Colds happen, no matter how many precautions you take. When they hit, you can try various remedies to ease the physical discomforts – and you can also benefit from some psychological aids. Geared toward the feminine, the following 10 suggestions are designed to distract the mind from the tight chest, the scratchy throat and the aching muscles.
1. Declare a Holiday
Take time off work. You’re not so indispensable that your co-workers will appreciate being around a germ factory. Besides, a cold is the perfect opportunity to chill out, guilt free. Usually, the discomfort isn’t so severe to preclude some enjoyment of the free time. The self-declared holiday means no take-home work and the suspension or delegation of household and family chores.
2. Nap
Sleep not only boosts the assaulted immune system. It gives the mind a break from obsessing over symptoms.
3. Read
A good book can make the time fly, while also offering escape from the reader’s unpleasant current realities. I recommend fiction – preferably involving another time and place, to facilitate escape-mode.
4. View
If physical discomfort makes it hard to focus on a good read, take the more passive option of TV, DVDs, Netflix, Hulu, etc. I recommend a solid chick flick. You already have the Kleenex box grafted to your side, so what are a few more hanky honks as you commiserate with the heroine’s travails? (A personal sick-day favorite: “All This, and Heaven Too,” from 1940)
5. Play Games
If the cold has completely frazzled your powers of concentration, aim for shorter diversions: computer games, crossword puzzles, Sudoku. The New York Times offers an easy, medium and difficult online Sudoku puzzle every day.
6. Rediscover Crafts
Where’s that needlepoint sampler you started three years ago? Whatever happened to that scarf you planned on knitting? For folks who find handiwork soothing, crafts – particularly the kind that can be attacked from the comfort of the couch – can be a welcome diversion from cold symptoms.
7. Catch up with a Loved One
If talking doesn’t send you into paroxysms of coughing, why not pick up the phone and chat with an old friend or relative with whom you’ve wanted to reconnect? Don’t do it out of guilt (this is your guilt-free holiday), but to lift your spirits – and the call will probably lift his/hers as well.
8. Do Yoga
Exercise is not an obvious choice for someone with cement-head syndrome. But Hatha yoga’s gentle stretching can mellow out the cement-head’s state of mind, while yogic breathing can help open up those clogged airways.
9. Take a Bubble Bath (unless you have a fever)
A hot soak soothes the mind and feels self-indulgent. It also eases aching muscles and adds needed humidity to congested nasal passages.
10. Eat Chicken Soup
Your grandmother was right: it helps. In addition to its likely physical benefits, it’s a classic comfort food.
Sources:
www.mayoclinic.com/health/common-cold/DS00056
www.mayoclinic.com/health/cold-remedies/ID00036
www.yogajournal.com/health/117