The NormalNess Podcast – Season 2 Episode 6 – WFH Health Benefits
In this episode I discuss the health benefits that I’ve found during my time working from home.
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Episode Transcript:
Working from home has gotten a really bad rap at times for people for the lack of incidental exercise. people worried about putting on weight, and all sorts of things like that during covid isolation, social distancing, whatever it is in your part of the world, the distance to work from home has really been the variable I’ve seen when people like, Oh, I’m not walking to meetings and don’t walk into public transport and all those sort of things add up to what they call incidental exercise in your day. For me,
working from home has actually been really amazing for my health.
In the past 15 months, I’ve injured myself four different times. So there’s been a very big benefit personally, to me being able to actually focus on on my health. So for me at the moment, it means that I can start my days with me first, and on a good day, that means I go for a walk. Now, how long I work for is a constant debate between the physiotherapists and I because I’m very good at overdoing it and hurting myself. So even if it’s just a short walk, it doesn’t matter. It’s the prescribed walk that I need to be doing right now. According to my medical professionals, it gives me time to do that walk to go have a hot shower afterwards or a bath to start to soothe the muscles after them. They’ve been used. It means that I can get some of my stretches in before work to keep my back muscles loose. My current worst injury is a back injury. It also means that I have time to make a good breakfast. Usually breakfast is something that I would rush, eat when I get to work while I’m checking my emails in the morning.
I can get you know, my exercises, I hate therapy, my stretches and my food done with time to spare before I start work in my working from home hours. That’s not insignificant, you know, I get to take care of physical, nutritional and even mental needs, the benefits of exercise. Benefits are not rushing benefits. So having time to read before work, just for fun because I want to read that.
So for all the downside, and some people would be an introvert and being independent working from home is fantastic for me. It’s not true work. from home in the sense of a freelancer because I have restricted hours, but for all of the benefits are really big. And for me, they’re mostly health benefits. When my back gets sore, I can stretch out on the couch behind me, I can stay, you can go on the floor with my heat pad under me and do stretches, all the things that I couldn’t do if I was in a traditional office environment, because it’s very awkward to probably go lie on the floor in front of you colleagues and flush things weekly as you do structures. You know, I mean, and we have acceptable in your workplace that I know I don’t know how appropriate it is, but I just wanted to put it out there that there is an alternative narrative. Oh, no, I might get fat, which seems to be the pathetic kind of response to people in isolation. For me, the health benefits are actually fantastic.