Simple Steps to Protect Your Sphere

There’s all kinds of advice out there on how to protect yourself and those around you from the coronavirus aka COVID-19. I’ve become a lot more aware of the things that I do that may spread infection and consciously work to remove these from my habits. Beyond breaking these habits, it’s important to consider our overall health and understand ways we can boost immunity. It’s hard to really grasp the strength of your immunity because it’s not something you can see or easily feel. It’s build through a long term commitment to improving and maintain your health. This starts with being conscious of our bodies and the environment around us.

Assume every surface is infected

If you can open a door without your hands, do so. If not, have some tissue handy and then dispose of it after use. If you go to the bathroom, keep the towel you dry your hands with to open the bathroom door on the way out and then dispose of it.

Protect your belongings

This means cleaning them, at least once daily. Cell phone, wallet, credit cards, keys, door knobs, pens, keyboard, headphones. The simplest way is a couple spritzes of isopropyl or ethanol and a quick wipe down.

Minimize face to face contact and socially distance yourself

If you absolutely must communicate this way, maintain the 6ft distance or even better 10ft. Don’t speak directly at the person and avoid small rooms especially those without ventilation. It’s all about not letting the particles in and around your body end up on someone else.

Avoid touching things that you don’t need to

Use contactless payments, it’s super easy to setup and will improve you quality of life immensely! Encourage the places you patron to use a contactless system (it doesn’t cost them more). iPhone’s have Apple Pay and Android’s have Google Pay.

Always carry your own pen, ideally with a stylus. This way, you can sign both digital and analog. Payment kiosks have got to be one of the easiest ways to spread germs!

Don’t touch your face or other part of your head! Bring awareness to these actions, they are probably one of the most difficult to break. Ask those around you to come up with a “code” word to remind you if you forget. If you forget, wash your hands immediately. Practice using mind over matter to suppress those itches.

Take your Vitamins

It’s hard to keep a perfect diet day in and day out, so do yourself a favor and provide a nutrient baseline that you can build upon. Vitamines alone are not enough to keep you healthy, but they definitely can help fill in the gaps. At minimum, take a basic multivitamin with probiotics, mushroom supplement for immunity, and fish oil for omega fatty acids.

Eat Well

Avoid processed foods, refined sugars, and alcohol. These foods dampen the immune systems and make you more susceptible to disease. I’m not saying you have to take them out all together, just be conscious and understand the effects on your body, especially in times where the risk of sickness is high!

Exercise

30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise, 6 days a week. Make it a habit. Build it into your schedule. Do something you enjoy. If you reaaaally don’t like to exercise, find ways to distract you from the action itself, like listening to a book or watching a movie. If you’re trapped inside, there are plenty of free videos on YouTube that will get your heart pumping. Truth is, once you build it into your lifestyle, you guaranteed will learn to love it and won't be able to do without. It’s addicting, in a good way!

Last but not least, sleep well and avoid stress

Good sleep is essential to a strong immune system. Try to give yourself as much sleep as your body needs. Avoid stressful situations which also lower your immune defense. This includes fear and panic of the disease itself. If you are diligent in maintaining a healthy resilient body, your chances of contracting are greatly reduced, which in turn means that you won’t spread it to other friends and loved ones.