Health: Lockdown is the ideal time to stop and smell the roses

It’s funny having time on our hands. Lockdown has really forced us to slow down and go back to basics.

Families are once again sitting round the dinner table, doing jigsaws and playing board games. And hobbies like knitting, gardening and reading are at the forefront of our minds.

It’s as if someone turned back the hands of time.

“Being forced into lockdown has forced us to step out of the fast lane,” Dr Jenn Cooper, psychology lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, explained.

“Our energy isn’t being directed in the same ways as previously – the morning commute and school run, after work drinks, dinners with friends.

“We’re not being bombarded with the same kinds of stimulus and the same kinds of pressures, and so it’s as if the world has stopped spinning at quite so relentless a pace.”

And that’s good news for our mental health, says Dr Cooper.

She explained: “Living in a high-paced environment increases our adrenaline levels, keeping us primed for action.

“Being in a constant state on ‘ON’ can trigger our parasympathetic nervous system to switch on, which is responsible for our ‘fight or flight’ threat mode.

“This survival mode is switched on when we have a constant stream of deadlines, competing demands on our time and little time to decompress.

“We are hypervigilant to perceived threat, and lose sight of everything else.

“And while we have some new threats on our horizons – the coronavirus itself, adjusting to life in isolation and the resulting impacts on our mental health –for most of us, we’ve been forced out of the rat race.”

Society has had no option but to slow down, which inevitably means a chance to calm down.

“It is a bit of an oxymoron, when we’re faced with such a threat in the coronavirus, yet there’s a sense of safety that is possible when the threats of our daily life having been reduced,” Dr Cooper said.

“Now we are able to see the woods for the trees.

“We’re no longer completely tunnel-visioned. We have space to fill in our days. We are bored for the first time in a long time.”

Professor Ewan Gillon, chartered psychologist and clinical director of First Psychology Scotland, said lockdown has led to rediscovering the ways of a bygone era.

He said: “Although we are rich in the Western world, we are often very time poor, busy trying to make ends meet.

“Many of us will remember special times at home with the kids and family, doing things for enjoyment that don’t need to be rushed, and this pandemic has meant we are going back to that.”

Dr Cooper believes it’s time that has led us to discover what we’ve been missing.

“We’ve lost our usual coping strategies of heading out with friends, heading to the gym, off-loading the kids on family for a while or just getting out of the house. We have more opportunities to think and reflect rather than just react, which is where we begin to reassess what is important.

“When we compare the slow days with the fast days, we can begin to recognise that there’s more to life than deadlines and soft play parties.

“We’re being forced to find fun without external influences.

“We’re having to make do with the basics, and that’s where we see the value in the things we’ve been dismissing or not paying attention to.”

Dr Cooper says she hopes the legacy of lockdown will be a more self-care focused attitude to life.

She said: “Self care is so important in terms of surviving lockdown and setting us in good stead for re-engaging with the world when we go back to normal,” she said.

“I ask people to make a commitment to themselves. This is even more crucial just now when we are moving so quickly between work mode and home life mode; and often repeatedly throughout the day.

“We can lose ourselves in that juggle so taking time out for ourselves; to re-centre and focus is crucial.

“One commitment might be to shut the door on your work space and possibly the children to have a cup of tea in peace.

“If we can get these small acts of self care down now, it will stand us in good stead for the future.”

As difficult a transition as it has been losing our freedom, the rush back to normal life, experts say, may be equally as hard.

“I think we might find that we all get a bit overloaded with it all,” Dr Cooper said.

“There’s going to be so much to catch up on and we’re in danger of getting swept away with it all, all over again.

“It also might feel a little overwhelming getting back on that treadmill, that we might just resist the pull.

“We will certainly learn something from this, whether it be recognising work just isn’t as important as watching our children grow up, or that we need more space for ourselves; but that’s going to rely on us staying healthy during this time.

“I think we are going to see a surge of mental health difficulties – from trauma, grief and loss, financial pressures, health anxiety, relationship difficulties, and so focusing on how we maintain our wellbeing during this time is paramount.”

Professor Gillon added: “When we go back to our normal lives it’s going to be a bit of a shock.

“We will go back to filling our days with things we used to do, but we will be more aware of the privilege of time.”