Coping with stress during the COVID-19 pandemic: What can Pavlov’s dogs teach us?
Is this a sign from the universe? Are we being given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to forget our “conditioned” behaviors and initiate great change?
Did you know there’s more to the Pavlov dogs conditioning story?
The story most of us know is that: Pavlov rang the bell, fed the dogs and after a while the dogs were conditioned to start salivating at the sound of the bell. But the story doesn’t end here.
During the Leningrad floods, these dogs were trapped inside their kennels and water started to rise. They were left with no human help and went through tremendous stress trying to keep their noses above water and survive. When help did come, they had to be pushed under water to get them out of the kennel doors and then forced to swim to safety. Just imagine, how stressful it would have been.
Surprisingly, after this incident, Pavlov’s dogs didn’t display the conditioned behavior. The stress made them forget what their minds subconsciously learned.
I read this story about a year ago and I started to wonder, if there is a way to do a similar experiment on humans in an ethical manner. If we are to believe our movies, they teach us that amnesia caused by head injury/trauma could be reversed with another head injury/trauma. But frankly, I couldn’t think of an ethical way to test this hypothesis without putting someone through hell.
I forgot about it until today when I was revisiting some of my old notes and was reminded of this idea. I chuckled when I realized how things have changed. COVID-19 has set the stage for the experiment I wanted to do.
Right now, most people in this world are going through some sort of stress caused by social isolation, financial pressure, business/work pressure, disrupted plans, strained relationships, or any of the several consequences of COVID-19.
On the personal front, we are either struggling from loneliness or an overload of interactions at home because we can’t get out or a combination of both.
On the work front, you are stressed because you lost your job, and if you have a job, you are stressed you might lose it. If you are working from home, you are stressed because of productivity demands and adjusting to the changed work style. If you are working outside the home, you are worried thinking how to stay safe. If you have a business, you are under insane pressure to make your business COVID-19 safe as well as be able to weather the storm and sustain the low.
Will this stress make us forget our conditioned behaviors that have caused so much damage to our personal lives, society and the planet as a whole?
Will we initiate great change that can help us leave a better legacy for future generations?
Will this pandemic expedite some much needed changes in how we operate from a social, national and organizational standpoint?
The experiment has just started. We either evolve or perish. What do you choose?
