By now, most of us are familiar with video calls. We are using it for work, for family, for friends, for online courses, for wellbeing sessions, for catch-ups and sometimes it just seems never ending.
It is great that we have these tools to connect and keep in touch, which we know is important for our wellbeing.
However, some of us who are using it regularly, have noticed we feel drained or tired at the end of these calls and there are many reasons for that. We often sit face to face or focus intently on people speaking, leaning forward. It can be hard to read people’s body language and sometimes technical difficulties and time lags get in the way of conversations. We also tend to gaze at ourselves during these calls, something that we are not used to doing, and that can be a weird feeling.
If you are juggling a lot of video calls or feeling particularly tired at the end of the day, please download our guidance on How to Reduce Video Call Anxiety. It contains some tips we collected from our staff members, service users and online resources. We hope you find some of them useful.