Most Americans are undergoing a period of change in the coming months. Onsite employees who never left the office during the pandemic are adjusting to the idea of increased people in the workplace. Other colleagues may be feeling uncertain about transitioning back to a commuting schedule.
This month, Headspace offers a helpful article on why you may be feeling certain emotions during this period of change and steps to mitigate some of the extreme physiological responses you may be experiencing. Here are some highlights from the article:
- Anxiety arises in the mind as a reaction to stress; usually triggered by a certain fear or the way we interpret stress, and it’s often oriented in the future. So when we encounter uncertainty — such as making the transition back to work after a pandemic — it’s normal to feel anxious as we try to make sense of a shifting landscape.
- By bringing awareness to our current behaviors and noticing more about how various types of triggers affect our feelings of anxiety, we can make changes in the behaviors that fuel that anxiety cycle.
- Mindfulness meditations help with attention training — bringing our attention to the present moment, and training the mind to be calm and engaged with each task at hand, without being easily distracted. Meditation activates an area in our brain called the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for higher-level skills like critical thinking, decision making, planning and focus.
Headspace offers meditations, but other mindfulness activities such as guided meditation walking, sleepcasts to help you fall asleep to stories and calming sounds, as well as children-focused meditations.
