Nova Scotia researchers capture concerns, motives in COVID study
“Don’t let the fear of things you can’t control drive you to despair. Step away from the computer and the news to look at the clouds and listen to the birds, to stretch and exercise and breathe, to count your blessings, to hug or call your loved ones.”
If Mindy Vinqvist-Tymchuk could step back in time, that’s the message she’d send to herself a year ago, as COVID began sweeping through Atlantic Canada.
Like many people, with a year of living with the pandemic under our belts, the Aylescott Village, N.S. woman is taking time to reflect on what they have learned or discovered in the past year.
Others, like North Alton, N.S. resident Crystal Peach, can’t help but be grateful for the skills she learned before the pandemic.
COVID-19 helped Peach discover how grateful she was for the skills her grandmother had taught her that proved useful during the initial lockdown phase, including gardening, baking, cooking, preserving food, and sewing.
Last spring, she more than doubled the size of her garden, sewed masks for her family and friends, preserved food, and had fun creating new recipes and trying new foods.
“Whether my hands were deep in the soil or a batch of bread, it just felt so much easier to breathe. Those activities brought comfort and helped me to feel that all would be well,” she says.
Peach says would tell her pre-pandemic self to breathe, connect with what makes her heart happy and her soul feel full, and rely on the knowledge and skills that have been part of her life since she was a little girl.
RESEARCH STUDY
Whether your message to yourself was resisting the urge to make and eat sourdough bread every day or invest in plexiglass, this kind of reflection is common after a year that was decidedly not normal.
Reflections such as these became the basis of a research study by psychologists Dr. Karen Blair of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., Dr. Diane Holmberg at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., and Courtney Gosselin, a master’s student in clinical psychology at Acadia University.
The impetus for the research, says Gosselin, came from Blair, who launched a broad-scale COVID-19 coping study last March.
When developing the survey, Blair found a YouTube video from Italy where, during the early days of the coronavirus quarantine, Italians recorded messages from their future selves, sending warning messages backward in time. So, Blair added a similar question at the end of her survey, asking participants to write a question to themselves one week into the future, explains Gosselin.
When Gosselin first read through the survey, the questions about messages to past and future selves caught her interest.
“I thought they were a great way to get a sense of people’s concerns, values, and motives during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic,” she says.
More than 1,450 participants took part in an online diary study.
Gosselin says about half of the messages to past selves had to do with preparedness: gathering supplies, taking advantage of current freedom and being mentally prepared for long stretches of social isolation.
Many people were quite practical in their messages to past selves: they gave themselves advice on how to prepare or to cope, adds Holmberg.
More than half the responses featured messages of encouragement, reassurance, and optimism, or positive, active coping suggestions, like advice to tend to one’s well-being and maintain a routine, to cultivate compassion and mindfulness, and to be more appreciative of loved ones and grateful for what you have.
“Overall, we were struck by the positivity,” explains Holmberg.
The pandemic seemed to make some people re-examine, take stock, appreciate what they have, she says.
“All in all, there were ten times as many messages of encouragement than discouragement,” says Gosselin.
WHAT ABOUT THE FUTURE?
Gosselin says the most frequent questions people living through the pandemic today wished they could ask their future selves included, ‘How are you doing? How are you coping? Are you feeling better?’
About a quarter of responses included questions about the state of the pandemic and pandemic-related concerns, including how loved ones were doing, whether public health restrictions were lifted too soon, and whether the case count was rising or decreasing.
Just as many, if not more, people asked whether they were keeping their spirits up and keeping up with healthy habits and coping practices, like staying in touch with friends, taking walks outside, being kind and compassionate towards oneself and others, says Gosselin.
People also asked about whether they were maintaining a positive outlook, what they accomplished that week, or how they were progressing toward a personal goal. Many people also would like to ask about their personal growth, living more authentically in alignment with their values, and whether they had been tending to hobbies.
“Ultimately,” says Gosselin, “what we found is that many Canadians, and people around the globe, have a tremendous capacity for resilience.”
Despite the positivity and reassurances people wished they could offer their past selves, many felt worried when looking ahead to the future, explains Gosselin. While some people seemed to take their positive, hopeful messages to heart, others held themselves to high standards - are you being productive?
“We tell our past selves to be kind, but then we envision our future selves to judge our current selves rather harshly,” says Holmberg.
“We tell our past selves to focus on the good and appreciate what’s important and be kind to ourselves, but then immediately, when the focus switches to the future, many stress that they’re not holding themselves up to high enough standards, and sound like they’re going to be harsh on themselves if they don’t meet those standards.”
It becomes immediately more judgmental-sounding, says Gosselin.
She surmises this disconnect reflects the anxiety inherent in living in these unprecedented times.
“There is a body of research showing, and what I think we’ll see as time goes on and research continues, is that people who can seek and maintain a sense of meaning in life will cope better with pandemic-related stress,” says Gosselin.
Traits that will set people apart include those who can cultivate a sense of gratitude and appreciation for what they have and for the people in their life; can broaden their field of concern beyond themselves and their families to include others in their community and beyond; can be compassionate with themselves when they experience unpleasant emotions and recognize sadness, grief, fear, and worry are normal given the circumstances; can identify they’re not alone in their suffering or distress; can set and work toward personally meaningful goals.
Gosselin says they are curious what people would say now, as the research was conducted last April to July.
“I think it would depend greatly on where the participants live in Canada, and what the current state of the pandemic and public health restrictions are in their area,” she says.
Overall, the messages to past and future selves point to essential human concerns and values in the face of social isolation and uncertainty, says Gosselin.
“We have a deep appreciation of freedom, value close relationships, and have a tendency towards hope and optimism,” she adds.
“We will come out of this pandemic OK, perhaps having learned an important life lesson or two.”