Corona lockdown and the search for meaning

The connection between life meaning and corona lockdown

It is established that serotonin, your gut’s main neurotransmitter, is the one responsible for regulating your social functioning, your ability to find meaning in life, and bowel movements.

For example, serotonergic stimulation through antidepressants or psychedelics can mislead the brain into experiencing meaningfulness in the mundane.

Life meaning, or simply meaning is the emotion that you are able to make based on serotonin. It is there to make the human find meaning in social connection. It also determines whether we care about or empathise with others, and how well we sleep at night (literally).

Following the corona lockdown, the sudden drop of social contact may change a person’s serotonin in a way that makes them lose life meaning. (paper)

Other things that make your serotonin drop:

  • stopping exercise
  • stopping exposure to outside daylight – even on a cloudy day, you get 10-30k lux outside, but on a sunny day usually no more than 200-1000 inside.
  • having a negative attitude/outlook (paper)
  • eating gut-unhealthy food such as sugars

Such, it is no surprise that many of us are experiencing some level of distress due to the sudden change of habits.

How to manage the emotions and make the best of it?

First of all, the search for meaning is one of the drivers of human knowledge gaining. It has pretty useful outcomes.

This can be seen all over, where some people start to do more for each other through social help initiatives. Others focus their energies on discovering the next best thing.

However, the sudden change can also throw one in a downward spiral, so take things into your own hands and

  • Get some sun. Seeing the light seems to also be relevant, not just skin exposure.
  • Eat gut-healthy, whatever that means for you. Don’t go into extreme diets, they are usually the cause for food-related mental disorders. Instead, make small changes that you can incorporate into your routine. Google offers plenty of valid suggestions.
  • Connect more with people
  • Exercise – Again, any little bit helps.
  • Mentally search for good things to practice a healthy outlook

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