Practical Personal Health Strategies During Social Distancing

In my last blog, I talked about how important it is to stay grounded in the pandemic. I meditated on the serenity prayer, and referenced my review of Pema Chödrön's "When Things Fall Apart". We can often send ourselves into a tailspin, stressing about things that are out of control, and I think its important to remember to find our center in the maelstrom of change. However, there are things that you can do during this pandemic.

While a rational and calm attitude is necessary, it is important we don’t stay idle – making active choices can have a lasting benefit on our physical and mental health. So, what are some choices that we can make today?

Exercise

Gyms have been closed for over a month in NYC. This is probably the case where you are as well. That makes sense – keeping them open would result in COVID-19 spreading like wildfire.

Recently, I wrote about the best exercise and fitness apps, including Playbook, Fitbod, and the Shred app. Some of these are fantastic resources during isolation. For example, the Shred app has a huge amount of “bodyweight” exercises that you can do without gym equipment and starts at just $99.99 for the year. You have likely paused your gym membership, so why not sign up for an exercise app? Or check out some of the free workouts online. Amazingly, Don Saladino (who has trained superstars like Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, and Sebastian Stan) is offering free workouts on Instagram live at the moment.

Diet

Diet is incredibly important at times like this. A while ago, I wrote an article about the foods you can eat to help boost your immune system. Decent clean bone broths, blueberries, and salmon are all examples of foods that get your body to work for you.

Now we are safe at home (I’m trying to avoid the phrase “stuck at home”), we can really focus on our cooking. Think about what vegetables are seasonal at this time, and try to start cooking in a way that uses ingredients to improve your health rather than just feed you. A while ago, I wrote a review of Mark Hyman’s “The Blood Sugar Solution”, which talks about how this approach can tackle specific health issues like diabetes and obesity.

Supplements

Supplements are exactly that – supplemental. They aren’t always essential to a diet but can make designing a food plan that gives a full range of useful nutrients a lot simpler. There are a bunch of ways you can go, from mushroom complexes to probiotics, but I recommend starting with a basic starter set. Read my design for the “Basic Supplement Starter Kit” on my blog, and go from there.

Sleep

Stop scrolling before you go to bed. Seriously – it is doing way more damage than you realize. I reviewed Arianna Huffington’s The Sleep Revolution just over a year ago, and it has really changed the way I think about sleep. Since then, I have embraced her 5 tenets of sleep, which are paramount to getting your sleep patterns back in order.

Sleep, or the lack of it, has been shown to affect several serious diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s. The USA relies on medicine for a good night’s sleep – many Americans take sleeping pills every night. It needs to stop! Get your sleep!

Meditation

We have all gone through periods where we let our meditation regimen slip a little. With the constant onslaught of news and information in this current crisis, now is the time when we should be meditating the most. If this is something that you have fallen out of sync with recently (honestly, I can’t blame you if that’s the case), then try dipping your toe back into meditation. One thing that has worked for me recently is the Ziva Meditation app. It hits on the powerful trifecta of mindfulness, meditation, and manifesting, and can really help to get your meditation practice back on track.

Relationships

We are social distancing, but we can still connect. I don’t know about you, but I love a phone call – especially an unexpected one. Take the time to reach out to somebody that you may have lost contact with or haven’t spoken to in a while. Your friends from college, old coworkers, or distant relatives are probably all in a similar situation.

Growth

This last one is optional – but may be useful if you have a lot of spare time. Think about using your newfound freedom (it’s all about framing the situation) for personal growth. Of course, many people are finding it hard to concentrate or learn at the moment. But if you do have time, perhaps now is the time to tackle that long-form project that has been at the back of your mind? Get inspired by listening to some of my favorite podcasts for personal growth.

Summary

Just remember that although there’s a bunch of things that we can’t do at the moment, there are endless things we can do as well. Most of the above costs you nothing other than time – which we have been blessed with in abundance at the moment. So take the opportunity to examine your health strategy, start dieting and living well, exercise when you can – and don’t forget to reach out to friends and loved ones. We are social distancing – but that doesn’t mean we can’t be social.