Coronavirus pandemic, for some people, is something really annoying because it prevents people to go out and have a life. For me, this pandemic is a big opportunity to recharge energy. So much can be done at home (hastag #StayAtHome, yippie!) in a way we can never imagine. I started gardening, painting, and learning new languages during pandemic. Those three are only written on new-year-resolution list without further movement because of my lack of commitment and my proneness to undervalue myself.
But lately, I’m dropping it all and starting to feel really exhausted. Things that once gave me strength when anything felt off (re: thesis, aha) didn’t give me the amount of satisfaction. Moreover, I don’t have much energy to make another escapement. I’m demotivated and it seems like whenever I force myself to do works, it would just stress me out, giving me zero outcome. At the same time, feeling completely unproductive could stress me even more. I reckon it is happening to some people, that might be you, who is currently reading this. This pandemic makes this case even worst as we feel really trapped in the house. In fact, WHO has warned us that coronavirus is not the only thing we should vigilante of, we should take care of our mental health too.
Mental distress that is occuring during pandemic could be treated with good stress management. Identifying the source of stress is the major problem we should have solved. What caused our stress, why it affected us, how we feel toward our stress, how we’ve been responding to it, then how to feel better. The “how-to-feel-better” is kinda tricky. Sometimes, scribbling in the journal is enough. Sometimes, it is not. Sometimes, we can avoid stressors. Sometimes, the situation forces us to face it right away. Sometimes, we can run to things that make us feel alive. Sometimes, we just lost the feeling of doing those.
The fact that we are social beings is undeniable. Sometimes, we just need someone to talk to. Not exactly talking about the problems. Just talk, about anything. It helps. It gives us a sense that we’re not alone.
Since we’re in this pandemic wherein dining in our favourite restaurant while making a real conversation is prohibited, our social need disrupts. The choice is either attending a zoom meeting, calling or texting (or just simply seeing each other’s tweets or instastories). In the past days, I’ve been doing little research to find out the difference between texting or calling (or zoom meeting). I realised that calling or attending a zoom meeting gave me abundant energy that I need than texting. It is because zoom meeting or calling allows the delivery of sound which is better at expressing emotions than texting. Through tone and other qualities of human voice allow us to feel the intimacy. Calling also provides an immediate response to the caller. It can be laughter or a crying sound or a scream, which a mere emoji can never relate. Even like that, texting can be really informative because it has a longer time span and gives us a concentred thought process in delivering a response. Hence, texting grants us a freedom of speech more than calling since there are some written words that can be expressed without feeling shame or awkward.
For overstress case we’ve been talking about, in order to recharge energy, calling or zoom meeting is a lot recommended because it has a similar feeling as a face-to-face communication that we’ve been longing for. Now, pick up your phone, call your long lost person, and catch up. You would feel more energized to start over again.
