IMMUNITY LESSON 6
Choosing the Life You Want
FEELING OUT OF CONTROL is a terrible place to be. Just the threat of COVID-19 is being out of control. It prevents us from enjoying life as much as we might.
Gaining control of our life is our goal
And we will gain that control by gaining control of the items we can control.
Today’s concept is all about choosing the life you want. This concept applies to your whole being but is critical in our battle to diminish stress and bolster our immune system. We’ll provide techniques and methods to accomplish your goals.
We will get into more specifics on how to best prepare yourself psychologically and immune wise soon, but without the foundational component of adequate sleep and a positive attitude, you will not be able to create your own unique personal environment to be motivated to achieve these goals.
Setting those goals, however, is up to you. Sleep provides you with resilience so you can create the life you envision and tackle those goals you wish to and need to accomplish. Inadequate sleep is a major stressor on multiple systems that will diminish your motivation going forward and cause you to be in a reactive mode vs. a creative mindset. This has a negative effect on your immune system, obviously.
You cannot be reactive and creative at the same time, and our mission is to create new habits that diminish stress and enhance your immune system.
Prioritizing Adequate Sleep
Have you committed to prioritizing adequate sleep as a key element to feeling better?
We just need to be on the path to better sleep. It will take a week or so to incorporate the lights out time, the daily and evening activities, and to train your system to a new schedule and a new way of doing things. Your system will need a bit of time to adjust, but the reward will be that you feel better, are less reactive to other stressors, and you have the confidence that positive lifestyle changes are achievable. Simply, you will notice how much better you feel after a few nights of adequate sleep.
A positive attitude goes hand-in-hand with better sleep habits. It is easier to sleep when you practice gratitude before bedtime, and the sleep you get will put you in a more energetic, upbeat mode so that acting positively is a lot easier tomorrow.
What if I Don’t Feel Like Being Positive?
Because feelings follow actions (scientifically proven), just act positive and you’ll feel better in no time. Hint: It may seem a bit delusional at first, with mounting seriousness of the pandemic, but there is no downside to this delusion. The upside: You will feel a lot better with a positive attitude. TRY IT.
The Bottom Line
Adequate sleep, a positive attitude, and your ability to choose the life you want. All good.
And they prepare us for the next steps, the first of which will arrive tomorrow: How to address those really hard-to-change habits that contribute to stress (and, as a result of stress, diminish your immune response).
One step at a time, pandemic warriors.
JOY’S PEARL
“You can choose what kind of life you wish and enhance your immune response at the same time, especially with good sleep and a positive attitude.”
Today’s Other Tasks
- Redouble your efforts at a “strict” and repeatable sleep schedule with a hard lights-out time and wake-up time. Your body and your mind will thank you for the structure.
- Be at least moving toward a consistent lights-out time even if you haven’t gotten there yet. Be on the path.
- Use other sleep hints we’ve previously covered during the day and evening.
- Throw in a big dose of gratitude and positive actions every day.
- Reflect on how your life could be. Muster up your “want to.” It is all up to you.
