The best medicine is free and “over the counter.” This prescription is not required.
“Sleep and Water.” Max dose suggested, but not required.
Seriously, no joke. If we do nothing else, prioritizing our sleep and effort toward hydration will have a huge impact on our well-being. We all know this. Yet we continue to struggle. Time is money. We think if we stay up and work those extra few hours, it will be worth it. We think we will drink a glass of water “later.” Unfortunately, later we are caught working on some other priority and continue to push off that simple task. We argue internally that something so simple and available is not that important.
Traveling a lot recently has had an impact on my hydration. Running to the airport, I think I will get water once I am there. I can’t miss my flight. I am busy packing, driving, finishing up other responsibilities. I take a bottle of water, but can’t get it through security. I will get water on the other side, I think. Yet on the other side it costs so much money I can’t justify it. So I wait until I get on the plane. This is just an example of how time creeps by with missed opportunities at basic self-care. Because the truth is, once my plane lands, I am again busy running to the next portion of my day.
Instead of the situation above, here is a better example: I take my bottle of water with me and actually drink it as I drive to the airport, then pour out what is left when I get there. I put the empty bottle in my bag which makes it through security (I do pull it out and put it in a bin with my toiletries) and then refill it on the other side. I stop at Starbucks and get a grande hot water which they gave me FREE and when my plane lands, I am happily hydrated and full of energy and a sense of well-being. I brought tea bags in my purse so I used the free hot water for tea. Having my Starbucks drink, though self-made, gave me the same sense of a “treat” that I would have felt from getting some four-dollar coffee drink.
The same can be done with sleep. We can put every responsibility above it, go without sleep and struggle or we can stop, take a minute to restructure our mental priorities, find a way to get to bed an hour or two earlier, and without spending a dime, feel ten times better the next day. Sometimes the most powerful antidotes are the simplest. Let us not discount them for their simplicity and availability. I could fill this article with references and statistics on the proven health benefits of sleep and hydration, but we all have heard them before. You can google these topics and find plenty. You know. I know. It is the application, not the knowledge, that we need in our lives now. This is something that only you can provide for yourself.
With rest and hydration,
Nikola Rosa
