Health and Well-Being

There are many aspects of Health and Well-Being; physical, mental and even spiritual. We all need a decent amount of sleep, a good diet, plenty of hydration, good deep breathing practices, minerals and vitamins that we may be lacking, a meditative practice where we can regularly experience peace or even bliss within, as a sanctuary from the overwhelm of the all pervading 24hr technology and media in the world around us as well as family, friends, work and government putting many demands upon us.

Firstly, the Physical. This could be split into what exercise can we do to give us some of those feel-good Seratonin neurotransmitters? Whether it is a couch to 5km program, or a regular bike ride or long walk in nature, yoga, pilates, tai chi, chi gong, martial arts, tennis, tabata, football, swimming - maybe even in the sea !

Have a think about whether it suits you better to motivate yourself or get a buddy to go to the gym with or join a weekly class where there is no escape:-)

Thinking about motivation, we need to look at Mindset (Dr Carol Dweck's book is a great place to start, even on audible). It is difficult to keep a positive mindset if those around you are critical or negative so it maybe time to look for a new friendship group, maybe in one of those fitness based classes or a meditation or music or dance group. We need to practice being positive by promoting Good Habits and making bad habits less easy (have a read or listen to 'Atomic Habits' by James Clear).

Wherever you feel positive and motivated you are going to thrive, so have a look around and within to find your passion, inspiration, fun and connection with others and nature!

Despite the past two years we do actually have an amazing Immune System!, one that has worked for us from the day we were born and it gives us this amazing resilience where we can recover from accidents, injuries, traumas, the toxicity in food, water and air.

We know from decades of science and nobel prizes given for Linus Pauling's work on Vitamin C (3 grams a day was the suggested amount for the average person and up to ten grams if seriously sick whereas the European RDA is only 240mgs - less than one tenth!) that it can boost our immune defences and protect us from coughs, colds, flu, fever and so many other illnesses. Then there is Vitamin D(3) which can protect us from Scurvy and enhance our immune system especially when we don't get enough sunshine, greens and citrus fruits (vitamin D3 is even promoted by neurologists for people with MS although they suggest a small dose when larger doses are well worth investigating especially when offset with vitamin K2). Some countries with reduced sunshine in the winter enhance their food with vit D.

There was Beriberi (a thiamin deficiency which can cause muscle paralysis and heart failure) which a dutch military Dr found was partly due to the white rice that had been polished to get rid of the brown skin (vitamin B1). He found that of those that ate brown rice, only 1 in 10,000 got Beriberi whereas those eating mainly white rice were 1 in 39.

So we have known the benefits for many decades of these very important vitamins that boost our immune system and prevent disease and there are thousands of excellent research papers on them. Then there are anti-parasitics which have also won Nobel prizes, treated billions (malaria) and eradicated some third world diseases (river blindness) which are now being restricted and banned in the last crazy two years where all common sense and scientific understanding has been turned on it's head.

Also Iodine is a very important substance that was used a lot by our grandparents as an antibacterial agent to keep cuts and scrapes clean. In the work of Dr Brownstein he shows the remarkable benefits of Iodine and pink salt (a good source of chlorine, with some iodides) can help to balance and fix our endocrine problems (probably from an excess of the other halogens such as fluorine/flouride - in toothpaste and our water, and bromides used as fire retardents, and sedatives until 1975 when they were withdrawn in the US due to chronic toxicity).

Then there are minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, chloride (also see chlorine dioxide), selenium and zinc which would be wise to balance and gets adequate amounts of.

But please remember we are not all the same. We have different genetic predispositions, bloodtypes, phenotypes (our type of build), and belief systems regarding our health (see epigenetics) so for some, going vegan may work just great and give us tons of energy but for others it maybe that the body might crave offal or a big juicy steak from time to time. If our health system was truely holistic and individual we should each have a profile of our minerals levels, vitamins levels, neurotransmitters, and an understanding or our gut flora/fauna to see how in balance we were compared to when we were in great health in our youth?

Also we need to address our traumas, maybe not head-on, but in a way that suits us best. For me, breath-work, bodywork and energy-work have kept me on track and helped me investigate and resolve/lessen various issues throughout my life. In training as a clinical hypnotherapist I've seen the remarkable and sometimes overnight resolutions of traumas, long term illnesses and fears by some amazing practitioners.

I could say the same about kinesiology, acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic (network and others), cranio-sacral and other holistic systems.

We still require medicines and emergency doctors and surgeons for emergencies but for chronic issues at least we have many amazing holistic, naturopathic and gentle ways to resolution when we seek outside of what maybe considered conventional methods..