Don’t get caught up in the crossfire of individuals hoarding household disinfectant products at the grocery store and online price gouging during cold and flu seasons, epidemics, and pandemics by making your own DIY natural disinfectant.
Going DIY saves money and is suitable for the environment, which means less time spent buying multiple cleaning products.
Using one to two DIY multi-use cleaning products saves you shelf space and money.
Compared to store brand household cleaners, you know the ingredients in your natural disinfectant cleaner because, well you made it.
While commercial brands provide a list of ingredients on the cleaning products, you would be shocked at how toxic popular cleaners used every day are bad for your health not listed on the label or hidden under the label “fragrance” due to weak regulation of chemicals.
If you’re concerned about some of the commercial products sitting on your shelf, visit the Environmental Working Group’s website and review their Guide to Healthy Living and product ratings.
Avoid the shopping chaos of long lines and empty shelves, during the cold and flu season.
Try this DIY natural disinfectant using two to three ingredients already sitting on a dusty shelf at home begging for some attention consisting of isopropyl alcohol, distilled water, and optional essential oils.
If you don’t have isopropyl alcohol on hand, before reaching for that bottle of vodka or whiskey, check the alcohol percentage.
An alcohol solution of 60% or more is effective against bacteria, fungi, and viruses.
Use a funnel to pour equal parts of alcohol and water in a 16-ounce glass spray bottle.
To mask the isopropyl alcohol smell, add 10-15 drops of your favorite essential oil or blend.
Tea tree is a good one due to antibacterial, antiviral, and antimicrobial properties has a medicinal smell that isn’t appealing scent wise to everyone, but tea tree essential oil does the job done in the warding off germs.
Why not give an orange and tea tree blend a try?
Disinfecting Essential Oils
Not all essential oils are created equal.
Certain essential oils, especially brands that use synthetic ingredients, can trigger an adverse reaction in the respiratory tract or skin breakouts.
If you or members of your household suffers from asthma, talk to a healthcare professional about the use of essential oils.
Look for 100% pure on the product label that is antiviral and germ-killing or just exclude from the recipe.
Don’t be afraid to contact the company directly and ask for clarication about the product ingredients., especially if the term ‘fragrance’ is listed.
After cleaning, spray the natural disinfectant on countertops, toilet seats, telephones, and doorknobs. No need to wipe.
Be careful where you store isopropyl alcohol as it is highly flammable.
Limit the use to small surfaces and ensure the area is well ventilated by cracking a window.
Additional Alcohol Isopropyl Uses
Another use of alcohol isopropyl is making homemade hand sanitizer. Of course, nothing beats washing for 20 seconds and singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to yourself.
I keep a small bottle of sanitizer around for when I am traveling, sightseeing, and using public transportation in places where soap and water aren’t readily available.
Once you start making homemade cleaning products, you will forget about buying store brand products.
Check out my post, GIY House Cleaning Secrets for more tips and ideas on incorporating sustainable green living habits into your daily life.
Chronic illness is challenging to diagnose due to overlapping symptoms with common chronic conditions like depression, diabetes, a thyroid problem, autoimmune, or celiac disease.
How people treat you based on your chronic illness can make you feel like a loser when trying to describe the physical and mental challenges of what chronic illness feels like invisible to you and others.
Before I was diagnosed with an invisible illness, I was misdiagnosed with depression.
It took nine years, liters of blood being drawn, x-rays, multiple sleep studies, and MRIs to begin to put a name to my symptoms of fatigue, pain, brain fog, and sleep disturbances.
When I received my diagnose of fibromyalgia and chronic pain syndrome, at first I was relieved.
Just because you can put a name to something doesn’t make the problem go away. Not by a long shot.
Like a blooming onion, it’s the beginning of pulling back the layers to find the underlining causes of how you got there and making the required lifestyle changes to live independent and productive lives.
A chronic illness is a condition lasting longer than six months. Trauma, a car accident or surgery, an injury, environmental factors (if you’re a military veteran reading this, toxic smoke from burn pits), and significant stress can set off chronic illness responses.
Triggers can develop slowly starting with fatigue, followed by chronic fatigue, joint pain, gastrointestinal issues like irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain, hair loss, peripheral neuropathy, and weight gain.
There is no cure. The life I lived before had to change to accommodate this new friend, fibro.
Living with a chronic illness can make you think differently about yourself, eat away at your self-esteem, feel like a total failure, and isolate yourself from others.
You never know when you will feel fine. Friends and family members can grow tired of you constantly canceling plans due to your “invisible illness”.
How Does One Describe Chronic Illness?
I describe my chronic illness as feeling like my nerves are constantly on fire.
The description I give, I find people can understand as we call has experienced the feeling of our feet on fire, but the pain I describe is widespread throughout the body.
Another way to describe chronic illness is with spoons. We all use spoons every day, but what is the connection between spoons and the word “spoonie”?
What Is The Spoonie Theory?
Spoonie theory is a visual way to describe chronic illness and the symptoms associated with it such as pain, fatigue, headaches, and irritable bowel syndrome to another person.
Many of these symptoms are “invisible” and can be hard for family, friends, and co-workers to understand what you’re going through because they can’t see fibromyalgia, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, lupus, mood disorders, etc. thus the reason for the term “invisible illness”.
Many of these symptoms are “invisible.” It can be hard for family, friends, and co-workers to understand what you’re going through because they can’t see fibromyalgia, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, lupus, mood disorders, etc. thus the reason for the term “invisible illness.”
Spoons represent the day to day challenges a chronic illness sufferer faces in trying to complete daily tasks, responsibilities, and activities.
Many of these symptoms are “invisible” and can be hard for family, friends, and co-workers to understand what you’re going through because they can’t see fibromyalgia, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, lupus, mood disorders, etc. thus the reason for the term “invisible illness”.
Spoons represent a visual aid to convey to others the day to day challenges a chronic illness sufferer faces in trying to complete daily tasks, responsibilities, and activities.
Understanding The Spoonie Theory
Let’s say you have ten spoons. For each task or activity, a spoon is taken away. Some days you may be able to accomplish more, whereas, on a low energy day, you accomplish less.
The physical challenges accompanied by varying levels of anxiety forces you to break down your day when you are sick.
Making the choice of whether or not to accomplish your to-do list. Perhaps you don’t have enough energy to take a shower, do your hair, cook a meal, clean your house.
It doesn’t make you less of a person, or a loser, it means you just have to think about things differently and slooow down.
The spoonie theory can help you to understand your chronic illness, how to accept the reality you can’t do everything, the need to pace yourself and attack one thing one day versus multiple things at once.
Spoons Help Illustrate How Your Days Go
Learning how to delegate tasks like going to the grocery store, mowing the lawn, or plowing your driveway to someone else through an online service is the difference between having a spoon in reserve for daily self-care and doing too much.
The frustration of not being able to do simple tasks that others can so easily further helped me to explain my condition to others, my doctors.
By developing self-awareness of chronic conditions you have, what causes triggers or helps manage widespread symptoms can result in receiving a customized conventional and alternative treatment plan versus playing the treatment guessing game.
I am a fan of liquid soap. It’s easy and convenient to use, but after putting the bar of soap to the test, today’s soaps not only last longer but a bar of soap has far more penny-saving uses compared to store brand liquid soap.
A few years ago, a bar of soap got a bad rap and for good reason. Whatever was in commercial brand soaps, they not only stripped the skin, but many complained about flare-ups and irritations leading to perceptions that soap caused bad skin.
I experienced this, but when I would travel (this was before the explosion of globalization) and buy artisan soaps, I had no way of stopping in a store to buy them or find a website to order from.
Fast forward and artisan soaps have made a comeback and can be found anywhere.
The amount of drip and excess leftover from the liquid pump I find on my countertops or in the sink is like hard-earned money washing down the drain.
For the cost of one container of liquid soap, learning how to make liquid soap and body wash from bar soap, on top of four other bar of soap uses for pennies on the dollar, you will think twice about rebuying store brand liquid soap.
Here are five cool ideas on how to use bars of soaps that are not just for the shower or sinks.
5 USES FOR A BAR OF SOAP
5 Uses For a Bar of Soap
1. Fresh Smelling Clothes, Shoes, Suitcases, and Cars
Instead of buying scented drawer liners, take those bars of soap sitting in the storage box, add your favorite scent to the dresser drawer, lingerie drawer, boot or shoe boxes, and in your suitcase to give a little freshness.
I leave the wrapper on and just slip a couple in between my clothes.
When getting ready for a trip, do you stock up on travel-sized products?
Got a favorite scent you love to use at home and want to take it with you for your upcoming one week vacation, but the bar of soap that is too big for your travel soap container?
Skip buying the travel soap and simply cut a bar of soap in half or in thirds if you buy large or oversized soaps.
3. Homemade Liquid Soap and Creamy Body Wash
Using a hand grater with large holes (cheese grater in the kitchen pantry works), grate one bar or four ounces of soap.
Add the grated soap to four cups of boiling water. Stir until fully dissolved.
Allow the mixture to cool, pour into a liquid soap dispenser.
Now going DIY doesn’t mean you have to give up body wash.
Follow along with this video to learn how to make homemade creamy body wash.
4. Shave With It
Give your body some love with dollars and sense. Pick soap that moisturizes and does not strip your body’s natural moisture.
Beekman 1802’s soaps are one of my favorites as each bar is made using goat milk. No, the soaps don’t smell like goat cheese.
The lather is not drying or stripping on the face or body as goat milk has the same PH balance as the human body. You will notice the difference after one use.
I have noticed that I use less lotion to moisturize due to these milk rich bars of hydration.
Their nine-ounce bars are perfect for cutting in thirds into travel soap.
Once you try one of these soaps and experience how your skin feels, you will never go back to cheap and easy bar soap treating your shower or bath as a chore.
First, prep your skin with coconut oil, lather up with soap.
I use a men’s shaving brush to lather. Doing it this way, you end up using less soap versus using your hands.
Since my hair is coarse, I use, yes a men’s Schick Hydro razor and replace the blade once a month.
Compared to women’s razor blades that go dull and needing replacement every week, I’m saving mucho dinero.
Now I’m not saying that you start stealing your significant other’s shaving brush.
A shaving brush is not that expensive.
You can find one for less than $20 like the one I purchased from The Body Shop or invest a little more into a shaving set with a lathering bowl, stand, and shaving brush.
Use a small jelly mason jar or a container with a lid to transfer a small amount of shaving cream from your large container.
Your homemade creamy body wash will last many months-long than a can of $3 shaving cream.
Your legs will be feeling silky smooth from the coconut oil. You may be able to forgo moisturizer after a shower or bath.
Instead of going to a storefront and paying full price, I get Beekman 1802 soaps for half the cost by shopping on QVC.
I love shopping online, easy pay, and free shipping.
5. Uses For Bar Soap Pieces
As the bar of soap becomes smaller, don’t throw that little piece away.
Either add it to the soap replacement or keep a small piece in your sewing kit to mark hems and lines and sew with it.
Other Surprising Uses For Soap
Homemade laundry detergent
Silence squeaky door hinges
Fill in nail holes from hanging up artwork on the wall
Toothpaste
Putting some soap under the nails before working in the garden prevents dirt from getting in your nails and keeps nails clean
Lubricate screws for woodworking projects
Unstick a sliding door
Relieve itchy bug bites
Stay Away From Parabens and Additives
When it comes to selecting bars of soap, avoid brands that contain chemical substances like parabens, phosphates, and additives.
Mineral oil and petroleum-based chemicals dry out your skin which makes you use more products. Cheap and easy doesn’t mean good quality.
What do I mean? Take the soap you use to wash your hands, for the bath or shower and create a lather.
The big stiff rainbow colors in your soap may look pretty. This isn’t a scene out of The Wizard of Oz.
The water puddle under your car you drove over out of your driveway this morning is the same puddle from the gas station of leaking oil.
What is it you ask that is in that puddle of water?
Petrochemical by-products, a nasty chemical that is used in soaps and body cleansers which in fact strip away moisture from your body.
That is one of the reasons soap has gotten a bad rap and consumers switched to body wash.
What consumers don’t know is the same cheap ingredients like petrochemicals are being used in the body cleansers as well.
Bar of Soap vs Body Wash
I am not saying you have to give up liquid soap. My favorite liquid castile soap is Dr. Bronner’s peppermint and almond scents.
I like Dr. Bronner’s castille soaps because they’re multi-use. I use it for shaving, but the major use is making homemade housecleaning products.
If you’re looking for more creative homemade product ideas, GIY housecleaning products is another way to reduce exposure to nasty chemicals, save money, and go green.
Doing a cost comparison will help you decide which is more economical to buy store brand body wash and liquid soap, or put bars of soap sitting around in your pantry to use and spend a few minutes making these products yourself.
One bar of Dove or Dr. Bronner’s castille soap is less than $3.
A 16-ounce bottle of body wash ranges from $3-4.
Going DIY will cost you less than $.50 for a 16-ounce bottle of homemade body wash.
The creamy body wash recipe makes 49-ounces of body wash which comes out to less than $1.50.
Artisan soaps might be a little pricey, but the soaps I buy last a long time like a couple of months because of the density of the soap from being triple milled.
Buying a 7-9 ounce bar of soap for under $18 that makes 49-ounces of creamy body wash compared to buying a 33-ounce of body wash at $73.
Feel free to test the bar of soap vs body wash theory for yourself and then answer this question.
Do you really want to shower or bath with nasty chemicals like petro waste products on your face and body? Umm ew.
Say no to toxic chemicals and join the clean beauty movement by embracing natural ingredients that are good for the skin and body.
Do you wake up stiff and sore every day, the kind of achiness that knocks you out for days? Experience restless legs at night after working out?
Chances are, your body is trying to tell you that it is running on empty and needs replenishment of magnesium.
I have a natural pain relief solution for you called magnesium oil that will relieve muscle tension, help you sleep better at night, and boost your mood.
In this article, I will share with you the best natural pain relief and anti-inflammatory supplement you add to your daily routine for managing chronic pain.
MAGNESIUM OIL: NATURAL PAIN RELIEF
Magnesium Deficiency Symptoms
With the depletion of minerals like magnesium and nitrogen from the soil due to mass farming production, the use of pesticides, and how far produce has to travel, the fruits and vegetables we eat every day have less nutritional value resulting in the poor mineral intake of magnesium and poor soils.
The majority of us have low magnesium levels. Here are 10 signs of magnesium deficiency:
fatigue
headaches/migraines
muscle pain (feeling of pins and needles)
foot cramps, tingling, and numbness
dizziness/vertigo
irregular heartbeat
restless legs
sleep problems/insomnia
changes in mood (becoming easily agitated)
constipation/irritable bowel syndrome
Magnesium is an important mineral for the human body. The nutrient plays a role in bone health and preventing osteoporosis in women by regulating calcium and vitamin D levels, maintaining a healthy immune system and muscles, preventing, reducing, and ridding of migraine headaches, and lowering anxiety levels.
Transdermal Magnesium Absorption
The best way to absorb magnesium is through the skin. Soaking your feet and body in an Epsom salt aka magnesium sulfate bath for 20 minutes is a quick way to increase your magnesium levels.
Magnesium sulfate removes toxins from the body, relaxes sore muscles and reduces pain. Epsom salt foot soaks assists in helping to relieve swelling and pain from plantar fasciitis and reduce foot odor.
Another option for quick absorption of magnesium through the skin is making your own homemade magnesium oil.
The process is quick and easy and involves two ingredients: filtered water and magnesium flakes.
Homemade Magnesium Oil Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup filtered water
1 cup magnesium sulfate or magnesium flakes
Directions
Boil one cup of water. Add one cup of magnesium flakes or Epsom salts to a glass bowl. Pour the water into the bowl and stir until dissolved. Allow to cool. Pour the cooled mixture into a glass spray bottle. The remaining mixture can be stored in a mason jar.
Some magnesium oil users like to use magnesium flakes complaining Epsom salts are too drying for the skin. I haven’t experienced issues with my skin drying out.
I use Epsom salts to do daily soaks and make a body scrub. Another option for transdermal magnesium absorption is to make homemade magnesium lotion.
I like this option when I am short on time and don’t feel like sitting in a warm bath for 20-minutes every day on a hot day.
Instead, I do magnesium oil spot treatments, focusing on specific areas of the body from muscle overuse like my lower back, knees, ankles, neck, hands, and wrists.
When spraying areas of the body, make sure you put a towel underneath you. As the mixture dries, the magnesium crystalizes can leave a salty mess.
I leave the magnesium oil on for 20-minutes and wipe off with a wet washcloth with no soap.
Before going to bed, I moisturize with body lotion or cream (depending on the time of year) to mix with the magnesium residue leftover on the skin.
Over time, you may notice daily Epsom salt bath and foot soaks turn into weekly treatments from the natural pain relief results from your nightly routine of magnesium oil spot treatments.
Magnesium Oil Benefits
I wake up with fewer aches and pains. Lately, I have been having issues with chronic headaches indicating to me that my neck was too tight. I wake up every day with a slight headache.
Along with the headaches, my hands and wrists have been taking a beating from too much work on the keyboard and data entry.
As I have used the natural pain relief mixture every night, I have noticed my grip strength has improved and I have experienced fewer headaches.
Not sure if this is due to spraying my neck or adding a little magnesium oil to my night serum before I go to bed or both.
Perhaps the higher concentration of magnesium in a spray compared to an Epsom salt bath and foot soak might be the reason for expedited pain relief.
What I do know is my skin looks amazing in the morning, refreshed, and feels silky smooth.
Liquid Magnesium with Trace Minerals
If you have teeth sensitivities, adding liquid magnesium with trace minerals to your water or lemonade can help remineralize your teeth, increase saliva production, and help with building back up strong and healthy teeth.
I like to add lemon crystals to my water before adding 12 drops of magnesium liquid. Who doesn’t want to good oral health?
Always Consult a Health Professional
If you are taking prescription medication or antibiotics, supplementing magnesium may interact with them causing low blood pressure.
Consult your doctor before taking any supplements or discontinuing any prescribed medication.
To wear a cloth mask or not to wear a cloth mask? That is the question plaguing many of us.
Seeing regions around the world like Asia and Europe wearing face masks, if you’re like me, you’re asking, “how do I do my bit to protect others?”
Should we all practice respiratory protection by wearing face coverings in public?
In this DIY no-sew cloth mask article, I will share a few recommendations the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently put out regarding the use of face coverings and considerations when going outside.
Lastly, I will share a tutorial on how simple and easy it is to make a homemade face-mask in less than one minute using just two items sitting around the house.
The CDC recently recommended the wearing of cloth face masks in public, not N-95 masks.
N-95 masks should be reserved for healthcare professionals at the frontlines battling COVID-19.
There is a considerable shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment), surgical masks, gloves, and gowns so much that healthcare workers may have to go against what they learned at medical school and re-use face masks if they don’t receive resupply soon.
N-95 masks were never made to be re-used, but to be disposed of to prevent the spreading of germs after seeing a patient.
The practice of re-using masks not only puts healthcare workers at risk for contracting the virus but unknowingly spreading the virus to patients.
If you have a stash of N-95 masks, practice global citizenship, and donate them to your local hospital.
You can visit your state’s emergency management website for locations and drop-off times.
These front line healthcare workers are caregivers not only for the public, but also their families (spouses, parents, and children).
For more detailed information from the CDC, please visit their website here.
To Wear a Face Mask or Not to Wear a Face Mask?
So what does the germ mask face-covering recommendation mean to you? Should you wear a face-cover in public? Is this a conspiracy theory?
For weeks, I struggled with answering this question until I watched a couple of online town halls and listened to the medical experts give a different point of view that made sense.
Both the World Health Organization (WHO), CDC, and various countries around the world have made a complete U-turn about the use of cloth masks in the community.
Growing evidence has shown that some individuals infected with the coronavirus may not show symptoms and can unknowingly infect others.
Hong Kong, not a newbie virus outbreaks, lived through SARS in 2003. Wearing a mask in public is normal in Hong Kong.
If a person is ill or has allergies, its customary and respectful to wear a mask.
For many of us, this is a weird new normal. We have to do our best to get through this temporary inconvenience one day at a time with calm and patience.
Seeing the speed at which the coronavirus has spread around the world and the devastation left behind after the COVID-19 tsunami is enough to know staying at home and practicing social distancing can stop the spread and save lives.
That is easier said than done. Many of us still have to go to work, attend doctor’s appointments, and run errands outside and find it challenging to practice social distancing, but that doesn’t mean our current environment is not adaptable.
Protect the Vulnerable & Prevent the Exposure
I have an elderly parent with asthma, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.
She is tech-savvy enough to order groceries online and have them delivered.
A social butterfly who loves to chat away with the shoppers, I don’t think I will ever get her to stop socializing and being friendly (and why would I want to), but she knows she can help herself and those who show up at her front door by wearing a face mask.
While the CDC recommends Americans wear a face cover in public, it is voluntary.
Medical professionals are learning that individuals who get COVID-19 may not show typical virus symptoms.
According to the CDC, 25% of Americans (one in four) have COVID-19 and don’t know it.
Ways to get the virus is being near someone who is coughing, sneezing, or breathing.
Let me ask you this. Do you know 100% if you have COVID-19, have been exposed, or unknowingly bringing the disease into your community?
Are you exhibiting symptoms, but due to test shortages, availability, and age, can’t get tested to confirm if you indeed have the coronavirus?
If you’re sick, taking care of someone, or asymptomatic (someone who is infected by the disease, but doesn’t show symptoms) wearing a face covering can mitigate transmitting the virus without knowing a person is spreading the virus.
In other words, keep your droplets to yourself.
When it comes to the coronavirus, “what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas.”
DIY Face Mask at Home
If you’re trying to get your hands on homemade face masks from online shops, prices can vary from $5 to over $20.
Some shops are so behind in taking and processing orders that it can take weeks to receive a mask.
What’s a person to do? Go DIY and make a cloth mask!
Using items around your home, a cotton bandana, scarf, dish towel, or t-shirt, and a couple of hair binders, you can make a homemade face mask faster than ordering a mask online in less than one minute.
My homemade cloth mask
If you’re like me, you have some of these things collecting dust somewhere.
Hair binders can be substituted with rubber bands.
The next time you buy groceries, ask for a couple of rubber bands at the check out counter or save the rubber bands from grocery delivery produce like asparagus.
I found a two-minute video online and decided to give the hack a try by repurposing a bandanna I bought when I visited one of the Galapagos Islands, San Cristobal, a couple of years ago I have never worn.
A homemade mask can be a temporary solution until your online cloth mask order from Etsy arrives.
Check out this video from the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams on how to make your own face covering.
Of course, if you don’t like the thought of using a dish towel, bandanna, or t-shirt to make a face covering or feel like it’s too bulky, you can learn how to make an improvised paper towel mask.
Click here to view the one-minute tutorial from Esco Life Science.
If you’re looking for ways to help healthcare workers, own a sewing machine, and are into arts and crafts, check out my post, DIY Face Masks For Healthcare Workers.
Keep your friends and family safe with social distancing and wash your hands for 20 seconds. Eat healthily to boost your immune system.
While we are doing our part to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect the vulnerable by staying home, as human beings, staying active physically and socially is our unbreakable lifeline.
Social distancing can make you feel isolated and depressed. Staying home doesn’t mean you have to stay glued to the tv waiting for the top of the hour update of the total cases and deaths of global citizens or where the next hot spot is in the world.
Staying at home can present a new career and hobby opportunity that you didn’t realize due to daily routines commuting back and forth from home to work, working long hours, and family obligations.
Here are five fun things and activities to do when you’re bored at home during self-isolation.
You’ve heard about shortages of surgical masks for healthcare workers. If you’re good with a sewing machine, have unused fabric, and elastic lying around collecting dust, you may be surprised that at times of crisis is when innovation creativity is born courtesy of small businesses.
If you have thought about running a side hustle while still working at your day job, starting a side hustle business online store selling homemade items can be up in running in a matter of hours.
Making and selling washable cloth face masks on Etsy is a great side hustle and a way to help reduce anxiety levels and give people a small piece of mind when individuals step outside of their homes to buy groceries, attend medical appointments, pick up prescription medications, or to wear when sick or around sick people.
If you have an interest in cooking, traveling, health and wellness, or photography, why not share your tips and ideas with others by starting a weekly or monthly blog?
Starting a blog isn’t time consuming or expensive. Taking a beginner blogging or social media course online for Pinterest saves time, spending hours online reading multiple blogs, and watching YouTube tutorials.
Learn how to build an eye-catching website and ways to leverage your current social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest to generate interest and increase traffic to your blog.
Let’s get real. Store shelves are running bare due to hoarding and uncertainty.
Who knows when stores will be able to restock the shelves 100%. One of the items flying off the shelves? Household cleaning products, many of which are toxic.
Save a trip to the store by using products in your kitchen, baking soda, Dr. Bronner’s castile soap, white distilled vinegar, isopropyl alcohol, and essential oils.
In less than five minutes you can have a bottle of soft scrub, all-purpose cleaner, and disinfecting wipes.
Check out my two-part post, GIY House Cleaning Secrets on the benefits of going green and five recipes you can make today.
3.Reduce Stress &Rebalance the Body
Got any physical ailments like shoulder, neck, and back pain nagging at you? Relive pain, boost energy, and improve sleep in less than 15 minutes a day through Classical Stretch by Essentrics using tai chi, ballet, and physiotherapy techniques to strengthen and stretch the whole body to live pain-free.
Below is one of my favorite mini stretch workouts I do at the end of the day after staring at a computer all day. Give the exercise the 15-minute workout a try.
4.Master Basic Cooking Skills
Do you have aspirations of becoming a better cook, but haven’t had the time to dive into the many cookbooks you’ve collected over the years?
While ordering takeout saves time spent in the kitchen, you don’t know how long the stay at home order is going to last.
Making homemade meals is one way to be creative and spend time bonding with family members in the kitchen.
I recently learned how to make Martha Stewart’s simple hollandaise sauce in less than two minutes using a blender.
To think it took hours to make. Asparagus will never be eaten without this velvety sauce drizzled on top. What took me so long to learn?
One of the benefits of living in the digital age is being able to order groceries online, have them delivered to your front door, avoiding fistfights over eggs and toilet paper.
A lot of well-known chefs like Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsey, and Emerald Lagasse have YouTube channels sharing with us busy folks delicious 15-30 minute meals simplified.
Check out this quick beef stroganoff recipe.
5. Laugh & Dance Away the Anxiety
While COVID 19 has a fatality rate of 1%, stress is a bigger killer.
The pandemic won’t last forever. The coronavirus will return to the place it came from wherever it came from, hibernate under a rock until the next outbreak or pandemic.
Give yourself permission to take a few minutes out of your day to get geeked out on YouTube parodies about the virus-like My Carona, Do Rei Mi – COVID19 Version, and my favorite Virus Baby, an eyebrow dancing parody version of Ice, Ice, Baby by Vanilla Ice, or Randy Rainbow.
Are you missing your friends? Resist the temptation to have an epic in-person mass gathering.
See your friends online instead of engaging in some group therapy with a weekly dance party on YouTube.
Group chats make you feel less alone, allowing you to connect with people around the world sharing in the love of music.
Remember, dancing your bum is a form of exercise.
Below are my favorite 24/7 live electronic dance music (EDM) channels:
Let’s talk about poop, bowel habits, and how organic psyllium husk can help irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) sufferers get relief from cramping, bloating, gas, and go, uh number two.
One of the irritable syndrome causes is insufficient fiber in our diets. The effects of low fiber are poor digestion and constipation.
How does one know if they are constipated?
Magazine collection in the bathroom, games on the smartphone, side bends on the toilet in an attempt to move things along for that anticipated bowel movement sound familiar?
Constipation and diarrhea often occur together. One minute you can’t go and the next time, you’re pushing everyone out of the way to make a straight beeline to the bathroom.
I hate to break to you. You’re likely constipated.
The majority of the population needs a fiber supplement to increase their daily intake.
While many whole grains (barley, oatmeal, whole wheat, popcorn, brown and wild rice) are a good source of dietary fiber, most refined grains in which the nutritious part of the whole grains, the bran, and germ have been removed in favor of longer shelf life over nutrition contain very little fiber.
According to the American Heart Association, the FDA recommends consuming 25 grams of fiber each day for a 2,000 calorie diet.
Psyllium husk powder is an all-natural soluble fiber supplement made from the Plantago ovata plant.
It is used in over the counter commercial products like Metamucil, Cilium, and Fiberall as a laxative and bulk-forming agent.
The soluble fiber makes bowel movements easier by soaking up water. When added to water, psyllium husk powder puffs up and turns gel-like.
If you have ever added powder and forgot about it, the mass looks like something out of the movie, The Blob.
That gel-like mass is what slows down digestion and helps to move things along.
Popular brands on the market contain a flavoring agent that may not sit well with individuals sensitive to food additives and may increase IBS symptoms.
A generic brand I used had orange flavoring that made my stomach puff up like a blueberry.
At first, I thought I was experiencing an allergic reaction, but it was the artificial sugar that my gut wasn’t agreeing with.
Luckily I found a pound of organic psyllium husk on Nuts.com. It can be a little gritty if not mixed well.
If you’re not a fan of texture, getting psyllium husk down can be a challenge.
It is flavorless so I am not sure why artificial flavoring is added to over the counter commercial brands.
Buying organic psyllium husk contains no additives. You control what kind of sweetener or liquid goes in it and how much.
Simply add one tablespoon to your morning orange juice, lemonade or iced tea. Stir and drink immediately.
I like to make a pitcher of iced tea during the week to get my daily dose of fiber.
Health Benefits of Psyllium Husk
Heart Health
Because psyllium husk is a natural medicine for irritable bowel syndrome, in addition to improving IBS symptoms, constipation, and diarrhea, increasing fiber intake helps to lower LDL cholesterol.
Psyllium husk powder promotes heart health by lowering cholesterol levels. Combined with a healthy diet, it can reduce people’s risk of heart disease.
Promotes Regularity
People with fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome are all too familiar with one or all symptoms of cramping, abdominal pain, bloating and gas, constipation, diarrhea or both.
It is typically mixed with water. The water soaks up the powder in your gut to help improve regularity by softening your stool.
Weight Management
Because psyllium husk absorbs liquid, it can promote a feeling of fullness and less hunger in between meals.
If you’re a diabetic, adding psyllium husk to smoothies and bread recipes as an additional source of fiber is great for digestions, controlling blood sugar levels, and can help with weight control.
Instead of using cracker crumbs or bread crumbs in meatloaf, substitute with psyllium husk.
Make Sure to Drink Enough Water
If you have never taken psyllium husk before, the intestinal bulk can initially cause constipation, stomach pain, and gas.
Any matcha green tea or tea lemonade fans out there? Add a tablespoon to your favorite DIY drink, coconut water, or morning smoothie to thicken it and make it easy to consume every day.
Make sure to drink enough water when consuming the powder to avoid a psyllium husk blockage.
Not since WWII has there been a call to come together as global citizens to face an enemy like the coronavirus (COVID-19) head-on.
I remember, as a kid, my mom telling me stories of our family’s history and involvement in WWII.
While the men in the family fought overseas, my grandmother and her mother did their part working in the factories.
Just like my family members before me, I answered the call, serving over 20 years with one tour in Iraq.
As I listen to the news of the global pandemic spreading around the world, the story told to me as a child has a new meaning to me today.
The Greatest Generation has taught us, we as a nation and our allies can only win and make the world a better and more peaceful place by working together.
DIY FACE MASKS FOR HEALTHCARE WORKERS
Surgical Mask Shortage
You may have read or heard on the news there is a severe shortage of masks, gowns, and gloves also known as personal protective equipment (PPE) around the world.
Healthcare workers are risking their lives to protect and take care of the public and then quarantining themselves from their families to reduce the risk of bringing home the virus from being forced to reuse masks due to lack of protective gear.
Our health care professionals need PPE to stay healthy and safe while diagnosing and treating patients with coronavirus.
While federal, state, and local governments are working diligently together to increase the production of essential life-saving equipment, no one knows the date or time, down to the hour or milliseconds on how long it will take to get the essential items in the hands of health care works at hospitals.
Supplies could take days, weeks, or even months to arrive.
Reusing N-95 Masks
Under normal circumstances, N-95 masks are thrown away between treating each patient.
Healthcare professionals are taught it is unsanitary to reuse a mask.
As supplies start to run low, doctors and nurses find themselves at a decision point.
Go against what was learned in medical school and choose between reusing a mask or wearing a bandana?
Alternative practices put healthcare workers at an increased risk of respiratory illness and viral infections. What does this mean for a patient waiting to be seen?
It means one less health professional on the front lines doing battle with the invisible enemy COVID-19.
Using a fabric face mask to cover an N-95 mask can aid in extending its use but is not the right action to take. Cloth masks in no way replace N-95 masks.
Healthcare workers need personal protective equipment sooner than later.
Masks for Healthcare Workers
Sewing masks for local hospitals and nursing homes is one way to help in the short-term.
I am sharing a video from a local news article I found in my recommended news feed on how to make homemade 100% cotton face masks.
Fabric and elastic can be purchased at your local fabric store that carries sewing supplies (if it’s open) or online from JoAnn Fabrics, which is currently offering 20% off your total order.
In-person shopping and curbside pickup is available. Be sure to check their website for store hours.
When my grandmother was alive, JoAnn Fabrics was the store she would get all her supplies from to crotchet doilies, sew clothes for dolls, and country-western singers.
I can only imagine if she were alive today, we would be sitting at her sewing machine, making face masks together.
The JoAnn Fabrics near my house lately have experienced an uptick in traffic with lines wrapped around the block of good-hearted individuals stepping up and accepting the challenge of donating 100 million masks to healthcare workers.
If you’re not a fan of standing in long lines, I recommend ordering online and trying out curbside pickup.
Before donating homemade cloth face masks, check with your local hospital first about the hospital’s policy for accepting home-sewn face covers.
Alternative Ways to Help Healthcare Professionals
If you don’t sew or your sewing machine is out of commission and want to join the effort to help, here are a few ideas:
Donate to GiveMN (if you live in Minnesota), your local non profit organization, or church.
Start a PPE collection effort by reaching out to local nail salons, construction companies, and veterinary clinics for N-95 masks, gowns, and gloves. Visit your state’s emergency website to find surgical mask drop off locations and times.
Support small business owners and buy soft and washable homemade cotton face mask covers from Etsy shop owners. I love buying local and supporting my community entrepreneurs.
While we stay at home and practice social distancing, it doesn’t mean we have to feel helpless.
Contact your local government representative and advocate for the immediate local production of PPE for our healthcare workers fighting at the frontlines.
Many of these healthcare workers have families. Please don’t allow a lack of planning, resources, and bureaucracy over this fast-spreading disease result in a child losing a parent to COVID-19.
We have the power and means to ensure our healthcare workers, neighbors, and loved ones are safe by slowing the pace of this pandemic.
RandomActs of Kindness
Homemade face masks are great for caregivers, loved ones with allergies, keeping in droplet from sneezing or coughing, cleaning around the house, going outside to get food and keep you from touching your face.
Acts of kindness don’t have to stop with making cloth masks.
In addition to the elderly being vulnerable, another group of individuals that isn’t being talked about as much as veterans, the disabled and the homeless.
Homemade hand sanitizer makes wonderful gifts for neighbors and homeless shelters taking a few minutes to make.
Need to make a face covering in a pinch? Learn how to make a mask using two items already in your home in less than a minute.
If you live near a distillery, reach out to them and encourage them to make in-house hand sanitizers to help combat shortages just like Portland, Oregon’s Shine Distillery and Grill, and other distilleries.
We’re in this together. Our efforts will save millions of lives!
Help keep healthcare workers, friends, and family safe.
Would you quit a job in favor of a workplace that allows remote and flexible working, designing your day around your work, improve work-life balance, time to explore hobbies, and spend quality time with your family?
The hustle and bustle of working in a big city combined with the heightened stress of commuting eventually take their toll and can increase health problems.
Bad weather, traffic jams, lengthy commutes, and accidents can cause stress, anger, and anxiety.
Long commutes can raise cortisol and adrenal levels affecting your health and increasing the risk of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
Physical and mental health conditions, chronic headaches, and backaches to sleep disturbances, fatigue, concentration problems, digestive problems like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and high blood pressure can become stronger over time.
If you haven’t worked from home before, start small with a trial run of working remotely 1-2 times a week.
Allow time to see and feel the effects of improving your mental and physical health and money staying in your pocket from not having to fill up your gas tank a couple of times a week.
Saving for that trip to Europe just got easier.
Physically commute to work either biking or walking to get a low-impact workout without spending hours in the gym.
Not only does physical activity improve your health, mood, and brain function, but active participation in creative activities can increase productivity.
Information Communication Technology Tools
Advances in telecommuting technology in the past ten years and companies wanting to save money from overhead costs on renting office space are promoting efficiency, creativity, and productivity by offering remote and flexible working options.
Access and affordability of information communication technology tools (ICT), computers, smartphones, emails, video conferencing, blogs, wikis, instant chat, messaging) enables creativity, teamwork, and collaboration.
Making it possible to work from anywhere and anytime, the same way as in an office environment.
Efficiency and creativity don’t have to be limited to one physical location. With fewer distractions in an open office, constant interruptions, drive-bys from co-workers, lack of privacy, and noisy conversations, when you’re working from home, it is easier to concentrate and stay focused.
What’s in it for you?
Remote workers are less likely to experience burn-out.
A long commute to work of 30 minutes or more is cut-down to 7 seconds or however long it takes to walk up the stairs to your home office.
Change Of Scenery
In case of care needs, flexible working arrangements help employees to remain close to children and partners.
Work-life balance allows you to pursue your interests, hobbies, outings with friends, art, sports, and holistic habits for overall health and wellness.
Making time to embrace nature, work out outdoors, and enjoy leisure time is right for mental and physical health.
How does switching it up to a remote/coffee shop work style, walking, or biking to work remotely sound to you?
Upon notification of you leaving the company, your boss or co-workers may not take the news well and can end up expressing sadness and regret in weird ways, like being hostile versus being empathetic.
Chronic illness is not a game. Mocking, making fun, or deliberately trying to humiliate another person is nasty and purely uncharitable.
No one should have to put up with an office bully or an unsupportive and lousy boss. You didn’t ask to get sick.
I experienced workplace harassment myself when I provided my supervisor with months notice due to increased complications with fibromyalgia, brain fog, chronic pain, headaches, and vertigo.
What I find interesting, when it comes to animal injuries and disabilities, humans are more compassionate to animals than to their fellow human beings.
We publicly call out animal abusers, demanding justice, punishment (rightfully so), and then reach into our pockets to contribute financially to an improved quality of life for the abused animal.
If there ever was an appropriate time to engage in dialogue, have a deep and thoughtful conversation about chronic illness, disability, and how employers can help employees to manage a chronic illness at work with reasonable work accommodations and thrive, that time is now.
WHEN TO LEAVE A JOB YOU LOVE PART 2
Chronic Illness Is Not A Joke
Arriving in pairs at your desk in the morning to give the greeting of the day with off the wall comments, and then instigating verbal confrontations to get a reaction is pretty outlandish.
The ill behavior does make for some great reality TV, not.
My advice to you. It’s perfectly normal to show a lack of interest in playing games with adults masquerading as kids.
One of the plus sides being in constant pain is you don’t have the energy, drive, or give a $h^! to engage in verbal sparring.
It slowly became apparent with each passing day that everyone in the office knew about my invisible illness.
The daily harassment got so bad that at the encouragement of friends and family, I agreed to their good idea to expedite my departure from the organization by leaving three months early.
Before leaving your job, if your replacement hasn’t been hired or identified internally, make sure your staff has the necessary tools to succeed after you until that person arrives.
On my last day, I sent out my last emails, quietly packed up the remainder of my things, turned in my company-issued equipment, and took my team out for a goodbye lunch to express my gratitude, and calm their nerves.
Earning a reputation for working well with different departments and agencies over the years can pay dividends in the form of an available support system that will be at your staffs’ fingertips on speed dial.
The Attempt To ‘Save Face‘
Depending on the position you hold in an organization, submitting a letter of resignation due to chronic illness can become political, less about you, and more about organizational perceptions and the reality of the underrepresentation of skills and colors of the rainbow.
There is nothing like calling ‘time’ on the psychological trickery of a boss attempting to spread propaganda by placing the blame on you for leaving the organization in an attempt to ‘save face’.
No more, “if you leave, you will disappoint me” threats. Enough of that already.
It’s not your job to make people feel comfortable with your medical condition or make the big, “I’m leaving my job because I’m sick” announcement with balloons and streamers.
Let someone else in the organization answer the 99 questions of why disability discrimination and workplace harassment is allowed and why the best and brightest are silently walking out the door unapologetically.
If you hate being the center of attention, come in after-hours to pack up your things.
On your last day, walk out the same way you came on your first day on the job, out the front door.
Quitting My Job Saved My Life
The experience of leaving a job you love can make you feel like a wounded animal, outnumbered with your head hunched over, and broken.
Trust me. You’re not broken. You’re just taking a rest to catch your breath before that next hoop shot, touchdown, ace, grand slam, or whatever sports analogy comes to mind.
Force yourself to press the reset button. Even if you feel a little shaky, force yourself to put one foot in front of the other.
You don’t have to do this alone. Surround yourself with people who care, support you, and leave the haters in the dust.
The ground isn’t going to crumble underneath you and if it does, your Apple Smartwatch, enabled with Emergency SOS will notice something isn’t right and automatically call 911.
Create Distance And Space To Heal
Upon leaving my office, I immediately created distance from my job and everyone associated with it.
Luckily there weren’t any children or significant assets to fight over in this less than amicable career divorce.
At least I got to keep my last name, engraved nameplate, and the free Microsoft Excel games I never got to play on company time.
Be prepared for the conspiracy theorists to emerge from under a rock who claim to know better than you why you left your job.
You may see an increased amount of social media traffic scrolling through your Facebook and LinkedIn pages anonymously, looking for clues and bread crumbs.
Hi, _________. I see you trolling me.
That vacation photo was a cryptic code for???
Well, let’s find out!
Oh, that one photo said it all. Me looking up to the sky over the horizon standing on a beach pondering life’s biggest mysteries, “what the heck am I going to eat for dinner?”
Wait a minute, who is that in the photo?
The look for bread crumbs and insight came to an abrupt end.
Walking Your Own Path
Celebrate your path to healing with a long road trip by visiting a couple of national parks.
The rugged landscapes and beautiful sunsets will remind you that life is precious and that those ankle biter problems aren’t that important.
Celebrate the milestones of your career, make the necessary lifestyle changes one day at a time, and get back what was stolen from you—your health and happiness.
The decision to leave my job wasn’t made overnight.
My health reality check came from my doctors, who stopped me from staying the course and overdoing it by working myself to death to prove there was nothing wrong with me.
No one should have to choose between health and wellness, being a caregiver for a sick parent, and a job.
I finally acknowledged I needed a lifestyle change and fast.
I was not happy about leaving a career I loved.
As I look back at my decision, quitting my job was the right decision and saved my life.
Learning And GrowingCanShape Your Tomorrow
Life’s greatest lessons have a mysterious and deliberate way of communicating to us in ways we don’t understand at the most inconvenient times. Time waits for no one.
Not everyone walks away from a job with a feeling of accomplishment.
Be unapologetic at what you have accomplished. It takes a lot of effort to erase your achievements from the record books.
The body isn’t meant to be in constant fight or flight mode long-term, but the body does have the means and the desire to heal itself when not operating in a hostile environment of continuous stress.
While one chapter closes, a new chapter simultaneously opens for you.
See your challenging experience as a learning opportunity to explore new career options.
Before quitting your job, make sure you have a financial plan and can maintain focus on your health while searching for other career opportunities.
In an attempt to reduce overhead costs on renting office space, travel expenses for employees, utilities, more companies are working hard to recruit and retain carefully sought knowledge and talent, by allowing employees to work from home.
Nordic countries Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark have led the way on flexible work arrangments for decades.
Many chronic illness sufferers continue to work, going on to succeed in different career fields, or launch successful online businesses while prioritizing their health.
Thank The Universe For Your Haters
So there are no hard feelings, thank those around you. Please do it for you and no one else.
Your thank you letter, or email could start something like this:
To my office bullies, lurkers, and stalker who thought calling me names and accusing me of being a “faker” and not believing me when I spoke up about my (fill in the blank) diagnosis or medical condition.
I didn’t speak up for you, but for the silent majority fighting to get through the day in constant pain and people living with chronic illness who live in fear of anticipated stigma in the workplace struggling to keep working in a rewarding career they enjoy.
Thank you so very much for going out of your way to deliberately make it harder to do my job every day, while indulging in acts of intimidation and provocation.
It made for some good reality TV.
Two people against one were a bit unfair, even with my one hand tied behind my back.
Thank you for keystroking through cyberspace staring, glaring, and laughing at me while deliberately invading my privacy unannounced, without permission, and using company resources to do it.
Thank you for giving me the confidence to always believe in myself, no matter what, and the importance of global citizenship.
To think I can achieve anything and take the next steps in holistic living is the best gift ever.
Thank you for teaching me how to navigate and terminate harmful and toxic anomalies by throwing out the old and worn-out doormat and rolling out a new ‘welcome’ mat for my new best life.
Sending love and light. I wish you well.
Now put the pen down on the letter, or print out the email, walk over to the shredder (make sure it’s a cross-cut paper shredder) next to your desk, fireplace, or fire pit and let the negative energy burn into the abyss to tiny pieces of ash.
It’s over, time to move on. Permit yourself to live the best life on your terms.
My Story Has A Happy Ending
The turmoil I experienced does have a happy ending. I no longer have to worry about verbal threats and digital taunts adversely impacting my career development or showing up on my doorstep.
I will never return to the cubical farm. That ship has sailed.
I have the best job in the world, being a caregiver to a parent who demands to maintain some type of independence.
It’s been at times frustrating, yet the most rewarding job of my career.
If you are a caregiver, you know all about the challenges and triumphs each day brings.
Learning how to promote independence in the elderly has positive benefits for you and your loved one like making time for self-care without the guilt or losing yourself.
By encouraging independence, seniors have the opportunity to be more self-sufficient and maintain a better quality of life for themselves whether at home or in a residential care home.
This is possible due to having the option and flexibility to set my own hours and work from anywhere.
Life’s Greatest Lessons Are Learned Through Pain
Life’s greatest lessons are learned through pain. The light of life is given to those willing to accept life’s struggles, explore the meaning of truth, and find acceptance.
Even after the rug is pulled from under you, again and again, facing adversity head-on will bring more joy in life.
Don’t punish yourself and don’t blame yourself. Again, see what you can learn from the experience.
The adverse reaction from those around isn’t about you. The negative response means what you’re doing is right, folks are just plain jealous, and you’re more famous than you thought.
The proof? Right now an office bully is trolling your social media page.
It’s nice to be admired now and again isn’t it?
Bullying Based On Stigma Creates Isolation
Maintaining a sense of humor and facing everyday challenges and triumphs of an invisible illness head-on is my daily mantra. If you can’t laugh at yourself, somebody else will.
Anticipated stigma doesn’t help alleviate chronic illness and improve health and well being. Bullying creates social isolation.
When faced with adversity, remain resolute and “keep a stiff upper lip”. You have to keep carrying on and not give up. Refuse to be written off.
It doesn’t make you weak or lack emotion, just the opposite.
You’re just tweaking the art of giving zero f^#%$ in seeking permission to stand in your truth to look the invisible illness in the eye and, instead, explore healthy ways to manage chronic pain instead of just living with it.
