Even the most challenging of times can have silver linings. While we adjust to the new normal, we should remember some of the good health behaviors that recent events have taught us. The slower pace of life in the past few months has provided several opportunities for enriching our changed lifestyles. While we slowly return to normality, remembering some of the lessons learnt over this time will help make our lives better.
Guidelines and rules like social distancing and lockdowns have helped us form many healthy and good habits to have such as cooking meals from scratch or using organic produce. Continuing these positive and healthy lifestyle changes can help us become ecologically sustainable as well as mentally and physically stronger in the long-run.
Read this blog to explore five lifestyle changes for better health that many of us have picked up recently and learn why they should stay.
Reducing food waste
With limited food and resources coming into supermarkets and grocery stores, people across the world have collectively woken up to the problem of food wastage. Previously, we may have taken our full cupboards for granted, but many of us have now resorted to using leftovers for new meals and spoilt food as garden manure. Donations to food banks have also seen a massive increase in the past few months.
Sustaining this habit can reduce global food wastage. By continuing to just buy what we need and use what we buy, we can help solve global problems like starvation.
Maintaining remote relationships
The new normal has managed to disprove assumptions that relationships are difficult to maintain over long distances. With lockdowns still in place in many parts of the world, video chatting and conferencing apps are often the best alternatives for face-to-face interactions for many people.
However, the constraint has proved to be more beneficial than restrictive. People have stepped up to the challenge of spending time with their loved ones over digital media. People have also found the joy of cultivating friendships all over the world which opens them up to new cultures and experiences. Maintaining this trend even after the world goes back to normal will help humankind stay connected.
Active volunteering and community service
Over the course of this year, you may have witnessed first-hand or through the media how coming together as a community can lead to real and positive changes, even with limited resources. Across the world, people turned up in crowds to do their bit for people affected by the pandemic in whatever capacity they could.
From soup kitchens and medical camps to grocery shopping for elderly neighbors —people have made a real difference for the underprivileged. Sustaining this cooperation and feeling of togetherness are amongst the best habits for life and can help us overcome other large problems like climate change and world hunger as a global community.
Exercising more often
Even after repeated advice from doctors and healthcare professionals, global attitudes towards regular exercise has been lukewarm at best. With a greater focus on developing immunity in recent times, many people have altered their schedules to fit in regular exercise regimens and workouts to improve their health and immunity.
With the imminent pressure on the healthcare system likely to persist, it makes sense to keep your commitment to exercising regularly, even after all this is behind you. The immediate health benefits aside, it can also help you maintain a sense of regularity and discipline required for a successful lifestyle.
Focusing on personal and academic development
The lockdown has been the perfect opportunity for a lot of people to make life changes and focus on personally beneficial habits to adopt. With an abundance of online courses on virtually any subject ranging from business management to bread- making, people have taken to learning new things enthusiastically.
This renewed commitment to learning among many people has been boosted by the education and the corporate sectors’ general shift towards the adoption of digital technologies and work from home policies. Now that we have seen that the system’s working, it would be a good boost to sustainability to keep this trend going.
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