A few ideas to help keep you and your family healthy from 2020 - 2030.
A healthy balanced diet. As always this is the key to good health, reduce all stimulants, this includes coffee, sugar, alcohol and anything that you KNOW upsets your digestion. Eliminate Gluten and Dairy where you can, these two foods are the biggest irritants in everybody's hair test results. They weaken your digestive system and contribute to many health complaints including sinus congestion and poor immune health. Increase water intake, greens, fruit, nourishing soups and whole foods. Your body does not require artificial food and fast foods, this kind of food will be one of the fastest ways to impair your immune system function. Get creative, try new diets, such as the Mediterranean diet, an Anti-inflammatory diet or just try a week with only home cooking and baking. Get back to nature, grow your own vegetables, plant a few fruit trees, talk to your neighbours and ask if they have an abundance of citrus (Vitamin C and Bioflavonoids are super important!) that are left to rot, make some marmalade for them in exchange for fresh fruit, this is the time now to become more self sufficient, to take back your ability to create simple healthy meals that are nutritious and fulfilling.
Exercise, exercise, exercise. Get up and get your bounce back! Exercise cannot be over emphasised here. Aim for 30mins to 1 hour per day of some form of exercise, whether this is just gentle stretching and Tai Chi movement in the comfort of your own home, dancing to your favourite songs while doing housework, getting stuck into the garden or walking and running around your neighbourhood, park or local beach. Get your body moving. This increases your body's ability to move toxins out of your body, increases oxygen flow, increases feel good endorphins and stimulates the movement of lymph in your body, this contains much of your first line of defence in your immune response, you NEED this to be strong, it will help to fight off any viruses should you encounter them.
Seek out people, places and things that bring you JOY. There is light at the end of this tunnel. FEAR in 2020 - 2030 and into the following years is our greatest enemy, it is everywhere you go, every news bulletin, every social media post, every video, every person that is struggling because they are getting the message that they are not good enough, healthy enough, successful enough or just not doing enough. It is quite literally everywhere we turn, FEAR suppresses the immune system, it creates within us the perfect environment for a weakened immune response to the very things we need to be able fight off. Please turn off your device occasionally and/or reduce your social media, stick to one news article per day, decide which is the least fear inducing for you, stay away from fear inducing debates, avoid conversations that create division. We need unity, community, loving kindness for one another and an abundance of JOY. Joy and laughter literally boost your immune system MORE than any supplement or herb I could possibly give you. Watch funny movies, listen to beautiful music, meditate, sit in nature, laugh with friends and family, send funny memes, support and increase joy in yourself and those around you. Life is a journey and this is just one chapter in it.
Avoid toxic situations and people, stress leads to shallow breathing, this type of breath will reduce your oxygen saturation levels, this reduces the flow of oxygen around your body, and, you guessed it, it reduces your immune system response, as well as your energy levels, it affects your mental health and ability to detoxify waste via the carbon dioxide/ oxygen exchange mechanism.
Check in with yourself regularly, ask yourself, am I breathing from my belly or the top of my chest, you will be surprised how often we forget to breathe well, and don't take in good deep, long and slow breaths.
Take 3-5 breaths now, make the breath out longer than the breath in, breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth, make the out breath long and slow, this will activate your parasympathetic nervous system, taking you out of fight or flight and allowing the body and mind time to reset.
Do this regularly, make it a daily practice, at least once per day.
And lastly, check judgement at the door, as humans we are often so quick to judge because we are constantly comparing ourselves to others as a way of understanding who we are.
Remember, you cannot understand someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes.
There is a time to keep our beaks open and a time to keep our beaks closed.
Check in with yourself regularly, ask yourself, am I breathing from my belly or the top of my chest, you will be surprised how often we forget to breathe well, and don't take in good deep, long and slow breaths.
Take 3-5 breaths now, make the breath out longer than the breath in, breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth, make the out breath long and slow, this will activate your parasympathetic nervous system, taking you out of fight or flight and allowing the body and mind time to reset.
Do this regularly, make it a daily practice, at least once per day.
And lastly, check judgement at the door, as humans we are often so quick to judge because we are constantly comparing ourselves to others as a way of understanding who we are.
Remember, you cannot understand someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes.
There is a time to keep our beaks open and a time to keep our beaks closed.