It seems as if there has been a long season of transitioning back into what may have been deemed normal pre-pandemic life.
Even though there are rising delta variant cases, schools and workplaces continue to re-open in person.
Guidelines may shift here and there, however there may be many expectations still in place to return in person and resume productivity.
If this relates to you and you are returning to your office setting or have already returned, much like we have mentioned in previous articles, the adjustment may be a bit tricky. The comforts you had of being able to prepare your lunch in real time or wearing mostly clothing items with draw strings are no longer doable.
Even if you are glad to ditch the baggy sweats and slip into something with a zipper for once, or even if you are ecstatic at the prospect of being able to chat with some coworkers by the coffee machine, there still may be some shifts happening that may require some adjustments.
Whether you are nervous or excited, it may be wise to watch out for ways you can care for your mental wellness during this adjustment period. Check out some tips below that may help safeguard your mental wellness during this time.
Limit pressure and manage expectations:
This is a big one. Upon returning to the office, there may be a looming newfound pressure that because you are now in person, your level of productivity should be higher or equal to what it was pre-COVID. And, if you happen to find yourself in a place where you’re able to hop right back into it, that’s great. However, it may not be so easy to just snap your fingers and resume a workflow like you had before the world shut down.
Especially if you find yourself in a fast paced, productivity valuing work environment, it can be helpful to gently remind yourself that this expectation to produce may not be fulfilled right away. You are a human that has needed to survive over the past year and a half, and that person may not work the way they used to.
To ease the pressure, try and make manageable and attainable goals for yourself to accomplish each day. Even if it’s one thing you do well that first day, then that is worth praising because you were able to do it. By managing your expectations, you can slowly chip away at that pressure build up and ultimately alleviate some of that looming stress.
Take a break:
It seems like a simple concept to just walk away from something when it gets to be too much, but if you are coming from the last year and a half that I have, it may be tremendously difficult to separate the blur of work and outside of work life.
That pressure of in person productivity may also be influencing you to just want to work straight through the day, and that may be fine some days. However, the more you do that and the less you take some time to breath, the higher the likelihood of your stress increasing.
To get into the practice, when scheduling your goals for the day, you can also block out a goal for how many breaks you can take and when you can take them. This can also help you ease into the new workflow structure.
Talk to others and ask for help:
You may feel like you are just flowing back easily into all of this and don’t really need support. However, if you have any inkling that tells you that returning in person might be too much, talk to a coworker and/or your manger about it. You may be pleasantly surprised in finding out that you’re not alone in your feelings and that person may just be able help you create a more manageable transition.
Sharing your thoughts and releasing them from isolation can not only help you connect to others (which is something that may have been missing while you were working from home), but it can also help you alleviate that pressure on yourself. You are not alone, and neither are your feelings.
However your transition may unfold back to work, we hope you are able to do so with Jubilance for PMS, the supplement that helps you be you, every day of the month.
