STAYING SANE WITH GEMSAW
2020-12-01
I've been having a tough time these last few months. Thanks to COVID, I'm sure
I'm not alone in that.
Times are strange, and even when you get a handle on how they're strange they
can still affect you: lockdown stress can quickly magnify anything else you're
already going through.
We've all come up with our own coping strategies; here's part of mine.
(IMG) JTA, Dan and Ruth shopping for a Christmas tree, wearing face masks
These last few months have occasionally seen me as emotionally low as... well,
a particularly tough spell a decade ago. But this time around I've benefited
from the self-awareness and experience to put some solid self-care into
practice!
By way partly of self-accountability and partly of sharing what works for me,
let me tell you about the silly mnemonic that reminds me what I need to keep
track of as part of each day: GEMSAW! (With thanks to Amy Blankson for, among
other things, the idea of this kind of acronym.)
Because it's me, I've cited a few relevant academic sources for you in my
summary, below:
* Gratitude
Taking the time to stop and acknowledge the good things in your life, however
small, is associated with lower stress levels (Taylor, Lyubomirsky & Stein,
2017) to a degree that can't just be explained by the placebo effect (Cregg &
Cheavens, 2020).
Frankly, the placebo effect would be fine, but it's nice to have my practice
of trying to intentionally recognise something good in each day validated by
the science too!
* Exercise
I don't even need a citation; I'm sure everybody knows that aerobic exercise
is associated with reduced risk and severity of depression: the biggest
problem comes from the fact that it's an exceptionally hard thing to motivate
yourself to do if you're already struggling mentally!
But it turns out you don't need much to start to see the benefits (Josefsson,
Lindwall & Archer, 2014): I try to do enough to elevate my heart rate each
day, but that's usually nothing more than elevating my desk to standing
height, putting some headphones on, and dancing while I work!
(GIF) Dan dancing at his desk (animated GIF)
* Meditation/Mindfulness
Understandably a bit fuzzier as a concept and tainted by being a "hip"
concept. A short meditation break or mindfulness exercise might be verifiably
therapeutic, but more (non-terrible) studies are needed (Vonderlin, Biermann,
Bohus & Lyssenko 2020). For me, a 2-5 minute meditation break punctuates a day
and feels like it contributes towards the goal of
staying-sane-in-challenging-times, so it makes it into my wellbeing plan.
Maybe it's doing nothing. But I'm not losing much time over it so I'm not
worried.
* Sunlight
During my 20s I gradually began to suffer more and more from "winter blues".
Nobody's managed to make an argument for the underlying cause of seasonal
affective disorder that hasn't been equally-well debunked by some other study.
Small-scale studies often justify light therapy (e.g. Lam, Levitan & Morehouse
2006) but it's possibly no-more-effective than a placebo at scale (SBU 2007).
Since my early 30s, I've always felt better to get myself 30 minutes of
lightbox on winter mornings (I use one of these bad boys). I admit it's
possible that the benefits are just the result of tricking my brain into
waking-up more promptly and therefore feeing like I'm being more-productive
with my waking hours! But either way, getting some sunlight - whether natural
or artificial - makes me feel better, so it makes it onto my daily self-care
checklist.
(IMG) Bright sunlight in an almost-cloudless blue sky.
* Acts of kindness
It's probably not surprising that a person's overall happiness correlates with
their propensity for kindness (Lyubomirsky, King & Diener 2005). But what's
more interesting is that the causal link can be "gamed". That is: a deliberate
effort to engage in acts of kindness results in increased happiness (Buchanan
& Bardi 2010)!
Beneficial acts of kindness can be as little as taking the time to acknowledge
somebody's contribution or compliment somebody's efforts. The amount of effort
it takes is far less-important for happiness than the novelty of the
experience, so the type of kindness you show needs to be mixed-up a bit to get
the best out of it. But demonstrating kindness helps to make the world a
better place for other humans, so it pays off even if you're coming from a
fully utilitarian perspective.
* Writing
I write a lot anyway, often right here, and that's very-definitely for my own
benefit first and foremost. But off the back of some valuable "writing
therapy" (Baikie & Wilhelm 2005) I undertook earlier this year, I've been
continuing with the simpler, lighter approach of trying to no more than three
sentences about something that's had an impact on me that day.
As an approach, it doesn't help everybody (Zachariae 2015), but writing a
little about your day - not even about how you feel about it, just the facts
will do (Koschwanez, Robinson, Beban, MacCormick, Hill, Windsor, Booth, Jüllig
& Broadbent 2017; fuck me that's a lot of co-authors) - helps to keep you
content, and I'm loving it.
Despite the catchy acronym (Do I need to come up with a GEMSAW logo? I'm
pretty sure real gemcutting is actually more of a grinding process...) and
stack of references, I'm not actually writing a self-help book; it just sounds
like I am.
I don't claim to be an authority on anything beyond my own head, and I'm not
very confident on that subject! I just wanted to share with you something
that's been working pretty well at keeping me sane for the last month or two,
just in case it's of any use to you. These are challenging times; do what you
need to find the happiness you can, and hang in there.
LINKS
(HTM) A particularly tough spell
(HTM) Amy Blankson
(HTM) Taylor, Lyubomirsky & Stein, 2017
(HTM) Cregg & Cheavens, 2020
(HTM) Josefsson, Lindwall & Archer, 2014
(HTM) Vonderlin, Biermann, Bohus & Lyssenko 2020
(HTM) Lam, Levitan & Morehouse 2006
(HTM) SBU 2007
(HTM) These bad boys
(HTM) Lyubomirsky, King & Diener 2005
(HTM) Buchanan & Bardi 2010
(HTM) For my own benefit
(HTM) Baikie & Wilhelm 2005
(HTM) Zachariae 2015
(HTM) Koschwanez, Robinson, Beban, MacCormick, Hill, Windsor, Booth, Jüllig & Broadbent 2017