Don’t Forget Your Body in the Screen

2020 / 2021 was the year that the ENTIRE corporate world met virtual work. And it wasn’t a cute first-date followed two weeks later by date #2… it was a full-on “let’s move in together RIGHT NOW” affair. Some of us want to break up with virtual work now, some don’t, and others like me are in the middle.?

One of the “joys” of virtual work is that you don’t have to leave the house or even the room, depending on the size of your place. The slacker’s dream of business-on-the-top, nothing-on-the-bottom has finally come true. Let’s pause and all forcibly remove from our brains the idea of ever thinking about coworkers like that.?

But that “chill” home office can really drain the life out of you. Even for introverts, sitting in one place staring at a screen all day is REALLY bad for mental, physical, and emotional health. We’ve known for a while that prolonged desk and computer-based work (“screen-sitting” as I call it) is not great for your health. Dynamics like “zoom fatigue” (there’s even a Wikipedia page now) and prolonged sitting have been shown by research to be really bad for our bodies and minds. When your office space gets condensed to the walls of your flat or house and your commute is removed… you don’t move much. I barely searched for 15 minutes and there were dozens of other articles I could reference on this.

Without needing research, you can just feel that sitting so long, staring at a screen is unhealthy. For me, lengthy screen-sitting takes me out of my body and leaves me feeling like a tight, empty balloon. I feel tight and tired like I’ve exercised, but also deflated like a limp balloon because I’ve been sitting on my a$$ all day.?

More than normal office work, where at least you’re around humans and moving through a new building, screen-sitting in home-office is quite disembodying. It pulls energy out of your body and the real world, and into the narrow confines of your bright laptop screen. You might look up after hours of virtual work to realize that your lower back and hips are tight, your jaw is tense, your eyes feel strained, and your shoulders are clenched toward your ears. Or, you’re not even consciously aware of those things happening, you just feel habitually... meh. Losing connection to your body or experiencing the chronic tension that comes from screen-sitting hurts your productivity and health.

Well, virtual work isn’t going anywhere. What can we do about it?

Three things help me the most with making the best of things in a virtual office. Conveniently they all start with the letter “m,” so here are my “3 M’s” for staying sane with constant home-office:

Movement:?

Let’s start with a simple one: move. Easy enough, right? Well, not so easy when the bathroom and kitchen are seconds away, and moving from bed to laptop requires no change of room (or clothes). Whether it’s taking walking meetings, using a standing desk, doing office yoga with your team, sneaking in some lunchtime pushups, or doing cat-cows in between calls, movement is REALLY good for you. In a home office, it’s important to add movement into your day even on top of any exercise routine you have. I’m a fan of walking meetings (also limits screen-time) and of finding 5-10 minute time-blocks to do some small yoga asanas during the day. Between meetings I often set a timer to do a 5 minute exercise that looks like this: 3 minutes of “movement” (i.e. jumping jacks, sun salutations, shadow boxing, dancing, etc.), 1 minute expressing gratitude, and 1 minute thinking about a priority topic I need to work on.

Meditation:?

Your mind, emotions, and body are all part of the same system. They are influencing each other all the time and they are all affected when you are struggling in one area. With all this screen time, increased meetings, and added stress of home office, your mind needs a break! Studies from Stanford indicate that “the cognitive load of video conferencing is far higher than phone calls or in-person conversation.” And doom-scrolling social media or perusing the abyss of the news or (gulp) LinkedIn doesn’t help!?

Meditation is the best, natural way to give your mind a break. Meditation is ancient. Yet I can’t think of anything more needed in our modern, CONTENT-ALWAYS world. If you want to focus better? Meditate more. If you want to find more ease and relaxation in your day? Meditate more. If you want to get more in touch with your needs and desires? Meditate more. More emotionally intelligent or sensitive? Meditate more. Better able to manage stress? You know the answer by now. Meditation is free and it’s one of the best things you can do for yourself and the planet. I love doing a quick Yoga Nidra on Insight Timer or a round of Wim Hof breathing during the day, but there are countless other methods available.

Mindfulness:?

The final "M" is challenging, as it requires sustained work and awareness over time. Mindfulness is a practice of cultivating a sustained awareness of your experience as you experience it. While this can be considered meditation, I view it more as the ongoing practice of checking in with how you’re feeling (mentally, emotionally, & physically) throughout the day. So during your (endless) meetings, work-blocks, and daily routines, practice paying attention to the things you do, as you do them. Explore your feelings and emotions without judgment, and practice the difficult art of accepting things as they are. That doesn’t mean rolling over and being passive. But it does mean learning to accept the positive and negative “elephants in the room” so that you can better learn from them; rather than just repressing them in a hope that they will disappear (hint: they won’t).

Mindfulness helps us to stay present with our bodies and emotions while we move through our busy days. It also encourages single-tasking, which is great for your work quality and happiness. I try (and often fail) to stay conscious of my emotions and body-tendencies during the day, and accept whatever I’m experiencing. In my case, I often clench my jaw or tense my shoulders during virtual meetings without even realizing it. I’ve also noticed that I become quite anxious and overwhelmed when I haven’t stepped outside in more than 2-3 hours. I find that the more I stay present and single-task, the better I feel and the more productive I am.?

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So those are some ways I try to better navigate the unique drains of virtual office. Virtual office brings lots of positives like increased geographic flexibility, eliminating commutes, saving on costs, and opening access to more global networks. But home office can also exhaust your soul if you are not careful. It makes it easy to "forget" your body, and get swept away by the infinite stressors of your mind. With the craziness of the world today, being "always on" at home limits us from being able to actually take action on issues that truly matter.

The world needs us to find ways to stay healthy and empower ourselves.

I find that the 3 M’s really help me stay balanced and in my body while virtual-working. But I’m sure that smarter people, like you dear reader, have even better ideas on this topic.

Now I’m curious. What keeps you healthy, focused, and present during the virtual day?