2. Practical Peace & Clarity for COVID-19

[MUSIC] >> I'm Dr. Tom. >> I'm Marissa. >> And we're the Nixon's. After a decade of helping patients with the list of health, we have learned a lot. >> That knowledge has literally been life-changing for our own family. We started this podcast simply to share practical tools, spread some encouragement, and help empower your family. With the same natural health knowledge we use in our very own home. >> We know every journey is full of mountains and valleys. Our hope is to help equip you along the way. Welcome to the holistic health adventure. [MUSIC] >> Hey guys, welcome to the podcast. Hey, so listen today, we're going to walk through a lot of practical applications, things that we do and things we do for our patients, especially right now, while we're all walking through this thing called COVID-19. >> Yes, so at the time of this recording today is April 8th, which means we officially made it out of the longest month in history. >> All the- >> Which was- >> Which was- >> March. And probably just like your town in Winston-Salem, we are under a stay-home order. >> Stay-home. >> And before we go on, I really just want to outline what that means. Because a lot of people- >> Doesn't really mean stay-home. >> Have some misunderstanding of what that means. Some people literally think they cannot leave their house at all, even to go in their front yard. >> I mean, what- >> Not necessarily the case. >> It says stay-home. >> It's a good title, but just want to provide some things. So in Winston-Salem, this is literally straight from the order. You can leave for various reasons. One of them being for health and safety. And so that's to engage in activities essential to your health or visiting a health care professional for services that cannot be provided virtually. So we own a holistic chiropractic office. So we have remained open and have been working tirelessly. Our team is amazing to ensure we're following all the guidelines to make sure everyone's safe to limit the number of people inside of our office, all the things. Bonus, though, good news that came out of this. We did discover a non-toxic EPA certified hospital grade cleaner, which is exciting. >> It's the lurks all the other stuff smells like. >> Man, it cuts it in. >> It's my hands. >> But it's called force of nature. This is not sponsored. We found it and it's exciting and it's what we're using. So that's where we fall in. Also discovered that did you know back pain and headaches? Where are the, some of the top reasons people go to the ER? I had no idea. I literally just learned this. So it's our goal to keep people out of hospitals and be part of the solution. So we've been open for all of the other healthcare professionals, especially those working in the ER. You guys are superheroes and champions. Also in the stay-at-home order, you can go out to get groceries. You can get household supplies. And for outdoor activities. So you are allowed to go walking, hiking, golfing, cycling, true. You can't go golfing. >> I've been doing golf balls. >> You can visit city parks, making sure that you're buying by the six feet of social distancing. But you can't go outside. You can't go to greenways, sunshine and movement and being outside is so good for the soul. So just want to make sure everybody knows that. >> I mean, quite frankly, it's even good for your health, right? I mean, there's so many studies that have proven that outdoor air is actually cleaner than indoor air. So being like cooped up in your house and just staying inside is not necessarily the solution. Even within the order, it's okay to go outside and I would even say I would recommend going outside and get some vitamin D, get some sunshine, get some fresh air. It'll hopefully get you all social media and change your perspective a little bit too. >> Absolutely. This is totally a crazy time. I don't think we'll ever live in anything like this again. >> Hopefully. >> And there's just so much panic and fear happening. Because I think the greatest reason is because there's not a lot of clarity. We've lacked test kits so we don't know how long COVID has been in the United States. We're not super certain of where we are on. The curve that we're supposed to be flat knee. There's just a lot of things that are unclear. And confusion creates chaos. Clarity creates comp. Confusion creates chaos. And when people are confused when there isn't clarity, at least people to speculate and make up their own reasons. So there's a lot of things that we don't know. We don't know how long this is going to last. We absolutely know that it's challenging to understand the shutdowns. We don't know. >> Right. >> Yeah, how long we're going to be in this? But again, there are things that we can control. This is heavy, but there are things that we can control. And there are things that we can do to exist during this time in a healthy way. So we want to provide some of those ways for you. There's an overwhelming rush to want to cure for COVID-19. And we get it. We absolutely want healing right now. But our best defense today, tomorrow and long term, is to focus on living healthy lives. Prevention is so powerful. And research has shown over and over and over again. Diabetes, heart disease, cancer. And to be prevented through a healthy nutrition and exercise and maintaining a healthy way to avoid smoking. There's no quick fix to health. And not only long term do consistent habits. Do they keep our immune system strong? Do they help us recover from viruses? But they also avoid the unnecessary deaths from the diseases themselves. Heart disease in 2019 alone took 647,457 lives. There's no uproar in the news over this. The media isn't sending the message for people to get healthy. Like there's no message for us all to frantically get healthy, even though that is our best defense. And so if we could channel all the attention to the power of real preventative health, not just the importance of washing our hands, even though that's important, there are so many lives that could be saved. So we want to take a holistic view of this. We want to pull back and say, okay, what can we be doing right now to be healthy? Because the reality is healthy habits doesn't make a compelling story on the news. But it can't be a story. It's a story. That's not super exciting. Prevention is not a compelling story. It can be the story of your own home. I love that. That's so good. So here's one of your first steps. And I think it's important to start with the mindset. And again, this has been a trying time for everybody. And so if you're experiencing more fear and anxiety than normal, hey, we're with you personally for me. Like I'm with you. But there are a lot of practical things that we can do to protect our minds. So that's one of those important things. Protect your mindset. So we do that is this be very intentional about who or what you're listening to. Right. So we want to stay informed. We want to be aware. One of our friends said this couple weeks ago. He said it's important to watching the news and being informed is important. But be careful as to what is forming you or what is forming your thoughts or your thoughts being formed by the news and by the media. And if that is the case, chances are your thoughts are fearful or full of anxiety. But if your thoughts are being formed by truth or by God or by the way, the things that you know are concrete truths or your values and your value system. If that is forming you, you'll have a better outlook. You'll have a different perspective. It's important social media right now. We're all on it. I actually deleted my Instagram. So pretty. Before it happened. I'm not going to follow the stuff. I'm thankful that I did. But I still find myself it's easy to get sucked back in. It's easy to go from, hey, I just want to update. What's the corona update to 35 minutes later? I'm still getting the update. But I'm not getting it up there. I'm getting filled with who knows what's real and what's not. So if there's things that you're reading on social media and you think you might need to unfollow them, then you should unfollow them. Especially the ones that are creating stress. So I'm sharing your mind. Then take that time. Fill that time and say something that's just way more valuable, way more beneficial to your mind. For me, what that looks like is practicing this thing called grounding. We're staying grounded. I spend time just meditating, thinking, becoming aware of my own thoughts. I spend time breathing. Here's a practical application right now. It's something called box breathing. It's where you basically inhale for four seconds. You hold for four seconds. You exhale for four seconds and you hold that extra. You hold that extra for four seconds. Basically, what you're doing is you're calming your heart, calming your mind, increasing oxygen into your body, but you're just taking deep breaths that helps to decrease the feeling of stress. And anxiety increases your feeling of well-being. I go on nature walks in my backyard. That's so good. This is amazing. I don't do yard work traditionally ever. We have planted two trees though in the past month. I borrowed a shovel. I borrowed a weed back here. I made a little nature trail in our backyard and I walked through. Nature trail is maybe not inaccurate. It's like a 12 feet long. The trail is 15 steps long. It's a trail. It is a length enough. But it's helpful to create peace in my mind. Be careful of people, humans that you interact with, that maybe have what we call ant thoughts or ant thinking, A&T, stands for automatic negative thoughts. This is the person in your life who can always find something negative. The easy one is the weather. So champ. In the winter time they were like, "Oh, it's so cold. I can't wait for summer." And in the summer time, it's like, "Oh my gosh, it's so hot." I hate spring time because of spring allergies. And then in fall, they're like, "I hate the fall time because of fall allergies." Automatically. Automatically negative thoughts. Instead, surround yourself with people who can find several linings. I think Marissa is really good at this. You always seem to find. And you're really good at it. Well, here's the thing. You can always find something good if you look for it. Yes. But that's the thing. You have to look for it. And when you're looking for it, you're going to find it. So it takes time to retrain your brain to find those things. But they can always be found. But the same is true. If your mind is trained to find the negative, you will absolutely always find it. Yeah. Even statistically right now. So making this practical for today's age, right? So if a virus has a 1% chance, death rate. And the news is like, "1% chance, death rate." It's so high. But the reality is on the other side of it, is there's a 99% survival rate. So depending on which one you focus on, is the one that you're going to see and you're visualized. And you're going to think about. So think about the good side. Think about the good things. And that's not to say for anyone who obviously is experienced death, like of it at all, death is horrible. And in experiencing that through, coronavirus is horrible. But the reality is, there's another side of the story of a 99% survival rate. So protect your mind. That's one of the most helpful things or pieces of advice for you right now. So good. And for those of you that do check in on the news daily, highly recommend not to do it first thing in the morning. You know, set yourself up for success. Do something else that is a fruitful morning routine so that you can fill your day with goodness and not fill your mind right off the bat with all the negative. So for sure, don't set your email. Also true. The news is not a fueling hope. They thrive. Off of fear. They thrive off of panic. And so protecting your mind is so, so crucial. Which brings us to the next point. I think one of the most powerful freedoms we have is the ability to choose. And, you know, like Tom said, if you're experiencing first hand any deaths or anything like that, absolutely, this is really hard. Oh yeah. But even if you're not in there, the reality is a handful of us. So many of us won't experience that first hand. This will pass. This time will just be a really weird time. But no matter what you're experiencing right now, I think it's super important to allow yourself to acknowledge and feel your emotions. They're real and they're valid and they're there. A lot of us are mourning the loss of reunions and weddings. And just the ability not to gather. And, you know, for us, we were supposed to go on a trip for our anniversary. We go on some sort of adventure for our anniversary. We actually trained years planning it. And so we don't know until we're leaving. This was my year. And I was super excited to, you know, go scuba diving and all the things. And we had to cancel that. And it was definitely a bummer. And, you know, you're mourning that loss. But then you also start to feel guilty. That you feel bad. That, oh, it's so sad. You're a scuba diving adventure. But the reality is there's disappointment. So letting yourself feel the disappointment and feel the emotions is part of the process of healing. Yeah. But then you also want to lean into asking, okay, this is real. But now what can I choose? What can I control right now? And here, we can control our choices. We can control our perspectives, our attitudes, our actions, our reactions. We get to choose the daily habits that we're doing right now. We get to choose to practice releasing control of the things that we cannot manage. That's important. And I think it's super empowering and important to recognize and be mindful of the language that we're using to describe this time. You know, sometimes I hear people saying, like, gosh, this is just the worst. This is the worst. The kids are home all the time. They're driving me crazy. This is the worst. And the reality is this is kind of just inconvenient for a lot of us. You know, this is not the worst thing. It's just a bit inconvenient. I read somewhere of changing stuck at home to safe at home. And I think that's super important to make that mindful change. Again, obviously for those that have loved ones, this is way more than just inconvenient. But again, the reality is so many of us are choosing to complain about things that we don't necessarily need to complain about. There's a lot of things that we can be grateful for. If we are safe at home or stuck at home, that means that we actually have a home to go to. And we have a roof over our head. That's good. The fact that we have hot water, like Americans are so spoiled. So much to be grateful for. We have so much to be grateful for. Yes, it's challenging. Yes, we're all learning new normals. It's wild, but the perspective that we choose shapes the experience that we're having. And it is true. You can choose gratitude even with loss. You can choose calm even when it's overwhelming. You can choose kindness even when it seems unfair. You can choose a sound mind even an uncertainty. And you can definitely choose what this time looks like for you and your family. Because either way, this is happening. Regardless of what mindset we want to pay. Yes. This is happening regardless of how we want to feel about it. So we might as well go through it by making the best of what we can. And the reality is this will not be forever. I don't feel like forever. But we're going to listen to this podcast one day and think, oh man, remember that crazy time. Yeah, right. This will be a distant memory on the moment of the timeline, or on the timeline of your life. It'll just be a moment. So choose to make the best of it. True. I love it. It's so good. It's so good. While we're making the best of it, it is super important to take care of ourselves. Right. And so stress doesn't help your immune system. Research has shown that stress doesn't help anything. But there are things that will help your body, that will help your immune system. Especially when it comes to what you put in your mouth. What is on the end of your fork or for your family, for your kiddos. What you eat actually matters. I mean, even if you wouldn't even watch in the news, you see a lot of different stories of the way that people in their bodies have responded to getting. Coronavirus. You'll hear the stories of the people who unfortunately, it really, you know, just really wreak havoc on their body. And then you'll hear the stories of someone who's even older, like that hundred-something-year-old lady in Italy. 103. Who got it, and she's alive and well. And then you just have zero preexisting. And then you hear stories of, you know, younger people who get it, and they're kind of asymptomatic. Or it's only just a couple of small symptoms, and there's the wide array. The reason why that happens is so important. The reason why that happens is it's all about the host. Meaning there's a thing called a virus, which by the way, you have thousands of viruses in your body already in bacteria and pathogens. Side note, we'll do different podcasts later. But when this virus finds a host, the host would be a person, so let's just use me. And so if my body is in a weakened state of immunity, if I have comorbidities, if I have spent the last 30 years of my life eating poor and not exercising, and I'm overweight and I have high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, I am a great host for a virus. Meaning that my immune system's weak, therefore the virus can find a home in my body. Versus someone like Marissa who exercises, eat right, eat your, eat your vegetables. I love my diet. ETHRAME though. You're not stressed out. You take me, she's taking care of us. She's done practical things. She's gotten adjusted. She's just taking care of our body. Her immune system is strong. So the virus comes even in contact with her body as a host. Her immune system has the ability to fight that virus off, kill it, and then actually her body creates an immunity to this virus. And that's the same for bacterial infection, viral infection, any type of pathogen. That's the way natural immunity actually works. So the difference really being in what you put into your body matters. Like how can you actually strengthen or help an immune system? Food is a great way to do it. Nutrition matters so much. So this is where we talk a lot about food. What's putting your body? One of the things Marissa talks about a lot is eating the rainbow. So what that means and looks like is things like vegetables. Lots of different foods, lots of different vegetables. Remember this health is not a quick fix. It's a lifelong practice. Right? So boosting your immune system through real food. So here's what you want to avoid. Fast food. Right, packaged foods, processed foods, things with chemicals and additives and processed oils. You want to avoid things like canola oil, soybean oil, a lot of soybean is actually genetically modified. Here's one that we like to talk about a lot. If you cannot pronounce it, don't eat it. If you can't actually pronounce the ingredient on a food label, don't eat it. You want to avoid sugar? You want to avoid sugar, especially sweet beverages, foods, juices, sorry, I meant sodas. Sodas juices a lot of content of sugar in them. Sugar actually destroys your immune system. When you raise your blood sugar, even for the course of a few hours, two, three, four hours, that in that period of time, it actually weakens your immune system. Instead, you want to eat a lot of healthy fats, olive oils. We love olives in our house, nuts and seeds and fermented foods, sour, cow, Lincoln was eating fermented pickles earlier. There's a lot of good healthy foods. Lincoln is our two-year-old, by the way. He's the best. He's the best. He's a good eater. He really, really is a good eater. If you're already doing that stuff, kudos to you. Good job. You're helping your immune system. If you're not, if you haven't made a lot of maybe nutrition changes, now might be a good time to do it. Honestly, I've seen people who have spent maybe I've known them for years and they have not really changed their nutrition and all of a sudden right now in the midst of this global pandemic, their thing, their self, I want to change my food. I want to change my nutrition because I'm learning and I understand it matters. So if that's not you, that was a good time to start making some changes. So good. I also want to add to that to make sure you are drinking water. H2O. When I talk about exercise, what's about drinking a lot of water? Good. Because a lot of time, especially because many are working from home right now and so you think that you're hungry, so you're up in your snacks and you're just eating because it's around, but oftentimes you are just thirsty or dehydrated. Because of afternoon fatigue is just being dehydrated. So make sure you're drinking tons and tons of water. It's so water right now. So important to make sure you're caring for the environment of your body. The whole virus, we're putting all the power of this virus. We're talking about how powerful this virus is, what this virus is doing. I wish I could press a button and see an alternate world of what it would look like. If everything that was being reported in the news was about the power of the human body. The 99% of the people that are healing because their bodies fought off this virus. Because that's super important. I think I'm so grateful and thankful that we've lived in this holistic health world for the last decade and that there's still even though there's stress about the unknown of our economy, that it's hard that our friends, businesses are shut down. There's so much hard that's taking place in this. But I feel so confident in my own body that it could fight off this virus if I got it. And I feel just zero fear over the virus. And I just, I want to encourage you wherever you are to know that your body is made to heal and it's super powerful. And it's so, so important to make sure that we're fueling it with all the things so that your immune system is strong today, tomorrow and for the rest of your life. This is literally like what we do. This is the, the, if it boils down to what we do in at Twins City Health, what our office stands for, it is the power of prevention, the power, the power of holistic health to care for your body so that it is in the best possible position to live a long healthy life. Like it's why we exist. So yeah, it's so true. I mean, it's just it's the way when you boil it down to, right? Like it's actually the way that your body was created. The way God created actually created your body is that you have an immune system and its job is to fight off bacteria and viruses and infections and pathogens. And you have these things without getting too sciencey, but like T2 killer cells that actually macrofages that find these organisms and kill them. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. I think more and more as we go through this weird season, people are realizing the importance of taking care of their body. So I agree with you. Like the fear over the virus versus the preventative action steps you can take to, to actually take care of your body. So good. Next thing I want to talk about is also just as important. And that is giving yourself grace so much grace. And so maybe you're listening to this and like all of a sudden you just feel like a not in your stomach or in your heart because you have fear about this and you haven't taken care of your body and you don't know anything about nutrition. And hey, like if if you're sitting right in front of me or if we were like having coffee right now and if it wasn't COVID-19 time, I would give you just the biggest freaking squeeze hug and I would just hug you so hard and I'd look you in the eyes and say, hey, it's okay. Yeah. You have been doing what you've been doing and it's okay. You cannot change the past but you know what you can do. What? You can decide to make a baby step today. Come on. And another baby step tomorrow. Yep. And another one the next day and over time, the beautiful thing is you'll look back a year from now and think, wow, I haven't changed so much about how I live and how I do this healthy lifestyle thing and and it's beautiful. So I just want you to give yourself a big hug right now because hugs aren't allowed and it's really hard and I just I'm giving you a virtual hug right now. So giving yourself grace and this goes in all areas. If your kids are watching more TV than normal right now, it is okay. Give yourself grace. Give yourself grace. If you haven't worn real clothes in a while, give yourself grace. I wore my dinosaur sweatshirt that I got from other days. Leakin also has the dinosaur sweatshirt. I wore it twice last week because it made me happy and I just did it. If you're feeling less grounded than usual, like just remind yourself this is a wild time that literally not a single soul on this entire planet, the entire the whole globe. No one has ever navigated this. No one. And so we're all in this new territory together and so just deep breaths. I think all of us are learning how to navigate different stresses that we've never had to before. So give yourself self grace. Give grace to others as well as they're learning to process this. I see a lot of shaming happening on the internet. People judging others for things that they literally have no idea about and that's just not okay. If you see somebody else in the grocery store that has a ton of groceries, you have no idea. Maybe they're buying them for their neighbors in their neighborhood that are too afraid to leave their house right now. If you see somebody having a yard sale and you want to judge them so quickly, maybe they lost their job and they're doing the best that they can to feed their kids. If you see somebody going out to buy plants and you think that's not okay, maybe they're veteran who has PTSD and perhaps yard work is literally the only thing helping them remain calm. Keep saying, yeah. You have no idea. So have compassion, choose to be kind to yourself and choose to be kind to others. That's so important. Just telling yourself a different story. Instead of the automatic negative thought of what is this person doing wrong, what is the silver lining? I love that. That's so good. Hey, talking about next steps and small steps, I think one step, a small step that all of us can do that would really make a big difference in our health is actually moving. Like getting up. I like to move that move it. Do you? All right. I wish I had like a cute song right now. You could be a really good DJ. Probably. Next time. So, I mean, you just make small changes in this area. It actually makes a really big difference. Here's actually a research study that really opened my eyes to a lot of this. It came out of the Journal of American Geriatrics Society and it definitely reminded me of this. But they did a study on females, women who were aged 63 to 99 years old. Hey. Here's what they found that each 30 minute increase in moderate to vigorous physical activity, there was roughly a 40% reduction in all causes of death. So that if they increase 30 minute exercise, moderate to vigorous exercise, exercise that they have a 40% reduction in death. So, which I'm like, whoa, that's awesome and important and that's not really surprising. Everyone out there's like, yes, I know exercise is important. But the study also went on to say this was really cool that if they did 30 minutes a day of very light activity. So, household chores. Are you doing more chores right now? Probably. Are you cleaning more? I know what they're doing going on. Probably. I definitely know what organ has more cloths. So, if they're doing light activity like household chores or even walking slowly over short distances, I mean, if they're 99, right, walking slowly over short distances, it also led to a 12% reduction in mortality. So, basically, I mean, just to say, like, move. Right? I think there's a difference between movement and exercise. I think movement is like your day in, day out, I'm moving, I'm cleaning, I'm doing yard work, that's movement exercise. I'm going to go out and and do figure it vigorously. exercise. I want to pump, get my heart pumping, get my lymphatic system going. I think there's a difference, but the reality is, is both showed improvement in your health and in your life. And so just from a scientific evidence, when you move, obviously it pumps your heart. So it increases your oxygen content to every muscle in your body. It also triggers your lymphatic system response, which is your body's way of moving toxins out, which is part of your immune system, which helps you kill bad bugs, bacteria and viruses. It improves your mood. It balances neurotransmitters. It helps you sleep. It helps you get a more restful sleep and overall just healthier version of yourself. So it's important, I think, to find something that you enjoy. And this goes for exercise. And just in general right now, it's important that we find things that we enjoy. So exercise exercises something, exercises something like, I remember when I was like, man, I want to find something that I enjoy when exercise is actually kind of tough and finally if I'm crossfit. But for other things, it's like, man, I enjoy running. I enjoy cycling. I enjoy crossfit. Whatever that is for you, do that. It's also important to find things that bring you joy, whether that's laughter, or if you have a joke, the inside joke, do you like to do it? To the quarantine. We will only be telling inside jokes. Yes. Oh, man. I'm laughing. I'm honest with that. But I have been going around. I have really strong. Gosh, that's a healthy immune system. Just so you know, so the beams are probably one of my favorite things. Right now, people are like baking. They're dancing. Marissa taught me TikTok. Well, that is definitely not an accurate statement. That's what I still don't actually know what TikTok is. I mean, I get it. Show me people dancing. So also, I'm going to ask for me to dance with you. Ask Tom if you wanted to learn to take dark dance. But I think you actually can also make them up. So really, I just want to make up my own dance. We're not praying more worshiping, but getting back into the work and back into the Bible, things that bring you joy. We started doing charades. Lincoln started doing charades with Marissa's parents via FaceTime. I think it's important right now, more than ever, if you have a family, find some things that you guys can enjoy together. It's great. So good. So yes, get moving. Again, studies have shown over and over and over and over again. Physical activity, no matter your age or ability or shape, can reduce the risk of chronic disease, improve your mood, your function, sleep, overall health, all the things. Again, no matter your age or your ability or your shape, there's this false belief that you have to like be an Olympic athlete to exercise. And again, movement, it can literally just be a walking your neighborhood. And especially now with working at home, making sure that you're taking breaks to get up, to stretch, to move, maybe do some jumping jacks. Make sure you're not just sitting at your computer all day. Also, random tip that I'm thinking about it. Make sure that as you are sitting at your desk, that your screen is at eye level and you're sitting with good posture. It is easy to have your head forward and to slunch over. Pretend like you have slunch. Should I say, I think I'm so worried? It's okay. So pretend you have books on your head and you can look down with your eyes, but also maybe prop up your screen with either a yoga block or some books that so that the screen is at eye level. I think you do like slump and hunch. Yeah. It's actually good work. Yeah, made up my mind. Here's another one. I was going to say this also with the get moving things. She's right with the studies, but also the water. Water is super important before and after exercise. So the way you know how much water you're supposed to drink per day is you just take your body weight, divide that in half, and that's how many ounces your body actually needs every single day. H2O. So good. Quality water. Going back to connection and face timing with our family, which is super fun. It is so important to remain connected with one another. We don't have the honor and privilege of just going out to dinner or to have dinner parties. That's the thing that I literally miss the most out of this. The first is just being able to hug people. You know, we went to the farmers market last weekend and you like see your people that you love and you're like, oh, we can't. We want it embrace, but we can't. Like, do I get in trouble if I do? I know. I want to see what we want. And so just having people over and eating around the table is so life-giving. So in this time, make sure that you are phoning a friend. You know, the good old-fashioned telephone. Well, nobody has a landline anymore, but your cell phone is still working. You just have to send somebody. Somebody somewhere. You don't have to save some money. You can face time with one another. We're actually tonight are having a Zoom call. All of our Florida friends. There's five couples and we're all going to have a Zoom call and I'm so pumped and it's going to be so life-giving. So just remember our voices can travel further than six feet. Our neighborhood is doing this amazing thing where at five o'clock at night, people are coming out and sitting in chairs or going to the end of their driveway and just talking to one another to stay connected because we are human beings and we're social and we're supposed to and it's good. Yeah, we need that connection. Yes. Super good. Awesome. Next step and next important thing, I think all of us can really work on right now and it's extremely important is getting quality sleep. The keyword being quality. Okay. So here's what that looks like. Attico sleep can help reduce the risk of obesity diabetes. I blood pressure heart disease. It can help increase mood and productivity. We all know that but right now, especially during time of stress or when there's more social media or news too that we can consume. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in that. It's easy to go, you know, from eight to nine to nine to 10, just scrolling on the internet or reading things for the sake of trying to be informed or whatever that looks like for you. So just be careful. Be cautious. Don't drink caffeine at night. I really just try to recommend don't drink caffeine in the afternoon. Try to try to just be careful with that screen time. So there is some good information and even studies would show that blue light that comes from your phone and your screen. Actually mimics a lot of the sunlight and it decreases your body's ability to produce melatonin. It's why if you are an iPhone believer, Apple user, like we are and if you're not, we'll pray for you. But I'm just messing. I bet Andrew and Pai has this too. Who knows? But anyways, I definitely do. Okay, great. So there's a night shift and what that does it changes the blue light to a yellow light. There's also things like blue light blocking classes that actually block the blue light and the reason why it helps you get into a better sleep. There's even different foods that help your body produce melatonin raspberries or one of them. Walnuts is another one. So if you're looking for a late-night snack instead of going for maybe like I don't know something heavy, maybe do raspberries or something walnuts or pecans instead can actually help you get into a better rhythm of sleep. You want your room to be dark. Pitch black. It would be ideal. So whether it's black alcohol, curtains or a sleep mask, I wear a sleep mask. Oh my gosh. Which is so hilarious. You guys. Oh my gosh. What are you gonna say right now? We've been married for nine years now. I love you. This, my sweet husband, falls asleep better than any human I've ever encountered. Yeah. He's more subtle. He is asleep. And so he could fall asleep anywhere. So the fact that he wears a sleep mask because he thinks it helps him fall asleep is just hilarious to me because he could wait probably 30 seconds and then be asleep. Who bought me the sleep mask? I did you know that because I love you. Okay, this sleep mask is excellent and it actually smells like lavender. It is excellent. It's like comfortable to wear. It's plush. Is that the right word? I mean fluffy. Fluffy? Fluffy? It's great. I think it's from Mercola's website. Not sponsored. The not sponsored. So you know how you wear a sleep mask but then there's like gaps where like if you look down there's like a gap and you could still see the whole world. This one basically has these soft pillows in that gap and the pillows are stuffed with lavender. So it is quite nice. I don't wear a sleep mask but I put it on once and I was like, okay this is luxurious. I do want to encourage people real quick before we do the last point. When it comes to nutrition and exercise and sleep and some of those health just steps that we all do. Just remember baby steps matter. You don't have to change everything. You don't have to change all three of those. If you were just to choose one and say what's the what's the baby step that I can make in the right direction? It matters. It matters so much. So just find out what that step is and encourage you to take it. So good. And if you haven't ever created any sort of nighttime routine now would be an amazing time to do that as well. And I will openly admit when this first all went down I stayed up probably two different nights past midnight which I haven't done in a Lord knows how long for sure of reading all of this all the news and all the craziness and guess what shocker I felt awful the next day because I was so tired and so just want to encourage you you're not the only one who's done it I'm right there with you but just again remind yourself this is not helping me and the nights where which has been every other night after that where I go to bed at a normal time like usual and do our nighttime routine guess what I'm not missing anything so it's like the news is going anywhere exactly so I encourage you to make a nighttime routine that is fruitful and relaxing turn off the news turn off the phones make sure the TVs are off we sometimes listen to a playlist of Native American flutes and basically make our house into a spa and a fuse of lavender essential oils so yeah just making sure your home is a place of peace is super important which brings me to the next thing we have made lots of suggestions the whole world is probably making lots of suggestions to you as well and it can absolutely feel super overwhelming with so many new things to do and to learn especially if you have older kids and are figuring out how to feel a sit facilitate at home school if you're becoming a stay at home parent while also learning how to work from home like that's just way too many hats what a person yeah to do it's a lot of change in a short amount of time and it feels overwhelming and crazy and you also have all the other things in your life that you need to do and to finish one practice that has helped me tremendously in general but especially right now is every day making a list of the things that I need to do and then focusing on the next one thing so if you can write down a song I told Tom this the other day I was like you know what after working for Paul for like three days I actually have a lot of compassion for Anna who wanted to marry a guy she just met because she was a lot in her castle for years and years and years and years frozen one frozen two what's the next right thing what's the next I think it's the next best thing next I can't but we are going into the unknown we are definitely and this may or may not make sense when we are older anyway if you have anything for the idea no idea what I'm talking about so right everything down number them in order of priority again confusion creates chaos clarity creates calm if you can write down your stuff prioritize it focus on the next thing and then just bring clarity to your own life your own next steps and that can bring some calm in order to what you need to do love it so good so I'll take lots of deep breaths together lots of them we all will get through this your health is valuable you are valuable your choices are valuable we're not alone we're all navigating this new territory together we love you guys we want to give you lots of virtual hugs and high fives one verse that I've just been living living in is for God has not given us a spirit of fear of power and love and self-control some other translations are sound mind but for me the self-control is practicing not living in the internet is practicing not using food to cope is practicing thinking of things that are lovely and good it's it's practicing all the things that we know we should but I think this time it has just highlighted just how absolutely necessary important they are so again give yourself grace we're gonna get through it we're gonna do it together better together indeed love you all have a great day thanks for adventuring with us for more free resources check out our insta at Twin City Health and if this was helpful for you feel free to share this podcast with a friend or subscribe to it see you next time [Music]