Good Lifestyle

One of the strangest and most universal aspects of life during thecoronavirus pandemic might want to besocial distancing Forever or you just started yesterday. If it seems that the moment has lost all meaning, as you are often not sure what it's safer, you are no longer the only one. In fact, our changing feelings over time in recent months have been well documented and studied by experts by trying to make sense of our collective confusion. As it turns out, it's not just your imagination: time moves differently during the pandemic.

Ok, it's not entirely accurate, but ourPerception Time certainly changes during the periods of massive anxiety and upheaval. In some cases, it might have the impression that the days fly, and at other times it may seem that every hour is dragging. Often, paradoxically, we live both feelings at the same time. This can be disorienting, but it's actually very common. A big reason for this confusion: anegative It seems that time seems to spend more slowly, while a positive condition indicates that time seems to go more quickly.

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"If you felt like slowing the time during the first days of the pandemic, you were not alone,"Philip pinion, PhD, aAssociate Professor of Psychology At the University of Delaware, written for the conversation. This is because we were in a "avoidance situation", where we were "trying to avoid a range of potentially harmful situations". When the "avoidance motivation" is triggered, explains the pinion, our internal clocks slow down. "If the time seems like it's hanging when you are scared or disgusted, you will act faster to escape the way of danger," he writes.

On the other hand, when you start to feel more calm and relaxed, the time seems to move faster. That's why, for many people, the second month of quarantine had felt that, especially with regard to the first.

With a research team at the University of Alabama, the pinion has investigated peopleEmotional responses to pandemic coronaviruses. "Whether the time slows down or accelerated was most closely linked to people's emotions," he writes in the conversation. "Those who reported that they were mostnervous or stressed Also indicated that time spent more slowly, while those who felt happy or happy tended to experiment with time faster. "

There are other factors to play that take more confusing time. AsAdrian Bardon, PhD, Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University and the author of the bookA brief story of the philosophy of timeExplains in an interview with Vox, being relaxed and have a routine means that you are in "Flow". Our pandemic lives broke us and forced negative thoughts, whichdeform our perception of time. "This state of rumination is closely associated with the subjective reports of slowing time and dragging," he says.

But simultaneously, doing fewer things can also make you feel that time goes faster. "We think that time is dragging, but it will fly too. This comes out of the same situation. We went out of our routine," he notes. "We walk from the water or try to deal with situations that we do not want to treat. And then in our retrospective judgment of time, it seems that things were really going on quickly because we did not really accomplish. "

And when time accelerates alternately and slow down - not to mention the fact that so many of our lives are still waiting - thedays begin to lose the distinction. If you can not seem to have a handle on what day, that's or how long do you wear afacial mask, or even when you lastsee your friends In person, try to go easy on yourself. Check out a calendar and keep in mind that the more things are settled in normality, the less your internal clock will be known. And for ways to stay calm, learn5 ways to manage the stress of "pandemic panic" according to a doctor.