
Image credit: Precious Life Wellness Village
Like many of my favorite bloggers, I hesitated to write about H1N1, but I wanted to say a few things, and then no more!
Many of us in the education field, or healthcare field have experienced the complete paranoia about H1N1. As a substitute teacher, I find myself surrounded by other teachers who say, at every introduction, “Wow, you’re still standing? Well, not for long.”
With the children, there are constant reminders to wash their hands, sneeze into their sleeves, don’t touch the other kids, and please don’t touch the teachers. At my last job, I was excited, as a local nutritionist was scheduled to give a 45 minute lecture to my class, as the beginning of a six-week nutrition course. I’m sorry to say that the discussion was almost entirely about germs. The woman began by washing all the desks down with bleach (yuck!), and then having the kids go through hand washing drills to see how fast they could wash up as a class, while still doing a thorough job. It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be.
And hand sanitizer – it is prized at schools these days. There are usually at least 20 jumbo bottles in every teacher’s closet, and the kids are expected to use these about every ten to twenty minutes.
I’ll leave my comments about bleach and hand sanitizer unspoken – for now – and focus on what I really want to discuss: this paranoia.
With the constant media attention, and the kind of attention it gets at work, it is impossible not to have this on your mind ALL THE TIME. And yes. I’m scared. I’m not scared of getting H1N1. I haven’t gotten the “regular” flu since I was 7 or so. I always get colds – and bad ones. If I get H1N1, okay, I’ll deal with it. But I’m scared of getting sick, in general – cold, flu, whatever. Substitute teachers don’t have sick days. Every time we have to cancel a job for an illness, we lose that paycheck. It is scary, especially at this time of year, when we have three weeks of holiday breaks coming up – and we don’t get paid during those times, either. So illness is a major financial problem for subs.
It is hard to be at work where kids want to hug you and hold your hand, and all you can think is: “What germs am I going to end up with because of this?” I hate it that I feel dirty and “contaminated” just from touching a desk or a pencil from the teacher’s desk that has probably been used by countless students. I hate it that I feel the need to wash my hands every 15 minutes.
And did I mention the vaccination frenzy? The past month or so, our schools have been offering both flu vaccinations, and almost all the kids have been getting them. It is “HIGHLY recommended” by the school district, as, understandably, they don’t want anyone to get sick. There is a weird attitude about it, though – the belief that one cannot get sick now that they’ve been vaccinated. However, the paranoia about illness still remains. Hmmm.
Vaccinations are another discussion, one I don’t intend to have, but just to let you know, I have chosen NOT to get vaccinated. I do not get the regular flu shot, either, as I had some weird side effects from it when I used to get it in my early twenties. I don’t feel the need to get the H1N1 vaccination, and I have my worries about it. However, that means I have to be super careful and vigilant about it, as I do not want to bring any illness to the kids I teach.
So back to that paranoia. What to do? I have become so sick of it that I tried to think of a way to frame it in a positive light. How about we take this flu scare and turn it into an excuse to pamper ourselves? (Though one should never need an excuse for that!) I have been realizing how addicted I get to stress, and how I store that stress in my body. I realized how much sugar I really eat (which seriously depresses the immune system). I realized that I keep telling myself to GO GO GO, even when I’m tired and need to rest.
This has to stop. If I want to stay healthy, I have to start taking care of myself. I can’t believe how much I have cleaned up my diet in the past two weeks! I no longer take more than a bite of traditional, processed candies or chocolates (if that) per day. No more sugar or processed/refined foods! I compensate by making raw desserts a lot – full of dates, raw cacao, coconut, and other sweet treats that won’t send your body into a sugar frenzy! I eat ginger and garlic several times a day (in juices, smoothies, nut pates, etc.). I eat fresh veggies or fruit at EVERY meal. I work out nearly every day (sometimes yoga, sometimes walking), and I get as much sleep as I can.
It seems so simple, but these are really the basic building blocks for keeping our immune system working well. Funnily enough, it is often hard to do this because it just isn’t part of our culture. We are taught to go faster, work harder, don’t rest, and eat food that comes in a cardboard box. This also requires us to say no a lot more often, and to cancel social events or other commitments from time to time so we can rest. But this is like the oxygen mask in the airplane – if we don’t take care of ourselves first (despite our instincts to tend to others first), then we won’t be physically ABLE to take care of others.
Anyway, I would like to share with your three posts that I have found helpful about this subject:
- EcoYogini’s discussion on H1N1 vaccinations
- Another take on vaccinations and immunity boosters on Open-Ended Question
- Meghan Telpner’s vaccination opinion, and links to her other great posts on keeping healthy
When it comes to vaccinations, do what feels right for you, based on your risk group, your career, and your personal gut instincts. Beyond that, let’s lay this panic down. I don’t mean to say that H1N1 isn’t a serious and dangerous issue – it is. But I believe that our fear of it will cause it to thrive. I believe that our mental immunity is as (or maybe more) important as our physical immunity. I believe we create what we think. If we walk around in constant fear, then we will manifest greater and greater numbers of affliction. We need to take control NOW, tell the fear to sit down and be quiet, and start promoting health and wellness, rather than talking about how scary the flu is.
Now it is time to be peaceful, inside and out – that’s the best immune system boost we can give ourselves AND the world.
Copyright: A Green Spell
http://greenspell.wordpress.com















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