I can't concentrate, my attention span seems to be so short at the moment and it all seems to be because of coronavirus - What is going on?

You are not alone, and in fact it's perfectly understandable what is happening to you, especially as it is happening to millions of people around the world too.

We have never known anything like this to happen before so we are all adjusting to the changes we are making in our lives. Hopefully they will only be for the short term but we don't really know how long that short term will be. Being alone or isolated can be hard. It's a very sensible precaution to make sure you keep your distance and follow all of the advice that you are being given.

Sometimes we don't really understand some of the things that are happening in our minds. It's quite clear and perhaps easy to understand why we may be suffering from stress and anxiety at this time. Not knowing what will happen can do that, although you can learn to let go of those worries...right now though let's talk about why it is so hard to concentrate.

Lack of concentration - short attention span due to Coronavirus Covid-19

What is going on here? Well it is all about something called Hypervigilance.  We have evolved to do so many amazing things in our lives but parts of our brain haven't quite caught up with that intelligence and are still behaving as if they don't really know what is going on.

What is Hypervigilance and how does it apply to coronavirus covid-19?

So, take yourself back a few hundred years and imagine you are searching the forest for some food when you hear a noise in the distance. You look across and there is a huge bear in front of you and he has seen you...he is coming for you and you start to run away.  You manage to lose him and make your way back to where you are settled in camp, but now you don't know where he is. So now it is on your mind. Thinking about eating isn't so important suddenly. More important is to look out for that bear, could he attack you and your family?  If you see him in the distance you need to keep on looking out for him and making sure you are very careful and always on alert.  You won't be going back to normal until you know that the problem the bear is causing is over.

It's perfectly normal and only to be expected.  Right now it feels like we are all living through that bear and the stress he is causing us. Having a short attention span and finding it hard to concentrate is a normal reaction.

Try and find other things to do. I don't need to give you huge lists of the right thing to do because there are already so many brilliant people doing that, just bear in mind that looking after yourself and learning to let go will help any time that you can.

Here's a short meditation/mindfulness video that you can watch if you want to take just a few minutes out of your day.

take care, be safe