STAYING WELL, STAYING HOME

Our Wellness Consultant, Chelsea Dyer, gathered tips from various reliable sources to help you an your loved ones stay well:

Reset Your Sleep Health

Even though we are at home all day, it doesn’t mean that we should allow ourselves to oversleep during the day and stay up the whole night. Now that we’re working from home, some of the pressures of daily commuting have eased and serval other daily stress factors may no longer apply, allowing us us to sleep earlier and wake up later. This is an excellent time to reset your Circadian health by sleeping correctly. According to the Global Wellness Summit, humans evolved to be heavily reliant on the 24-hour solar cycle as well as exposure to natural light and darkness. We have our own internal daily clocks (Circadian Rhythms) that control almost every biological system in our bodies. Humans need the sun’s bright blue light during the day to be alert and active, and we also need the dark of the evening to kick-start our brain’s sleep mode and recovery. Therefore, sleep is vital to keeping yourself healthy, and balancing your sleep schedule according to the sunlight will help to boost your immunity and mental health.

Practise Breathing

Try to focus on your breathing, taking only a few minutes each time throughout the day to calm your body and mind can have long lasting benefits over time. Use the ‘4-7-8 breathing’ technique or relaxing breath, which helps you to concentrate on deep breaths. The practice is simple: Breath in for a count of 4, hold for a count of 7 and breathe out for a count of 8. Practising this for four breaths, four times each day can help relieve anxiety and reset the autonomic nervous system.

Move & Stretch Your Body with Mindfulness

Staying active helps to increase your immunity, stimulates your brain and senses, and boost mental health. Think of daily movement as a healthy dose of medicine for the body. Yes, we believe that this is the perfect time for us to get ourselves on the right track. The movement could be as simple as walking, move your body freely, or do simple yoga, Tai Chi, or stretching poses.

Eat & Drink Healthily

Try to set a proper healthy eating routine and avoid unnecessary snacking during the day. Although going out and getting fresh and nutritious food might not be as easy as in normal circumstance, we still should select good nutritional food choices whenever possible. High dietary food such as whole foods, vegetables and fruits, will help you to boost your immunity. Lowering your inflammatory foods such as sugar and bad fats is also highly recommended idea as it helps to prevent your body from inflammation. And don’t forget to wash your hands often.

Stay Connected with Your Loved Ones

This is the perfect time to utilise technology. While we are practising social and physical distancing, keep in touch with your loved ones remains very important, even if the medium is largely restricted to electronic. Use a mobile phone to call, text, video chat, or stay connected with friends and family members through social media, checking in on them regularly. Emotional connection is vital to keep us all healthy, helps to reduce overall levels of stress, and eases depression and loneliness. And for those who have kids at home, ensure that they are eating a proper diet, encourage them to stay active safely, and spend good bonding time with them through varied family friendly activities.

Sources:

Britto, B., March 2020. Loneliness and Stress Can Make You More Prone to COVID-19, If Exposed. Here’s How to Combat Those Feelings. Houston Chronicle.

Ducharme, J., March 2020. How to Stay Physically and Mentally Healthy While COVID-19 Has You Stuck at Home. Time Magazine.

Gujral, H., March 2020. Coronavirus: Practicing Wellness While You Stay at Home. Johns Hopkins Medicine.

McGroarty, B., March 2020. Focus Shifts from Sleep to True Circadian Health: from the Keynote on How Timing Light Exposure Can Eliminate Jet Lag, Inspired this Wider Trend by Beyer-Clausen, M.. Global Wellness Summit.