Is it Really Possible my Brain is Shrinking?
Have you heard the term -‘ COVID brain fog’?
Do you sense that your memory is fuzzy, your mental focus fluffy, and your stamina to stay socially engaged impaired?
I hear it time and time again – ‘I am just so tired, and I can not seem to concentrate’ or, ‘I can’t stay motivated after the pandemic’.
There is a new phenomenon – a syndrome that has emerged alongside the COVID pandemic.
We know COVID-19 causes neurological problems and severe fatigue, sometimes a complete loss of taste and smell, and can impair our memory and learning.
Covid infection or not – the pandemic has made us tired and unmotivated. The forced isolation (forgetting the virus) has affected our bodies in alarming ways, including shrinking our brains.
Loneliness is Shrinking Your Brain – Here’s how to stop it.
https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/science-of-un-social-distancing
Good Intentions.
Initially, I was diligent during COVID-19 lockdowns, even amidst a lot of grief, loss and deep worry. I was mostly alone in those first years and had some massive changes simultaneously.
Even so – I was still participating in my Pilates online, creating artwork endlessly and cognitively very sharp – quickly adapting my communication and technical skills to build digital content, design websites and create graphics for different clients.
But as the time dragged on, the uncertainty of what was to come or when we could live again, and the chronic isolation from continued lockdowns, slowly filtered in – all these high-functioning tasks became seemingly impossible to sustain. Over time I noticed how tired I had become, unmotivated and lonely. I would go weeks at a time without seeing a close friend, and I began to withdraw; I did not feel like joining online group activities anymore. I just faded out.
As the lockdowns ended, life didn’t go back to how it was, and all that time in isolation alone had made things harder to get back to normal. My close group of friends, my yoga community and the neighbours I had known – were all gone.
My Brain is Shrinking – I’m going home.
I knew that all the stress, the isolation and having post covid fatigue had changed me, and I would need some help to get back on track. I finally decided to do the one thing left to do, drive the 1600km north to the only community I had still intact, my family. I was going home to reboot my brain – and hopefully get the motivation back I had lost along the way.
Let’s find out in my social experiment whether it’s the quantity or the quality of the company we keep that will kick off our neuro-grow back?. What other elements are essential in re-establishing self, identity and direction in a changing world?.
And is coming home really going to change my brain, and more importantly, will being around my family help grow the right parts or not?.
Guest Contributor: Emily Rack
Business Name: Horatio’s Jar
Publisher: Digital Schools
Emily Rack is a freelance creative writer and researcher, visual content creator, and designer. She is the head of the content production, publication – and editing for Upschool+ Guest Contributors -, and Horatio’s Jar is her content production agency and wellbeing school.
Emily has dedicated her life to researching and understanding matters of the mind, body-, and the human experience. Her discoveries and research are focused on cultivating tools and dialogue that encourage us to live in peace and harmony here on earth.
Her current focus is the environment and human connectivity, conservation, environmentalism, botany, biology-, and the practice of ‘Nature Bathing’. Emily is a writer, digital content creator, seasoned photographer-, and visual artist.
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