We are in a time of collective waiting. Waiting to see what comes next, it is ever changing and at many times frightening especially when we are taking care of family members including young children. But nonetheless, in these times of uncertainty and fear, it is more important than ever that we keep ourselves calm and healthy – ensuring that we are spreading love and not germs. We don’t know what the future holds, how the COVID-19 will progress nor how our government will handle the situation, all we can control is our reaction and take every preventative measure to keep ourselves healthy.
So what does this mean in practical terms, first make sure to familiarize yourself with the CDC guidelines which I think are excellent and of course reach out to your healthcare provider if you are feeling unwell, but in the meantime some simple guidelines to boost your immunity.
DO MORE:
- Sleep: as many of us spending more time at home, use this as an opportunity to rest and reset. Good quality sleep (7-8 hours per night) is key to building your immunity and staying healthy.
- Eat your greens: make sure you are eating plenty of nutrient dense food like leafy greens and array of fruits and veggies – eat the rainbow!! These phytochemicals will help boost your immune system.
- Breathe: keeping stress and fear at bay is critical, focus on gratitude, appreciation and above all love. Meditate, stretch, journal, write a list every day of all that you are grateful for. Amplifying this love energy vs. the energy of fear, will help keep you in a calm, more restful state – which is much better for your immune system.
- Connect: virtually of course, reach out to friends and family – check in with them via phone/FaceTime/Skype. Send you love and support – spreading love not fear
DO LESS:
- Drink alcohol: alcohol suppresses the immune system. Although many of us reach for a drink in times of stress, I would encourage you to stockpile kale (even the frozen kind!) vs. wine.
- Skip the sugar and processed foods: eating too much of these is never really advisable, but as you are trying to build your immunity it is particularly important to banish these foods. For many of you sugar may be a comfort food, but I’d encourage you to try to reduce or eliminate it and replace it with fruit as a healthy, natural sweet alternative.
- Worry: easier said than done (I know), but as mentioned previously, cycling energy of fear and worry doesn’t serve us. When you feel yourself spiraling into fear, stop and breathe – my last blog post had a simple breathing technique to use anytime.
Finally, we are in this together – if a global pandemic has any positive effect it shows us that we are all one. We stand in solidarity with our Italian friends singing from their window every day at 6 pm, with the Chinese doctors and nurses bringing supplies and support to Italy, with our doctors, nurses, teachers and grocers right here in our own city who heroically serve us every day.
Find these stories or heroism and love, latch on to them and share them. I’m using my Instagram to share stories of gratitude, love and positivity– and I encourage each of us to seek out these positive stories and tag me @suarez_mandy #gratitudegram. It is these examples of humanity, love and support that will get us through this time with renewed faith in the human spirit.
Sending love, light and a big virtual hug to all of you. Be well,
Mandy
