A: When life requires operating at “surge capacity” well beyond the initial surge. It’s bad for our brains and our bodies.
Experts* recommend Three P’s to help cope:
1. Pick your battles wisely
Put your energy into a few key priorities. Say “no” (or, if it’s helpful, “not yet”) to the peripheral.
2. Proactively seek joy
Joy is a hard-won, active practice. It takes intentional work.
3. Pull in your people
“Part of crisis fatigue involves pushing away your loved ones due to irritability and frustration, but this only makes stress higher in the long-term,” says Eric Patterson, a NYC-based licensed
counselor.
Stay safe, stay sane, stay hopeful. We WILL come through this together.
Love, Your Nerdy Girls
*References
“Surge capacity” article: https://bit.ly/3gTsaZ5.
Picking battles wisely, advice from Arianna Galligher, associate director of Ohio State University’s Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (STAR) program, quoted via WebMD: https://wb.md/34YXraK.
Joy as an active practice, advice from Harvard’s Dr. Karestan Koenen, quoted via WebMD (see link above).
Pull in your people, advice from Eric Patterson, quoted via Today
More great expert insight in this Psychology Today article: https://bit.ly/3gTsaZ5
