It is a daily challenge to maintain health in our modern world. We habitually and unknowingly expose ourselves to chemicals and heavy metals in what we eat, drink, breathe, apply, insert, implant, and inject.
In 2005, 133 million Americans had at least one chronic disease. And while the U.S. has the most expensive healthcare system in the world, we are far from the healthiest. The reports showing our collective decline in health include: The Institute of Medicine’s 1999 report, The Starfield Report of 2000, Journal of Patient Safety, 2013 U.S. Health In International Perspective, and the 2014 Mirror Mirror Report, to name a few. Most people have come to accept our collective diseased state as the norm.
The good news, the news that isn’t reported in the mainstream, is that the body is a miracle of creation. Our nature IS nature. And nature strives for balance. As nature is self-regulating, self-sustaining, and self-healing, so are we. Health is really our natural state and our birthright. And here’s the big secret…. being a part of nature means that if you give the body the right tools, the tools of Nature, the body has the innate capacity to heal itself. Healing is an inside-out job, and a body- mind-spirit expression.
So here are Twelve Tips to create your health. Let’s start with the Big Picture. If we step back, the number one priority for health is to …
1. See Yourself as More Than a Body. You are a body-mind-spirit all rolled into One Amazing Being. You are both a physical body and an energetic being, the seen (1%) and the unseen (99%). When you see yourself beyond the mirror, you appreciate yourself on many levels and in many layers. The energetic part informs and feeds the physical part. Our energy drives our reality. In other words, our beliefs drive our thoughts. Our thoughts drive our feelings. Our feelings drive our words. And our words drive our actions to create our reality. Because energy flows where attention goes, it is important to focus on what you wish to create and come into the feeling of it. E-motion is energy in motion.
One way to create is to trust your intuition. You are completely unique. You are not part of “the herd.” We each have our own thoughts and our own sensibilities. We come with creative gifts to share with others. You are special, so why conform to the status quo? Why be like everyone else? Life is what YOU make of it. So be mindful of the Whole You as you go through your day. If you question something, ask yourself if the answer is beneficial, not only for your physical body, but for your emotional body, your mental body, and your spiritual body – your inner child. The litmus test to any dilemma? If the kid inside doesn’t agree, think twice.
2. Other People’s Opinions Are None of Your Business. Opinions are like noses, everyone has one. What’s good for one person is not necessarily what’s best for you. So gather information from many sources, gather opinions from people who claim to be “experts,” from your friends, from books, but realize that other people have answers… for themselves. And you have your own answers. You came here with them. In fact, you came with everything you need to be healthy. So put your Self as a priority. And when faced with a health crisis or challenge, first step back, take a breath, and know that you can find your answers in your own time. There is no rush.
3. Think of A Challenge As An Opportunity Or a Gift. Challenges and breakdowns, or break-ups, are designed to happen for the purpose of your own evolution. So let them come, celebrate them, embrace them, and let them be a source for growth. Don’t resist them. What you resist persists.
4. Speak Your Truth. Life is too short just to “go along to get along.” Do you say yes when you really mean no? Are you giving your power away? Pay attention to the signs around you, and inside you. If your stomach twists into knots in certain situations, listen to your body’s language. Don’t suppress the messenger by taking a chill pill. The message will keep coming up, stronger each time, until it slaps you upside the head. If your signs come more gently through dreams, start writing them down to identify a theme. In each case, connect to the feeling. Your gut feeling is your internal guidance system and it comes directly from Spirit. Don’t ignore your own guidance. Then simply stand in your power, discern what you know, and speak your truth.
5. Treat Your Body As A Temple. Limit toxic exposures where you can. Common heavy metals in our environment include aluminum and mercury (neurotoxins), and fluoride. Chemicals, such as formaldehyde, are carcinogenic. They deplete our minerals and attack the immune system, which is our built-in defense system. They congest the liver and kidneys, the filters of the body that purify our blood.
There is no study showing a benefit to ingesting and injecting chemicals and heavy metals into our bodies for health. When it comes to injections or synthetic isolates, always read the package inserts before consenting. Injections bypass the digestive system which is part of your immune’s detoxification system, taking toxins directly into the blood to infect sensitive organs.
Dental amalgams are 51% mercury. In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) changed its story on the safety of dental fillings for certain groups who “are at greater risk.” It is also time to rethink root canals, which become cesspools for bacteria that lead to chronic disease throughout the body. Learn more about safe dentistry and safe amalgam removal through IAOMT. You can also gently detoxify your body on a regular basis using tea infusions, herbs, homeopathic remedies, coffee enemas, colon hydrotherapy, healing clays, infrared sauna via sweating, exercise, and clean foods. Food is medicine when sourced properly. Seek out holistic practitioners to learn more.
Remember that you are not solely what you eat. You are what you absorb. You are also the energy of the food you eat, so choose foods wisely. Select whole, nutrient-dense foods, foods in their original earth packages, as close to their original design as possible. Choose live foods, with enzymes to digest themselves (raw milk from grass-fed animals, probiotic foods, fermented foods such as kombucha, kefir, and saurkraut. If you eat meat, source it (including organ meats) from animals that are grass-fed, and eggs from pastured chickens. Eat fatty fish from clean waters. Choose beyond-organic vegetables and herbs, from soil that has been remineralized. Seek out local, organic farmers or grow your own.
Source your vitamin D3 from the sun, as your body makes D3 through your skin. Be practical about how much sun exposure your skin can accept. Fifteen minutes of sun during peek hours is recommended. Apply safe protection thereafter. Since vitamin D3 is a steroid hormone, supplementing with D3 is not always recommended since the body self-regulates hormones. See my take on D3: Too Much of A Good Thing for more information.
6. Eliminate Foods That Don’t Serve your Body-Mind-Spirit. Avoid foods that are processed, refined, irradiated, genetically-modified (GMO), and contain hormones and preservatives, which encompass about 98% of what you find in grocery stores. These foods have the life literally processed out of them. The energy of this food is dead. It poisons the gut and the brain and disarms the immune system. It takes more energy for your body to process and assimilate dead food than life-giving food. Since everything is energy; everything is vibration, including the food you choose to consume.
7. Heal Your Gut. Your gut, or digestive tract is 80- 90% of your immune system. Consider your gut your second brain because it contains more neurotransmitters than your cranium. This 20-ft channel, from your esophagus to your anus, houses all your beneficial bacteria, along with viruses your cells make as part of a self-cleaning system. It also contains yeast and parasites in balance with other cells of your immune system, in balance. Only when these microbes come become too numerous are they considered pathogenic. The center of your immune system is the one-celled mucosal lining of your small intestine. When healthy, your gut is balanced at a ratio of 85% good bacteria to 15% bad bacteria. However, most people are reversed, which leads to dysbiosis. Dysbiosis creates an acidic environment which leads to leaky gut, and leaky brain. This is the a main underlying cause of any chronic disease condition.
Your gut lives in the house of your third energy center, or “Solar Plexus”. Here you tap into your “gut feelings.” This center of “knowing” is about trusting your intuition. When you can honor and connect to what you know and act on it in a positive way, you expand and deepen connection to yourself.
You can physically heal the gut in four basic steps: Eliminate, Replace, Restore and Repair:
- Eliminate inflammatory, processed foods such as gluten, dairy, corn, soy, eggs and sugar.
- Replace nutrients and minerals and enzymes that have gone missing with organic, foods, juices, herbs. Replace all GMO vegetable oils with coconut oil, ghee, organic butter, tallow, and lard rendered from healthy animals.
- Restore – beneficial bacteria by using fermented foods. Research shows that depression, and mood or behavioral changes, can be traced to a shift in both the species and numbers of healthy gut bacteria. And the imbalance of our gut microbiome is directly linked to chronic illness, including obesity and inflammation. Fermented foods are the best form of probiotics you can choose.
- Repair – the lining of the gut using bone broths which are high in minerals, some fermented foods which contain beneficial bacteria, Aloe Vera can help heal the gut. You can work with a Naturopath or a Homeopath using specific remedies but always choose food first. Food is your main fuel so you might as well use healing foods. Apple cider vinegar is an excellent elixir that heals on many levels. Turmeric, a spice, is an anti-inflammatory. If your gut is leaky, it is inflamed.
8. Drink Clean Water. Our bodies are 60% water by weight. Life is based in water. Water has memory and holds information. Water is essential for all the body’s millions of chemical reactions, as well as for efficient elimination of toxins, and cell hydration, among other things. Drink clean Spring or purified water. Reverse Osmosis is not real water since all the minerals are stripped in the processing. If you have an R.O. system then you could replace the lost minerals by adding a 1/4 tsp of Celtic salt to quart of water.
9. Make Time For Oil Pulling. For dental health, take 1 Tbsp of organic, cold-pressed coconut oil and swish it around in your mouth for about 15 minutes once or twice daily, preferably first thing in the morning. The lipophilic (fat loving) property of the oil sucks up all the lipid cell membranes of the bacteria and viruses lurking in your mouth and eliminates them. This frees up your immune system to focus on other areas. It’s also good for your gums. Don’t swallow it. Spit the oil out into your garbage, as it becomes toxic. You can do this while showering so it doesn’t have to take extra time.
10. Make Quality Time For Yourself. Tune into yourself by quieting the mind and calming yourself from the chaos of the day. Disconnect from electronics. Breathe deeply. Deep breathing clears out your lungs and brings oxygen to your cells. It reduces cortisol, a stress hormone. It slows the mind to center and ground you. Taking time for yourself could take the form of yoga or meditation, singing or drumming, or a walk in nature. The purpose is to come out of the normal traffic of your mind and reconnect you to yourself, your essence which is your direct connection to universal energy. It all comes down to your breath, which is why mindful breath work is a practice unto itself. Breathing reconnects you to your healing power.
11. Be Grateful. Be grateful for all the moments that brought you to this one. Regret nothing. Let go of the past. And be grateful that you have choices. Every choice has brought you to where you find yourself today. Be grateful that you have this life from which to launch yourself and your gifts. Life itself is a gift. Be grateful for your body and your amazing mind, which is part of a greater consciousness. Be grateful that you are here to spread a little love around. Love is the highest vibration. Know that you are unconditional love embodied. So BE love. Be grateful and be love. There is nothing else.
12. Unleash Your Inner Healer. We are multidimensional beings. At one level we are aware that we are one with everything that IS, and on another level we are expressions of that oneness, a singular expression of consciousness, with free will. We are both. And we are natural healers. The life journey is the healing journey.
When you do the inner work, you find balance. You align. You step into your power. You heal yourself. That healing vibe ripples out to affect others. You change your environment. You heal the Earth. As within, so without. With your intention to heal in all that you do, you can take your healing vibe to a whole new level and spread it throughout the universe. There are no limits to the power of you. Just another reason to make yourself a priority once and for all.
