Keys to Health and Healing

If you want to experience the greatest potential for health and happiness, it is important to have a strategy. It is in the nature of the pulse of life to move through periods of health and occasional illness or injury. Most of the time our body naturally recovers. However, our body's natural ability to heal is often hindered or slowed due to effects of stress. Although short bouts of stress actually elevate our body's natural defenses, long-term stress wears us down.

Most of us think of stress as the result of interpersonal-connections or our mental response to life's circumstances. But much of the stress that decreases health is measurable physical stress on the body. On a daily basis, we are all exposed to countless chemical toxins in which our bodies work viligently to filter out. These chemicals come at us in the air, in our water, in our food, in our grooming and beauty products, in our cleaners, weed killers and more. Our bodies experiences stress from less than ideal diets, constricted breathing and dehydration. Decreased movement, poor alignment and repetitive use movements wear down our musculo-skeletal system. Lack of sleep, a disconnection from nature, lack of sun exposure, noise pollution, too much staring at tvs and computer screens, among many other habits all contribute to physical stress.

It's not my intention to cause more stress by pointing all of these challenging influences out but I do want to call attention to the importance of having a personal health and well-being strategy. What can you do to nourish and care for yourself, your family and your environment so that you may offset some of the daily stressors we all experience? These small habits and rituals or "keys"  that you incorporate into your lifestyle will support your body's natural tendency to thrive.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Decrease the amount of toxic chemicals that you are exposed to on a daily basis. There are great natural cleaning and grooming products out there that are healthier for you and our environment.
• Check your drinking water. I've been hearing about this element of health more and more lately. Recently I came across an article on the health and safety of the drinking water in our country. Although our City of Cincinnati was rated 16th in the healthiest drinking water out of 100 cities in the nation, there were still 7 chemicals that exceeded health guidelines and 16 pollutants found in the water. Changes we might make to consume healthier water might be to decrease our own use of chemicals, get a water purifier and demand healthier tap water. This link will take you to the study http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/home .
• Reduce the amount of processed and refined food that you consume. Increase your consumption of fresh, natural, organic and whole foods.
• Get daily exercise.
• Check up on your posture. An Anusara yoga class is a great place to learn more. You might also make an appointment with a well-informed personal trainer, yoga teacher or chiropractor.
• Get out in nature. The air is most pure amongst a grove of trees. Give your mind a rest from the drama of everyday life by visiting  a park. Our natural world is essential to our health and survival and also reminds of the great energy of life that we all share. 
• Put some stress relief strategies in place. A few ideas might be: breath exercises, daily exercise, hobbies, getting together with good friends, visualization, journaling or just anything that makes you feel good naturally.

On his holiday, I didn't feel like I should leave today's blog entry without mentioning Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. All of us can use his example as a source of inspiration. He knew in his heart that what he experienced in the world around him was not right. He cultivated courage, wisdom, passion and endurance to make changes with great skill. He aided the transformation of an entire nation of people and overcame fear, hate and resistance. If he had it in him to influence history, I believe we all have it in us to make simple changes that will create a better life for ourselves and our world.

Take care!