This past week has been awkward. My sleeping patterns have been misplaced and it felt like I subjected myself to an obscene amount of unnecessary screen time out of boredom. Though I have grown accustomed to life in quarantine and found things to constantly do, I still find myself intermittently abandoning chores and falling into brief periods of depression. It is difficult to make abnormal feel like normal, no matter how hard you try. There is nothing normal about the way we are living now.
The feeling of wanting to be constantly productive is an unhealthy feeling to entertain and it is one that I battle with steadily. It tends to also fill you with an immense amount of guilt, often blocking in your return to normalcy. We have become so accustomed to grind culture and productivity even in adverse circumstances, we want to find things to be proud of, despite feeling emotionally and physically depleted. Perhaps this is why I feel guilty to listen and trust my emotional state.
The concept of mindfulness is something that gained traction in popular culture and though most of us may already practice it in some shape or form, it seems now painted as an action in which you should intentionally partake.
According Jon Kabat-Zinn, a mindfulness expert, it involves “paying attention to the present moment with intention while letting go of judgment — as if our life depends on it. The present is the only real moment we have”. With so much uncertainty hovering over us it is not a surprise that this aspect of health is gaining considerable traction. COVID-19 has changed our reactionary strategy in general. To think and plan one thing will now undertake several other factors. To put it frankly, our day-to-day circumstances just don’t permit it us to deal with issues singularly anymore.
Mindfulness is said to increase telomerase, which eventually reduces cell damage, strengthens our immune system and increases concentration levels due to lower levels of stress. Even though the evidence is glaring when it comes to its benefits, panicking and filling ourselves with the most farfetched scenarios sometimes seems predestined.
Perhaps, like incorporating mindfulness as part of our routine, we should also be intentional with the amount of mental torture we put ourselves through. We should move to accept and feel our emotions even when they are not where we want them to be. This, I believe, is essentially where mindfulness could be most effective.
