Feeling like you're not quite firing on all cylinders?

So it's pretty cool to be coming out of lockdown now and wherever you're living, the restrictions are starting to release, which is awesome. But one thing that people are talking to me again and again and again, is that their minds just don't feel normal.

Do you feel just like you're not quite yourself? Like your brain isn't operating the way you usually can rely on it to?

And the thing is, let me tell you so much of what you're feeling right now is because of one simple thing: your brain needs a break. Did you know that? Did you know your mind is just super fatigued by everything that's been going on right now?

And part of that is the demand. It's all the change. It's the constantly adjusting, constantly figuring new stuff out, dealing with the unexpected, like having to isolate.

Part of it's also monotony, lock down is just day in day out, the same old four walls, the same stuff the same computer screen, the same homeschooling. You're not seeing many people and your brain gets bored. It's the monotony that it really starts to struggle without the normal stimulation that you'd get just from day-to-day life.

So here's three things that it's affected that you might have noticed.

Number one, your memory. Do you feel like your memory is just a bit rubbish right now? So that might be that your forgetting stuff, you're supposed to take something to school and you just completely forget about it. Or even that you just can't hold things in your head. The other day, I picked up my phone to text someone and literally in the time between me thinking I better text them and me getting my phone at my back pocket, I couldn't remember why I was getting my phone out my back pocket. It was ridiculous.

And that's your working memory, your memory more than any other part of your brain needs stimulation of variety to work in its normal way. And so the bit of your brain that does memory is really struggling and a lot of people are noticing that. When you're trying to think of a word and you just can't think of the word you wanna use that's another thing that people are noticing a lot. So if your memory is going, you're not going crazy. It's just fatigue.

Number two, is your emotions. So when we're tired, we're close to feeling overwhelmed. Our brains are literally close to their limit. And that means two things. It means that you're very easily pushed into overwhelm. So little things can feel like really big things like you freak out over nothing. You know it's not a big deal but it feels really, really hard, really annoying, really scary, whatever the emotion is. It's like, everything's ramped up.

The other thing there is that your brain is torn just like you are. In one way, your brain wants a break. It's like, it's tired. It needs to recharge, get back to normal, but it's also bored, it's fed up of monotony and tedium. So it wants to stimulation. It wants to see people it wants excitement and it wants fun just like you do. But just like you, it's all over the place, it's up and down.

So you might find that one minute you're really enjoying something like chatting to mate. And then just suddenly in a moment, it feels like it changes and emotions are your brain's way of getting your attention. So you might find your emotions feel like they're all over the place. It's like a real roller coaster up and down. So just bear in mind sometimes that's just fatigue talking.

And number three is motivation. When our brains are struggling it's just really hard to get ourselves going. To get focused, to get concentrating on something to pay attention to something, even sometimes just to get out of bed.

So if you're really struggling here's a tip: it's easier to change the direction of something when it's moving than it is to get it moving. So if you're struggling to get yourself moving, try getting started on something that you do want to do first. Even if that's something really little like taking a shower, going and kicking a ball around, going making a cup of tea, getting dressed whatever it is, phoning a mate. And once you're doing something, it will be easier to then change what you do, and move on to the other thing, whether that's studying, I know it's exam season, so thinking of you if you've got a lot of study to do right now or whether that's something else tidying your room something you've gotta do, a chore or whatever that is.

But overall remember those three things that you might be experiencing.

So go easy on yourself. So much of what you're feeling is just 'cause your mind is tired. Did you know you're not superhuman, you have limits? And this season has pushed us close to them.

Go easy on other people. You know, we're all struggling. We're all a little bit prickly, a little bit overreacting right now. So if someone's being a bit snarky maybe give them a bit more of a break than you normally would.

And then the third thing is take it easy. Give yourself rest time, build stuff into your schedule. Like relaxation, rest. Don't push it too far. Take things one step at a time and you'll soon be feeling much more back to normal.