Work Remotely? Keep Your Heart Connected for Best Results.
- Jul 10
- 5 min read
How Remote Work Affects Our Mental Wellbeing—It’s a Full Body Story
A new study published in June's SCIENCEÂ magazine, "Home Alone: Remote Work, Isolation, and Mental Health,"Â confirmed what many have wondered:
Remote workers—especially those who live alone—are at greater risk for challenges to their mental wellbeing than we thought.
The researchers found:
One-third of the increase in mental distress since the COVID pandemic may be the result of remote work.
This same group also showed higher levels of psychological distress, increased symptoms of depression, and greater use of mental health services and antidepressants.
Remote workers spent about one extra hour alone each working day.
They were more likely to go an entire day without face-to-face human contact.
Socializing with friends after work became less frequent.
People who worked remotely and lived alone experienced the greatest increase in isolation.
There have to be a lot of inputs to make this so hurtful to our wellbeing, right? Well yes, and it is so much bigger than just glowing screens.
70,000 AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS PER DAY?
As a hypnotherapist, these research findings are understandable when you learn a few of the basics of how our brains operate (see my 15 min. Brain Basics YouTube video for more). Our brains are habit-based machines, running an estimated 50,000–70,000 automatic thoughts every day, many of which have a negative bias due to our evolutionary survival wiring. If we are not actively engaged in managing our daily mindset, this can be like letting a child drive the car! (Actually, that is really happening more than we'd like to admit.) And, without anyone or anything to provide connection outside of our mind, the bias to negativity can grow, creeping up around our ankles like a basement which is slowly flooding.
OUR BODY DOES A LOT OF THINKING
Only a small portion of our mental processing happens consciously. Most of our brain and body's processing occurs automatically and outside our awareness, with nerve impulses moving as fast as 270 mph. Most of the moment-to-moment processing is information moving from our body to our brain, not the other way around. What happens when your body's sensory intelligence is not being accessed to help you navigate through your day if you sit behind a computer or phone for hours? People are craving face-to-face or in-person activities more than ever to feel alive on all points these days—it's what we are built to do!
humans NEED FRESH INPUTS TO AVOID GETTING RIGID
Also, our brains are constantly making predictions based on past experiences to inform the choices we make. We have an operating system organizing itself based upon our unique past life events all the way back to our very beginnings as an infant—including our emotions about those events—which then filter and drive what we notice, how we interpret situations, and decide which thoughts to apply.
In many ways, our past forms the lenses through which we experience the present—unless we consciously learn to change them. Without ongoing new experiences and challenges, those old mental lenses about ourselves and our life experiences can get rigid and stuck. "I have always been this way" is an outward declaration that a hidden part of us feels powerless, unchangeable, and permanent.
This is false. We are NEVER the "same." Our bodies are comprised of 50 trillion cells which are continually renewing themselves every second. It's the environment surrounding us that informs those 50 trillion cells which might be static and unchanging—such as in a remote work situation where one sits in the same spot everyday. There is plenty of research (beginning in the 1960's) which proves that the environment surrounding a cell will inform DNA expression, positively, or negatively. So we must factor in the impact of how our entire "environment" (family, friends, physical location, energy, air, light, water, etc.) contributes to someone feeling stuck, or thinking they are unable to change their mental wellbeing.
WORKING HOME ALONE—CONFIDENCE BOOSTER OR BREAKER?
What can go wrong here? Well, people staying at home alone to work can lose their confidence without getting pushed by the unknown where they may have to exert themselves. It requires so much energy to feed a brain which is staring at the same focal distance of a screen, or multiple screens, over a long period of time, that any interest in expending more energy in the outside world can begin to. Some come to avoid it if they can. Worries can get amplified while the mind spins on automatic during long stretches of isolation, as most are not aware of how much automatic thinking really runs their day. Anxiety can creep in. When we do show up, old mental hauntings about the need to be perfect or that we are never enough can get blown out of proportion.
THE WHOLE BODY PROCESSES OUR THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS
Plus, we are not just our minds—we are BODYMINDS. Intricately complex, we are constantly moving information between the body and the brain. When our physical body—and its energy centers—doesn't move or interact, the chemicals which comprise our emotions can stagnate in different body parts, leaving us feeling yucky, achy, foggy, unmotivated, and less energetic. This is where "The Blahs Family" comes to visit somebody not for a weekend, but for a month.
LET'S NOT WORK FROM A MENTAL CORNER
So... if we humans are predisposed toward automatic negative thinking (not always, yet it can be a significant factor for some), and we don't interact with our broader environment to help our emotional body stay connected or refresh our minds through new experiences, it's easy to see how working remotely in isolation over a period of time could back one's mind into a corner and negatively affect anyone's overall mental wellbeing.
UPSKILLING REMOTE WORKERS WITH BODYMIND AWARENESS
This research feels very important to me now. I have several family members who work remotely from time to time, and I know many others for whom it is their chosen work path. The key here is that genuine human connection and shifting our environments on an ongoing basis helps us regulate our nervous systems, keep us confident "enough," remind us we are all needed, we are enough just the way we are, and we need to take care of ourselves because we are worth it.
Whether it's just connecting with a quick hi, or being the light that someone else needs that day, our whole body is involved in our mental wellbeing. Those brief chats, shared laughter, in-person meetings with eye contact, talking to strangers, or just a cup of coffee with sunshine moments—nourish us in ways we're only beginning to fully understand.
KEEP THE MIND, HEART & BODY ALL ONLINE FOR REMOTE WORK SUCCESS
If you work from home and/or live alone, remember life is a full "BodyMind" experience—we are miraculous machines with unlimited physical, emotional, mental, and sensory inputs which contribute to our inspiration, intelligence, balance, and growth along this amazing path of life.
If you or someone you know spends a lot of time working in isolation, remember that while the mind may be online, the body and heart could possibly go offline and affect one's mental wellbeing. Meet a friend for coffee, join a class, go out to dinner on your own, work from a café now and then, or simply spend time around other people. Your mind, your body, and your world will thank you.
To read or refer to the Science research study:
Emanuel, N. (2026). "Home alone: Remote work, isolation, and mental health." Science. Available at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aec7671
To read more on how the environment affects DNA expression, also known as "Epigenetics", refer to this study:
"Epigentics, Health and Disease" in CDC Journal Genomics and Your Health
© Lydia Hatton, MBA 2026. All rights reserved.