The Covid-19 virus has been active for 6 months since the first case was discovered in Indonesia in February 2020. Does anyone know when this will end? While Covid-19 vaccine are still being tested, what can we do to maintain our health in the New Normal era?
What is health?
WHO defines health as a state of well-being, which includes physical mental and social health. This is not only being free from disease or disability. Meanwhile, what aspects underly our health? Here they are:
The basis of our health, summarized into 4E + 1P + 1S. What are these?
The first E is Eating (and drinking). What we eat and the portions are very important: balanced composition of vegetables, carbohydrates, protein and fat. Drinking water to keep the body well hydrated, make sure to drink at least 2 litres per day. Some people are having difficulties to drink. In that case: please measure it. Take water in a medium sized bottle, usually 500-600ml, and prepare at least 4 bottles for consumption from waking up to going to bed again. Observe if you have finished them all. How many bottles have I finished today? If you still haven’t got your 4 bottles, no worries, learn again tomorrow.
The second E is Exercise. Please adjust your exercise to your age. For those who enjoy jogging, please continue, for those who are not used to it, just walk. Yoga / pilates / taichi / qigong can be used as healthy alternative exercises.
The third E is Excretion. These are urinating, defecating, and sweating. This must be done regularly. Observe whether your urine color is clear, free of any blood, and not foamy. Also observe whether your bowels appear every day, are consistently solid, free of diarhea and not mushy. Also observe whether your body can easily sweat.
The fourth E is Emotion. Happiness, sadness, angriness, being worried, and even anxiety are part of our daily life. However, it is better to be careful. Too much of those emotions will have a negative impact on our health. For example – too much excitement may irritate your heart. Do you know the story of someone who won the lottery, but died because of a heart attack? Likewise, excessive anger will irritate the liver, excessive sadness will irritate the lungs, excessive worry will irritate the stomach, and excessive fear will disturb the kidneys. So, maintaining our emotions is essential for our health.
P here is Praying. Getting closer and believing that there is an unlimited power above us all, will calm our heart and clear our mind. This may help us to find solutions to what is bothering us.
Last but not least is Sleep. How is the quality of your sleep? How long do you sleep? Are you sleeping well? Or are you disturbed by unpleasant dreams? Sleep is important to prepare detoxification. Therefore, make sure that have a deep sleep from 1-3 AM. Please also make sure that your children sleep well. Do not allow them stay up too late.
