#25: Power up your immune system, physical and mental health

In case you hadn’t noticed(!) there’s only one topic dominating the news, our social media feeds and conversations right now.

And whilst it is important to stay informed of the latest developments and be aware of what we can do to restrict the spread and minimise the impact on our families, colleagues, neighbours and ourselves, there is certainly a point when enough information is enough – and the constant immersion in ‘Corona hysteria’ starts to do us more harm than good. 

Where I live in the Netherlands I’ve certainly noticed that the scaremongering, conflicting information, and consistent intimidating images of people in masks and empty supermarket shelves are impacting people’s levels of anxiety and stress. 

Stress has many negative effects on the body – including depleting our immune systems – which is exactly what we don’t need right now! So it becomes even more important to manage our stress levels, especially during challenging times when anxiety is running high.

This article shares 10 things we can do today to protect our mental health from the mass hysteria and reduce the impact of stress & anxiety.

Mindfulness is sometimes regarded as being a bit fluffy and soft – but in fact it’s built perfectly for difficult times like the one we currently find ourselves in.

For example, if we’re not mindful of our fear and anxiety it can overwhelm us, and that’s rarely a good thing.

This short read from Mindful explains how a mindfulness practice can help us mitigate not only the fear and uncertainty of COVID-19, but can even help us avoid virus spreading actions like touching our faces.

So we’ve established that anxiously scrolling your social media feeds, or panic buying pasta isn’t going to help us. No, probably the best thing we can do for ourselves and those around us is ensure our immune system is as strong as it can be.   

With that in mind, Ask Men reached out to a handful of doctors and nutritionists for advice on how we can boost our immunity. 

This article is the result – a straightforward list of tried and tested solutions, many of which we may know already, yet often choose to ignore (although the last one on the list might come as a surprise!). 

OK, so if you’re all Corona’d out and would rather put your feet up and focus on something else then here we have a long read from the Atlantic on the subject of masculinity. Specifically looking at the gender expectations that get set at the earliest ages by society, and that only narrow further as children grow into adults.

Using the example of her young son who chooses to wear dresses to school – the writer analyses how whilst the feminist movement has helped broaden the spectrum of identities deemed socially acceptable for women – masculinity is still incredibly narrowly defined, leaving very little margin for self expression for most boys and men. 

“To carve out a masculine identity requires whittling away everything that falls outside the norms of boyhood,” she writes. “At the earliest ages it’s about external signifiers like favorite colours, TV shows, and clothes. But later, the paring knife cuts away intimate friendships, emotional range, and open communication.”

“When school officials and parents send a message to children that “boyish” girls are badass but “girlish” boys are embarrassing, they are telling kids that society values and rewards masculinity, but not femininity.”

Over the past few days a growing number of countries have introduced various degrees of quarantine rules for citizens, meaning that many of us will be spending much of the next few weeks at home, or at least confined to a smaller area than usual.

I, for one, am totally OK with this. I work much more efficiently from home, plus I will save myself roughly 90 minutes per day in wasted commuting time. And the thought of what I can do with this guilt-free extra time has me pretty excited.

I’d encourage anybody to view this as an opportunity to indulge in the kinds of activities we usually relegate or neglect. A chance to invest in ourselves, to practice creativity, call friends and family, rest more than usual, and generally savour what is a rare time to step off the usual fast-paced hamster wheel of modern life.  

This list I found from Medium is a handy little inspiration starter.

With his books Deep Work and Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport has become an important voice in the importance of cultivating focus and essentialism in today’s always-on world of distractions.

In this short piece he applies the key tenets of his minimalist approach to the current Coronavirus situation. 

Read on to understand how best to deploy technology in specific, intentional ways, rather than allowing it to 10x our anxiety.