Take a Pause

I don’t consider myself an optimistic person, necessarily, but I do like to acknowledge the benefits that can occur even in challenging situations. The pandemic has been a whirlwind of chaos, fear, and anxiety, while many people have experienced unbelievable difficulties. My heart goes out to those people and their families who have been and continue to be struggling and suffering in this situation. For those of us who have been privileged to be able to maintain our health, our families’ safety, and our jobs, we can share immense gratitude for what we have, and when possible we can give back in some way to pass on our good fortune.

I am one of those who has found myself in a fortunate situation where I can continue working from home, being able to stay safe while maintaining my job. Because of that, during the pandemic, I have been able to appreciate the slowing down of society’s urgent pace that we normally live within, especially in bustling metropolises like Los Angeles.

We live in a society that is obsessed with productivity and the bottom line. At the same time, we are set up with our phones that allow us to remain available all hours of the day, all days of the week. There is no reprieve from newsfeed articles, notification buzzes, and messages popping in. I do find it amazing that we can connect with so many people around the world on social media, listening to their stories, and having discussions with people we may never meet in person. It’s amazing to have so much information at the tap of our fingers, incredible tools for someone like me who likes to constantly be reading and learning.

But what I’ve also realized is how exhausting it is to be available all the time, and how fatiguing it is to always be absorbing new information. We tend to have multiple browser windows open doing our work, googling something, shopping for something, texting someone, instant messaging someone else, all while listening to a podcast in the background. Even though many people multitask regularly, humans can’t actually focus on more than one thing at a time. While we may think we’re multitasking, we’re actually just rapidly switching from one task to another.

So when was the last time you single-tasked?

It’s incredibly refreshing to focus on one task through to its completion. When we scroll through our phones, mindlessly check emails and do 10 other things at the same time, we blink less often, take shallower breaths, and retain muscle tension. Hands tend to grip, jaws clench, shoulders lift, head tips forward. Check-in right now…how are you sitting? Take a big inhale to the top and hold. Feel that deep inhale press into the front of your neck crevice and fill up the top of your belly through to your midback, lengthening the spine and floating the head. Then, slowly exhale through. Feel the jaw release, the shoulders drop, the hands lighten. Blink a few times.

This connects us back into the present moment and into our bodies.

What I’ve found interesting is how the pandemic has given me this opportunity to slow down from the constant urgency of daily life, to connect back in with my present moments instead of rushing. I’ve had time to write, to read, to do my art, to do my movement practices. I’ve also had time to nap with my puppy and take walks with my family. Even as lovely as all that sounds I’ve had to allow myself to enjoy it. Since we are obsessed with productivity, all those side projects that fulfill my spirit but don’t make money are considered a “waste of time”, creating guilt for the lack of productivity.

Our culture in the States focuses on worth and status based on monetary production, with social status seen as elevated when we’re constantly busy and hyper-productive. Being stressed, tired and overbooked displays a mirage of success and hard work. This culturally ingrained value of hyper-productivity has socialized us to feel guilty when taking care of ourselves, so we’re all moving through life in a perpetual state of stress and heightened anxiety. That’s no wonder why the US never ranks within the top 10 happiest countries in the world via the annual World Happiness Report.

The top 5 countries that are ranked happiest in the world all have a similar cultural value of regularly taking the time to do nothing. Many admired, successful and wealthy entrepreneurs and scientists also emphasize the need for non-time. Thinkers like Bill Gates and Albert Einstein highly value time to sit quietly to do nothing in particular. Unstructured time to think or to play reduces stress levels and shows protective benefits for physical and mental health. This non-time allows the mind to wander which is often where ideas and inspirations emerge and similarly is a form of mindfulness/mindlessness/meditation which many studies show to be highly beneficial for brain health and can reduce symptoms of many chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and chronic pain.

The pandemic has forced us to take a step back to take a slower pace and have some non-time. While we may have felt guilty “wasting time” at first, this now feels like a lovely luxury that we will miss if we slide right back into pre-covid habits.

If we can be grateful about this time, if we can hold onto some of these lessons, then we can benefit from this bizarre year and learn to live more healthfully and happily as we emerge from the pandemic.