How to Beat the Pandemic Blues and be Our Productive Best Once Again?

“We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes – understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.” – Arianna Huffington

The world economy wasn’t in the pink of health when the pandemic struck. Rather there used to be stories of how governments around the world were devising methods to boost consumption, stem job losses, and prevent the economy from sliding into recession. It’s just that we had started to become more optimistic about the bleak period coming to an end.  

Unfortunately, that was not to be. The coronavirus-induced pandemic changed things beyond whatever one might have ever imagined. The world economy went into a topsy turvy, the sort of which there is no precedent that anyone knows of. It has left an already fragile economy shaken and stirred so that a return to normalcy seems like a distant dream at the moment.  

Needless to say, all of this has led to people being stressed out like anything. It is sort of a burnout that we all are facing, something that is affecting us physically, mentally, and emotionally. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed more than 40 percent of the adult population are facing mental issues, which includes suffering from anxiety and depression. We don’t even know if life is going to be the same what it was before pandemic struck.  

So how do we get about setting things right? That no doubt is a task of mammoth proportions given that it just isn’t an economic issue that we are facing at the moment. Rather, there is a healthy dose of politics in it, and in today’s age of globalization, we got to devise a turn-around plan on a collective basis for it to be truly effective.  

Where do we start then? Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO Thrive Global has a simple formula; we got to begin with the very same people who have been stressed the most from the changed scheme of things. And for that, we need to rely on our very nature that makes us self-resilient, drives us to change things for the better. It is this that is going to form the basis of our great turnaround plan.  

Meanwhile, for those not in the knowing, Thrive Global is an American Company that specializes in helping people who are stressed out with the proper use of behavior change technology and other means. The company and its functions is more relevant in today’s times than ever before even though it was founded back in 2016.  

Also, companies no doubt will be devising the best business strategies to improve productivity and efficiency. Management is going to be tweaked to make it all work in perfect unison. The perfect marketing plans will also be put in place while tech based aids are going to be used to the hilt, all for bringing things back to the normal that we have known, or a new normal that we need to get adjusted to.  

However, for all of that to succeed, we got to begin with a tweak to our own mind, the way we think, the way we perceive things and so on. We got to let our own natural positive resources like inner resilience, insights, will power to take over to change things for us and for all around us. But for that to happen, the first thing that we need to do is to rid our body of the negative stress causing chemical cortisol.  

Now, cortisol too is a produce of our own body, something that gets injected into our system in response to us facing a stress. However, as modern neuroscience has revealed, we can get rid of stress in just a minute. You heard that right, just 60 seconds is all that it takes for cortisol hormones to be drained out of our bodies.  

However, we got to find the trigger that is going to work for each one of us. It can be anything, like the picture of your wife, mother, kid, or just about anyone or anything that brings joy on your face. It’s like, you forget everything that you have been facing for a moment, and then stretching that moment to ensure you remain in a positive frame of mind. It can also be a song, poetry, a book, or even a thought. It can be anything that makes you smile and forget all your worries.  

It is only a happy and smiling workforce that can guarantee productivity and efficiency of the highest order. For companies who are looking to be back on the growth track, they better invest on the human factor for a more lasting and positive change to take place.  

Mentioned here are a few ways that Arianna says companies can use to develop resilience, something that will help both the work force as well as the company.  

1. Take into account people’s mental resilience 

People who are facing extreme stress and are on the verge of facing burnout need all the support that you can provide. However, for that, you first need to have an idea of all that is going in his or her mind. This will provide you with the right picture of all that the person is going through. In fact, it is this metric that measures the mental resilience of the employees that can be considered the biggest indicator your company’s performance. After all, your company will be at its productive best when its most valuable asses, the employees are better off with their mental resilience.  

2. The four cardinal steps to our mental well-being 

There might be a lot of talk going around about all the safety measures that we need to incorporate to keep ourselves as well as those around as safe and healthy. While that is great and extremely important, the other aspect of our health, one that deals with the mental and emotional side of us, needs equal nurturing to ensure we are at the pinnacle of our productive self.  

As Arianna said, this explains the presence of four interconnected journeys on the Thrive app that people need to be wary of. Those include: 

• Recharge – which refers to steps such as adequate sleep that would take our mind off of the work or anything that can cause stress. That includes pursuing a hobby, watching a film, listening to songs and such. All of this makes us refreshed and recharged for future challenges.  
• Fuel – the reference here is to take healthy and nutritious diet while at the same time engaging in some form of physical activity to keep us in good shape.  

• Focus – it is about keeping our minds engaged on what needs to be done.  
• Connect – here the emphasis is on connecting with the friends and relatives and everyone else who really matter to us. Interacting with them can shed a lot of stress off us.  

3. Hit the Reset button 

As has already been mentioned before, we need just a minute to drain our body of the stress causing hormone, cortisol. We just need to find the trigger to make that happen. And this is exactly what the Thrive app provides for. Here, you can make use of the custom guide or develop your own that will help infuse a breath of fresh air into your life. It is like helping you connect to that sweet spot within you where there is only fun and joy. This will make you release the accumulated stress in just a moment.  

4. You have a life beyond your office 

One of the most important things you need to do to keep stress at bay is to make a clear distinction between your work life and personal life. Don’t let either to invade upon the other. There might be a lot of important things to do and taking care of those might well stretch beyond the stipulated working hours.  

However, it is still imperative you call it off at some point and stick to it. That would mean not attending to anything related to the office after you have brought the curtains down for the day. This forms one among the several micro steps that Thrive propagates to ensure you are mentally and emotionally recharged the next day.  

5. Breathe, consciously 

That is something that we are always doing anyways. However, doing it consciously can be a great stress buster. Thrive cites the example of breathing in a manner Navy Seal’s do when they are faced with a tense situation.  

What they do is called box breathing. That involves, inhaling to the count of four, holding on while again counting up to four, and finally, exhaling while counting to four. Do it once and feel the change.  

In the end what can be said is that we are in the midst of a huge change. We might have seen the worst already, but we need to keep in mind it isn’t over yet. These are troubled times that we are in and we need to navigate deftly to reach safe waters. We can’t afford to lose our cool but to be really cool down to our core, we got to ensure our emotional resilience and emotional well-being is at the optimum. Following the above tips propagated by Arianna Huffington of Thrive Global can make things a lot easier and more bearable.