Social media is circulating numerous posts regarding how people should spend their time during quarantine. While the goal is to motivate readers, these posts may instead be damaging for our mental health. Today, Boston Clinical Trials is sharing an article with a different perspective on motivation:

A trauma psychologist weighs in on the risks of ‘motivational’ pressure during quarantine.

A “motivational” message has been circulating during the coronavirus lockdown, which is supposed to kick our butts into gear since most of us now have more time on our hands.

Here’s one version:

At face value, it may sound logical. We often don’t do things because we lack time—or think we do—so now that we supposedly have more time, we should be doing those things now, right?

Just one thing though—there’s a deadly global pandemic and massive economic crisis happening, which might be just the tiniest bit distracting.

A trauma psychologist, Alaa Hijazi from Beirut, weighed in on this idea that we should be extra productive right now, and she didn’t mince words. Hijazi’s Facebook post has been shared 19,000 times, so people are clearly appreciating her wisdom. She wrote:

I thought I was spared the horrid ‘motivational’ phrase going around now—’If you don’t come out of this with a new skill, you never lacked time, you lacked discipline’—until I saw it on my local yoga studio page.

As a trauma psychologist, I am utterly horrified, enraged, and bewildered about how people can believe and spread this phrase in good conscience.

We are going through a collective trauma, that is bringing up profound grief, loss, panic over livelihoods, panic over loss of lives of loved ones. People’s nervous systems are barely coping with the sense of threat and vigilance for safety, or alternating with feeling numb and frozen and shutting down in response to it all.

People are trying to survive poverty, fear, retriggering of trauma, retriggering of other mental health difficulties. Yet, someone has the nerve to accuse someone of lack of discipline for not learning a new skill, and by a yoga teacher!

This cultural obsession with [capitalistic] ‘productivity’ and always spending time in a ‘productive,’ ‘fruitful’ way is absolutely maddening.

What we need is more self-compassion, more gentle acceptance of all the difficult emotions coming up for us now, more focus on gentle ways to soothe ourselves and our pain and the pain of loved ones around us, not a whipping by someone making us feel worse about ourselves in the name of ‘motivation.'”

Indeed. Even those of us who are still employed full-time are finding it difficult to focus some days.The enormity of this pandemic and the global shutdown over it weighs heavily on all of us. Our sense of normality has been turned upside down, and the uncertainty over what the near future holds makes sustained attention a challenge.

Add in the fact that many people now have children at home who used to be at school or childcare, many are struggling to figure out how they’re going to pay rent or buy groceries, many are watching businesses or careers they’ve spent years building crumble before their eyes, many have health conditions that make them anxious about catching the virus, and it’s not hard to see how neither “time” nor “discipline” are our biggest problems right now.

If you want to read books about hustling and improve your skills, Jeremy, go for it. But let’s not lay a guilt trip on people who are going through a traumatic experience that none of us have experienced before and none of us were prepared for.

BCT understands we all experience grief and trauma differently. During this unprecedented time, stay connected with us and take care of yourself, physically AND mentally.

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Material for this blog was taken from the following article: https://www.upworthy.com/coronavirus-productivity-motivation-myths-dangers