On remaining healthy, the pandemic and Gabriel García Márquez.
One of the greatest events of 1985 was the publication of the novel by Gabriel García Márquez (Nobel Prize winner) “Love in the time of Cholera”. Here’s how it started:
“It was inevitable. The scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”
Fifty-three years, seven months and eleven days and nights Florentino Ariza waited patiently to win the love of Fermina Daza, in those times at the beginning of the 20th century, when Cholera mercilessly lashed the Caribbean coast of Colombia, beloved land of Gabo.
Now, circa “A Hundred Years of Solitude” later we want to offer you a few ideas on the well-being in the time of the CoronaVirus, hoping it will take just a few months of patience and hope, keeping the faith in mutual support and especially in science, the only one that one day will permit us to come back to socialize.
Mental health & Coronavirus: What is well-being for us?
Firstly, we will say that mental well-being and health go hand in hand. Everyone day by day has to face its very own ailments, discomforts or even disabilities that, however, mustn’t incapacitate us from being happy and fullfilled. Also, we have to assure us that unfavorable economic circumstances, such as those that we will probably go through, do not prevent us from recognizing that what is truly important in life, it is nothing other than life itself. Takeing care of life in its broad sense depends on the knowledge of ourselves, enabling to reach a true well-being during a pandemic.
Well-being during a pandemic: is it possible?
We think that we are going to live times that should be signed by the cultural value of honesty and solidarity, to get the well-being in the times of Covid-19.
Our attitude towards the pandemic is the key to its reduction and control, that is why we have been confined to our homes, to prevent our own tendency to cheat and elude the lockdown, that could produce collapses in the health care system, trying to avoid deaths.
Our recommendations for the well-being in the times of Covid-19 are these:
- Wash your hands: regularly and whenever they are in contact with surfaces that others may have touched.
- Social distance: Maintain a distance of at least 1.5 meters to prevent the eventual virus lodged in our throat to reach others. It is very likely that we will have to wear a mask until the disease of Covid-19 is reduced internationally.
- Culture: how to use all the cultural means at your disposal to gain intelligence and well-being in the times of Coronavirus. Why? Mainly because we will live in environments of great uncertainty where decisions will have to be made in a short time and also because culture provides us with essential harmonic elements for our vital balance.
And there is a fourth ingredient: the one of honesty, combined with love for ourselves and the others.
Quoting Gabo in a sentence from his novel, he wrote:
” Love becomes greater and nobler in calamity.”
Love is the energy that unites the world, be honest and love yourself. Do not let the feeling of suffocation caused by uncertainty prevent you from loving or stop making love. 😉
How to prepare your body and mind towards the reaching of mental well-being during this pandemic.
As we said before, we cannot allow Covid-19 to find us with a weak immune system. But how to do it?
First of all, we should improve our immune system by some simple and daily habits that reinforce our response to the disease and at the same time maintain our mental well-being during this pandemic.
Here are some recommendations:
- Health: We can only know if we have been infected and have developed antibodies through a serological study, such as those that are done when you donate blood. You may be able to talk to your family doctor to find out when is the best time to do it and how to improve your response to the disease on other physical levels.
- Food: nutrition is essential for the immune response because it supplies essential nutrients. A diet rich in vegetables favours the intestinal transit. Drinking a lot of water or infusions allows us to collaborate with the elimination of harmful substances and gives well-being in the times of Covid-19.
- Activity: At least walk once a day. Even if you can’t go outside, your hallway is a great place. You can complement it with pilates and yoga exercises that you can do perfectly on the floor of the room. If you can go out, do not stop doing activities that increase your lung capacity and your heart rate.
- Relax: It is important to take care of your mental health to avoid panic situations that do not favor anyone. Practicing mindfulness meditation allows you to connect with your breathing, with your body and with your mind to be present in the present. This training of attention allows us to distinguish and separate the moments of alarmist or catastrophic thoughts from those serene and cordial, essential in any response to illness. Sleep is the ideal and habitual complement when living in the present.
Gabriel García Márquez said that if he had not been a writer, he would have wanted to be the blind musician who plays the piano so that the lovers who dance in the dark of the bar love each other more.
We empathize with that feeling in these times of blindness as a travel agency, because we cannot see with certainty when or how we will be able to travel again. What we are convinced of is that well-being is the main reason for a trip and we are working hard on that.
If you want to have inspiration for the future, you can have a look to the Northern Spain, to the Camino de Santiago or walk in Menorca the Camí de Cavalls.
Write an email to hey@waw.travel or follow us on our social profiles for constant news and updates: Instagram – Facebook.
“… and, how long do you think we can keep up this goddam coming and going? He asked him.
Florentino Ariza had kept his answer ready for fifty-three years, seven months, and eleven days and nights.
“Forever,” he said. “
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