While growing up, your parents probably told you to dress warmly when going outside, or else you’ll catch a cold. Now, a cold-water immersion (浸没) movement suggests that exposure to the cold actually does the opposite. 【小题1】

Led by a man named Wim Hof, known by some as the Ice Man, cold water immersion is gaining popularity. You may recognize his name from the documentary The Superhuman World of Wim Hof: The Iceman. Hof’s documentary retells how he found himself tragically alone with four children after his wife died in 1995. 【小题2】 One morning, while overlooking a cold stream in the Netherlands, he had the urge to jump in.

Feeling the intensity of that cold, Hof grew the strength to push past physical and mental limitations. He continued his practice of cold immersion alongside meditation (冥想) and breathing techniques. 【小题3】 It was through this practice that he discovered the physical and mental health benefits of this combination of breathwork, meditation and cold immersion.

【小题4】 According to a cold-water research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, cold water can have physiological effects including an increased heart rate, faster breathing rate and higher blood pressure. And, a study of 3, 108 people, published in the journal PLoS One, found that people who take cold showers are 29 percent less likely to call in sick. The researchers concluded that cold showers could make the illnesses less severe.

So if you want to obtain the benefits of cold-water immersions, you don’t have to start by jumping into an ice bath. Hof’s programs often begin with short breathing exercises followed by a 30-second cold shower. 【小题5】 And they really could keep the doctor away!

An afternoon nap (午睡) is one of the joys of life, although too much napping is not very good. In some cultures, people will have a daily nap — this is fine. The warning comes when people start sleeping during the daytime, when they did not before. There is certainly a good reason to believe that daytime sleepiness — as in the Alzheimer’s study (阿兹海默症) — can be a marker of a potential condition.

For most people, napping during the day is mainly a sign that you are not getting enough sleep at night, says Dr. Neil Stanley, a sleep expert. “If you feel sleepy during the day, you should think about taking a nap. That is what the body needs — it doesn't need to be kept awake with caffeine, it needs sleep. ”The feeling to notice is “sleepiness”, he says, not “tiredness”, which could be more psychological and linked to stress.

So how do you nap well? The key thing, says Stanley, is how long your nap lasts. Choose either a 20-or 90-minute nap. “When you fall asleep, you'll quickly go through the lighter stages of sleep into your first period of deep sleep. You don't want to wake up in deep sleep because that’s when you wake and feel worse than you did before. ”Napping for 20 minutes means you will wake up before you go into deep sleep; napping for 90 minutes means you’ll complete a sleep cycle.

Once you calculate the time it takes to fall asleep — some people are better at napping than others but, says Stanley, “a healthy adult will fall asleep in between 5 and 12 minutes” — you can set an alarm, allowing a 30- to 40-minute period for a short nap, and up to two hours for a longer one.

A good time to nap is during the body’s natural circle in the afternoon, between 2 pm and 4 pm. “You don’t really want to be napping much past that because then you are going to consume your night-time sleep,” Stanley says. The point, he stresses, is to get good night-time sleep, which would ensure you probably don’t need to nap at all.

Before COVID-19, self-care — caring for ourselves — may have not been a priority for many people. 【小题1】. There is no exact way to practice self-care. It includes many areas and may look different from person to person. Here are some suggestions on what can be done.

【小题2】

For some people, self-care may be simply slowing down. It can also mean controlling parts of your life that you can control. This is important when the world around you feels out of control.

Learn something new

For some people, self-care might include doing things they have always wanted to do but never made time for. 【小题3】.

Mental health self-care

Another form of self-care is making time to meet with a mental health specialist, if needed. The Associated Press reports that online mental health services have increased during the pandemic. However, meeting with a mental health professional may not be possible for some people. 【小题4】. Meditating, writing about your feelings and problems, and organizing the physical space around you are all forms of self-care.

Be kind to yourself — the best type of self-care

Experts remind us that self-care during the pandemic could feel like riding a rollercoaster — up some days, down on others.

It can help to have a routine — a usual way of doing things. But experts say keep the routine simple. 【小题5】. Remember, be kind to yourself.