7 Simple Lifestyle Choices that Can Build Up Your Immune System Right Now

Our immune systems are integral to staying healthy. While marketing has sometimes distracted us with six-pack abs and bulging biceps, the reality is a healthy body is one that has attributes that aren’t necessarily visible. In fact, we don’t need a shredded bod at all to have a healthy one.

Health is not directly correlated to gym memberships or counting calories. We know that things we do at home affect our health. We know the things we eat—not how many calories or grams of fat, but what is in those calories and what kind of fat—are more important to our health than just how much we weigh. We know the way we live—how much we sleep, how we socialize, where we go—all matter in this regard.

Building up a strong immune system is crucial when our goal is to be healthy, and never has it been more apparent than in 2020. So, how can we do it?

1. Eating well

Source: Stephen Pearson/Creative Commons

“Being on diet” is much different than having a good diet. In terms of a stout immune system (and overall health), a good diet is one that has plenty of vitamins and minerals. We get a lot of these nutrients from fruits and vegetables. We can add to our immune-boosting diet by including probiotics, which fill our gut with beneficial bacteria that help us process. Fermented foods—sauerkraut, yogurt, sourdough, kimchi, miso—are how we can access these probiotics. Rather than focusing on avoiding foods for a diet, we should focus on including good ones.

2. Exercising regularly

There are plenty of ways to exercise that don’t involve screaming out last reps or running on a machine getting nowhere, and exercise improves our immune system. Exercise can be taking daily walks (or jogs if that’s enjoyable). It can be using the stairs instead of the elevator. It can be chopping firewood or hiking at a or turning compost. Or, better yet, all of these things. The point is our bodies need to be physically engaged. We can choose to do that in ways that don’t always get stamped “exercise”.

3. Sleeping sufficiently

We all know that sleep is important to a healthy lifestyle, but many of us choose to disregard that. We go to bed late, get up early for jobs, and caffeinate to the gills to keep going. This is not how we build up a good immune system. When we sleep, the machinery and programming of our body has a chance to tidy things up, i.e. to take care of itself. If we don’t allow it that time, things will start to malfunction.

4. Gardening organically

Source: St0rmz/Creative Commons

Aside from exercise and the fact that it supplies us with inexpensive organic produce (a packet of seeds that can grow over 100 pounds of tomatoes cost three dollars), gardening is great for our health. There are many ways this is true, but soil exposure is possibly one of the best in terms of our immune system. Digging in the dirt, getting it under our fingernails, is actually really important for building up our immune system. It gives it practice.

5. Cleaning naturally

On the other end of that dirt-under-our-fingernails spectrum is the idea of cleanliness, and there is need to shift modern perspectives here. While it’s important not to put ourselves at undue risk with germs, it’s also important to be aware that that doesn’t require a 100% sterile world, as well as the fact that chemicals everywhere is not necessarily clean. In reality, which is more dangerous to our bodies, soil on our veggies or typical household cleaning products? We could clean with natural ingredients and still get the anti-bacterial benefits.

6. Getting outside

Fresh air and sunshine are vital to a healthy body, not just the alternative to binging on Netflix and video games and office cubicles. Sunshine is the primary way our bodies get vitamin D, and without it, our immune system can’t do its thing. Fresh air is just necessary for our overall health. A nourishing lifestyle needs to include time outdoors, and having it daily would be the best policy.

7. Meditating daily

Regular meditation is one of the most effective ways to keep ourselves calm and collected, and less stress makes for a stronger immune system. Studies overwhelming show that stress weakens our immune system. Of course, we can’t always avoid stressful situations, so it’s useful to counter them with decompression. A daily meditation can have an amazing effect on our mental and physical wellbeing.

With times as they are now, it makes sense to introduce these healthy, immune-boosting choices into our daily lives. Wouldn’t the world just be a better, safer place if we all did it.

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