12 steps to wellbeing and health. This is designed for all for health maintenance and wellbeing, preventing colds and flu and for those of you on a chronic illness recovery path. It is a short version of an ebook I am just finishing off that goes into greater depth, to get your copy of the ebook when it is finished go here.
1) Look after your inner and outer physical environment
Sleep: We must get at least 7 hours sleep a night of sleep, ideally unbroken, unless in your natural sleep rhythms you wake up once or twice briefly this is not a problem. What do you need to do to maximize your sleep? Create a good bedtime routine? Go offline and no screens an hour before bed? Go to bed an hour earlier? Create more space for deep rest in the day?
Diet: I suggest the basics of eating a balance of good sources of protein, healthy carbohydrates and good fats, and include a variety of fresh vegetables and fruits to obtain all your nutritional requirements. Reduce or eliminate sugar, white flour and dairy.
Cleansing and detox: Epson and himalayan crystal salt baths, neti pot and oil pulling are all methods I suggest learning and using to stay healthy and happy.
Your home: Avoid harsh cleaning chemicals where possible, turn WIFI off at night time and use products on your body that are as close to nature as possible.
2) Meditate and practice mindfulness
Learn how to meditate at a local Buddhist centre, meditation group or through books and CDs. Here’s a couple of short You Tube meditations that myself and my colleague have done, earth breathing with Sophie and kundalini meditation with me. For a tool to use on the go to come out of unhelpful patterns, support mindfulness on a moment to moment basis, and to encourage a rewiring of the brain for health and happiness here is a method for ‘pausing the mind’.
3) Practice mindful and aerobic exercise
Mindful movement like Yoga and Tai Chi is great for all levels of our being. It gives our physical bodies a gentle work out, strengthening the heart and lungs, toning and stretching the muscles, supporting circulation and flushing out toxins with increased lymph flow.
When well it is excellent to do vigorous exercise for at least thirty minutes a couple of times a week. Getting the heart rate going brings all kinds of benefits to the body – increasing blood and lymph flow to help build a healthy heart and lungs, developing muscle tone and releasing muscle tension, and sending uplifting endorphins all around the body. Start from where you are, if you are currently very unwell walking or swimming for 2 minutes may be where you need to start.
4) Embrace complementary therapies and learn EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)
Treat yourself or train in a therapy to support you, here’s a selection of my favourites::
- Therapeutic Massage for deep relaxation and muscle release
- Acupuncture for internal balance and health maintenance
- The Bowen Technique for pain release, body alignment and increasing energy
- Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) for shaking out trauma from the body, particularly the Psoas muscle.
- Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) for brief therapy solutions to negative thoughts, conditioning, unhelpful beliefs and resolving specific traumas
- Amygdala Retraining for a comprehensive system for re-wiring our brain for health and happiness, particularly designed for people with ME/CFS, FMS and MCS yet relevant to lots of conditions
- Psychotherapy for long term therapy to resolve deeper emotional issues, my favourite approaches would be Psychosynthesis or Hakomi
- Coaching to help you move forwards in career, health and happiness.
- The Rosen Method for assisted melting of body armoring that occurs during life
- Family Constellations for resolving deeper family system issues, or perhaps even more powerful and safe combined with EFT as ‘Family Energetics‘ (this is where to explore if you have done a lot of work on your life issues, yet are still feeling stuck)
- Reiki/spiritual healing for internal balance and relaxation
Also learn EFT! As this is a passion and focus of mine I give you more information on this modality.
EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques and is an energy psychology approach that involves working on acupuncture points; acupuncturists have been working on these for thousands of years. Gary Craig the founder created an accessible and easy to apply modality that spread around the world, providing thousands with relief from physical, mental and emotional issues. One way of describing EFT could be psychological acupuncture without the needles. Another way could be a talk therapy that also involves working on the body.
Watch this You Tube video for an introduction to the technique and to work with chronic illness.
5) Spend time in nature
“The quickest way into the universe is through a forest grove.”
~ John Muir
Researchers have found that patients who can see trees outside their hospital windows recover faster than other patients. It seems that there is something deeply healing about nature. I try to get out into to the countryside at least once a week because I’ve found there isn’t any problem that can’t be eased by a few hours in the countryside.
6) Honour and value time in your life for your loving relationships
Do you eat with your family or friends as much as possible? Sharing breakfast, lunch or/and dinner is a great way to have a daily dose of connection and mutual support.
Do you make space in your diary for quality time with family or friends? Be it sharing a meal out, going to the cinema, going on a night out, a countryside walk, a trip to a spa, attending a yoga class, a retreat or workshop together? Do you laugh with others often?
If the answer to any of the questions is ‘no’, take the time to start to prioritise your relationships as a key aspect to health and wellbeing.
7) Communicate with awareness and compassion
Non-Violent Communication (NVC)
NVC or Compassionate Communication is a powerful system developed by Marshall Rosenburg who took the work all over the world helping to resolve conflict in war zones, with inner city gangs, in political turmoil. Simple mode, yet as you’ll find, challenging but hugely rewarding to practice and make part of daily life, not only for resolving outer conflict but also to be more in touch with our deeper feelings and needs.
Observation~ A concrete observation
Feelings~ The feelings that arise
Needs~ The unmet need/ value/ longing
Requests~ What do you want to request of yourself or the other person to enrich your life
8) Be creative
“Art opens the closets, airs out the cellars and attics. It brings healing.”
~ Julia Cameron
Sing, write, dance, draw, paint or simply colour in. Make space in your life for creativity, however it wants to flow through you.
9) Book on a retreat or spa day
I can’t imagine being where I am today without my experience on both organised retreats and solitary retreats. Gift yourself some space away from daily life, book on an organised retreat? Go on a solitary retreat? Book a spa day? You are sure to come back refreshed and restored.
10) Heal your past, live in the now and create your future
Our past is our past right? So have we truly left it there or do we bring it with us in painful memories, thoughts, conditioned responses and body armouring? If we honestly ask ourselves that question many of us will find the answer is that we bring it into our present life.
There are many wonderful tools available to help us release and move on from our past, such as EFT, TRE, Rosen Method and Psychotherapy. If we are generally healthy learning and practicing tools such as EFT and TRE will help us maintain wellbeing and will also increase our sense of peace and happiness. If we are suffering from chronic physical and/or mental health challenges they can become vital to restoring our health and wellbeing.
Your inner child may need some deep nurturing. Approaches such as EFT, imagining holding your inner child with love, physical holding from a therapy such as Rosen, and Psychotherapy can all support you in the process of starting to heal your inner child. Building connection to your inner child, and giving her what she most needs, can help you grow in joy, love and health.
All of the above will help you to learn to truly live in the here and now, and from a whole place create a wonderful future for yourself with more health and happiness.
11) Love yourself, be grateful and laugh often
“Your task is not to seek for Love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built up against it.”
~ Rumi
Loving and being compassionate to yourself is so important for being a happy and well person. Remembering for to be grateful for what you do have and what is good in your life is also a key to happiness and wellness. Laughter and smiles have proven to have many health benefits, explore laughter yoga? Spend time with good old friends who make you giggle?
12) Find your life passion or life purpose
Many people feel called to serve in some way, serve others or serve the environment. Find your calling and follow it with joy and passion. Whether it’s to be the world’s best mother, or to be a transformational coach, or to write children’s books. Find your heart’s calling, your passion, and let it become your livelihood. Start from where you are, radical self care may be where you need to focus for now, and perhaps planting little seeds that may emerge into something beautiful as your health is restored.
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Follow these 12 tips and watch your life and health improve.
You may also wish to:
~Sign up here to receive my full ebook when it is released if you haven’t already
~Women may be interested in our Radical Self Care online retreat starting next week to support you in nurturing yourself at a time of year you most need it (and if you haven’t already you can access our free mini course, ‘An Embodied Feminine Approach to Healing’ here)