How to make a great day – Give your body and mind a treat

Many of us have at least one health problem that we can directly link with our lifestyle; what we eat, what we do and what we don’t do that we should. We mostly go through life like zombies; on auto. We have our routines, habits and things we have to do on a daily basis just so that our lives can function. We get up, eat breakfast (sometimes), get ready for work, go to work, eat lunch (maybe at your desk) work some more, come home, eat, do those chores that just won’t wait anymore (clear out the garage, mend your child’s bike, put up some shelves, wash, cook, clean etc), then guess what? It’s time for bed. You might sleep, or you might just lie there for an hour or two hoping that sleep will overtake you and you will be granted the rest you need.

If this sounds familiar, maybe what follows might sound good. You can fit most of it into your daily routine, with maybe just a little more at the weekends. Read more to find out how to make a great day.

Love your reflection – you need it.                                                                                    

First thing in the morning, as soon as you get up, go straight to your mirror, look into your own eyes and tell yourself you love you and mean it. “I love you Susan” may sound wierd to you at first and, if you just can’t bring yourself to say “love”, then say you appreciate yourself, you’re doing a great job. Doing this kind of mirror work helps in all kinds of self dialogue, and will give you a good start to the day.  Louise Hay in her book “You can heal your life” says that if you don’t love yourself, then you can’t really give it to others. We all need love and we have to give it to ourselves.  You can get this book from Amazon, and it is a very good read indeed.

Meditation – take control of your own mind                                                   

If you have ever tried meditation and decided you sucked at it, that it just wasn’t for you and that you just couldn’t keep those intrusive thoughts at bay long enough to get anywhere, then here are a couple of solutions for you.

There is a great book by a man called Jose Silva called “You the healer”. In it he shows you how to quickly and easily focus the mind on a particular problem, whether it’s a situation, a pain, excessive anger or frustration. Because the mind has a task in hand, you don’t need to try to empty or calm the mind; that will happen anyway once you start the process. I have used this technique for years to cure physical, mental and emotional problems.

If you feel this isn’t the one for you, then you can try guided meditation on YouTube. There are so many on there that you are bound to find one that suits you. There are guided meditations to get you going and energize you in the morning, inspire you during the day, cheer you up when you’re sad, give you enthusiasm, stop procrastination and some to put you to sleep at night. All you have to do is lie there, close your eyes and listen whilst someone paints a mental picture for you. So good.

Laugh yourself happy                                                                                       

Laughter stimulates our endorphins which promote the feelgood hormones and combat stress and tension in our bodies, so any chance for a good laugh should be sought after and grabbed with both hands.

The Dry Bar videos on YouTube (again) are fabulous entertainment. They are guaranteed to be clean and funny. Each video is from a different comedian and all are followed by the next one, so an absolute festival of comedy to suit everyone’s sense of humor.

Another source of laughter are the funny animals on YouTube. There are cats, dogs, goats, squirrels, racoons, meerkats, parrots, lizards, cows, chickens, chimps – you name it, it’s there. Some are cute, some are stupid, some are clever; (cows opening gates, cats turning off light switches, dogs opening closed doors – you get the picture). The advantage too is that you can watch it with the kids and give them a laugh as well.

Exercise – the good kind                                                                                          

Even though we are all mega busy, there are usually a couple of short windows in our day when we can do just a little bit of exercise. Again, as with laughter, this stimulates the endorphins to lighten your mood and make you feel happier.

If you have a yard or garden, you could do something fun like learning to hula hoop; the weighted ones are really easy to keep up and you’ll give yourself a mini cardio workout.

If you live in an apartment, then YouTube again can be your best friend. There are lots of short videos on there, some as short as 7 minutes.

The one I have in mind is made by a lady called Lucy; I did her “7 minute workout – 7 days to lose your belly fat” today. I am super unfit at the moment, especially with this coronavirus lockdown, and am only just now starting to do something about it, so I’m starting slow and hoping to build up to a useful level of fitness. Her website is www.lwrfitness.com, and I know you will find something on there to suit you. If not, YouTube has a massive range to get you started if, like me, you are totally unfit, or others to improve on your physique if you’re not as lazy as me.

Grounding – connect with Mother Nature                                                 

This one might sound a bit hippyish and out there, but there is plenty of science to back it up. Because we wear shoes and don’t get as much contact with bare earth, grass and sand as we would if we were still living in the caves, we can get what is known as Electron Deficiency Syndrome. This causes inflammation, which in turn can cause diseases, including heart disease, together with high blood pressure, weight gain and thickening of the blood.

When we do connect with the earth by either walking barefoot, lying on the ground or just hugging a tree (which itself is grounded), we absorb electrons, which increase cellular energy, ATP in our cells and our energy levels.

It is said to help people with migraines by reducing inflammation and avoiding mitochondrial dysfunction in our cells. If you add the supplement CoQ10, that will add to the benefit of grounding also.

Healthier Blood. Grounding helps to thin your blood, improving your Zeta potential. It takes 80 minutes a week – 12 minutes a day- for free electrons to reach the blood stream and transform your blood. For this reason, you should be careful about doing grounding if you are on blood thinning medication until that medication is reduced.

Connecting with nature is one of the most enjoyable ways of staying healthy and happy; such a great feeling.

Enjoy the sunshine – Get your vitamins                                                               

We get vitamins from the sunshine and so, whilst you are walking in the grass, lying on the beach or just hugging a tree, you can get the 20 minutes it will take to absorb your daily intake of the life giving nutrients that our lovely warm sun has to offer.

For those 20 minutes you should not apply sun protection; this will just block out the sun’s rays and you won’t get any real benefit, except maybe a tan.

The obvious exception to this, of course, is if you already have skin cancer, in which case you should always apply a total sun block.

Eat healthily – try it for a day                                                                                 

Eating healthy doesn’t need to be boring or tasteless; in fact quite the opposite. Once you start exploring all the wide range of foods that are available to us in our amazing civilized world, you might be surprised to find that you actually like healthy food.

Sweet, starchy carbs are addicting, so that when we haven’t had them for a couple of days we actually crave them. They taste great, I know, but flour based foods such as cakes, bread, biscuits etc, together with rice, pasta, red meat and some oils, cause inflammation and bloating; and that inflammation, in turn, causes aches, pains and some diseases. If we can hold off eating these foods for, say, a week, we can break the hold of these addictions and gift ourselves a healthier body.

Healthy foods not only nourish our bodies better, giving us more energy, better brain function, better libido and strength; some foods, such as lettuce, actually improve our mood too. This is in the short-term; in the long-term they can help us to avoid some cancers, stomach problems, type 2 diabetes and many other avoidable lifestyle induced diseases.

So maybe, just for one day, try a meat free, starchy carb free day. Fruit should always be eaten on an empty stomach, as it putrefies whatever food is already in the stomach and is digested easier on its own; so try a breakfast of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples, oranges, bananas, mangoes or whatever fruit tickles your fancy. You can eat fruit all morning till 12 o’clock if you are worried that it won’t fill you up. Don’t be tempted to add yogurt, as this will interfere with the absorption of the nutrients.

Leave it for an hour to empty your stomach and then for lunch, maybe, try a salad; in addition to the normal basic salad, you can add cashew nuts, chopped up medjool dates, seeds, capers and anything similar to tickle your taste buds.

Later on, for your evening meal, a stir-fry can be a tasty treat; there are all sorts of stir-fry sauces you can choose from and one of them will certainly make your meal the delicious feast you desire.

If you get peckish in-between meals, my favorite is to get a tub of humus, chop up raw cauliflower, carrots, celery, broccoli and any other crunchy veggies that you like, and just sit and dip. I can never leave any humus in the pot, so I am pretty full once I’ve cleared my plate. Eating raw fruit and veg gives you the maximum nutrition that sometimes gets left behind when cooked. If you’re trying this veggie day during cold weather and don’t feel like eating cold food, then maybe try a home made soup, curry, vegetable lasagne or any one of the massive range of on-line recipes there are available, just for the picking.  My favorite is Carib Stew, made with jerk seasoning if you like a bit of spice.

I’m hoping you will feel so good and enjoy the food so much that you won’t want to go back to your old eating habits but, even if you do go back, I also hope that you will take with you a little of what you have experienced on your healthy day and give yourself some of the nutrition that your body deserves.

I hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read

As you can see from the above, I’m a massive fan of YouTube and of living a healthy lifestyle; but I’m no different from anyone else. I have my days when I lie around watching rubbish on TV, sometimes into the wee small hours of the morning. I too have my binge days when I just eat and stuff my face with sweet treats that I don’t actually enjoy anymore; it’s like someone else’s hand is feeding me. The thing that saves me is that I have a mental baseline of what is good for me and how much I can stray from that line.

I’m not as slim as I would like and not as fit as I should be, but I’m also not as fat or unfit as I could be. I’m healthy enough to know that I probably won’t develop any life threatening diseases, because I eat well most of the time. God might decide differently, but hopefully not.

Here’s to a fit, strong, healthy, long life and an enjoyable old age.

Stay strong.

Anne

Therapeutic Living Inspiration