As covered in previous articles, stress can have a big impact on your immune system so it’s really helpful to have some stress management tools.

In stressful times such as periods of isolation or quarantine, it’s important to maintain your regular routine as much as you can. A change in your normal routine is, by definition, stress. Stress can weaken your immune system.

Keeping to your regular routine will help to maintain your body’s biorhythms as close to normal as possible which will enhance your ability to get good quality sleep. A good, solid sleep could go a long way to bolstering your immune system.

Here are some suggestions for helping to maintain your normal routine.

Get up at your usual time in the morning, do the usual things – eat, bathe, whatever you normally do. Your “getting up” routine will probably be a lot less rushed and therefore less stressful, which is a good thing.

If you’re working from home, morning is a good time to do your work.

I’m strongly recommending to my patients that they shut down their electronic devices including news, media, social networking sites, etc. by noon. If you have to work on your computer into the afternoon, then continue but try to avoid social media, news, or anything else that involves spending too much time and energy on the stressful situation going on right now.

In the afternoon, focus on time for yourself – do your workout, get outside and go for a walk (maintaining social distancing, of course), work on your hobbies, read a book, do something relaxing that you really enjoy. Have some “me time”. If you do want to watch some TV or movies, try to stay away from anything overstimulating like shows with violence or with an apocalyptic theme; those can be disturbing to sleep.

In the evening, try to get in some family time. You can do things like jigsaw puzzles or board games with the kids, read out loud to them. There’s lots of things you can do, and in a future article, I’ll share some of the activities that my wife and I have come up with for our family.

The basics are very simple — maintain your routine. Get up at the same time, do your normal morning activities, work through the morning, do afternoon activities that ideally are not work-related. If you have to work during the afternoon that’s fine, but then switch your “me time” activities to the evening. Then in the evening, spend some time with family, do some reading, calm your mind down, work on your sleep, work on your relaxation techniques. Focus on trying to de-stress and relax. This can help you stay in a normal rhythm and get good quality sleep. That will help your stress management and can help your immune system as well.

Green Apple Health Care practices Cause Based Medicine™ which is the systematic process of finding and treating the core cause of health concerns by using a classic naturopathic approach combined with scientific research to optimize patient outcomes.

Our focus is cause-based.  We are relentless in identifying the root cause, the “why” behind the symptoms, and we address our treatment programs to the cause of the health condition, not the symptoms.

Call us at (780) 485-9468 to book a consultation.  If you prefer, online booking is available for both new patients and repeat patients.