At the beginning of this quarantine, I saw a lot of viral posts that conveyed a feeling: “We ‘re stuck at home right now, so let’s be hyper-productive!” All these social media messages encourage us to think of this moment as an inspiration to do all the stuff we’ve dreamed of — write a screenplay, start an online venture, do a bunch of house projects. The initial conversation about the COVID quarantine, at least in the United States, is, “Alright! Let ‘s find a Type A way of talking about it! Let’s do more than we usually do!
And the logic of this article is out of date. We ‘re under a lot of pressure right now — even listening to television or watching television is overwhelming — and anxious times are times when we need downtime and relaxation and extra nourishing food and restorative exercise. It seems, though, that the truth is now being set in. It’s a time of chaos and all we need is self-care, not a longer list of commitments and more stress.
And the logic of this article is out of date. We ‘re under a lot of pressure right now — even listening to television or watching television is overwhelming — and anxious times are times when we need downtime and relaxation and extra nourishing food and restorative exercise. It seems, though, that the truth is now being set in. It’s a time of chaos and all we need is self-care, not a longer list of commitments and more stress.
And that’s not just a form of constructive guidance. Scientific research strongly indicates that the more stress levels we would reduce — specifically, the lower the stress hormone levels of cortisol — the more resilient the immune system will be, which is something we urgently need right now, given what is happening with COVID19.
In addition to growing productivity problems, we, as women, should encourage our resilience by understanding our innate hormonal pattern, called infradian pattern, and by arranging our daily and weekly schedules around it. That’s because the better we follow our infradian pattern, the more you realize that you will follow your circadian clock, the less anxiety we have, the more we trust our immunity, and the more joy we find in our lives (which enhances our immunity even further … and keeps moving on and on in a positive upward cycle!).
In this time of chaos, unprecedented in our culture, we can not afford to ignore our peculiar human nature. Our immunity and tolerance depend on us to let go of productivity concerns — and to regulate and encourage the natural cycles of our hormones.
Fight the Urge to Be Productive
This time of isolation offers an incentive for women (and others) to reflect on how urban living may not be sustainable for the atmosphere and the economy. This is also an opportunity, particularly for women, to look at the expectations and standards that we need to be effective all the time and how these demands are harmful to our well-being.
Even in the best of conditions, it is not feasible to be consistently and predictably efficient. Today, in a disaster, it is both difficult and dangerous. We endanger optimal well-being as we cling to the idea of performance.
It’s really interesting for me to see how effective learning is and how illogical it is from a physiological point of view. If we push ourselves to split up, our immune system is under attack. Nevertheless, it is especially dangerous to push oneself to the verge during tough times. The quest for prosperity is pulling our nervous system down further and causing illness.
True accomplishment in this situation — true victory — is not sufficiently effective in quarantine. Win is going into this scenario with your safety preserved for a period of time. It’s a total pause. Sure, this is it.
