You and Your Health

Allergy Season

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, You and Your Health

Allergy season is here. I know this because my eyeballs feel like they have fur. My nose is twitching (in a most un-bewitching way). And the tickle in my perpetually raw throat has me asking, "Is this COVID?!"

Allergies in a pandemic are a right puzzler! Am I symptomatic? A danger to my fellow humans? Should I be confined to bed (my fuzzy head and leaden limbs tell me I should definitely be in bed)? Or, am I just at odds with the life that's stirring in the earth and trees and such?

You're allergic to Spring when...

Allergy Season

Does this make your nose itch?

Allergy Season2

Are your teeth feeling the pollen in the air?

If so, you might have allergies!

The Science

Asthma Canada notes,

  • Respiratory allergies such as allergic rhinitis affect 1 in 5 Canadians
  • 80% of people with asthma also suffer from allergic rhinitis or sinusitis
  • Allergies can affect your quality of life at work, school, and play

What are the symptoms of seasonal allergies?

Health Link helpfully instructs,

Symptoms of seasonal allergies include:

  • Itchy, watery eyes.
  • Sneezing.
  • Runny, stuffy, or itchy nose.
  • Temporary loss of smell.
  • Headache and fatigue.
  • Dark circles under the eyes ("allergic shiners").
  • Drainage from the nose down the back of the throat (post-nasal drip).
  • Sore throat or coughing.
  • Snoring.

How can you help prevent seasonal allergies?

Seasonal allergies, such as hay fever, are often caused by exposure to pollen. You can reduce your exposure to pollen by:

  • Keeping your house and car windows closed.
  • Limiting the time you spend outside when pollen counts are high (during midday and afternoon).
  • Wearing a pollen mask or dust mask if you need to mow the lawn.
  • Limiting your mowing tasks if you can.
  • Rinsing your eyes with cool water or saline eyedrops to remove clinging pollen after you come indoors.
  • Taking a shower and changing your clothes after you work or play outside.

How can you treat seasonal allergies?

The following home treatment measures may help relieve your symptoms:

  • Clean the inside of your nose with salt water to clear a stuffy nose.
  • Use a vaporizer or humidifier in the bedroom and take hot showers to help clear a stuffy nose.
  • If your nose is red and raw from rubbing, put petroleum jelly on the sore area.
  • Use over-the-counter allergy medicine to help your symptoms. Be safe with medicines. Read and follow all instructions on the label.
    • To relieve a stuffy nose, use a steroid nasal spray (such as Nasacort). A steroid nasal spray can also help with red, itchy, watery eyes.
    • Another way to relieve a stuffy nose is a nasal or oral decongestant (such as Sudafed PE). Decongestants may not be safe for young children or for people who have certain health problems.
    • For itchy, watery eyes; sneezing; or a runny, itchy nose, try a non-sedating over-the-counter antihistamine, like fexofenadine (such as Allegra) or loratadine (such as Claritin). Older antihistamines, like chlorpheniramine (such as Chlor-Tripolon) and diphenhydramine (such as Benadryl), are less expensive but can make you feel sleepy or tired. Don't give antihistamines to your child unless you've checked with the doctor first.
    • To help relieve pain, try acetaminophen or ibuprofen.

Stuck indoors during allergy season

COVID will affect exposure to seasonal allergies. Many of us are restricting our outdoor movements already. If you're like me, you're making steady use of your Claritin when you do venture out. And we can agree that a few seasonal discomforts aren't really all that bad in light of what we might be facing. Here's to clear airways and sturdy health!

pick n pull

Good Customer Service

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Making a Difference, You and Your Health

Good customer service is the go-to for Canadian business.
How does that land with you? 'Too strong a statement? Maybe you have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the service industry. Or, if you're a lucky gal like me, you encounter good to exceptional service everywhere you go.

Chilling on the 'phone

We are in unprecedented times (I believe that's the new buzz word? And an apt one it is!). Every service we attempt to access is embroiled in a new business normal. If you're deemed essential, you're working like a drone. 'Probably for less pay. Furthermore, you're punching in hours and rolling out results just as quickly as you can type, haul, drive, teach, ring-up, or cheerily choke out one more, "Good afternoon! How may I help you today?"

Like you, I've spent more time on hold in the past few weeks than I'd spent in the past several years combined. So many hours spent (musac pulsing in my offended ears) waiting for my essential server to assist. And assist they have. Every time. Knowledgeably, kindly, and efficiently...if a bit wearily.

In most recent days, I've had the chance to be the one offering a service on that same phone. I'm the one you've grown to dread: the telemarketer! Well, not exactly. I'm not selling anything at all. But I have been cold-calling area mechanics to let them know we're here to help. We can haul junkers from their properties quick-as-quick, and for free. Regardless of what's on offer, cold-calling is not always equated with good customer service!

Above the crowd

In reaching out to hundreds of Calgary businesses I've noticed some stand-out responses. Good customer service begins with that first "Hello! *insert company name here*, Bill speaking..." A gal can tell right off the hop if she's encountered a professional. I hear the layers of busy, work-weary, bored, and disinterested. Moreover, I know if you're placating me, or if you care about me as a caller.

A hang-up, "Click!" is rarely the answer to my offer of free tow support on behalf of our 900+ Canadian charities. "I don't have time for this!" is an occasional, frazzled response. But most often, in this deliciously polite country of ours, those busy mechanics hear me out. They ask questions. They express interest in receiving information for their customers (because what we provide their business will only help the people they serve every day).

In Calgary, two companies stand out as offering extraordinary care over the phone. These shops are clearly busy, but their calls are answered with patience, curiosity, and genuine interest. Who are these staff-who-made-my-job-a-joy? Auto Pro (you name the location, they're wonderful!), and OK Tire. OK Tire, particularly, made a mundane task feel like a purposeful and important gig.

While we can't speak to their car repair services, I know with certainty that they have good customer service on offer at the switchboard. That's no small thing in strangely tired and stressed-out times.

Your free tow

'Interested in taking advantage of our free tow support for yourself? Check us out...

pick n pull

Peace in a Pandemic

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Making a Difference, You and Your Health

Finding peace in a disrupted time is tough. For many of our receiving charities, that's they're work-a-day gig. They companion people in disrupted life circumstances.

What is peace, anyway?

The word peace may mean something different to you than it does to me. For some, peace is a feeling of calm, or the absence of conflict. Some people experience peace as the lack of any emotion at all. Others feel at peace when they have a sense of control in their lives.

I've come to identify peace as a quiet heart. Sometimes that means a feeling of spaciousness in my mind, heart, or even body. Another way of describing that is the ability to take a deep, deep breath -- a feeling of relaxation and permission even when circumstances are very difficult.

That seems to be an important thing about peace? It is a sense of rightness, quiet, or well-being even when things all around are wobbling. Maybe even downright awful.

Can I find calm...even now?

What has the COVID-19 Pandemic been like for you? Are you having difficult finding peace in the midst of global fear? There are resources near you that can give you a little back-up if that's what you need. Seek them out. Your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health are worth the effort.

You may be someone who has had a gentle experience of this unprecedented upheaval. If so, might you be one who offers peace to others? You may be one of the helpers. If so, thank you! Please take care of your Self while you're reaching out to others. And if you're having moments when a quiet heart is illusive, reach out for your own supports, ok? We need you to keep getting your own cup filled up so that you can continue to share with others.

What DACC is doing to help

Here at Donate a Car Canada we continue to work through this crisis time to aid Canadian charities in their ongoing work. Sometimes cool cash is the best way to bring calm into the midst of a storm. Part of our role in all of this is to keep right on processing vehicle donations. Those donations result in the much-needed dollars our charities depend on to keep purveying goodness in our hurting world. Thank you for considering how you might be a part of that!

pick n pull

Peaceful Parenting

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Making a Difference, You and Your Health

Parenting in an a new normal

What has this past month been like for you? If you're the parent of school-aged children you may be feeling a lot of pressure these days. Some of you are working from home while hands-on parenting. Home schooling used to be the practice of a minority (myself included), and is now the norm. If you have a child with special needs or learning challenges, you may have added complications.

Are you finding support in all of that? There are resources available to you. Do seek them out. This is a time for asking for what we need, and leaning into available resources.

Kim Golding on peaceful parenting

My colleague forwarded this on to me just yesterday. It's from Kim S. Golding, 2015, with an added acknowledgement of Clover Childcare, Norfolk.

This gentle 7-step guide may be a helpful resource for all of us as parents? First, it offers a reminder for us to take a minute to check in with our self when facing into a parenting conundrum. "Calm begets calm; peace begets peace." So say parenting specialists. That calm begins with us as parents. Take a look at this:

That trusty oxygen mask

The well-worn metaphor of the oxygen mask on the airplane applies here: Mom? Dad? Take your own deep breaths first. Then tend to your kiddo.

One of my practice instructors has patiently reminded me, "When we change the dialogue with which we speak to our self, we'll change the way we speak to others. As we transform inwardly, we'll change outwardly." What does she mean by that? Be nice!

This is the time to be "excessively gentle" (John O'Donohue) with ourselves. And as we turn compassion inward, we'll find ourselves more able to be patient and understanding outwardly.

May peaceful parenting bring about peaceful kiddos in a decidedly un-peaceful time in history. You've got this! And where you need back-up? Reach out. You are not alone.

pick n pull

“Self-isolation” and other new normals

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Making a Difference, You and Your Health

Self-isolation. Quarantine. Social distancing. COVID-19. Home school. PPE. The language and practice of our times has shifted forever. Virtually overnight, we've adopted a new set of priorities (toilet paper!). Our vernacular includes words that we had little frame of reference for when the calendar flipped to 2020.

Living in our Sci-Fi-like world

What has it been like for you to suddenly face into a world where masks, gloves, and empty grocery shelves are commonplace? Are you doing well?

In my other life I have a unique "job": I listen for a living. Not as a therapist or counselor, but as one who holds story and asks questions. Challenging questions. Questions that help us to sink deeply into the mysteries and fears and wonderments of life. "Why is there suffering?" "What can I do about feeling completely overwhelmed?" "Is grief a form of mental illness?" "Am I broken?" "Is there a God? And if there is...what the heck is going on here?!"

The weird and wobbly shift we're experiencing globally burbles those questions to the surface for some of us. When getting in a car and driving to run an errand feels like you've landed in a B-grade pandemic movie...well...it can get the curiosity about the deep things stirring.

Boredom...and overwhelm

Do you have the sense that we're living in an altered reality of extremes? Those who are isolated alone, without work or resources, facing into unrelenting boredom. Others who, overnight, began juggling full-time work, hands and eyes-on parenting, and pandemic fears. Seniors with loved ones desperately reaching toward them; elderly feeling abandoned and fated to fall sick...alone. Essential workers grinding out hours of minimum-wage labor in the face of moment-by-moment risk of illness. Helpers (so many many many helpers) working flat-out to heal, relieve, come alongside suffering.

Where do you land on the spectrum? Are you okay? Maybe you feel this is all a hoax and you're just weary of the news reel. Perhaps you're grateful for the relief that the demand that you remain at home has brought into your overworked, over-extended life?

We're all in this together

However we're experiencing this wildly disruptive upheaval, we're all in it. Those of us that have enough food to eat and a place to shelter (in self-isolation...with, or without loved ones) may come through this quite comfortably. Many will suffer much more intently. There are speed bumps to getting medication, mental health care, financial aid, and the critical social contact of human touch. Some families are sardine-canned into tiny living spaces. Some rough and rocky relationships are unsafely confined behind closed windows and doors.

Our entire charity roster has taken a tremendous hit as everyone collectively holds their breath. As many of us clutch our wallets and resources close: what if I need what I have? What if there isn't enough to go around? I feel this shift in myself, absolutely. Where I might typically give without thinking? Now, I think carefully and do the math slowly.

When giving money and groceries isn't an option

Donate a Car Canada continues to work on behalf of almost 1,000 Canadian charities. If you need more space in your garage to create a little distance between you and your self-isolating loved ones, consider donating that recycle-ready car through our program! Clear the driveway. Clean out that back patch in the yard that's been cradling your, "I promise I'm gonna' fix it up one day!" old collector. We can help you reach toward the cause you love!

pick n pull

Coronavirus, COVID-19

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Making a Difference, You and Your Health

With Coronavirus on our minds, let's take in what the professionals are saying. Further, let's exercise our own good judgement.

World Health Organization

The WHO notes,

Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases. These include Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A new strain is Coronavirus (nCoV)

Coronaviruses are transmitted between animals and people.  SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans. 

Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms. Fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties can present. In addition, in more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death. 

Standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include regular hand washing. Morever, covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, as well as thoroughly cooking meat and eggs is smart. Not only that, avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.

WHO on Coronavirus

Global News on COVID-19

COVID-19 cases in Canada are mild. Canadian cases are all travel-related.

How to take precautions

We are not strangers to the threat of pandemics or outbreaks. As you recall, SARS, the bird flu, and others have all grabbed our attention in recent years. What is a wise response to concerning news about health risks such as these?

While panic and catastrophic thinking are unhelpful, a measured approach to having a stock of ready supplies may bring some peace of mind? Toiletries, water, non-perishable food, and a stack of really good books may be a good place to start. Two weeks' worth won't take up much space, and it may come in handy.

If you're symptomatic, stay home. We can each do our part to stem a spread if we ourselves are unwell. This is good practice with any flu or cold: we can respect our selves and our others simply by resting and healing when we're sick.

While you're tucked in

If you're under the weather and finding some unexpected down time, consider our 800 charities and the work they're doing to aid the vulnerable, ill, and unseen every day.

pick n pull

Winter Blues

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Making a Difference, You and Your Health

Today I re-routed my errands. Instead of just ticking off the to-do list musts, I took a 5 minute wander into the seasonal section at Canadian Tire. Winter blues haven't been the specter this year that they have been in winters past. But this is the season for getting ahead of them, and one of the ways I do that is by thinking about dirt and fertilizer and seeds.

There's something about the scent of earth and the hope that I'll soon have a spade in one hand, and a satchel of seeds in the other. Spring doesn't feel so far off, even as February holds us in a winter grip.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Winter blues and Seasonal Affective Disorder aren't necessarily one and the same. SAD is a medically acknowledged condition, and sufferers may benefit from treatment.

The Mayo Clinic notes, in most cases, seasonal affective disorder symptoms appear during late fall or early winter and go away during the sunnier days of spring and summer. Less commonly, people with the opposite pattern have symptoms that begin in spring or summer. In either case, symptoms may start out mild and become more severe as the season progresses.

Signs and symptoms of SAD may include:

  • Feeling depressed most of the day, nearly every day
  • Losing interest in activities you once enjoyed
  • Having low energy
  • Having problems with sleeping
  • Experiencing changes in your appetite or weight
  • Feeling sluggish or agitated
  • Having difficulty concentrating
  • Feeling hopeless, worthless or guilty
  • Having frequent thoughts of death or suicide

Fall and winter SAD

Symptoms specific to winter-onset SAD, sometimes called winter depression, may include:

  • Oversleeping
  • Appetite changes, especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates
  • Weight gain
  • Tiredness or low energy

Spring and summer SAD

Symptoms specific to summer-onset seasonal affective disorder, sometimes called summer depression, may include:

  • Trouble sleeping (insomnia)
  • Poor appetite
  • Weight loss
  • Agitation or anxiety

Creative treatments

Light therapy and medications may be effective in treating the winter blues, and SAD.

Canadian Living's online magazine offers some helpful guidance on managing mental health at this time of year. Getting out into the sunshine whenever possible is high on the list. Furthermore, consider taking up a winter sport, or throwing a winter social event. Take on a new project and set goals for yourself. Moreover, give your own mental health some of the attention you may not once the weather shifts and life picks up the pace again.

In addition to these useful self-care tips, consider caring for others. A little generosity of spirit can go a long way. Take care of the caretakers in your life. Check-in with the folks who seem to have it all together. Give! Share your time, your heart, your creativity, your resources. It's easier to shiver through the winter doldrums when offering warmth and support to others.

pick n pull

Self-Compassion

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, You and Your Health

The days between Christmas and New Year's Day are a good time to practice self-compassion. But what is that, really? Is it selfish? Is it full of self-pity? Am I just striving for more "Me" time, or is there something deeper going on here?

Wellness - body, mind, soul

NewLeaf Total Wellness Centre has a helpful article on the "What is it?" questions we might have about this elusive practice.

Self-compassion

Simply stated, this attention to self care is about being as kind to oneself as we might be to a friend...or even to a stranger.

How do we know if we need to spend a little effort in this area? Our biggest indicator is that we're giving ourselves a hard time. Notice the ways in which you talk to yourself. Are you impatient? Judgmental? Do you criticize and blame and guilt yourself for everything from the feeling you just had to the thought you just thunk?

If you're anything like me, you might be thinking, "I'm not too hard on myself. I tell myself the truth." And sometimes we do need to give ourselves a little swift kick. Most of the time? Most of the time we need to talk to ourselves like we would attend to our best friend, or even a little child.

Because life is tough enough

It can be hard to see our own lives through a compassionate lens. We might have the habit of assessing other peoples' complex stories as painful, or difficult. We might minimize our own distress, or even suffering.

NewLeaf goes on to say,

"There are three main components (or skills) of self-compassion.

  1. Self-kindness is demonstrating to yourself the kindness that you have towards others when you are struggling.
  2. Common humanity involves acknowledging that everyone suffers. Suffering is a part of life and as humans we all suffer. It’s recognizing that if you are suffering it is not because there is something wrong with you, but that everyone has moments of suffering. Inadequacies and imperfection is part of the shared human experience.
  3. Mindfulness is noticing when we are suffering and attending to our struggle. Being mindful is to observe negative thoughts with openness. As Dr Kristen Neff, the pioneer of self-compassion, states 'we can not ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time.' Lastly, a key piece of mindfulness is to remain non-judgemental when we notice our suffering and negative thoughts."

Can you see yourself in this mix somewhere? Is there room for you to tend to your own heart, mind, and body a little more gently as the year wraps-up?

As we launch (step tentatively?) into 2020, what would it be like to exchange a little self-judgment for a practice of self-compassion? What if we start by noticing when we're being too rough with our interior self, and go from there?

We've got important giving and loving and sharing and creating to do. Let's do that from a healthy and thriving place!

pick n pull

Last-minute Shopping

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Making a Difference, You and Your Health

Last-minute shopping is upon us. Is holiday giving leading to a little too much decking in the halls, and not enough holly jolly? Consider changing things up this Christmas season!

Christmas gift exchange

'Ready to exchange the tension last minute gift shopping for the magic of Christmas? What if you could gift your loved one, and benefit others at the same time?

Some of our recipients are so easy to gift. We know what they love; they'll love what they get. Some are tricky! It seems that, no matter the thought put into the choosing, the gift is never quite right.

For those last-minute shopping stressors, there's a creatively loving solution: gift a charity in their name.

This becomes a double-gift: something in hand for your loved one; something in hand for your chosen charity.

There are many ways to do this. Gifts-in-kind is one way. Check out the examples of these inspiring young people and how they've used their birthdays to benefit charity:

Beyond Gifts-in-kind

If donating items to the animal shelter, or collecting (hundreds of pairs!) shoes for give away seems daunting, consider monetary giving.

Many of our receiving charities have Christmas giving programs set up. It's quick and simple to gift a charity in the name of a loved one.

Here are a few charities that can shift the season from tense to tinsel:

The Salvation Army is a good place to start. Your gift in a loved one's name will feed, house, and otherwise assist a person in need. Or, check out your local shelters (or those near where your friends and family live). Give where you live!

Your nearby animal shelter, or a broader work (like the World Wildlife Foundation) will use your double gift to aid critters at risk.

Has an infirmity or disease recently impacted your family? A gift to the charity that best serves in that area of need will be gratefully welcomed. If you're having trouble choosing a charity to give to, visit our charities page. We'll show the name and mission statement of the charity that best matches your gift recipient!

Giving in 2020

If you have your Christmas shopping all wrapped up, we're at the ready to receive vehicle donations in the new year. Donate your vehicle on behalf of your charity of choice, and receive a valuable tax receipt in return!

pick n pull