Introduction
The purpose of this blog is to briefly review The Marginal Gains Handbook – Practical ideas to survive and thrive in the age of Coronavirus, which has been written by R.Archer & A. Jamieson and published in The Career Phycologist.
My aim is to give a short insight to some of the subjects and take some helpful tips for your marginal gains when thinking about life during the C19 lockdown.
The article itself is well worth looking at and reading through. It is layman’s format and has videos to help explain things. The tips and advice are part evident based and partly the personal advise of the experience and qualified author. You can find the link to the full article in my reference at the bottom of this blog.
The article covers many topics including: dealing with anxiety, isolation and loneliness, working from home, parenting in lockdown and mental health and wellbeing amongst some other topics. In this blog I will look at what is written on loneliness, mental health and anxiety.
Loneliness
A topic in the article is loneliness. The very sad reality is that the majority of people could very likely be feeling far more lonely during lockdown. It explains how loneliness is a serious problem with horrible effects, physical as well as mental. The effects are so impactful that it has been found that loneliness ultimately leads to mortality. That said, it is crucial that we, as fellow triathletes and open water swimmers, rise up to help ourself and those in need. The article sets out how this loneliness emotion would work in ones mind.
Loneliness is at one end of a spectrum range of loneliness to overstimulated. The natural instinct is to remain somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, where you feel most comfortable. Whilst people are forced to the loneliness end of the spectrum during lockdown, the answer, or cure, is to seek people who share similar perspectives to talk. The problems that also come with feelings of loneliness is a heightened lack of trust and less desire to talk to people when possible, which you could imagine, would be a vicious spiral. Things are never simple huh!
A key take away point on loneliness for me is that, by reaching out to those around me, that could be feeling lonely, I would not only be helping them, but also helping my own mental health.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
When on the subject of mental health and well-being the article uses a quote from Hayes, Wilson and Strohsahl, 1999: “the single most remarkable fact of human existence is how hard it is for humans to be happy“ . The article defines mental health and well-being using the definition from the world health organisation (WHO) as: a state in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.”
It sets out three steps for moving towards improved mental health. These were:
Step 1 - start by exploring what a ‘good life’ looks like to you. In what ways might you make a ‘meaningful contribution to others’? What does ‘realising your potential’ mean to you?
Step 2 - next consider how you can move in the direction of your most important goals and values. This usually means being willing to experience difficult thoughts
and emotions, as if we are not willing to experience the difficult things in life, then we start to narrow our lives and minimise the chances of reaching our potential. This is called experiential avoidance.
Step 3 - is about committed action. This means getting out there and doing the things that move you towards your main values and goals, even in the presence of difficult thoughts and emotions. What does committed action look like for you, even in this global crisis?
Anxiety
The article defines the difference between anxiety (being anticipation of future threat) and fear (being the emotional response to a real or perceived immediate threat e.g seeing a snake). When relating to C19 the uncomfortable feeling for people is of anxiety not fear. This is due to it being generated by thoughts. The problem people face when in a state of anxiety is how to deal with it. It would be natural to try to escape the anxiety as one would respond to fear, however, this would lead to becoming anxious about being anxious. There is nothing we can do about the C19 anxiety. We must accept it and continue to stay focused on our goals. The five evidenced based things it sets out to deal with anxiety are:
- Accepting it
- Pivot towards what matters
- Be selective about the information you consume
- Use daily checklists
- Break it down and make a plan
Conclusion
I hope that this blog helps to highlight how so many people are in a similar situation during this pandemic. By talking to one another, during the Zoom S&C on a Saturday morning or for a meet up to train, it will really make a big difference. We should all watch out for each other and be certain that no one is forgotten because these emotions, amplified by the lockdown, will lead to recluse and self inflicted isolation if we do not. The one thing we share as a community is triathlon and open water swimming training.
References
R.Archer & A. Jamieson. The Career Phychologist. The Marginal Gains Handbook – Practical ideas to survive and thrive in the age of Coronavirus.
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