Hi, it’s your Meme Mom, and today I present to you: “What A WW2 Booklet Taught Me About
Living in Self-Quarantine”. Here are some tips for you straight from a 1943 British
booklet on well-being.
Be Regular in Your Living Habits.
A watchmaker will tell you
that a watch will keep better time if it is wound up at the same hour each day. The sun
rises and sets at regular intervals. With unfailing regularity spring comes after winter.
Nature sets us an example in being regular in her habits. If we rebel and become irregular
in our habits, we pay for it in the long run. That is why the first rule of health is to
be regular in the habits of living – eating, sleeping, resting, working, emptying the bowels.
Of course, too much regularity can become rather dull, but there is plenty of room for
an occasional breakaway.
Start the day well. Try to have your meals at the
same time each day. Eat more vegetables. Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning,
and give yourself time.
Get enough sleep.
It is possible that you begin the day badly
by ending yesterday badly – that is by going to bed too late.
It is true that some people
can do with less sleep than others.
But the average adult should try to have eight hours’
sleep every night. It may be that you find it difficult to fall off to sleep as you have
“something on your mind” – a domestic worry, anxiety about money, about health.
In any case, try not to worry about things you cannot change.
Get your share of air and sunshine.
There is no doubt that we feel better and are better if the rooms in which we work,
eat and sleep are well ventilated. Seize every opportunity you can of giving your skin good
airing. The air “bath” is just as important as the sun “bath”. The sun bath can be
taken in your garden. This is worth remembering now that most of us have to take our holidays
at home. The play of sun and air on the bare skin is stimulating.
Keep mind and body active.
Holiday at home! For your spare time and your holiday you should aim at two things.
The first is relaxation. The second is change. Change itself will help you relax. And it
need not be a drastic change. You may not have been to a concert or a theatre for months
or even years. Possibly you have never thought of looking in at the public library. Do something
different. There are many things you can do that will bring change and refreshment into
your life, even if the war makes it advisable for you to spend your holiday at home.
Make the most of spare time.
It is just as necessary to relax, mentally and physically, during
the ordinary working week. What is needed, whatever your work, is change of activity,
something that will exercise those of your muscles that you haven’t been using during the day.
Muscles are meant to be used.
Those masses of muscle on arm, leg, thigh, back,
and belly they are there to be used. If they are not used they will sooner or later let
you know about it.
Choose the right food.
It is probable that you already know a lot
about food and food values. One of the benefits of this war is the more intelligent interest
everyone has taken in food. But you must know what is “good”. What you fancy does not
necessarily do you good.
Drink enough water.
Water plays a vital part in all chemical and
physical changes in the body. Yet some people think it is just stuff to wash in. Water is
meant to be drunk. Most people like their water coloured rather than plain, even if
the colour is only that of weak tea or bad coffee. It can’t be said that any of them
do you any good. Few people drink enough water, so see that you get enough of it yourself.
Don’t pass your cold on.
One way to stop germs spreading from one person’s throat
to another’s is to isolate the infected person. If everyone at the very sign of a
cold were to go promptly to bed and stay there, then the common cold would not be so common
as it is, and everyone would lose much less time at work. There is a peculiar thing about
germs, and that is that dangerous germs may lodge in your throat without doing you any
harm. But they may prove harmful to other people.
Help yourself to be well.
What you think and how you think about your health is important. Don’t think that taking thought
about yourself is morbid or “unhealthy”. The human body is a marvellous piece of construction.
The human mind is a most delicately adjusted mechanism. And this war has shown us once
more that both are, at the same time, amazingly tough. To get the most out of life you must
put the most into it. Live, love, laugh, labour to the fullness of your capacity.