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Building Your Personal Wellness Program !
Previous in series : Why Be Healthy ?
Today our most basic needs - good quality food, clean air and water - are no longer givens. For the most part our culture doesn't teach a healthy lifestyle, and many environmental hazards we face are still not even fully recognized. If we hope for long term health, we must actively seek it.
The first step in this direction is an actual desire for it – for health in our bodies, in our thinking and our feeling life. Progress in these things require a certain discipline - a "personal wellness program" of our own choice, with clear steps and goals. Key to our success will be that we do these things - consistently !
Here are some ways to strengthen your personal wellness program.
First Things First : Wellness From The Inside Out
As human beings we live in three worlds : the inner world of our thoughts, feelings and intentions ; the external world and environment around us ; and our social world of relationship with others. To work with these worlds we available to us three faculties, common to all human beings : namely our thinking, our feeling and or willing (ability to act, do and take initiative). At best we learn to use these faculties increasingly well in the course of life, from childhood on - but it's not guaranteed.
Problems in this realm can be overcome in various ways - some explored elsewhere on this website ; but we can also build health in our thinking, feeling and willing through certain simple daily practices. We'll touch on this often in the course of this article, with links to other resources. The point here is that although these things are important, wellness is much more than the right diet, foods and exercise ; at the heart of health is the human being him or herself. This is the core, the heart of the matter, and this is where we plant our wellness flag.
This Much Said : Eat Healthy !
- Give fresh fruits and vegetables - organic wherever possible - a bigger place in your life. Also include at least some raw foods. Raw foods (salads, carrot and celery sticks, grated beets) especially support blood flow to the skin, brain and nervous system. Notice the difference in your mental focus and alertness when you add raw foods.
- Healthy dietary fats (organic butter and dairy products, olive oil, cod liver oil, flaxseed oil, sunflower seed oil, organic meats) are also essential to these organs. Dark green leafy vegetables (chard, kale, bok choy, spinach, dandelion greens, beet greens) strengthen especially the respiratory organs, among other important benefits.
- Sauerkraut and other lactic acid fermentation foods and vegetables are supportive to the digestion overall. These can also be put on salads, or served in a small portion as an appetizer. For additional lactic acid fermentation vegetable choices, consult your local health food store, or a book like Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.
- Not just sources of nutrient “building blocks”, plants are alive, and this is more a part of why they’re good for us than we realize. Freezing, overcooking, extreme processing, microwaving beyond a quick warm up, all drive out that life.
- Highest quality meat and dairy products. We respect vegetarian and vegan lifestyles - for some, they will be just the right choice. But we're not against meat or dairy as such.
There's certainly much to be concerned about in this realm of food and nutrition : highly chemical vs natural feeding practices, intensive use of chemicals on lands/environments in which they're raised ; relentless treatments with vaccines and antibiotics ; and not least, their crowded, inhumane treatment and confinement all through their lives. Still, the nutrients they contribute represent some of nature's greatest achievements ; and for children or those who are sick, may be best and most essential sources.
Our caveat concerning meats and dairy, therefore, is that they come from known, range or pasture raised, organic or biodynamic sources. Our attitude towards these foods, and the creatures from which they come is one of the deepest gratefulness. Trustworthy resources in animal-based nutrition include the Weston A Price Foundation, and again, Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions.
- Eat the right foods at the right time of day. The body digests proteins and fats best in the early part of the day, before 3 pm. It deals best with carbohydrates from 3 pm on. Some flexibility is of course possible, but the body's rhythms, particularly those of the liver, like this general pattern best. Remember too, concerning times of day, that a heavy dinner eaten close to bedtime will mostly be stored as fat !
- For the same reason, keep portion sizes light to moderate, depending on how much exercise you get. Eat light snacks between meals for energy or blood sugar if needed, bearing in mind what we’ve said about carbohydrates, fats, proteins and times of day. No matter what kind of food we eat, if we eat too much, it will be stored as fat !
Great effort is expended by the food industry to addict us to intense taste experiences. But healthy foods should also never taste bland or dull. Experiment with some of our recommendations below, and find tastes you truly love.
.
Living Waters Wellness Articles : Nutrition
Drink Healthy Too
Drink 6-8 large glasses of teas, water or broth a day unless you have a medical reason not to. Be sure to drink more when the weather is hot
Key Benefits of Drinking Water Best Timing for Drinking Water
As with foods, we’ve become addicted to intense tastes in our beverage choices. Learn about herbal teas, and dilute store-bought juices by at least 75%. Find tastes you like that are less sweet, and eliminate sodas, high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners from your life.
U.S. tap water is generally fairly contaminated, so special measures are in order. Spring water is fine, but to save money – and the environmental costs of plastic and packaging – filter your own at home. According to your budget, consider a simple pitcher style filter or a system connected to your faucet.
Water Filtration/Purification Systems
Get Toxic Stuff Out of Your Life
- Take a big axe to any remaining junk food, soda, white flour, hyper-sugar and hyper-caffeine consumption. Get them out of the house, and bring better choices in. If you're dining out, order something different !
- Learn more about environmental toxic substances - and take steps to reduce your exposures.
- Eliminate toxic products from your personal skin, body, and hair care product choices. Evaluate the products you currently use, and if needed, find better ones.
How Safe are Your Skin and Body Care Products ?
- Eliminate toxic household products from your home. Follow this link for many totally non-toxic housecleaning tips. Beyond this, your local coop or health food store should have plenty of eco-and human-friendly products.
- Make a shift to natural fiber clothing and bedding. Respiration by way of the skin is far more important than we realize. Cotton, silk, wool and hemp fibers permit this best. And while you're at it, check at your local health food store for non-toxic laundry products !
- Beyond these measures, take stock of any toxic influence in your life - not just unhealthy foods and substances, but unhealthy activities, attitudes and relationships. What do they cost you in terms of health, self esteem, peace of mind ? Are you drifting gradually from your long term goals? Keep a "consequences journal" of any bad habit or influence - keep the downside right in front of you, where you can see it.
Get "Cosmic Nutrition" Into Your Life
- Seek sunshine, fresh air and the company of green growing things. Truth to tell, experiences of nature and of beautiful sense impressions are as important to our health as any food. Put a half hour's walk in some pleasing place outdoors into your planner - in ink !
If for reasons of time, pain or strength you’re unable to walk, at least find a nice place to sit in the sun. Half an hour twice a day goes a long way.
- "For a long life, have oil on the body and honey in the diet". Take this health tip from the ancient Greeks. Oil helps shield us from unhealthy environmental influences, and loosens the grip of the external world on us. The Greeks used olive oil, and this is a fine starting point. Honey in small amounts strengthens the inner human being, so it can fully master and penetrate the physical body, and hold its own in a busy world.
Apply oil on the kidney area, the chest (large, slow figures of eight) and the belly (large clockwise circles). Apply lightly morning and evening. If no medical restrictions prevent it, eat a teaspoon of honey in the afternoon or evening, for instance on a piece of whole grain toast.
An exception to the honey and oil measure : honey is not generally recommended for children under five. While honey eases and extends the process by which we leave the world, the process children are engaged in is different. They’re coming down into the world – they need to “arrive” and take hold of their bodies. Again, limit honey use in small children.
- Incorporate nutritional baths into your personal health program. For ingredients, you'll need a cup of milk, an egg and a lemon, all organic.
Pour the milk into a large glass or stainless steel bowl, and cut the lemon in half. Score the rims of the lemon halves, and crush them in the bowl of milk, so the pulp and essential oils in the lemon skin are also included. Now add the egg, and whisk all ingredients together briskly.
For persons (including children over five) with the tendency to become too dense and "trapped" in their bodies, and an inclination towards premature hardening, a teaspoon of organic honey can
be added to the mix.
Prepare your bath water to a temperature that will remain comfortably warm after 20 minutes.
Pour the mixture into the bath water, and stir it in with large, peaceful, rhythmical figure eight movements. Don’t use soap or shampoo during a nutritional bath.
Take baths of 20 minutes 1 to 3 times a week in the evening, and go to bed afterward. This kind of bath is especially helpful when you’re run down, under stress or convalescing from an illness.
- If you haven’t already, get some form of physical exercise into your life. Movement doesn’t just keep your muscles limber, it lifts your mood and stimulates the brain. Walking is a universally beneficial activity. Consider yoga, eurythmy, or swimming if more vigorous exercise is too much. Whichever form of exercise works best for you, always begin with warm ups and gentle stretching.
More About Cosmic Nutrition
Leave Room for Feelings
Give your feelings the full space they need. Why is this important ?
We use our external senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch - to gather information about the external world. If we handle what we receive well, we orient ourselves in the world, and we make good choices.
Our feelings give us information about our inner world, and they too need a chance to tell their story. To make judgements hastily concerning our feelings ; to suppress or squash them down ; to distract ourselves from them in various ways ; to act them out impulsively – all these things interrupt our feeling life, and prevent it from unfolding.
What helps is to become a witness to our feelings - to let ourselves feel them, look them through, and simply observe them, until the facts emerge and we can make decisions truly based in reality.
- Maintain clarity and sanity by means of a journal. This can be a place to explore feelings, for problem solving or for poetry. Put the goals and steps of your personal wellness program in black and white here. Identify practical steps, and fine tune them as needed. Keep yourself honest with regular journal entries.
Overcoming Nervousness
- If there’s some issue or problem you can’t work out on your own, bring it to a trusted friend. Play out the facts of the situation, your feelings or your questions aloud, and see how it sounds. Make use of their listening ear, their feedback or a reality check you may need to hear.
Cultivate trustworthy friends - choose with care ! Choose people who don’t especially want something from you, and who don’t need you to play a certain role for them. People who have a genuine free space in them for you and your concerns, and who are interested in you just for yourself . These are the kind of folks who make good friends and confidants. Keep your eyes open for such people, always. And once you’ve become friends, keep the contact fresh !
Leave Room for The Spirit
- Cultivate health in your inner life. This may include prayer and meditation, church participation, 12 step programs, psychotherapy or any combination of these. The fruits of this may appear first in terms of peace of mind and better relations with others ; but evidence also indicates they support physical health, especially over longer periods of time.
If you don’t already, take 5 or 10 minutes several times a day to clear your mind, work with a favorite verse - or just simply talk with God. Brief as it is, it will help you keep your priorities straight, and “reset your clock” refreshingly for the hours to come.
Working with a Verse
- Cultivate a lifelong relationship to knowledge and learning. This can include studies formal or informal - but also an enduring interest and observation of the world around you. Only when we’ve truly come to know the world, it’s said, do we truly know ourselves.
- Both with yourself and in your dealings with others, practice a rigorous honesty. It’s easy enough to put parts of our lives into “compartments”, where we don’t look at what doesn’t appeal to us. Better, though, to embrace the facts and our problems, before they turn on us as consequences.
- Make time in your life for others. If we look at ourselves closely, we’ll notice that the best qualities we have, we’ve actually received from others. This happens especially when they set us good examples, and when they loved us. But indirectly, even those who hurt us often help us in the end.
Whether through good examples or bad, others help us grow beyond ourselves, stimulate us to think or to do something worthwhile with our lives. When we take interest in others, it works back mysteriously on us in a healing, strengthening way.
- In your professional life, strive to find a work you truly love. If you can’t for some reason do that work now, keep your vision alive through hobbies and trainings, and keep your course set on your star. In the meantime, refine your skills in your present work, and give it your best each day.
- Establish priorities in your life. On the everyday level, this means seeing which practical tasks are most important and which less, and doing the most important first. But we can also set priorities in other ways. A wise person once suggested that we first give attention to our relationship with God ; then to our relationship with our fellow human beings ; and only then to our work and career. For some of us, this may stand our usual way of life on its head – but it’s advice worth considering.
More About Priorities
- Lastly : quietly but persistently have questions concerning your destiny. What is it, actually, that you came down to this earth to do ? Is there something special the world needs you to be or contribute ? The big picture may not emerge all at once. But your attention and loyalty to these larger questions can only work positively on your health and peace of mind.
Destiny !
Article by : Jeff Smith RN (Retired)
Previous in series : Why Be Healthy ?
Today our most basic needs - good quality food, clean air and water - are no longer givens. For the most part our culture doesn't teach a healthy lifestyle, and many environmental hazards we face are still not even fully recognized. If we hope for long term health, we must actively seek it.
The first step in this direction is an actual desire for it – for health in our bodies, in our thinking and our feeling life. Progress in these things require a certain discipline - a "personal wellness program" of our own choice, with clear steps and goals. Key to our success will be that we do these things - consistently !
Here are some ways to strengthen your personal wellness program.
First Things First : Wellness From The Inside Out
As human beings we live in three worlds : the inner world of our thoughts, feelings and intentions ; the external world and environment around us ; and our social world of relationship with others. To work with these worlds we available to us three faculties, common to all human beings : namely our thinking, our feeling and or willing (ability to act, do and take initiative). At best we learn to use these faculties increasingly well in the course of life, from childhood on - but it's not guaranteed.
Problems in this realm can be overcome in various ways - some explored elsewhere on this website ; but we can also build health in our thinking, feeling and willing through certain simple daily practices. We'll touch on this often in the course of this article, with links to other resources. The point here is that although these things are important, wellness is much more than the right diet, foods and exercise ; at the heart of health is the human being him or herself. This is the core, the heart of the matter, and this is where we plant our wellness flag.
This Much Said : Eat Healthy !
- Give fresh fruits and vegetables - organic wherever possible - a bigger place in your life. Also include at least some raw foods. Raw foods (salads, carrot and celery sticks, grated beets) especially support blood flow to the skin, brain and nervous system. Notice the difference in your mental focus and alertness when you add raw foods.
- Healthy dietary fats (organic butter and dairy products, olive oil, cod liver oil, flaxseed oil, sunflower seed oil, organic meats) are also essential to these organs. Dark green leafy vegetables (chard, kale, bok choy, spinach, dandelion greens, beet greens) strengthen especially the respiratory organs, among other important benefits.
- Sauerkraut and other lactic acid fermentation foods and vegetables are supportive to the digestion overall. These can also be put on salads, or served in a small portion as an appetizer. For additional lactic acid fermentation vegetable choices, consult your local health food store, or a book like Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.
- Not just sources of nutrient “building blocks”, plants are alive, and this is more a part of why they’re good for us than we realize. Freezing, overcooking, extreme processing, microwaving beyond a quick warm up, all drive out that life.
- Highest quality meat and dairy products. We respect vegetarian and vegan lifestyles - for some, they will be just the right choice. But we're not against meat or dairy as such.
There's certainly much to be concerned about in this realm of food and nutrition : highly chemical vs natural feeding practices, intensive use of chemicals on lands/environments in which they're raised ; relentless treatments with vaccines and antibiotics ; and not least, their crowded, inhumane treatment and confinement all through their lives. Still, the nutrients they contribute represent some of nature's greatest achievements ; and for children or those who are sick, may be best and most essential sources.
Our caveat concerning meats and dairy, therefore, is that they come from known, range or pasture raised, organic or biodynamic sources. Our attitude towards these foods, and the creatures from which they come is one of the deepest gratefulness. Trustworthy resources in animal-based nutrition include the Weston A Price Foundation, and again, Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions.
- Eat the right foods at the right time of day. The body digests proteins and fats best in the early part of the day, before 3 pm. It deals best with carbohydrates from 3 pm on. Some flexibility is of course possible, but the body's rhythms, particularly those of the liver, like this general pattern best. Remember too, concerning times of day, that a heavy dinner eaten close to bedtime will mostly be stored as fat !
- For the same reason, keep portion sizes light to moderate, depending on how much exercise you get. Eat light snacks between meals for energy or blood sugar if needed, bearing in mind what we’ve said about carbohydrates, fats, proteins and times of day. No matter what kind of food we eat, if we eat too much, it will be stored as fat !
Great effort is expended by the food industry to addict us to intense taste experiences. But healthy foods should also never taste bland or dull. Experiment with some of our recommendations below, and find tastes you truly love.
.
Living Waters Wellness Articles : Nutrition
Drink Healthy Too
Drink 6-8 large glasses of teas, water or broth a day unless you have a medical reason not to. Be sure to drink more when the weather is hot
Key Benefits of Drinking Water Best Timing for Drinking Water
As with foods, we’ve become addicted to intense tastes in our beverage choices. Learn about herbal teas, and dilute store-bought juices by at least 75%. Find tastes you like that are less sweet, and eliminate sodas, high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners from your life.
U.S. tap water is generally fairly contaminated, so special measures are in order. Spring water is fine, but to save money – and the environmental costs of plastic and packaging – filter your own at home. According to your budget, consider a simple pitcher style filter or a system connected to your faucet.
Water Filtration/Purification Systems
Get Toxic Stuff Out of Your Life
- Take a big axe to any remaining junk food, soda, white flour, hyper-sugar and hyper-caffeine consumption. Get them out of the house, and bring better choices in. If you're dining out, order something different !
- Learn more about environmental toxic substances - and take steps to reduce your exposures.
- Eliminate toxic products from your personal skin, body, and hair care product choices. Evaluate the products you currently use, and if needed, find better ones.
How Safe are Your Skin and Body Care Products ?
- Eliminate toxic household products from your home. Follow this link for many totally non-toxic housecleaning tips. Beyond this, your local coop or health food store should have plenty of eco-and human-friendly products.
- Make a shift to natural fiber clothing and bedding. Respiration by way of the skin is far more important than we realize. Cotton, silk, wool and hemp fibers permit this best. And while you're at it, check at your local health food store for non-toxic laundry products !
- Beyond these measures, take stock of any toxic influence in your life - not just unhealthy foods and substances, but unhealthy activities, attitudes and relationships. What do they cost you in terms of health, self esteem, peace of mind ? Are you drifting gradually from your long term goals? Keep a "consequences journal" of any bad habit or influence - keep the downside right in front of you, where you can see it.
Get "Cosmic Nutrition" Into Your Life
- Seek sunshine, fresh air and the company of green growing things. Truth to tell, experiences of nature and of beautiful sense impressions are as important to our health as any food. Put a half hour's walk in some pleasing place outdoors into your planner - in ink !
If for reasons of time, pain or strength you’re unable to walk, at least find a nice place to sit in the sun. Half an hour twice a day goes a long way.
- "For a long life, have oil on the body and honey in the diet". Take this health tip from the ancient Greeks. Oil helps shield us from unhealthy environmental influences, and loosens the grip of the external world on us. The Greeks used olive oil, and this is a fine starting point. Honey in small amounts strengthens the inner human being, so it can fully master and penetrate the physical body, and hold its own in a busy world.
Apply oil on the kidney area, the chest (large, slow figures of eight) and the belly (large clockwise circles). Apply lightly morning and evening. If no medical restrictions prevent it, eat a teaspoon of honey in the afternoon or evening, for instance on a piece of whole grain toast.
An exception to the honey and oil measure : honey is not generally recommended for children under five. While honey eases and extends the process by which we leave the world, the process children are engaged in is different. They’re coming down into the world – they need to “arrive” and take hold of their bodies. Again, limit honey use in small children.
- Incorporate nutritional baths into your personal health program. For ingredients, you'll need a cup of milk, an egg and a lemon, all organic.
Pour the milk into a large glass or stainless steel bowl, and cut the lemon in half. Score the rims of the lemon halves, and crush them in the bowl of milk, so the pulp and essential oils in the lemon skin are also included. Now add the egg, and whisk all ingredients together briskly.
For persons (including children over five) with the tendency to become too dense and "trapped" in their bodies, and an inclination towards premature hardening, a teaspoon of organic honey can
be added to the mix.
Prepare your bath water to a temperature that will remain comfortably warm after 20 minutes.
Pour the mixture into the bath water, and stir it in with large, peaceful, rhythmical figure eight movements. Don’t use soap or shampoo during a nutritional bath.
Take baths of 20 minutes 1 to 3 times a week in the evening, and go to bed afterward. This kind of bath is especially helpful when you’re run down, under stress or convalescing from an illness.
- If you haven’t already, get some form of physical exercise into your life. Movement doesn’t just keep your muscles limber, it lifts your mood and stimulates the brain. Walking is a universally beneficial activity. Consider yoga, eurythmy, or swimming if more vigorous exercise is too much. Whichever form of exercise works best for you, always begin with warm ups and gentle stretching.
More About Cosmic Nutrition
Leave Room for Feelings
Give your feelings the full space they need. Why is this important ?
We use our external senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch - to gather information about the external world. If we handle what we receive well, we orient ourselves in the world, and we make good choices.
Our feelings give us information about our inner world, and they too need a chance to tell their story. To make judgements hastily concerning our feelings ; to suppress or squash them down ; to distract ourselves from them in various ways ; to act them out impulsively – all these things interrupt our feeling life, and prevent it from unfolding.
What helps is to become a witness to our feelings - to let ourselves feel them, look them through, and simply observe them, until the facts emerge and we can make decisions truly based in reality.
- Maintain clarity and sanity by means of a journal. This can be a place to explore feelings, for problem solving or for poetry. Put the goals and steps of your personal wellness program in black and white here. Identify practical steps, and fine tune them as needed. Keep yourself honest with regular journal entries.
Overcoming Nervousness
- If there’s some issue or problem you can’t work out on your own, bring it to a trusted friend. Play out the facts of the situation, your feelings or your questions aloud, and see how it sounds. Make use of their listening ear, their feedback or a reality check you may need to hear.
Cultivate trustworthy friends - choose with care ! Choose people who don’t especially want something from you, and who don’t need you to play a certain role for them. People who have a genuine free space in them for you and your concerns, and who are interested in you just for yourself . These are the kind of folks who make good friends and confidants. Keep your eyes open for such people, always. And once you’ve become friends, keep the contact fresh !
Leave Room for The Spirit
- Cultivate health in your inner life. This may include prayer and meditation, church participation, 12 step programs, psychotherapy or any combination of these. The fruits of this may appear first in terms of peace of mind and better relations with others ; but evidence also indicates they support physical health, especially over longer periods of time.
If you don’t already, take 5 or 10 minutes several times a day to clear your mind, work with a favorite verse - or just simply talk with God. Brief as it is, it will help you keep your priorities straight, and “reset your clock” refreshingly for the hours to come.
Working with a Verse
- Cultivate a lifelong relationship to knowledge and learning. This can include studies formal or informal - but also an enduring interest and observation of the world around you. Only when we’ve truly come to know the world, it’s said, do we truly know ourselves.
- Both with yourself and in your dealings with others, practice a rigorous honesty. It’s easy enough to put parts of our lives into “compartments”, where we don’t look at what doesn’t appeal to us. Better, though, to embrace the facts and our problems, before they turn on us as consequences.
- Make time in your life for others. If we look at ourselves closely, we’ll notice that the best qualities we have, we’ve actually received from others. This happens especially when they set us good examples, and when they loved us. But indirectly, even those who hurt us often help us in the end.
Whether through good examples or bad, others help us grow beyond ourselves, stimulate us to think or to do something worthwhile with our lives. When we take interest in others, it works back mysteriously on us in a healing, strengthening way.
- In your professional life, strive to find a work you truly love. If you can’t for some reason do that work now, keep your vision alive through hobbies and trainings, and keep your course set on your star. In the meantime, refine your skills in your present work, and give it your best each day.
- Establish priorities in your life. On the everyday level, this means seeing which practical tasks are most important and which less, and doing the most important first. But we can also set priorities in other ways. A wise person once suggested that we first give attention to our relationship with God ; then to our relationship with our fellow human beings ; and only then to our work and career. For some of us, this may stand our usual way of life on its head – but it’s advice worth considering.
More About Priorities
- Lastly : quietly but persistently have questions concerning your destiny. What is it, actually, that you came down to this earth to do ? Is there something special the world needs you to be or contribute ? The big picture may not emerge all at once. But your attention and loyalty to these larger questions can only work positively on your health and peace of mind.
Destiny !
Article by : Jeff Smith RN (Retired)
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