finds the strength to press on at top performance with less exertion. It’s like finding your personal turboboost.
To be sure, all this mounting fatigue makes finding our turboboost particularly difficult. We can’t count on our second wind, on being able to find our surge all the time - not when the stress drags on like this. We’re going to get depleted.
“Surge capacity” is similar to “second wind” and refers to the mental and physical resources we draw on to survive acutely stressful situations, like natural disasters. Surge capacity works well in short-term emergencies, but to manage this long, drawn-out, infinite span of a pandemic, renewing our surge capacity, repeatedly, is critical for our well-being.
To start, we need to recognize the signs that we’re depleted - it may be tiredness, trouble sleeping, low mood - and then match the sign of depletion with whatever we need to feel replenished. And, after soooo many months of managing soooo many stressors, it’s possible we need some new approaches to how we’re taking care of ourselves.
Right behind recognizing these signs is the reminder that it’s okay to not be okay. This is hard. The cumulative, draining effects of this pandemic are real and heavy. Even that beloved, eternally-optimistic Little Engine That Could would be wondering what the heck it’s dragging up the hill and over the mountain !
That said, here are some tips for gathering your second - or twenty-second - wind. For saying to that weariness, “Hello there, here’s what I’ve got for you today.”
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To help with managing monkey mind, stress, panic or anxiety, maybe check out the meditation app, Calm. Or Tara Brach’s books and guided meditations. Mindfulness is an excellent self-soothing, replenishing practice.
Sometimes creating a challenge is just the ticket to reboot surge capacity. If you’re a runner, consider running 100 miles over the course of 10 days. If you love to cook, prepare a new recipe every day for 10 days. If you love to write, write 1,000 words each day.
To be clear, this challenge is not about starting something you “should” be doing — it’s about taking something you already love to do and pushing it just a little bit. The short time frame gives us a daily dose of control, super helpful when we don’t know where the finish line is for this pandemic - we create some mini finish lines for ourselves.
Sometimes imagining your life two years down the road helps refill the resiliency reservoir. This pandemic is temporary and while our new normal isn’t yet clear, there are probably things you’re really looking forward to doing again. Maybe you can’t wait to sit at a bar and hear live music, something that pre-pandemic was a routine Saturday night, perhaps even taken for granted. These things we’re excited to get back to, however little, give us hope.
For those of you in WFH mode, perhaps you’ve gained a new perspective on your pre-pandemic commute, that thing that marked the start and end to your day, that gave you some transition time. Some people are missing it so much they’ve created fake commutes! They put on real clothes, they take their cup of coffee, and they walk out the door and around the block. Or some people time their cupofjoe or takeout run to deliberately hit the traffic, just to have that time sitting in their car! However you reclaim your commute time, it’s a great psychological trick for creating some work-home separation.
Time outside in nature has so many nurturing, redeeming qualities - notice the clouds and the trees and maybe some animal tracks... Hopefully you have a good pair of boots; get some of those yak trak gizmos to put on your shoes, or some walking poles, for stabilization - falling on ice is no fun. Vitamin D from sunshine is also a sure-fire essential mood booster.
Zoom. Is that a 4-letter word for you by now? We all want real life again, enough of this virtual stuff. But it’s as true as ever that we get through tough things together, we build resilience together. Keep up your interaction with friends, family, and colleagues as this pandemic wears on, both when you need a lift and also when you suspect someone else might need a boost. Humans are recharged by positive connections and we don’t all surge/deplete in synch so please maintain your connections, virtually or otherways.
Let’s use what we’ve learned to press on, at top performance, with less exertion.
Stay connected to what you're looking forward to on the other side of that finish line!
