We are approaching half a year of living with the coronavirus. Perhaps you yourself have not become infected and your family is also still healthy. Still, the impact of the big news may have been significant. On both your body and your mind.
We are inundated with numbers, statistics, press conferences and measures. And on top of that, you always tried to stay healthy and to keep your environment healthy. Such a new virus and everything that comes with it is not nothing. It is therefore completely normal that you have become quite tired.
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You may have noticed in yourself that you have become emotional more quickly in recent months. Or you felt the stress much more prominently. You may have developed a short fuse, or you may have felt very tired. All can be easily explained, says stress expert Carolien Hamming. Because of all that news about corona and your processing of it, you have unconsciously become more alert. You have become more concerned. You wonder how family and friends are doing. Mental worries that also make your body work in a higher position. Logical, but exhausting.
In principle, stress is not directly wrong. It temporarily gives you more focus, it makes you more active. You then use that energy to deliver a performance. In this case, contain and process all the corona news, plus deal with the measures. Only stress over a long period of time wears you out. And because corona has been in our lives for months now, it is not surprising that we feel tired. Our minds may have 'cooled down' a bit in recent weeks, but our bodies have yet to recover. Because recovery is not just a mental process. Your body must also return to its basic values.
Hamming explains that if you pay too little or too little attention to recovery, your body will get used to overactivity. Your heart rate remains a bit on the high side, your muscles are tense and your breathing is less calm. That makes you more and more tired, which can eventually even lead to a burnout feeling.
Surprisingly, Hamming gives a tip for recovery of body and mind:sleep more. Go to bed on time, don't set an alarm clock if you can and don't keep looking at your phone. You can also opt for 'moderate exercise', such as taking a walk every day. She doesn't think it's a good idea to do intensive sports – now that the gyms are open again. Because intensive sports also require intensive recovery. “And that is not useful if you already have a recovery delay.”
