After Lockdown – AL

Our favourite Naturopath and Medical Herbalist, Lisa Fitzgibbon, from Oomphhealth.co.nz has written a thought provoking piece of philosophy entitled “After Lockdown”, which we are delighted to share on our blog today.
This is a fantastic article, enjoy.

AFTER LOCKDOWN AL

Thanks to Jacinda, and her Labour Government, it is safe to say that from a health perspective, NZ has come away relatively unscathed by this virus. Instead, this virus has seriously injured us economically — primarily our hospitality & tourism sectors.

ONE NOVEL VIRUS LEADS TO BILLIONS OF STUNNED MULLETS

And, clearly this virus has caused us all a great deal of stress — in one way or another.

My sincere ‘feels’ go out to all those people who have been adversely affected by COVID-19. Particularly to those of you who’ve lost – your job, your business, or a loved one.

This blog-post will focus on a bunch of my musings, opinions, and lifestyle advice in an effort to remind you about what you learned about yourself and your way of living during the lockdown period. This is before all ‘the crazy’ starts up again, and you forget that there is ‘more than one way to skin a cat’.

Let lockdown usher in a better way of being for you, and your family.

2020 AL.

I MUST SAY THAT IT FEELS VERY REASSURING BEING IN THIS GIANT NZ BUBBLE WITH YOU ALL. I AM PROUD TO BE A PART OF THIS GREAT, UNITED NATION.

WHAT ON EARTH JUST HAPPENED?!

I’m super surprised by this (unless of course I missed this in all the kurfuffle)… Why aren’t more people talking about the shock that we all just experienced?

I mean, what just freakin’ happened?!

None of us really had a chance to process what was actually occurring before we were confined to ‘house arrest’.

I mean, who would have thunk that they could literally shut-down NZ, forcing many of us to either stop working entirely, or to work from home. And completely sealing up our borders? If we had watched this in a movie, we would have all found it totally implausible — right?

What about all those people that don’t deal well with change — who aren’t very resilient to stress? This has to be immense for them. Will there be some free counselling available?  We’ve had to contend with: the different Alert stages; working from home; not working from home; having the kids under-foot 24/7; having your significant other under-foot 24/7; and all the changes that keep on coming.

Heck! People could easily be suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from all of this.

And, what about those people who live alone — who were in a single bubble for numerous weeks? How is their mental health?

Whilst our Government has done an exceptional job dealing with this whole saga, until they start pumping Rescue Remedy into our drinking water, we all really need to keep a close, loving, and understanding eye on each other.

Because, let’s be honest, while we like to think that we’re all in this together — that we’ve all been affected by this equally!

Some people will actually benefit from this situation, some people won’t be impacted  at all, and others will be absolutely devastated by it.

Not everyone enjoys the same level of income, stability, and physical & mental health. And we don’t all have the luxury of being able to rely on the ‘back-up’ of our families.

If you’re someone who has been dramatically impacted by this, please speak up, ask for help — and keep asking for it.

Again, my heart goes out to you xo

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD?

MY BEST BITS FROM LOCKDOWN 2020

I loved (loved!) seeing families biking around what would normally be busy, congested, city streets.

The sky seemed lower to me — it was as if when we were out walking that we were surrounded by dreamy, white clouds. It literally felt like the sky started at the ground. It was as though we were all a-top a giant orb that was suspended in the atmosphere…

The moon was brilliant.

The air was crisp and clear. (We could clearly see out across to the Waitakere ranges from Grey Lynn/Ponsonby.)

The peace was indeed a welcome relief.

Humans became a novelty to me when I spotted them!

Some people told me that while they were out walking, that when people got out of their way they felt like they had the plague! Me? I liked this treatment — it made me feel like royalty…

I came across a number of ‘hidden finds’ in Grey Lynn that I otherwise would never have stumbled across. Because previously I was too busy taking direct routes, and having things whizz past my peripherals in a blur as I ‘floored it’ in Christine (my little red Mini Cooper.)

Having fewer options available meant life was simpler.

While we spent more money on groceries, it ultimately meant I saved lots of money on impulse (unnecessary) purchases.

DMF and I started referring to meal times as ‘Luncheon’ and ‘Supper’ — as if they were grand occasions that occurred on a daily basis. (These events nicely broke up our working schedule.)

BECAUSE WE’LL ALL BE SERIOUS ‘GERM-PHOBES’ FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE… I FOR ONE HOPE THEY BRING BACK HAT TIPPING.

YOU CAN LOOK AFTER YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM BY BEING CONCERNED ABOUT COVID-19… BUT ALSO, BY NOT WORRYING ABOUT IT.

You may be interested to know that during this whole COVID-19 thing, I’ve not prescribed one single immune supplement to my clients. Not one.

Sure, at the beginning of the first Alert 3, I was asked by a small handful of people for something to ‘protect’ them during this time. And, I was happy to offer them ‘something’, if nothing else, to make them feel better.

However, I’m much more interested in supporting people’s stress levels, and subsequently their mental health and well-being. Because if you do this, in most cases, the immune system will take care of itself.

Here are other blog-posts that I’ve written on stress, and anxiety.

I WAS ALL, LIKE, LOCKDOWN?
YEAH, LOCK US UP, ALREADY.

Can you think of one single person that you know that didn’t need to be put in a  mandatory  ‘time-out’ from their hectic lives?

[No, really. I want you to actually stop and think about this — please]

I tried, and couldn’t think of one person that I knew that didn’t need to slow down, and be given a good ‘shake-up & wake-up’ from the way they were living their life.

Oodles of us feel like our lives are out-of-control — and that we’re helpless to do anything about it.

And, many of us take a great deal for granted.

Over the years, I have watched (a little helplessly TBH) as people’s stress, and frantic way of living has escalated to frightening levels. In fact, when I’ve given them lifestyle advice, I’ve actually pleaded with many of my clients to take some extended time off (as in, to take a few months off) – and to do it from home. I’m not talking about a ‘Stay-cation’ as such… more like a mini sabbatical; because you can still do some work during this time – if you would like, and it’s possible to do so. Essentially you’re just slowing everything down.

I have two reasons why I tell them to stay home:

01—IT’S EXPENSIVE TO GO ANYWHERE OVERSEAS — SO IT’S COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.

This is especially true when you’re starting your trip from the middle of nowhere, and you’re only brandishing the kiwi dollar.

Many of my clients don’t particularly like their stressful or mundane jobs, but they stay in these positions so that they can afford such luxuries as overseas travel for a few — measly — weeks per year. (Or, they stay in these jobs because they are mortgaged up to the eyeballs.)

To me, it makes no sense to work 48 weeks of the year somewhere that sucks-your-will-to-live, just so that you can afford a holiday. (Or, an unreasonable mortgage payment.)

Note: Have you actually explored every little nook & cranny of this great little country of ours? If not, why not make a list of NZ ‘must sees’? You could take a series of road-trips – for the foreseeable future – rather than dreaming of far-off lands. (Remember that NZ is a dream holiday to a lot of people.)

02—IT’S SUPER STRESSFUL TO TRAVEL ABROAD — SO IT’S COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.

There’s all the organising in advance you need to do just so that you’re in a position to actually leave the country. You need to: get your workload to a place where someone else can take over your job; convince someone to feed the cats, board the dog, and (maybe) take care of the kids; organise flights, car rentals, accommodation & insurance.

Then there’s all the traveling (trains, planes, and automobiles) and the jet-lag to contend with both there and back…

And don’t get me started on your poor body getting a huge shock by literally being ‘beamed’ into a completely foreign environment within a 24 hour time period.  There is simply no time to adjust to something so abrupt.

If nothing else, lockdown has taught us that staying at home (particularly at night and in the weekends), saves us money and expands our time.

It gives us a chance to finally tick-off a bunch of household chores or things-to-do that have been cluttering up our lives and our minds. Things such as repairs, maintenance, detail cleaning, re-organising things, chucking things out, or devising an exit-strategy from busy, and expensive Auckland..

Tinkering about, and Feng shui-ing your grotto can be as — if not more — restorative as taking a holiday!

Because when you come back from a fancy, whirlwind holiday you then have to race back to your fancy, whirlwind job so that you can start paying off said holiday, and start saving for your next one… All the while your ‘to do’ list accumulates into a ‘to do’ scroll, making your home-life feel like an incredibly stressful place that you literally feel the need to escape from.

All of this is super counter-productive to what a holiday should actually achieve: rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation.

Do we really need to take an overseas holiday every year?
Would it be so bad if we only went once every 3-5 years.
This way you’d look forward to it more, and remember it better.

Do we really need to eat-out all the time?
Would it be so bad if you only did this once every 3—4 weeks?
This way you’d look forward to it more, and enjoy it more.

(Obviously takeaways for dinner 1x weekly should remain a NZ  tradition). 

If we spent less money on luxuries, and embraced day-trips… and had more picnics… we would also have more savings! Either way you look at it, savings give us options — to ‘change our stars’, or to ‘weather the storms’.

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DO YOU ACTUALLY LIKE GOING ON HOLIDAYS? OR, DO YOU JUST LIKE NOT WORKING? OR, DO YOU JUST FIND THAT YOUR HOME IS A STRESSFUL PLACE TO BE?

LISA SAYS:

YOUR HEALTH — OUR COLLECTIVE HEALTH — IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. JUST ASK OUR GIRL, JACINDA.

Prevention is definitely the best cure.
Naturopaths excel in supporting health via our dietary, exercise, and lifestyle advice, and our supplement & medicinal herb recommendations.

As we’ve just clearly seen for ourselves, if we just rely on orthodox medicine to ‘protect’ us during a global health crisis then we’re very vulnerable. (Better put, we’re screwed.)

Let’s face it, modern medicine was ‘ill-equipped’ to actually help us with our health during this time — their only advice to us was to ‘RUN & HIDE’.

And, they can only really help us to survive — by artificial means — if, well, shit gets real.

Going forward, to continue to be a ‘united nation’ we now owe it to ourselves, and to others, to continue to make health our top priority. If you don’t have a natural health practitioner yet — to support you, and your health — then I strongly suggest you get onto this.

IT’S A DECISION THAT PEOPLE ACTUALLY NEED TO MAKE IN ISOLATION…

Do we all need to live in Auckland?

If during lockdown you realised that you actually enjoyed a slower pace of life, and/or you realised that it wasn’t half bad to work from home, then why not consider ‘spreading out’.

The internet is now able to support this long forgotten ‘dream’ of not having to go into the office every day, and to engage in Glide time (flexible working options.) Our highways are also making travelling from surrounding areas much quicker — more direct.

Wouldn’t it be far nicer if we all spread out across this beautiful nation of ours?

That way, we wouldn’t need to spend the majority of our lives driving, or being stuck in traffic.

Wouldn’t it be super cool if our kids could all either safely walk or bike to school, and to their after-school activities? What a load this would take off their drivers/moms.

And, how many of us felt ‘useless’ that our older family members didn’t live near us, so that we couldn’t help them procure their groceries in their time of need. Or, feared that they might be whipped away to hospital — never to be seen again?

This lockdown gave us an unprecedented opportunity to live life differently. Therefore put a plan into action now — don’t wait for the next lockdown (!) to finally decide to make some positive changes.

I DON’T WANT THINGS TO RETURN TO NORMAL. BECAUSE FROM WHAT I’VE SEEN OVER THE YEARS…OUR ‘NORMAL’ SUCKS, AND IT’S NOT SUSTAINABLE FOR US OR OUR PLANET.

Lisa Fitzgibbon is a qualified (2006), experienced and registered Naturopath and Medical Herbalist. She runs her own private practice OOMPH in Grey Lynn (Auckland, New Zealand).

Lisa has been involved in the Natural Health industry for 13 years. She draws on her professional training and experience, as well as her own personal experience to bring you realistic, holistic health advice.

I highly recommend Lisa if you’d like to do any of the following …

— increase resilience to stress
— create a robust immune system
— correct a food intolerance
— improve thyroid function
— increase energy levels
— correct mood disorders
(anxiety, depression, and OCD)
— improve sleep quality
— help you to achieve a healthy weight— making sense of all the conflicting health information ‘out-there’.

Make an appointment to see Lisa for some lifestyle advice. Book online at OOMPH.