Good Health

In order to be really healthy, we need to have a good balance of physical, mental and spiritual health. Here are a few pointers towards what is required for each of these aspects and although they are mainly common sense, it is surprising how all of us need to be reminded of them from time to time. So check out how you think you are doing in each of these sections.

Physical Health

There are many different aspects involved in overall good physical health and it is necessary to have a balance of all of these in our life if we wish to look after ourselves properly. Here are some of the basic essentials which are easy enough for most of us to implement into our daily routine.

Food intake

In order to maintain a healthy body and mind, we need to nourish ourselves with a balanced intake of good quality nutritious food including a minimum of five servings of fresh fruit and vegetables per day. The intake of food should be regular, with breakfast being one of the most important meals of the day. If the body is not given food early on in the day, it will think it is likely to be starved and may become stressed. The digestive juices will also start to work on something and if there is no food present, those acidic juices will get to work on what is present i.e. the person’s own digestive system which can lead to the formation of ulcers. Without food early in the day, the body may also start to lay down fat stores in case it continues to be starved later on. This is not a healthy scenario and can create its own challenges of low energy, difficulty concentrating, irritability, weight problems and poor health.

Research has also shown that due to the very poor quality of our soil these days, we cannot physically eat enough of the healthy fruit and vegetables that we require in order to give us our necessary daily intake of vitamins and minerals. Therefore, we may require supplementary vitamins and minerals of a good quality. Please be aware that the gelatine capsules of some of these supplements do not dissolve within the body's system to release their contents, and are passing straight through without releasing their goodness, therefore be careful what brands you buy. A tip for checking that they will dissolve in the gut is to put a capsule in a cup of cider vinegar (the nearest in acid content to our digestive system) and make sure that the contents are released.

Please also check on the packets of vitamins and minerals that they do not contain aspartame as this is a poison to our bodies. Check out the following website for information on the dangers of aspartame. www.sweetpoison.com

Here is an extract from the above website :-

“The dangers of aspartame poisoning have been a well guarded secret since the 1980s. The research and history of aspartame is conclusive as a cause of illness and toxic reactions in the human body. Aspartame is a dangerous chemical food additive, and its use during pregnancy and by children is one of the greatest modern tragedies of all.”

Books on this subject are available: “Excitotoxins - The Taste that Kills” written by Dr. Russell Blayblock (Health Press 1-800-643-2665) and “Defense Against Alzheimer's Disease” written by Dr H. J. Roberts.

According to the Conference of the American College of Physicians "we are talking about a plague of neurological diseases caused by this deadly poison." They refer to aspartame.

Also check out the following website for information on Monosodium Glutamate as a possible cause of our obesity epidemic:- www.truthinlabeling.org

Water Intake

Our bodies are composed of 70% water (some sources say up to 80%). Brain cells are 75-85% water and good quality water can improve the mind and the brain. Our brains are hydrated first and foremost, sacrificing other areas of the body if necessary. Approximately 50% of cartilage in joints and discs is made of water and blood is composed of about 50% water.

It is absolutely vital that we maintain a good intake of approximately 8 glasses or 2 litres per day of water. This is variable depending on many factors including body size, amount of exercise undertaken, climatic conditions, intake of alcoholic drinks and coffee or tea and the intake of medications which can upset our natural water balance.

A drink of water is a quick way to raise your energy level and one of the first signs of dehydration is lethargy. Water is more important than food and can be used to clear the symptoms of many disorders and diseases of the body without the need for medication.

Click on the following link for information on the benefits of drinking water www.curezone.com/foods/watercure.asp

Another excellent read is “Your Body’s Many Cries for Water” by Dr. F. Batmanghelidj in which he describes how he has used water to cure many illnesses and disorders of the body.

Exercise

Exercise is a vital part of maintaining balance in our lives. We all require daily exercise to keep our energy moving and our blood flowing well in our bodies. Vigorous exercise also has the benefit of improving our lung function, increasing our heart rate, assisting our bodily processes and raising our spirits.

Exercise does not need to be in the form of strict regimes of gym workouts or jogging around the block. It is important that whatever exercise we choose, it is something that means fun for us, so if we love dancing, swimming, making up our own exercises to our favourite music or playing a sport, we are far more likely to continue with it on a regular basis. I am sure that partaking in a form of exercise that we hate doing is of little benefit to our inner self, whereas something that is fun to us will make us feel really good. The figure of 15 minutes of daily vigorous exercise is recommended.

As humans, we were never designed to be static for long periods of time in front of computers, televisions or sitting behind a desk, so it is vital that we have a regular stretch and move our muscles and joints in order to keep the blood flowing well and keep us alert.

Sleep

Sleep is something that is vastly underestimated in its importance in our everyday lives. Sleep time is when our body does its repair and regeneration and for children this is also when they grow. If we are not regenerating, we are degenerating and the reason that we have so many degenerative illnesses in the western world could be partially due to the fact that many of us have poor quality sleep.

Ways to increase your likelihood of a good night’s sleep are:-

1. Have a regular time and routine for going to bed that gives your body a chance of knowing that it is expected to sleep then.

2. Ensure that you are allowing time for gaining enough hours of sleep.

3. Make your sleep area a space that is kept only for rest and relaxation and not an area filled with electrical equipment that may interfere with your body’s natural energy flow e.g. a television or computer. If you are unable to avoid this, at least have the equipment as far away from the bed as possible.

4. Avoid hot, spicy foods and caffeine filled foods and drinks near to bedtime.

5. Give your body positive talk and messages that you expect it to give you a good night’s sleep.

6. Do some relaxation or read a relaxing book prior to going to sleep and avoid reading or watching anything with high drama or that requires intense brain activity.

7. Ensure that you have a good comfortable mattress and pillow and that your body temperature is kept appropriate for you through the night.

8. Avoid any electrical cables or wiring under the bed or behind the headboard.

9. Thick curtains or blackout curtains can prevent you from being awoken by the light from the sun or street lighting.

10. Regular daily exercise can improve sleep.

Check out the following link for information on sleep

www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/understanding_sleep_brain_basic.htm

The Mental Aspects

The power of the mind greatly influences our lives in many different ways from our health, happiness and attitude to the limitations that we put on ourselves.

The age old saying of “you are what you think” is so true and it is important that we understand this concept to be able to make the most of our lives. Just by having an awareness of what we spend our time thinking about will give us many clues as to what we are creating in our lives. Those of us who focus on our ill health all the time are maintaining that situation of poor health whereas if we began to focus on becoming healthier each day we would start to change our lives for the better. This follows for all other aspects of our life as shown beautifully in the book and DVD “The Secret” which explains the power of the Law of Attraction.

Let us understand a few things about how our minds work.

The sub-conscious mind

The sub-conscious mind will accept whatever we tell it as being so. It has no powers of deduction as to whether the facts are rational or not. Just like anything we programme into a computer, the sub-conscious mind takes the information on board and then creates the changes within our body to bring about whatever situation it has been told to comply with.

Therefore, if we constantly tell ourselves that we are hopeless at doing something or we can’t do it; the sub-conscious will work on making sure that that becomes self-fulfilling. Equally well, if we bombard the sub-conscious with messages that we are very capable of doing a particular task, it will work on making that viable.

Many of us use very negative mind sets about our possibilities and limit ourselves tremendously from achieving all sorts of things in our lives. We can choose to change this by choosing to change our thoughts about ourselves and how we view our future.

Another thing about this part of our mind is that it does not understand negative terminology e.g. if we tell our body not to get fatter, the sub-conscious mind will pick up the part – "body get fatter" which is far from what we are wanting. In the same way, if we shout to our child “don’t drop that vase”, the child’s sub-conscious will pick up “drop that vase” and may comply beautifully and then we wonder why?? As a little tip therefore, if you wish to get a message across to your child or other family member, say it in a positive phrase and you are more likely to get the desired result.

Also, if you do not wish your child to take on the idea of being difficult, a menace, stupid, a “Kevin”, naughty or any other negative concepts, then it is advisable not to programme their minds with the thought in the first place. We are then giving them the chance to be who they were designed to be from the beginning, rather than programming them with a negative characteristic.

A very good book to read is The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy which explains how we can use these understandings for our advantage.

Right and Left Brain

Gaining more of a balance between right and left brain activities can be very powerful for assisting us in becoming more successful and effective. Many of our acknowledged geniuses were very accomplished at doing this but it is something of which we are all capable.

The left brain’s focus is on our verbal, logical, and analytical processing where we address the different pieces of information before making them into a whole.

The right brain is responsible for our intuitive and creative side where we use our imagination and think in pictures. Here, we look at the whole picture before breaking it down into its component parts.

We usually have a natural tendency towards one way of thinking which in turn has implications for how we will best learn. The more we can open up our minds to make use of both the left and right brain, the more we can tap into our potential.

Unfortunately, most of our time in office work is spent doing left brain activities where we use logical thought, unless we have a particularly creative job, so it is good if we can redress the balance by bringing in more creative activities in our hobbies or home activities.

Visualisation

Something else to understand is that the pictures that we hold in our mind tend to be more powerful for us than our thoughts e.g. if your young child wakes up from a nightmare of seeing monsters in their bedroom and you switch on the light to show them that there is not a monster in sight, although they want to believe you, when that light goes off again, the images of those monsters return and override any logical thought.

We can use the power of pictures to assist in creating what we want in our lives by using visualisation techniques. Here, we decide what we want to create and paint that picture in our mind just like an architect puts forward a picture of what he wants as the end result for a building.

Many of our top professional sports stars use this tried and tested technique of visualisation with great success to help them gain that extra edge over others.

However if what we are thinking and what we are picturing do not match, then that sets up conflict within us that can lead to confusion, depression and exhaustion. Therefore it is always vital to make sure that what we say we want in our life matches what we really want.

It is also helpful to focus on where we want to go in our lives rather than on what we fear e.g. if we are riding a bicycle along a rocky trail, it is better to keep our focus on the path ahead rather than on the obstacles along the way, otherwise we are most likely to hit the rocks instead of keeping on the path.

The Secret To Achieving Success in your life

If you take the following steps towards whatever it is you want in your life, you will gain the success that you desire. However, each of these factors are important as part of the process.

1. Decide clearly what you want in your life.

2. Visualise it and emotionalise it.

3. Affirm it from the heart.

4. Work with confidence and determination towards that vision.

5. Focus on it ceaselessly.

6. Let go of needing it to happen in a particular way.

7. Allow yourself to receive it.

A very helpful book for assisting you in this process is “Ask and it is Given- Learning to Manifest your Desires” by Esther and Jerry Hicks.

Spiritual Health

We are talking here about the health of our inner self or soul. We are not entering the realms of religious beliefs which are all down to personal choice.

It is very important that we begin to understand the factors that we as individuals require to provide us with peace and harmony; the full acceptance of ourselves and those around us; and a feeling of oneness with everything.

We can start to gain connection with this vital aspect of our life by doing some silent sitting, relaxation, meditation or whatever else we choose to name it. In this quiet relaxed space, we allow ourselves to listen to what our inner voice or higher self wants to communicate to us. This is totally alien to many of us in our lives of constant hustle and bustle, where we avoid taking the time to re-connect with our higher self, but it is well known that following the induced state of peace and harmony, we can be at our most effective.

I highly recommend that both you and your children take time each day to practice this either by sitting quietly in a comfortable position with eyes closed and clearing the mind of all thoughts, or by following a guided meditation where you are encouraged to relax and then listen to the voice leading you through the relaxation.

Once you have cleared yourself of stress, you are then more open-minded for learning new information and more aware of the world around you. You will also feel more loving towards yourself and others and less judgemental, thereby creating more harmony in your life.

Another important aspect for our inner self is to make sure that we have some fun and laughter in our life on a daily basis. When we are experiencing fun and joy in our lives, we are far more likely to go with the flow of life rather than battling against it and in that state of joy we will be more relaxed in ourselves and with others around us.

It is possible to have fun doing all kinds of things which come for free, so needing money to have fun is not necessary. Even if you are in the worst scenario of either being imprisoned or paralysed, it is still possible to have fun because we can all use our power of imagination and create the fun in our mind, if necessary.

Gaining the balance of all the above aspects of our life will give us real fulfilment, but if one of them is out of balance, life may become challenging. An athlete who ignores good nutritional intake may develop problems with lack of energy or muscle challenges. Someone who eats healthily but is always thinking negatively will most likely create a life that does not flow well at all. Another individual who meditates regularly but fails to exercise or eat healthily may develop physical challenges.

We must look after ourselves in every possible way in order to keep in the peak of good health and following the above simple guidelines can really make a big difference in your life.