Practical hygienic things to do during a health struggle

Practical hygienic things to do during a health struggle

Renee EllisonMar 30, '20
Here are a number of practical hygienic things to do to guard your health, especially during a struggle.  Perhaps this includes some new ideas for you.  In addition to washing your hands for as long as it takes you to say the Lord's Prayer, you could throw out your current toothbrush and using a new one, and/or soaking your toothbrush in hydrogen peroxide before using it again.

Change your pillowcase frequently, even every other night, for a while.  You spend 8 hours on it a night --plenty of time for bacteria to grow against your cheek.  After washing it, dry it outside in the sun if you can, to disinfect it (and the fresh ozone smell is tremendous!).  Also, develop the habit of placing your arm under your pillow while you sleep on your side--not next to your face, on top of the pillow.  (Even while you're awake, try to interpose some clean fabric when you have to touch your face--especially if you've not recently washed your hands.)

Keep your fingernails trimmed -- and scrub them in the palms of your hands. 

Cough tightly into your elbow, and train your children to do that.  Never touch a public handle with your bare hands.  Wipe down keyboards (typing and piano) and the mouse of your computer. 

Wipe down your kitchen and bathroom faucets.  Even just spray your kitchen faucet with a natural disinfectant several times a day and don't bother wiping it off.  Leave it be.  But if you want to do something further, just place your left hand behind it, after you spray it and pour a cup of plain water over it.  Your left hand will redirect the cup of clean water back into the sink...and then you don't waste wipes, sponges, washrags.  This practice also avoids transferring germs from the metal to your rag.   Wipe down your refrigerator door with warm sudsy water after each meal; and once a day, for the knobs on the stove. 

Keep exercising.  Even in place in your house, you can do high knee lifts, push-ups against your walls, laps up and down the hallway and stairs, lift soup cans for weights; exercise on your front porch or balcony, too.  Circulation is vital as a challenge to all kinds of illnesses. 

Air out your house every morning (even if it is cold outside; put on coats) for ten minutes.  Throw your bedsheets back; don't make the bed until AFTER breakfast.  When removing clothes, drape them over a chair or drop them on the floor with the waist open so that you are not storing them in the closet with body heat still in them. 

Keep psychologically happy and busy with intentional incremental steps, tracked with specific WRITTEN mini-goals.  Take up YouTube lessons for a musical instrument or a hobby.  Write up memoirs.  Work in the garden.  Deep clean the house.  Sort and pitch.  Read that thick massive book you've always wanted to read.   Hammer out an online course.

Do not just sit and entertain yourself endlessly.  Become something more than you were before.  Improve in some area.  If you are "out of it" most of the day, listless, see if you can make an activity plan for the half hour when you have a bit of vim.  The principle here is to progress, because you know how to "limp when wounded."

(See also the tips on health supplements to support your body's internal healing.)

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