We have learned a lot about ourselves since the start of the coronavirus crisis. Many of us have learned just how important health and safety are. Perhaps we used to take safety and good health for granted. Now we know better.
Some of us have also learned that there is no magic potion that guarantees continual health and safety. There is no single inoculation that can prevent all illnesses. There is no single safety guideline that will prevent every accident. Everything we do carries with it some matter of risk. We do our best to measure that risk. In the end, it is about all those little things that add up.
Do you consider yourself a relatively safe person? Are you in good health? If you answered ‘yes’ to both questions, chances are you employ a litany of strategies designed to avoid as much trouble as possible. Your health and safety mindset likely shines through in almost everything you do. As a means of illustration, let us talk about some of those little things health and safety-minded people think about.
1. General Safety at Home
A good place to start is the home. Most of us would probably consider our homes fairly safe. But upon closer examination, that might not be the case. Maintaining safety at home requires a willingness to identify potential hazards and deal with them.
Parents of small children would recognise electrical outlets as a hazard. Steps would be taken to mitigate the danger – whether that means covering the outlets or teaching the children to stay away from them. The same sort of thing applies to household chemicals stored under the sink, the family medicine cabinet, and so forth.
People with elderly family members might think of safety in a different way. They are less concerned about electrical outlets and cleaning chemicals and more concerned about their loved ones tripping and falling. For them, major safety concerns include things like adequate lighting and clear walkways.
2. General Fire Safety
Fire can be a deadly enterprise no matter where it occurs. A person with a mind toward health and safety understands that and takes the necessary precautions. Again, let us start in the home. Preventing residential fires is as easy as doing a few simple things. Here are some examples:
- Being careful with smoking products
- Keeping candles away from flammable items
- Repairing or replacing frayed electrical cords.
Similar principles apply in non-residential buildings as well. And of course, fire extinguishers represent one of the easiest ways to prevent a minor fire from becoming a major inferno. A person with a health and safety mindset welcomes fire extinguishers in all types of buildings.
3. Basic First Aid
Another one of the little things that make for better health and safety is a general knowledge of first aid. Knowing how to dress a wound can mean the difference between proper healing and infection. Knowing how to do CPR can save the life of a cardiac arrest victim. Knowing the basics of poison control can save a child’s life.
Unfortunately, first aid is something that many of us do not give any thought to. We live in a day and age in which emergency help is just a phone call away. We have a tendency to leave first aid to the professionals without realising how much value we could add by learning basic skills.
4. Good Eating Habits
In terms of good health, one of the most important things is proper nutrition. Good eating habits lay the groundwork for good health. You have undoubtedly heard that you are what you eat. Any doctor will tell you there is plenty of truth to that old idiom.
Eating right isn’t always easy to do in the fast-paced world we live in. But it is well worth the effort. A healthy diet offering proper nutrition gives your body the fuel it needs to repair daily damage and fight off sickness and disease. And when you do get sick or face injury, good eating habits can help you get better faster.
5. Restful Sleep
Restful sleep might be second only to proper nutrition in terms of its importance to good health. The body relies on sleep as a means of repairing and rejuvenating. If you are not getting enough sleep, your body isn’t able to do what it needs to do to maintain good health. You are likely to be less healthy if your sleeping habits are shaky.
6. Regular Exercise
You cannot talk about proper diet and restful sleep without mentioning regular exercise. A healthy mindset embraces exercise as a necessity. In fact, your body needs exercise as much as it needs good nutrition and sleep. People who exercise regularly tend to be healthier, both physically and mentally. They tend to have a better outlook on life as well.
Enjoying a safe and healthy life doesn’t happen by accident. It is also not the result of one or two big things. Being safe and healthy is a matter of doing a lot of little things that add up over time. The more of those little things a person does, the safer and healthier they tend to be. That’s just the way nature works. We cannot beat it, so we might just as well get with the programme.