LiveWork Blog
Cell phone addiction is when, instead of choosing to use our phones, they are just somehow always in our hands, glowing their electric blue promise of being the answers to our every need and desire. They create a dopamine fix of pleasure that keeps us hooked, lusting for next like, engaging text, or candy crushed.
People are addicted to social media now more than ever. We think it will fulfill the Covid sized hole in our social lives. Some connection does happen online, but more often than not, readers leave feeling deflated by how much fun Everyone Else seems to be having. Then, ironically and tragically, we stayed logged-on, scrolling for the happy thing that will bring us up again, or at least back to our baseline.
You’ve been doing your part to keep your family safe by quarantining at home, washing your hands and cleaning household surfaces regularly. Most of your loved ones have been careful to practice social distancing and wear a mask in public settings.
But what about that relative who doesn’t practice the same level of care? If you’re stressed about their refusal to take the dangers of coronavirus seriously, those feelings are warranted. Differences in understanding the risk of COVID-19 have been straining family relationships since the pandemic began.
With the holidays approaching, these arguments might escalate if you don’t address them ahead of time. Here are 10 steps you can take to navigate family interactions when you disagree on the risk of catching or spreading COVID-19:
It is not always easy to locate joy these days, but we must keep trying. Our spirits must be fed, not only so that we may persist, but so may help help other to do so. To that end, I’m sharing some examples that make me laugh/cry (craugh?). The New Yorker artists are brilliant at creating poignant levity from the ineffable. Here are my current favorites…
The COVID-19 crisis, with its mandated social isolation and pervasive threat of infection, has created a kind of atomic fusion, a clash of mind-numbing monotony mixed with a steady undercurrent of existential crisis.
With the widest lens, this pandemic is a clarion call to see the deep roots of our interdependence. On a smaller scale, it shines a spotlight on the best and worst of our social structures; from the heroic dedication of our first responders, to the disproportionate deaths of our most vulnerable. Finally, on a personal level, we are all connected in the quest to stay flexible in mind and resilient in body, while we the illusion of certainty shatters around us.
The following are some mental health directives to help adapt to the daily (hourly!) seismic shifts in our internal microcosmos, without succumbing to despair.
