“I wish we could go back to 1 year ago…when it was good” Check out Dr. Bryan Joseph interviewing his 9-year-old son Jude, and see his kid’s perspective as we continue our series related to coronavirus and how you can stay healthy!
Table of Contents
- Introduction to My Kid’s Perspective About the Coronavirus
- How to Stay Healthy in his Kid’s Perspective
- Healthier Activities to Do in my Kid’s Perspective
- Closing Thoughts
Introduction to My Kid’s Perspective About the Coronavirus
Dr. Bryan: Welcome to the Wellness Connection Podcast, giving hope, igniting health and shaping a brighter future. It’s time to get connected.
All right, welcome everybody. This is Dr. Bryan Joseph of the Wellness Connection Show, and I’ve got a special, special guest with me today and a special topic in the midst of a lot of questions and confusion and feelings that people are experiencing. Today in the studio, I’ve got one of my sons, Jude.
Jude: Hi.
Dr. Bryan: We just got news not long ago with the recent spreading of the Coronavirus and all the fear that’s been taking place in the communities and now school shutting down. We are on our first real day here in Missouri in which school has been shut down. How old are you Jude?
Jude: Nine.
Dr. Bryan: Nine years old. What grade are you in?
Jude: Third.
Dr. Bryan: We’re going to have a conversation around some of the feelings that some of the people that are around his age. Plus or minus a few grades might be feeling and hearing in response to what’s going on in the world right now. I thought it’d be interesting to hear my kid’s perspective and also share with everybody just common sense in a sense that kids are watching what we do, how we act and how the world responds. And a lot of these media inputs and different stories that are coming out trickle down in the hands of our kids really quickly. I just wanted to share what some of these kids might be feeling.
Missing School
Dr. Bryan: Jude, first of all, this is your first day that school’s off. How do you feel about that?
Jude: Bored.
Dr. Bryan: Do you know how long the school’s supposed to be off?
Jude: I think like two weeks.
Dr. Bryan: And how do you feel about that?
Jude: I’m going to miss school. I see my friends at school and I have the nicest teacher.
Dr. Bryan: That’s wonderful. Do you know why they cancelled school?
Jude: Because some people are getting sick.
Dr. Bryan: You’re right, some people are getting sick. Do you have an idea of what they’re getting sick with?
Jude: The Coronavirus.
Dr. Bryan: When you hear people talk about the Coronavirus, what are you hearing your friends and other people talk about? What are they saying about it?
Jude: They just talk about how it’s spreading around the world and how it’s not that bad. It just spreads quick and it’s just like the flu.
Dr. Bryan: When you hear that it’s spreading around the world and it’s just like the flu, what kind of feelings do you feel when you hear people say that?
Jude: I wish we could just go back a year Everything was good a year or two ago when everything in the airport weren’t… when you could go everywhere and you could travel, but now you can’t go to as many places.
Dr. Bryan: It’s a weird feeling that a lot of things are starting to close up a little bit and that we’re at home and we’re able to spend more time with our families in a more quieted way. When you’re at home you don’t get to see your friends for a little while and you don’t get to spend as much time with them.
How to Stay Healthy in my Kid’s Perspective
Dr. Bryan: You’re nine years old in third grade. You know that you’ve been around me and mom for a little while and you hear us talk about the different ways that people could stay healthy. If you didn’t want to get sick and you wanted to stay healthy, what would be some of the ways that you would actually recommend that somebody stays healthy?
Jude: I would take care of my body and I would eat healthy and try to work out with him. And just be thankful for the body that God gave me and take good care of it.
Dr. Bryan: That’s a great answer. Do you see a lot of people at school making healthy food choices or not healthy food choices?
Jude: Well, it depends. Sometimes on the menu it’s healthy. Sometimes it’s not healthy and sometimes they bring, sometimes they don’t bring. Usually they bring a main meal that’s not healthy but not unhealthy. And then they bring a vegetable and then they bring a dessert.
Dr. Bryan: When you go over to a friend’s house for a play date and you get a chance to either go up in their room, do you typically find that people have good choices for you or is it not so good choices in those environments?
Jude: I just feel like their parents don’t know as much as my parents, you specifically. You know a lot about health, and so I feel like they have a bit less healthy choice.
Dr. Bryan: Thank you so much for the compliment.
The consequence of bad food decisions
Dr. Bryan: Sometimes Jude people know what’s healthy and unhealthy but they don’t really understand the consequence of making bad decisions. Let me explain what I mean. If you actually think that all foods are created equal and you go and spend a majority of your time bringing things like Starburst and Skittles and fun foods: Kit Kats, Snickers, Doritos, the list goes on and on and on, which we all enjoy the taste of these foods.
If that becomes the staple of what you’re putting into you and your family’s diet without thinking that there’s any consequence, it’s almost the equivalent. I may have said this in previous episodes, but it’s the equivalent of pouring literally maple syrup into the gas can of your car knowing that your car is meant to be fueled on fuel. When you start pouring maple syrup in it, what do you think Jude would happen to the car if you didn’t put gas in it but you start putting syrup in the gas tank?
Jude: It would break down.
Dr. Bryan: Exactly right. It seems like common sense. What do you think would happen to our bodies if we just kept putting sugar and syrup and bad foods into our bodies?
Jude: Our bodies won’t work as they’re supposed to work and everything will start working differently.
Dr. Bryan: Yeah. And if everything stops working well, and all of a sudden there’s sickness and viruses and bacteria that are spreading, do you think that the bacteria and the viruses would go after the healthy people or the unhealthy people?
Jude: The unhealthy people.
Dr. Bryan: Right. When these types of things happen, like a Coronavirus outbreak or a bacterium or a fungal foot infection and different things happen.
Healthy Activities From my Kid’s Perspective
Dr. Bryan: What about your activities? Like when you found out that basketball is done and you can’t do certain sports. How did you feel about that?
Jude: I just feel that’s not so smart because not really anybody has it and athletes are usually healthy and they train their bodies to be healthy. There would be a less chance of getting a disease or germs if they had their bodies healthy.
Dr. Bryan: If you were given somebody advice and you just made a great point about having healthy foods and those types of things. When I watch you and your friends get together, I see the most common activity that you guys do is around video games most of the time or watching YouTube videos.
Do you think there’s healthier choices that you could actually recommend? Because it’s not just kids who do those things. A lot of times, adults do those things. They may not call them video games but they call it television or they call it movies. If you were to try to give anybody advice to say what else can you do besides watch TV and watch YouTube or be on your phone, what would you tell them?
Jude: Sports.
Dr. Bryan: All these different things emit different radio frequencies that our bodies really don’t. It doesn’t put our bodies into healthier magnetic states. I know that I’m trying to use this word somewhat carefully so that we can make sure we understand what I mean by magnetic states. But you’re made up of a ton of different electromagnetic forces. When we start to change the physics of our body because of the magnetic forces that we’re putting around ourselves, that’s also the equivalent of eating that junk food.
Other activities aside from using electronic devices
Dr. Bryan: It sounds like you would suggest that people actually eat healthier foods and they also maybe do sports or activities. What could they do for their mind?
Jude: They could read books, like read a certain number of books a day or read a certain amount of time. Or just try to do something besides something that involves electronics, maybe like sit outside for a little bit, maybe go fishing, maybe do something fun.
Dr. Bryan: Those are all great ideas. There are so many wonderful things we could do outside. We can go outside, fishing and hunting and walking, hiking, bike riding, shooting baskets, jump rope, scooters, skateboards. For the adults, there’s nothing wrong with gardening and just walking or planting a garden or a home project.
Do your part in this fight
The question I would have to you and you Jude, is do you think everybody is doing their part?
Jude: No.
Dr. Bryan: Do you think everybody could try a little harder?
Jude: Yes.
Dr. Bryan: And what do you think would happen to all these viruses and different bad things if we all tried harder to make ourselves healthy?
Jude: That they wouldn’t spread and they wouldn’t go around the world.
Dr. Bryan: And if they didn’t spread and didn’t go around the world, do you think you’d be able to go back to sports or no sports?
Jude: Yes.
Dr. Bryan: And if it didn’t spread and people were taking good care of themselves, do you think you would be able to go back to school?
Jude: Yes.
Dr. Bryan: And do you think you’d be able to see your friends?
Jude: Yes.
Dr. Bryan: Can you see how much of an impact just making bad healthy choices has?
Jude: Yes.
Closing Thoughts
Dr. Bryan: When we choose to make bad choices, we don’t typically see the worldwide impact that our little, little behaviors are having. They trickle all the way down to how your nine-year-old feels in regards to distancing themselves from their friends or their inability to play sports or getting bored. Think about it! I just wanted to give you a short little message. Jude, is there anything else that you’d want to share before we finish up this recording?
Jude: Make good choices and take care of your body and eat healthy so the viruses don’t spread.
Dr. Bryan: I don’t think I could have said it any better. My kid’s perspective. The last component that we didn’t really touch much on is taking care of your physical structure, taking care of your biochemical structure, making sure that you’re reducing stress by staying in proper alignment with chiropractic care, yoga, physical stretching or relaxation techniques.
You can sit in infrared saunas, you can meditate, you can pray, you can journal. But inevitably feeding off of the disease of media stimulation is just like feeding off of Skittles over and over and over, which stimulates the body in a harmful way and spreads the disease and keeps us away from our friends. You’ve heard my kid’s perspective. Jude, thank you so much for joining us.
Jude: Thanks for letting me be in this podcast.
Dr. Bryan: You’re welcome. All right. Until next time, if you want to hear this episode, you can find it on the website, thewellnessconnection.com.