There are lots of ways we can support our immune system to help us achieve the healthy lifestyle we deserve. How we deal with stress and anxiety can affect our immune system, reducing its ability to fight off infection and disease. There are strategies we can put in place to improve our physical, mental, and emotional health, by changing certain aspects of our lifestyle as well as making changes to the environment around us.
Building healthy habits and lifestyle change can help us to be more resilient when faced with difficulty or challenges. Being able to make that shift in mindset, can improve our health and well-being, and support our immune system to help it function better.
Focus on the positives
We are bombarded with negative stuff from the moment we wake up to the time we go to sleep. Most of this is from our own doing through either looking at negative news articles, to watching negative stuff on TV. If we focus on the positive stuff, we are better equipped to find solutions to problems and develop strategies to deal with them as they arise. This helps our immune system out, because we are calmer and less reactive, which lowers the amount of inflammation in our body.
Get some sun
A large majority of us are in artificial lighting all day which can’t be good for anyone really. Not only does the sun provide Vitamin D which helps out our immune system, it helps us recover from illness faster. The more time we spend outdoors, the more sun we get. We just have to be careful that our skin doesn’t burn though, especially if we have fair skin.
I got my vitamin levels tested twice last year from a referral from my doctor. This also tested the vitamin D level in my blood. It was really good to have that information along with the levels of other essential vitamins and minerals that support immune system functioning. If you want to know yours, talk to your Doctor or Nurse about it. I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to help you.
daily, regular Exercise to support a healthy immune system
Any kind of daily exercise is good. When we exercise, we get positive knock-on effects on mental health and sleep quality. Exercise gets the blood pumping around the body and it’s even better if it can be done outside. The sun helps regulate our body clock which in turn helps us sleep better. Quality sleep helps our immune system because our body has had to rest and rejuvenate.
I’m not the best at ‘sleeping’ but I’m trying what I can to wear myself out during the day so I can sleep better at night. Why? Because I know that quality sleep has numerous benefits for my physical and mental health.
Right now, I’m walking twice a day plus doing an online exercise class. I do these early in the day because if I do them later, it hypes me up, rather than calms me down.
Animals improve mood which supports the immune system
Being around animals brings many health benefits. Having a cat or dog in the house can help out our body’s microbiome which covers our whole body. That sounds scary but it’s actually a good thing. Animals can also improve our mood. When we’re happier, our body copes better when stressful events pop up, because we’re more relaxed in general.
I saw an Instagram photo of Ricky Gervais and his dogs the other day. The title read ‘We don’t deserve dogs’. Well of course we do, but what I think he meant, was that dogs are such loving creatures, they’ll love us unconditionally. Animals just want us to be there, and be happy like them.
gardening to support our immune system
There are a tonne of studies around the benefits of growing our own food, and just gardening in general. Even working or playing in the soil can be good for us (not potting mix though). As a teacher, we used to have gardens at school. That was until the school day was filled with ‘curriculum topics’ that mightn’t be as beneficial as the ‘life skill’ of gardening.
Maybe it’s time to start teaching younger generations, how making a garden and getting into nature, can support our immune systems. I loved gardening as a kid because I got to eat the stuff I grew. It was also a great feeling that “I” had grown something too!
How cool would it be if we could get gardening happening in every school across the world? It could solve some of the problems we have around hunger or malnutrition, we see today.
switch off negativity to improve mood
We have a world of knowledge at our fingertips now, more than ever before. The downside of this wealth of information in our ‘pocket’, is that it takes a lot of effort to actually avoid negative exposure on an ongoing basis.
If we can’t learn to switch the notifications or control our choice to look at stuff, we can be bombarded with an ongoing stream of mostly terrible events (depending on what you look at of course). Negative exposure, or even our response to what we are seeing, can put our body on high alert even if there’s no immediate danger. I’ve learned to seek the information I want on something, rather than have it constantly shown to me, but this takes a fair amount of self-control that I’ve learned to do over time. But it’s possible with practice.
Be selective in what we consume
I’ve become highly selective in the information I consume now. Through studying at uni, I learned that I couldn’t believe everything I saw on the Internet. Pretty much anyone can write anything these days so ‘fact-checking’ is important. I like to see if what I’m reading is written by someone who has skills, knowledge and experience in the topic. This then guides my judgement in whether I believe the information or not. Try switching off technology for a bit to give yourself a break or start being more selective with what you watch.
share our concerns to reduce our worries
The more we bottle up stuff or try to pretend that everything is A-O-K, the more we could be hurting our health. Our immune system benefits from a reduction in stress, but this isn’t a one-size-fits-all kinda fix. It can take a combination of strategies to achieve this. By sharing our concerns, it not only gives us relief, it may also actually help someone else at the same time. We are more connected than we have ever been, but a lot of us still struggle telling people really how we feel.
When we share concerns, and support others to do the same, we can relieve the tension inside our body. That tension then helps us breathe a sigh of relief and can happen if we are honest about our thoughts. Try it for yourself. You might be surprised at how good it feels. Your immune system will thank you in return.
breathe
There used to be an old saying ‘stop and smell the roses’ which meant a person would stop and relax a bit. We don’t seem to do it much now though. Stop and just breathe for a moment (or two). The ‘rat race’ we’re currently in, doesn’t seem to improve our health. In fact, it’s doing the opposite. We need to give ourselves time to just breathe, pause, and then breathe again. Less busy, and more breathing equals a better response to our perception of stress. On that note, I’m off to meditate now.
When we learn different ways to cope with things going on around us, we start to feel better. If we respond positively to perceived external stressors, our immune system will be able to function better and do the job it’s supposed to be doing.
If you’re concerned about the functioning of your immune system, make an appointment with your doctor to discuss it. Your doctor will be able to assess your health and point you in the right direction for further support.
