Jump, Jump…or Not
Are you feeling the unrelenting claustrophobic pressure of COVID cabin fever? You are not alone.
I am an introvert. I enjoy being at home and basking in the silence…that is until I’m not enjoying it.
A few years ago I tore my ACL and had to have surgery. I thought the two weeks would be great after I got over the grueling and painful hours of rehab. I thought I could recline on the couch with my leg propped up for hours on end and watch all the shows I had been missing. Or so I thought.
After a few days I found out that I missed the world. I missed the feeling of going outside on my own. I have a great family. My parents came over and visited often, spending the night, making sure I was doing my exercises, but when they would leave, I would feel so alone.
I had never felt this sense of uncertainty. Was it the medicine? Could have been. But seeing people’s post these days, I think I was feeling a bad case of cabin fever.
A good way to get over the doom and gloom of this pandemic is to get your blood pumping. As Kris Kross would tell you from the 90s, “Jump, Jump.”
If you can’t jump, find something to get your blood moving. When you exercise, your body releases a neurotransmitter or chemical messenger, endorphins, that help relieve pain and stress. You may not think you are stressed sitting at home all day, but your body could be giving you signs you are stressed.
I went to the doctor a few years ago because I was having breathing issues a year after my lung collapsed and I thought maybe I had asthma. My lungs were fine, but my body was telling me to slow down. “Are you stressed?” the doctor asked.
“No,” I calmly answered, thinking, life is good and I know how to handle stress.
“Sometimes you don’t know you are stressed and your breathing problem is a sign your body is telling you that you are stressed,” the doctor said. He told me a story of when he thought he was okay, handling life, but he started having problems. “I was denying my stress and my body was trying to wake me up to it.”
If you are experiencing strange symptoms that are not normal for you…it could be stress. It could be a sign telling you to wake up.
Don’t consider yourself weak or fragile (I thought it made me less of a person to admit I was stressed) but it doesn’t. It just proves that you are human and you have limits.
Don’t hurdle over those boundaries.
So, if exercising doesn’t help to alleviate your stress. Try doing the opposite and meditate to a relaxing zen state. Listen to some calming music, close your eyes, let your mind drift to a place of utopia and just breathe. Imagine the pressures on your back chipping away. Visualize the weight that you are struggling to lift fading away like sand. Watch the sand trickle away like an hour glass. Just watch the sand fall.
Breathe in for 5 seconds.
Breathe out for five seconds.
It may sound strange, but groan as you breathe out. Feel the vibrations in your chest as it starts to tickle your lips. Then do it again.
And then again.
If getting your blood pumping doesn’t help, calming the boiling blood may be better for you. Deep breathing releases the feel good endorphins as well.
So take a moment and find your place on the spectrum, high octane energy or a peaceful state of bliss. Wherever you lie on the grid, find your spot and settle in.
You are not alone.
Hope you find some comfort in that truth.
Peace
