Take care of yourself, protect yourself, but don't forget your emotions during the quarantine; especially of fear, sadness and frustration. Keep your thoughts in check to avoid raising anxiety levels further.
Written and verified by the psychologist GetPersonalGrowth.
Last update: 15 November 2021
Fear, sadness and frustration. It is not wrong to say that they are the most common emotions in quarantine. They accompany our gazes at the window, the quiet moments on the sofa and the hyperactivity of when we do everything we can not to think. These are three completely normal emotional states, which curiously in this period unite us as human beings.
According to experts, the over-emphasis on happiness in self-help manuals has made us somewhat intolerant to negative emotions. He taught us to be happy, they say, forgetting to tell us how to deal with the emergence of emotions such as anguish.
In reality, human beings know what the most negative emotional states are and what they taste like. And everyone manages them in their own way, in the best or worst way.
Suffering is nothing new to anyone, but this time it came in an unusual way, catching us off guard. And each of us is experiencing it in a very personal way.
There are those who feel lucky because they are close to their family, because they are in good health or because of their economic stability. Still others, however, are experiencing a negative scenario in which there are losses and uncertainties about the future.
Wherever we are and whatever our situation, we all experience fear, unrest and the taste of sadness at least once.
The Coronavirus puts us in front of unbridgeable gaps and it is impossible not to be struck by this reality. In light of this, let's see in the next few lines how and why fear, sadness and frustrations are the most common emotions in quarantine.
Fear, sadness and frustration, the most common emotions in quarantine
Our lives have reached a chapter in which the story is tinged with surreal and frightening shades. It is as if this phase of existence had been written by a bad writer and the very thought leads us to the awareness that we have no control over what happens.
But we must understand a very important aspect: we cannot be in control of the events that happen to us, but we can be in control of our reactions and behaviors.
How we do this will determine how we face the days to come. The keywords to integrate these days would be: acceptance, transformation and resilience.
As Abraham Maslow, the famous humanist psychologist, said, life is a continuous process of growth and this task is often painful. But there are also moments when suffering becomes more intense and for which it is good to be prepared.
The first step is to face your inner emotional universe and understand it. Let us remember that the brain does not speak English, Italian or Chinese. The brain speaks the language of emotions and that is why it is necessary to understand them.
Thus, fear, sadness and frustration are the most common emotions during this quarantine period as well they will accompany us in our stay at home.
Keep fear in check
We are aware of the fact that it is perfectly normal to feel fear, to feel it for what happens to us, for what we see and what surrounds us. But obviously we do not give it more space than necessary, so that it does not translate into a series of irrational thoughts that fuel panic. We do not give space to useless anticipations of a future that has not yet happened.
Focus, be rational, and talk to someone you trust when you feel your fears start to take your breath away.
In psychology, there is a mechanism known as availability bias that is worth considering. Often, when we live in situations characterized by uncertainty and fear, we give more credit and power to what we have at hand: to that false news we have just read, to that unpleasant message we have received or to a thought we have had and which is totally unfounded.
Recall that when the brain is in the grip of fear, it ceases to reason in a logical and balanced way. This is how fear, the most dangerous emotion, takes over.
The most common emotions in quarantine: sadness, the attic of reflection
Fear, sadness and frustration… These emotions in themselves have a meaning and a purpose, even in quarantine. The strategy to adopt is to accept them, but avoid giving them too much weight so that they do not take control.
Sadness acts as a mental attic to be accessed from time to time. This emotion is full of meanings, it is a treasure chest to open to understand what it wants to communicate to us. In the circumstances we are going through it is completely normal, and advisable, to spend some time with it.
We feel pain for those who left us, we suffer for others, we are worried for the future, for our loved ones, for our parents to get sick and for what our children are going through. Accepting all these inner dynamics is absolutely necessary.
Let us not delude ourselves that we must always "be in a 100% good mood" because it is impossible. Let's allow ourselves these moments too.
Frustration, a fire that needs to be channeled
Among the most common emotions in quarantine, frustration is undoubtedly the most dynamic. It is good to understand this dimension better.
It is completely normal to feel frustration these days: our lifestyle has changed dramatically and we are devoured by existential, professional and economic uncertainty.
We are surrounded by vicissitudes that worry us and make us angry. But be careful, why frustration is also the trigger for anger. This is what causes us to be in a bad mood at certain times of the day and fills us with dissatisfaction and nervousness.
To make good use of it, it is necessary to grasp an important detail. Both anger and frustration are emotions that invite action (as opposed to sadness, which is much more introspective).
The secret is to channel them correctly. Frustration requires change, ingenuity, and creativity to address concerns. So use your imagination.
If your professional future worries you, come up with a plan, think about alternatives without falling into fatalism. Let your mind open to the flow of thoughts, be flexible and positive. Only then can you channel fear, sadness and frustration.
Get active, learn to better manage the most common emotions during the quarantine e don't forget to take care of yourself and your emotional health.
