What is your bandwidth in a pandemic?
Feelings can create greater awareness.
Especially this year, I’ve experienced a few reminders of how important it is to remember my own bandwidth and to remember what that means for me. Everyone is different and they all have different bandwidths. The key for me has been to keep true to who I am.
Bandwidth = “the energy or mental capacity required to deal with a situation.” Oxford Languages
Stress can be built up in all areas of life. I know that I have personally been feeling the triggers, asking me to take notice internally of what’s happening within.
In times where things are uncertain, constantly changing, and not often clear, it can be challenging to navigate. Doubt and fear can set in and quickly take over. Communication can be even more challenging as some people thrive off face-to-face interactions — seeing their colleagues and having social interaction with other people.
Working from home is different for individuals who are used to a certain routine of going into the office. It can be a new way of working for many people; bringing in a new set of variables such as balancing work/life priorities. Distractions at home can be common — some people love background noise and interruptions, while others like peace and quiet. Finding an ideal office space may be challenging in homes that are small and/or cluttered.
Sometimes you may feel the (real) burnout from Zoom calls or frustrated because the technology isn’t working, or perhaps the individuals in your calls don’t understand how to use the technology and/or don’t understand the etiquette of video calls.
Or perhaps there are external challenges that are happening that you can’t necessarily control. For example, the wildfire smoke that is spreading changing daily activities, kids going back to school in the midst of a pandemic. And in my case, going through a construction project where there is constantly loud noise and changing events. Cumulatively, it’s enough to make anyone feel like they are internally feeling overwhelmed and challenged.
There are real daily challenges that we all face and how we interpret our external events is different for everyone. How we perceive the events around us and the meaning that we attach to these events shape our perceptions and beliefs.
How do you choose to react as a result of what’s happening externally? Do you thrive from every new challenge or do you shrink away and retreat?
Here are three ideas to take away when you are feeling like you have exceeded your bandwidth:
- The gift of experimentation. Finding my own personal bandwidth is key in knowing what is right for me. It can take some experimentation and work; through taking the action and being patient, greater clarity can be achieved even when I don’t feel like I can see the result.
- Visualizing how I want to feel. I know It’s not always easy in the midst of chaos and stress. Remembering the end result of how I want to feel and visualizing it has been a good reminder to remind myself to shift. I know that when things stack up, feelings of overwhelm quickly take over. Then it’s a signal to remind me to breathe and find a way to do something nice for myself.
- Accepting where I am with grace and compassion: It has been a challenging time for a lot of us. Sometimes if I feel like doing nothing, I have to respect that and allow my body to just be. Giving myself grace when things aren’t seemingly ‘perfect’ is a constant reminder to let go and give me a break. Even taking one small action such as a body scan, breathing deeply, reading an article, or watching a show on Netflix to distract me from my frustrations helps so that I can focus on some daily joy/relief to shift my perceptions.
