Calligraphy to de-stress in the new normal
The new normal
The year 2020 has seen an unprecedented series of events starting with the breakout of coronavirus pandemic in the month of January, followed by lockdowns, travel bans, extended lockdowns and what not….. With over 30 million COVID-19 cases worldwide, many have lost family members, many have witnessed the horrors up close in cases among family or friends. My heart goes out to everyone who had to go through this situation.
We have all tried to keep our cool and maintain sanity in our own little ways — by calling friends and family more often than before; by playing virtual board games; by cooking the dishes you could never dream of attempting, and the list goes on. Yet, the lockdown doesn’t seem to end; this is the new normal as we know it!
So, what is this new normal? What is the covid-19 life with all these trending hashtags on social media? For me, it is a phase of life where — my kids have online school and no friends to play with, my husband works from home, and I am juggling between handling my family, their needs, their frustration against my own stress levels.
Neurological impact of stress on human brain
We are all aware that the coronavirus can cause neurological changes in affected patients. However, even among non-infected public, the extended months of lockdown and isolation can induce stress thereby affecting our brain functionality.
A small amount of stress is common in our lives and helps us in completing our daily tasks and achieving our goals. But, prolonged stress in combination with seclusion from most of the world can have a huge impact. And admit it, we have all felt stressed once (at the least!) during these past months in lockdown. I have felt stressed innumerous times and hence I tried to understand what is the reason and what are the neurological changes happening in my brain.
In the simplest of terms, stress causes release of a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol in layman’s terms is the built-in alarm system in the human body and is commonly known for being responsible for the “fight-or-flight” response to a crisis and works with certain parts of the brain to control your mood, fear and motivation. When stress increases, cortisol levels in the body increase leading to an increase in heart rate, a rush of adrenaline and deeper breaths. Once the stressful event completes or the stress feeling withers away, the cortisol levels fall to normal.
However, during prolonged stress, the cortisol levels remain high — this means the alarm system of your body is still active and is blocking the brain to function normally. This leads to loss of motivation and occasional mood swings. Eventually, these changes if not taken care of, can cause depression and anxiety.
Methods to de-stress
After realizing the dangers of chronic stress, I read a few articles and research studies on how to “de-stress”. The biggest take-away from my investigation was that — “how you react, makes all the difference in how a situation affects each individual”. That is precisely why I chose calligraphy — to help me during these distressed times! In the next blog, I will write in detail how I discovered calligraphy for myself.
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