How Adding 1 Simple Task To Your Daily Routine Can Drastically Improve Health

Our Summer Trip

I’ve just returned after a spending a summer in New Delhi, India. Much to my disapproval, the kids got offered and ate way more junk and processed food than I would have liked (or even allowed into my own home). Doting relatives always bringing them sweet treats, saying “oh such sweet kids let them have it”, stuffing their faces down with fried foods, almost daily ice cream treats, packaged cookies and flavored drinks.

As every parent with kids travelling to India may have faced, my primary focus was to keep them healthy. It was an interesting trip. Inspite of all the unhealthy foods they ate, the kids seemed to have done a whole lot better than they were here – The skin cleared up, was brighter and more vibrant. Hair and nails grew better, immune system was strong, energy levels and moods were way better.

It got me thinking. While here back home, I work hard on the nutrition and foods. In India too I did continue as much of the nutrition and foods as I could. Then what was different?  

It dawned on me. All homes had doors and windows always open with fresh air circulating through out the homes day and night.

"Breathing easily and fully is one of the basic pleasures of being alive. 

The importance of breathing need hardly be stressed. It provides the oxygen for the metabolic processes; literally it supports the fires of life. But breath as "pneuma" is also the spirit or soul. We live in an ocean of air like fish in a body of water. By our breathing we are attuned to our atmosphere. If we inhibit our breathing we isolate ourselves from the medium in which we exist. In all Oriental and mystic philosophies, the breath holds the secret to the highest bliss.” 

― Alexander Lowen, The Voice of the Body

Our Experiment Back Home

On my return I decided to try an experiment. Every morning, I open up all the doors and windows and allow fresh air to circulate until the temperature rises and I need to turn on the air conditioning. That’s typically a few hours every day

Lo and behold, all the benefits we had noticed overseas continue. This simple act of opening all doors and windows to allow in fresh air made such a huge impact!

All of us noticed the following

1. Stress levels reduced very drastically for us adults
2. Creative solutions to tasks would strike us spontaneously, we seemed to be more in the flow with things
3. Of course there were health benefits – clear skin, strong lungs, more active physically, much better and deeper sleep.

 Some days were busy and we couldn’t get to the routine of opening windows – We immediately noticed on those days our stress would rise considerably. So we came up with a plan. If we are not able to open all doors and windows in the morning, we would leave our bedroom windows open for at least 30 minutes before bedtime. Just doing this itself brought back many of the benefits.  

So I did some research on our indoor air.

Our Indoor Air

Air – an extremely essential life-giving element. Oxygen is necessary for both brain and blood. Earth’s atmosphere contains 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide and certain proportions of helium, other gases, dust particles, humidity, and vapor.

What’s in our indoor air?

 As many as or more than 150 hazardous chemicals in concentrations 10 to 40 times those outdoors are found in the typical American home (The healthy home. Linda Mason Hunter). These indoor pollutants reach levels that would be illegal outdoors! We spend 90 percent of our lives indoors in this toxic soup breathing in this air!  This problem has become so critical that the U.S.  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have called indoor air quality “the most significant environmental issue we have to face now”

Common symptoms

¨      Headaches

¨      Nausea

¨      Cough

¨      Asthma

¨      Allergies

¨      Upper respiratory problems

¨      Trouble with contact lenses

¨      Irritable noses

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),

¨      1 in 13 people have asthma.

¨      More than 25 million Americans have asthma. This is 7.7 percent of adults and 8.4 percent of children. Asthma has been increasing since the early 1980s in all age, sex and racial groups.

¨      Asthma is more common in adult women than adult men.

¨      Asthma is the leading chronic disease in children.

¨      Asthma is more common in children than adults.

¨      Asthma is more common in boys than girls.

¨      Currently, there are about 6.2 million children under the age of 18 with asthma.

¨      In 2017, 1 in 12 children had asthma.

¨      It is the top reason for missed school days. In 2013, about 13.8 million missed school days were reported due to asthma.

Where do these chemicals come from?

¨      Pesticides and fungicides (from our carpeting, wood preservatives)

¨      Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Fumes from solvents used in paint, sealants, varnishes, home cleaning supplies, detergents

¨      Carbon monoxide from gas stoves

¨      Urea-formaldehyde from foam insulation

¨      Methylene chloride from aerosols

  

A Simple Solution

How simple is it to just crank open a window? Most of us will argue that it takes time and we don’t have the time. Well how much time does it really take – I timed myself, to open around 24 windows in our home it took me less than 3 minutes.

It’s easier if you include it in your daily routine as a part of a task you do everyday (while making meals, while doing the dishes). We have made it a habit of opening windows as soon as we wake up and leave them open through preparing and having breakfast.

Windows must be opened daily even in the winter when it’s cold or on a hot summer day. Even if it’s just for 15 minutes

Benefits of opening windows and letting in fresh air into your home

1. Boosts mood
2. Creates an inviting living space
3. Helps airways to fully dilate and cleanse our lungs. Inhaling and exhaling more fresh air helps clear the body of accumulated  impurities
4. Helps relax, improves blood pressure and heart rate
5. Enhances mood, making people happier. Increased oxygen intake increases the release of brain chemical serotonin – lightens our mood and improves our sense of well being
6. Betters our digestion
7. Sleep more soundly
8. Strengthens our immune system
9. Helps us think better and have more energy. The brain needs 20% of the body’s oxygen. More oxygen brings clarity to the brain and improves concentration

(From https://www.stoett.com/fresh-air-benefits-you-never-knew-about/)

Closing windows provides warmth and saves energy, but it traps in pollutants. The simple act of opening windows daily - even in cold weather – can improve the overall quality of your life and health.

Its critical to do what you can to reduce indoor air pollution, especially if you have children (if you have children with asthma or allergies, this is a critical daily routine that must not be missed)

What could be simpler – just open up that window even if its for just 15 minutes a day in your bedroom just before bed, Do it today. You will notice a positive difference