Pandemic fatigue is affecting us all. Powerful, accomplished, brilliant professionals admit they are struggling to stay productive, positive, or confident. Accustomed to high achievement, self-efficacy, or some semblance of control, many interpret this “failing” through their well-honed lens of self-criticism:
- Why can’t I focus?
- Why can’t I get as much done as usual?
- Why can’t I shake this [Debbie-downer/judgmental/flattened/irritable/another mood?
- Or some version of, “What’s wrong with ME?”
Truth is we are all expending far more energy just coping than we were before the pandemic—processing negative and confusing news, dealing with uncertainty and disruption in every arena (economic, career, family, social, political, schedules,… you name it!), and worrying about the future. We are grieving a wide variety of losses, from daily annoying little disappointments to major losses of loved ones, health, career, or purpose.
Your brain’s job is to take this constant stream of inputs (constant changes, losses, threats, conflicts, fears, etc.) and process them in a way to make meaning and keep you safe. And unless you live under a rock, your brain has been in overdrive for months—It’s really, really tired!
What happens when your brain is tired? It doesn’t work as efficiently. In its safety-first design, your frontal lobe—the part of the brain that does your best thinking, planning, mood regulation, perspective setting, creating, self-monitoring—is the first to go offline under stress or duress. This saves energy for lower-brain survival reactions. Perfect design for reacting to acute danger, but not an advantage when the crisis drags on and you need access to your better thinking.
What can you do? Instead of pushing yourself harder (our cultural norm), you can learn to work with your brain. Recognize your subtle signs of brain fatigue and, instead of judging yourself for them, use them as data. Like the power indicator on your cell phone, these are the cues that you need to recharge. Then get creative—how can you regularly incorporate more energy recharges in your day, your year? How can you renew your physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual energy so you have more capacity to wisely handle the ongoing challenges?
Start with a little self-awareness exercise. Who are you when you not at 100% capacity? Most of us know when we get to the extremes of overtired/overwhelmed (pain, irritability, etc.), but we often miss the more subtle shifts off peak performance. Not sure? Ask your family, friends, or co-workers J. They are the professionals of reading your subtle shifts.
Here are some more subtle signs I’ve noticed. Maybe you recognize these, or they jog your awareness of your brand or tired-brain Avatar:
- Judge-y Judge-y. I’ve always noticed that when I am not feeling my best or most confident, I am more critical of myself and others. I see this in my clients as well. And thanks to pandemic fatigue and a divisive culture, we are swimming in a sea of judge-y humans. (As if judging others or ourselves makes us any more “right” or safe?) True, mindful discernment is always important, but snap-to judgments rarely serve your better thinking or the world.
- What if you just notice when you are judging more and ask what you need to feel more compassionate and collaborative? What form of energy do you need right now?
- Indecisive. Maybe you are managing a few big decisions, but wind up scarfing chips because you just can’t decide what to have for dinner, or waste half your evening deciding what to watch? Your frontal lobe is your decision-making apparatus and when its energy is challenged, you conserve by handling some decisions then getting stuck on others.
- What if you simply use that stuck feeling as a metric that you need a reboot of some kind? Walk away, figure out what fuel you need (rest/nutrition/hydration/connection) and come back with your smarter brain.
- Black and White. Have you ever had a conversation with someone who feels stuck between 2 choices when you so easily see they are missing a whole range of other possibilities? (Ok… we’ve all been that person, right? It’s often the meat of coaching.)
By design, stress or fatigue narrows your perspective, making the world more black/white, good/bad. Your brain is trying to keep you safe by quickly judging inputs as threat/non-threat. (This explains part of #1 as well.) What’s lost is your frontal lobe’s creative capacity, its ability to see the grey zones and find solutions.
- What if you start to notice when you feel stuck and ask yourself if you have your frontal lobe fully charged and on board? What do you need to fuel your creativity and bring back your ability to see the grey zone wins?
What are your subtle cues that you need a recharge? I’d love to hear them. When you start to pay as much non-judgmental attention to these as you do your cell phone battery, you open up the opportunity to work with your brain and keep it fully charged so you can be your happiest, healthiest, most productive and creative self.
