Aha! Moment Monday
Are you a little more tired than usual?
Let’s do a little check-in to see what might be the cause:
– There’s no definitive a.m. or p.m. there’s just coffee time and wine o’clock?
– Working from home includes endearing distractions like no-break parenting, meal prep, being teacher’s aide and home maintenance specialist?
– Ever-changing information about the state of the economy and the need for you to be thinking creatively?
– Anything to do with “finances”?
– Open-ended timelines and revised vision of what “normal” might look like?
– Chatting, strategizing, meeting, sharing, celebrating and learning online only?
Let’s face it. Almost overnight, everything changed. Whatever you were doing two months ago looks very different today. Even if you’re still performing the same job, the likelihood of it being re-engineered to accommodate, overwhelm, distancing or need, is high. And the uncertainty of what the new normal looks like and when has an undertow but the biggie in the mental category now has a name, “Zoom fatigue”.
Even if you bought stock in Zoom earlier this year (wouldn’t that’ve been nice?) you’d likely still suffer the effects of being a regular Zoomer.
Julia Sklar writes in National Geographic, “For some people, the prolonged split in attention creates a perplexing sense of being drained while having accomplished nothing.”
Zoom meetings are so orderly and productive. Why is my brain so tired afterwards?
Aha! ~ Being a little box on the screen just isn’t enough
In typical conversations we pick up on non-verbal nuances that help us sense others’ presence in the conversation and we adjust ourselves in response. It’s a bit rhythmic and something we do subconsciously in terms of reading body language, tonality and gestures. Virtual interactions can be extremely hard on the brain especially those interactions in “gallery view” where many participants meet on a page at once.
When all you’re seeing is dozens of heads, it “…challenges the brain’s central vision forcing it to decode so many people at once that no one comes through meaningfully, not even the speaker.” Explains Sklar. The brain, searching for non-verbal clues it can’t find, like posture, fidgeting, breathing, hand gestures becomes exhausted especially in the presence of all the excess stimuli.
Of course while Zoom, Facetime and similar platforms may exhaust our brains in new ways, let’s remember that technology in general has allowed us to relate, work, learn, foster relationships and simply stay connected during a remote time. Actually, we’re starting to agree working virtually WILL be part of our new normal so here’s a gift. Enter coupon code JAE for 10% off from the BEST in the business and totally own this remote space! https://truthplane.mykajabi.com/store/QcNFcd6n
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