Coronavirus Rhapsody
Social distancing violator = Low openness + Low conscientiousness + Low agreeableness + High neuroticism + High Machiavellianism + High narcissism + High psychopathy + Error
We Thought It Was Just a Respiratory Virus
In late January, when hospitals in the United States confirmed the presence of the novel coronavirus, health workers knew to watch for precisely three symptoms: fever, cough, and shortness of breath. But as the number of infections climbed, the symptom list began to grow. Some patients lost their sense of smell and taste. Some had nausea or diarrhea. Some had arrhythmias or even heart attacks. Some had damaged kidneys or livers. Some had headaches, blood clots, rashes, swelling, or strokes. Many had no symptoms at all.
Welcome to the Freedom Cafe! We trust you to make your own choices if you want to wear a face mask. And, in the same spirit of individual liberty, we allow our staff to make their own choices about the safety procedures they prefer to follow as they prepare and serve your food.
We encourage employees to wash their hands after using the bathroom, but understand that some people may be allergic to certain soaps or may simply prefer not to wash their hands. It is not our place to tell them what to do.
We understand that you may be used to chicken that has been cooked to 165 degrees. We do have to respect that some of our cooks may have seen a meme or a YouTube video saying that 100 degrees is sufficient, and we do not want to encroach on their beliefs.
Some of our cooks may prefer to use the same utensils for multiple ingredients, including ingredients some customers may be allergic to. That is a cook’s right to do so.
Some servers may wish to touch your food as they serve it. There is no reason that a healthy person with clean hands can’t touch your food. We will take their word for it that they are healthy and clean.
Water temperature and detergent are highly personal choices, and we allow our dishwashing team to decide how they’d prefer to wash the silverware you will put in your mouth.
Some of you may get sick, but almost everyone survives food poisoning. We think you’ll agree that it’s a small price to pay for the sweet freedom of no one ever being told what to do - and especially not for the silly reason of keeping strangers healthy.
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Full disclosure:
I “borrowed” this brilliant post from Ted Adler who shared it from another source.
Mask striptease
By
Breathe. We do it roughly 25,000 times a day, but until recently few of us gave much thought to this automatic bodily function.
“If there’s some good to come out of Covid, it’s that people are paying more attention to how they’re breathing,” said James Nestor, author of “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art,” which explores how we breathe, how that’s changed and how to do it properly. “You can’t be truly healthy unless you’re breathing correctly.”
How we breathe affects us at a cellular level. Research shows changing the way we breathe can influence weight, athletic performance, allergies, asthma, snoring, mood, stress, focus and so much more. You can learn to breathe better and these exercises can help.
Shut your mouth.
About half of us are chronic mouth breathers, a practice that can irritate the lungs, increase the risk of respiratory infection and sap the body of moisture, and has been linked to bad breath, sleep apnea and other health conditions. Breathing in and out of the nose filters, heats and treats the air. It helps us takes fuller, deeper breaths. It also allows us to absorb more oxygen and raises the intake of nitric oxide, a molecule that opens the blood vessels, which increases circulation and allows oxygen, blood and nutrients to travel to every part of the body. Immune function, weight, mood and sexual function are all influenced by nitric oxide.
For the nearly 40 percent of people who suffer from chronic nasal obstruction because of allergies, sinusitis, a deviated septum or any of the other many causes, shutting the mouth can be a challenge.
The first step is to clear congestion. “There are sprays and neti pots,” Mr. Nestor said. “I put eucalyptus oil under my nose.
CONGESTION CLEARING An exercise in “The Oxygen Advantage,” by Patrick McKeown, may help decongest the nose: Sit up straight, gently inhale and exhale through the nose, then pinch both nostrils shut. Shake your head up and down or from side to side until you feel the need to breathe. Take a slow breath in through the nose, or through pursed lips if the nose is still congested. Breathe calmly for 30 seconds to a minute and repeat five more times.
Take some deep breaths.
The average adult engages as little as 10 percent of the diaphragm, the jellyfish-shaped muscle under the lungs primarily responsible for respiration. Shallow, chest breathing can overburden the heart, strain the neck and shoulder muscles and keep you in a constant state of low-grade stress. Diaphragmatic breathing, also known as belly breathing, can retrain you to breathe more deeply, allow the lungs to soak up more oxygen and reduce stress.
BELLY BREATHING To begin, lie flat on your back with your knees bent. Place one hand on your chest and the other on your belly, just below your rib cage. Breathe in slowly through the nose so your stomach expands against your hand. The hand on your chest should not move. Slowly exhale through the nose or pursed lips and feel the belly move down to its original position. Repeat for five to 10 minutes. As you get more comfortable with the technique, practice sitting or standing.
Grab a ball and roll away.
When you breathe into the chest, muscles in the neck, shoulders, upper chest and back try to help out and can become tight. And, when muscles of the upper body are chronically tight, they can restrict normal breathing. Massaging the upper body with a tennis or massage ball can break this cycle and help loosen, lengthen and relax the muscles. (Note: Avoid using a lacrosse ball for these stretches. Its hard rubber may cause more pain than good, particularly when it comes to the neck muscles.)
PECTORAL ROLL Stand facing a wall and place the ball under your collarbone at the sternum. Lean against the wall and slowly roll the ball back and forth, side to side, along the valley below your clavicle several times. Repeat on the other side of your chest.
INTERCOSTAL ROLL Stand with your side to the wall and raise the arm closest to the wall overhead and place the palm on the wall. Put the ball under the armpit at the top of your ribs, lean into the wall and gently rock back and forth. Lower the ball an inch and repeat. Continue down your side, massaging the intercostal muscles between your ribs, until you reach your lower ribs. Repeat on the other side.
UPPER BACK ROLL Turn so your back faces the wall. Place the ball at the top of your trapezius, the upper back muscle, and lean into the wall. Gently roll the ball along the outer edge of the shoulder blade by bending and straightening the knees and then lifting and lowering the heels. Think about tracing the line a tank top strap would make. Repeat on the other side.
NECK RELEASE Come down onto your back with a yoga block or thick book under your head. Turn your head to the right and place the ball on your upper neck behind your ear. Take five deep breaths here. Then gently nod yes three or four times, shake your head three or four times. Switch sides.
Stand up straight.
Poor posture restricts the diaphragm and slows down activities like blood flow and digestion. These exercises stretch the legs, lengthen the back and open the shoulders helping to draw the shoulders back and decompress the spine.
CAT/COW Come into a tabletop position on the floor, with hands under shoulders and knees under hips. As you inhale, drop the belly, press the chest forward and look up. Exhale, tuck the chin toward the chest and round the spine. Flow between these cow and cat yoga positions for three to five breaths, following your breath.
WIDE-LEGGED FORWARD FOLD Stand with your feet wider than hips distance, typically about four feet apart. Turn your toes in. Interlace your hands behind your back. Inhale, open the chest and bring the palms closer together. As you exhale, fold forward and allow your arms to hang overhead. If it’s uncomfortable to hold your palms together, hold on to a towel or yoga strap. Stay here for five to 10 breaths.
SUPINE SPINAL TWIST Lie on your back, hug your knees into your chest and take a few breaths. Then, extend your arms out in opposite directions making a T shape. As you exhale, lower your knees to the right, keeping both shoulder blades on the floor. You can deepen the twist by looking over your left shoulder. Take several breaths here, inhale and move the knees back to center, exhale and lower them to the left and take the twist in the other direction.
