We are tired of people telling us that this is our new normality.
Young people have been innovating and changing how they socialize, how they help their communities and how they free themselves in many different ways.
Today, we are going to show you different lifestyles that people have adopted these days, and how they are good for our mental and physical health.
Our lifestyle has changed, yes, we know. We have to spend hours in front of the screens attending lessons, working from home, even to watch your favourite TV show or reading something on an e-book you have to use a screen. It has been proved that this is not good for our eyes nor our health. The light coming out from the screens interferes with our sleeping hours and the quality of that, so the rest is not good enough. Moreover, we cannot socialise the same way we used to do one year ago (and, once more, if you have video calling with your friends, you are in front of a screen). There are many pieces of advice about this topic online, so just take a look and try starting some of them if you feel more exhausted than usual.
Related to this topic, we would like to highlight two factors that directly hit our physical and mental health, respectively. On one side, as we have been in our houses, we have moved less. It is clear that during this episode we have been able to see empty shelves in shopping centres. But what has been even more weird is to see fitness equipment being also out of stock. However, we cannot be surprised about this fact. Many people have relied on sport to make this time more pleasant. Moreover, it helped us not to gain too much weight due to the cakes and other delicacies we have mastered cooking in our very own kitchens.
The isolation could also affect our mental health as it broke our daily routines, it increased the physical distance between us and our loved ones. Many people did not know how to handle this new situation, so overthinking about this topic, worrying about their families, the overall circumstances we’re going through. During the isolation, sport helped many of us with this point too. This is because when the body is exhausted, the mind rests.
Now that the situation seems to improve and the light of the end of this long tunnel can be clearer day by day, we can go outside and practice sport in a safe way. Taking into account the measures, we can go to the gym, practice sport outdoors with some friends or on our own, ...
If you are not an outdoor kind of person, you can always start with yoga, meditation, or dancing from home, as well as trying simple cardio exercises to release the stress. In fact, yoga, so well known for its not only physical but also mental practice, has been shown to emphasize liberation and meditation. Yoga does not mean more than "union", to achieve a balance that so many of us need these days. Your way into a fitness life can start at your living room!
There are many ways in which sport has helped people dealing with some heavy thoughts or rough situations. Team sports help us improve our social skills, working with our teammates, meeting new people with similar interests as you do, they can make you feel part of something bigger. Football, for example, has many fans because there’s a feeling underneath it that brings people together.
We really want to encourage you to practice any kind of sport, on your own or with some friends, because your body is the only thing you’re going to live with forever, so take care of yourself. Take in mind the Latin proverb ‘mens sana in corpore sano’ (a healthy mind in a healthy body).
Let's just use the spare time at home that we have found to start new habits and improve our health. Let's give ourselves what our body really needs and let's achieve balance between mind and body in wherever we go and whatever we do.