Someone near and dear to my heart asked me to write this blog. So here it goes Dotane, this bud’s for you as the beer commercial says. There are times in our lives we need to re-group or even re-build. That’s when we need to get back to basics.
This year I’ve had family members; friends and even I after being sick that needed to get back to living healthy lives and focusing on becoming strong both physically and mentally.
Sleep - go to bed at the same time every night. I don’t expect you to be a monk, but normally get your zzzzz’s. Reading before sleep is much better than watching the TV.
Eating - make sure everything you put in your mouth counts. Eat fruit, vegetables, lean meats and healthy fats.
Exercise - if you’re not feeling like running a marathon and probably you aren’t; how about a 20 minute walk a day as a start. Keep it up and you’ll see you feel better and look better.
Relaxation - I went to a doctor back in the 80’s to help with my habit of picking my face. This was a nervous habit I had had since when my Mother was an alcoholic. It is common for people to pick up nervous habits and most people have some form. There is a relaxation program that works extremely well, every time. It is called autogenic relaxation. I will teach it to you.
Week 1 - sit in a comfortable chair or lay down. Do a cleansing breath and close your eyes. Once your body is quiet and relaxed; visualize an image that you find relaxing. It may be a sandy beach with waves lapping on the shore, a cool stream of a waterfall, or a soft, fluffy cloud lazily drifting across the sky. Repeat after me “my right arm is heavy, my right arm is heavy”. Do this 5-6 times, do another cleansing breath. Repeat the process 3-4 times. Concentrate and become aware where your arm touches the chair/bed, where your fingers are touching. If you mind wanders to your grocery list or your rotten teenager, just come back to your heavy arm. Do this for one week and I will give you the instructions for week two next week. It takes less than 5 minutes. Do have 5 minutes 3 times a day to feel better? Don’t worry if you have trouble concentrating, it comes with practice. It takes several weeks to master but once you do, you can call upon it for the rest of your life.
Positive Influences - avoid negative people. You know those people who want to commiserate and tell you even worse stories than yours. I refer to them as “ambulance chasers”. They are only really interested when there is a train wreck and drama. Seek out people who are encouraging and living the way you want to live. They are out there.
Help someone - I find this incredibly powerful. If I am feeling bad, once I’m finished with the “pity party”, I go and do something for someone else and it always makes me feel better.
That’s my take on life hygiene. There is nothing in there you haven’t heard before. I’ve never had an original idea but I do steal from the best. If you have other ideas, I would truly love to hear them.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve been thinking about this lately also - rebuilding and regrouping. Thank you for this nice post Kay for giving me a checklist of things that really matters. I can’t afford to get sick, I have a family of 7 (including myself) to take care of. So, I would really take this life hygiene to heart.
Chin Chin, that is a big load of responsibility. Mothers and Fathers need to take care of themselves in order to do what they need to support their families. I remember thinking after my kids were grown that if I died at least I had brought them to adulthood. Not that I’m planning to kick off anytime soon. I know it’s hard and women are bad at making time for themselves but consider it an investment for the benefit of the family.
Interesting post, Kay. Health is always an important issue for me, especially with the arrival of our son. If you can’t convince yourself to make a change for the better on your own, a child will often motivate a person to get it together and maximize your chances of being around to see them become parents themselves one day.
There is certainly a health craze right now in advertising, although I suspect it has little to do with keeping people healthy out of collective concern, and more with peddling a whole new range of consumer products and pseudo-pharmaceutical supplements to an increasingly naive public.
I think what bothers me is that very few of these new outlooks on “healthy living” have engaged the most potent source of toxins and poisons in our everyday lives, namely the senseless routine of 9-5 jobs and toiling.
Chin Chin is a perfect example (as am I) of how victimized we are by our capitalist-consumerist society. She says, ” I can’t afford to be sick”, a reality for many parents. Basically our only real motivation for staying healthy is to not fall behind on payments and risk exposing our families to poverty. Shouldn’t we want to be healthy for ourselves as well as others? This is a troubling reality.
When in deficit of answers however, I think the simple tips you’ve outlined are not only easy to aim for, but essential.
Jason, thanks for your post. You almost always give me a viewpoint I had not considered probably because we are from different generations. With a new baby which is joyful but also stressful it is important to take care of the basics of life hygiene. I guess I have a different view on the “workaday life”. Long ago people worked from dawn to dusk on farms, then came the industrial revolution and people still worked really hard for not much money. Today most people work 7-8 hours and many don’t work at all and expect those of us who do to support them. I personally pay 52% income taxes before all the other taxes and you know I’m perfectly fine lending a hand to those who need it, it’s the ones who are sitting at home with their 24 pack of beer watching their 60 inch plasma while I support them that bugs the shit out of me.
We must strive for balance in our work life. Many people out of necessity work in fields are not their choice. That the reality of adult life. Many fields of endeavor are fulfilling but don’t pay the bills. If you want a family you have to find a way to support them. That’s reality. You eat what you kill. Maybe that’s why they call it work.