Beth Anderson
“Worry is just about the worst form of mental activity there is—next to hate, which is deeply self-destructive.“ – Conversations With God, Book 1.
If you suffer from anxiety and worry, or if you ever feel hate, then you need yoga. Worry and hate will destroy you. Once you decide to be healthy and change your habits away from worry and hate, yoga can help you through difficult times.
Doing yoga daily is a great practice, but even adding yoga once a week will benefit you. If you aren’t active, then yoga is a great place to start. Yoga will benefit you in many ways. Here are some of the benefits of doing yoga one time or for years and stop your self-destructive mental activities.
Flexibility – you will gain added flexibility every time you do yoga. The more you practice, the more flexible you will become. Many people shy away from yoga because they claim they can’t do the poses. However it is called a yoga practice because it doesn’t matter if you are a first-timer or experienced yogi, there is always a next step in your pose and your whole practice. Even your thinking will become more flexible with time. You will be exposed to gentle, flexible, loving teachers whose way of thinking is contagious.
Detoxification – you will detoxify your tissues by stretching, bending, compression, and releasing poses. There is no better way to detoxify than to do it naturally. Yoga will detoxify your mind as well – you will come into the practice feeling one way, and you will leave feeling completely different. Even hate will drain from your body during a yoga session.
Stress Level – As you exercise and your attitude improves, your entire stress level will drop. Your tendency to worry will slowly disappear as you realize that living in the present is possible and worry cannot exist there.
Growth and Progress – Your yoga practice grows and changes with you. You may just need the physical exertion now and the mental or meditation qualities later. You may need flexibility next week or balance when you are older and at risk of falling. Yoga is there to help you throughout your life.
I challenge you to decide to reduce and eliminate the anxiety, worry, and hate from your life. Stop self-destructing and share your light with the world!
(Beth Anderson is a certified Holistic Health Coach and founder of Holistic Health Hotspot in Evansville, Indiana. She is also the author of “The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life.” Beth received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She is a speaker and also presents workshops on health and nutrition topics. Beth offers in-person and phone consultations – contact her through Facebook or email for more information. You can find Beth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHealthHotspot or email her at beth@holistichealthhotspot.com)
From Conversations With God, Book 1: “You cannot be ill without at some level causing yourself to be, and you can be well again in a moment by simply deciding to be.”
We are making ourselves ill with our foods and worse yet, with the way we live our lives and the way we think. But isn’t it wonderful that we can decide here and now that things have changed! Let’s decide to be healthy in every way.
When you think about improving your health, you probably think of losing weight and dieting first. Maintaining a healthy weight and eating right is necessary, but did you know that there are many other areas in your life that are just as important?
The food you eat is actually secondary to the primary nourishment areas in your life. The primary areas include your activity and movement, work or purpose in life, connection to others, and spirituality. When you gain weight or experience declining health, chances are that something is wrong in one or more of these areas. Problems in other areas of your life can trigger bad eating habits, binging, lack of motivation to exercise, and emotional eating. These are the problems that cause the seeds of disease. For instance, if you are unhappy in your job, you probably eat poorly or snack during boring or stressful times. If you are not in satisfying relationships, you may reach for the ice cream or other junk foods to fill a missing void. You participate in unhealthy behaviors and refuse to participate in healthy ones such as exercise.
Think about your TOTAL health and any area of your life that needs improvement! Lowering your stress level, improving your satisfaction in relationships and career should be very high priorities for you. Improving other areas of your life will also improve your eating habits.
Decide to be happy, decide to be positive, decide to spread joy and goodness to all around you. First decide to move around and get some exercise. Decide to make amends if you have old resentments. Improve your relationships or move on from toxic relationships. Rethink your priorities and your purpose in life. Improving any of these areas in your life will make you healthier, and what a great way to decide to be healthy!
(Beth Anderson is a certified Holistic Health Coach and founder of the Holistic Health Hotspotin Evansville, Indiana. She is also the author of “The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life.” Beth received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.She is a speaker and also presents workshops on health and nutrition topics. Beth offers in-person and phone consultations – contact her through Facebook or email for more information. You can find Beth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHealthHotspot or email her at beth@holistichealthhotspot.com)
“You cannot be ill without at some level causing yourself to be, and you can be well again in a moment by simply deciding to be.” This is a great quote from Conversations With God, Book 1.
There are so many ways that we cause ourselves to be ill, but it seems that our diet is one of the worst. What we eat can give us conditions over time such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. You know that many of the foods you eat are not healthy, but what about some that you might not know as much about?
A huge problem in our diet is the type of grains that we are now eating. If we eat processed foods and commercially baked breads, we are most likely not eating whole grains. We are just eating the starchy part of the grain. Eating whole foods means eating whole grains. The whole grain has valuable vitamins and minerals that we need. It’s a huge problem that most grains are genetically engineered (GMO) unless they are certified organic. Your body may not recognize GMO foods and may not digest them properly – therefore making you sick, allergic, or fat!
Grains have three parts: the bran, germ, and endosperm. When wheat is made into flour, the outer brown part – the bran and germ are removed leaving the largest part – the endosperm. All of the vitamins and minerals were contained in the bran and germ. The bran and germ are then fed to cows. We eat the endosperm which is totally made of starch. The same process is followed when polishing rice. Healthy brown rice ends up being the starchy white rice that we see everywhere. There is no fiber left to slow down absorption so the result is similar to a sugar overload.
Replace your grains with organic whole grains. If you buy bread, make sure the label says “100% Whole Grain” on the front and in the ingredients. Better yet, get a breadmaker and bake your own whole grain bread on the weekend. It only takes a few minutes to make! Just dump all of the ingredients into the breadmaker and hit the button.You can also eat less bread and more plain grains. Eat brown and wild rice instead of white rice. Try quinoa. Quinoa is a seed that cooks quickly – you can use it anywhere you would normally use rice. The great thing about quinoa is that it is a complete protein.
Experiment with new organic whole grains such as rolled or steel-cut oats, wheat berries, amaranth, or barley. One cup of dry grain will be enough for 2 – 4 people. Make sure you soak the grains for a few hours (20 minutes for quinoa) before cooking to soften. This makes them more digestible and eliminates phytic acid. If you have problems with digestion, soak them for up to 8 hours.
Limiting your grain intake to organic whole grain and experimenting with new grains is a huge step in deciding to be well!
(Beth Anderson is a certified Holistic Health Coach and founder of the Holistic Health Hotspotin Evansville, Indiana. She is also the author of “The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life.” Beth received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.She is a speaker and also presents workshops on health and nutrition topics. Beth offers in-person and phone consultations – contact her through Facebook or email for more information. You can find Beth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHealthHotspot or email her at beth@holistichealthhotspot.com)
In my last article I talked about God’s perfect medicine for us – greens and leafy vegetables! We are surrounded by what we need – beautiful multi-colored fruits and vegetables – all put here to share and enjoy. We can maintain our health and heal ourselves by consuming plenty of natural, healing foods. In order to be proactive and keep ourselves healthy, would God take vitamins?
Today’s farming methods result in produce that has less vitamins and minerals than intended – sometimes 30-40% less. So how can we get enough of nature’s medicine and make sure that we don’t ingest chemicals at the same time? It would be great if we could all have access to 100% organic produce all the time, but most of us can’t. Do you think we were meant to take inorganic, fake vitamins and supplements?
A typical person needs about 12 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables every day in order to get the amount of nutrients needed by the body to function normally and protect against disease. The fruits and vegetables need to be chosen from a variety of colors from deep green to purple, red, yellow, and orange. Even if we eat a healthy diet, we are still eating produce that has much lower nutrient content, and we cannot possibly get what we need as far as vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.
Cheap inorganic vitamins are being manufactured quickly and are made available everywhere for mass consumption. However, studies are showing that there is no benefit to taking multi-vitamins and that many are not even digested in the intestines because of the fillers and materials used to manufacture them. Since there is no way we can eat what we need or get the nutrients from what we buy, YES we do need to supplement, but it needs to be done the right way. Everyone needs a whole-food, plant-based concentrated supplement made strictly from fruits and vegetables that are non-GMO and processed at low-heat so the original nutrients are preserved. Look for gluten-free, dairy-free ones. If you have questions about one you find, just ask me! There are also great plant-based shakes and powders that you can use. Make sure your vitamins and minerals don’t have fillers, chemicals, or coloring in them. Otherwise you are defeating your purpose. Be careful and research what you buy. There are several quality affordable products you can find easily. Skip the synthetic pills and go for the most unprocessed, least chemically fortified version you can find.
My recommendation is to stick with whole foods in nature’s package and eat as many fruits and vegetables daily as you can, as many colors as you can. Then supplement on top of that with whole-food, plant-based, pure, organic, non-GMO products. If you have any questions feel free to contact me!
(Beth Anderson is a certified Holistic Health Coach and founder of the Holistic Health Hotspotin Evansville, Indiana. She is also the author of “The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life.” Beth received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She is a speaker and also presents workshops on health and nutrition topics. Beth offers in-person and phone consultations – contact her through Facebook or email for more information. You can find Beth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHealthHotspot or email her at beth@holistichealthhotspot.com)
I am a big supporter of the locavore movement. It makes sense that wherever you live, everything you need to thrive can be grown right where you are – so why truck in food from thousands of miles away, thus leaving a huge carbon footprint? An arctic native wouldn’t have much use for fresh pineapple every day, and I doubt that equatorial folks would thrive well on whale meat and fat. Assuming that everything we need is or can be available where we are, what are we meant to use for medicine? To answer that question, I took a look at farmer’s markets across the USA and Canada last year. Your medicine is right in front of you, ready for you to take home!
One food we ignore the most with the highest health price to pay is any kind of greens. We know we need vegetables, but do you count french fries as a vegetable serving? We need vegetables of all colors. But we especially need dark green leafy vegetables.
Greens contain tons of vitamins and minerals. Greens help detoxify your blood, prevent cancer and other disease. Greens are good for liver function and help build a health intestinal flora. Greens help keep your system alkaline, therefore creating an environment in which bad bacteria and diseases like cancer can’t stand!
The best greens are kale, cabbages, broccoli, dandelion and mustard greens, arugula, swiss chard, spinach, and beet greens. If you like lettuce, stick with the dark green, red, or purple kinds! While iceberg lettuce is sort of green, it really doesn’t have the nutritional value of deeply colored greens, so don’t count restaurant salads and condiments that include iceberg lettuce as a green.
You need to eat greens with every meal. You can add spinach or spring mix to your breakfast smoothie and you won’t even know it is there. Get adventurous and make green smoothies with kale and spinach! If you eat scrambled eggs, serve them on a bed of greens, or throw the greens in for the last few minutes of cooking time! At lunch you can add greens to your sandwiches and wraps, or add a handful to your soup! Choose greens instead of other filling items at restaurants and you will naturally leave behind less healthy foods such as potatoes, starches, breads, and white rice.
When a patient becomes sick, one of the first things a doctor will prescribe is folic acid. Folic acid is nothing more than the synthetic version of folate. Folate comes from the Latin word “folium” which means leaves! You can avoid medical visits in the future by just adding the greens now so you won’t be prescribed the synthetic version later!
I wonder what kind of medicine God would want us to take. It makes sense that everything we need has been put here for us for a reason and within our reach naturally. God inspired Hippocrates when he said “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Eat your greens.
(Beth Anderson is a certified Holistic Health Coach and founder of the Holistic Health Hotspot in Evansville, Indiana. She is also the author of “The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life.” Beth received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She is a speaker and also presents workshops on health and nutrition topics. Beth offers in-person and phone consultations – contact her through email or Facebook for more information. You can find Beth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHealthHotspot or email her at beth@holistichealthhotspot.com)
Are you surprised when you have low energy or when you are tired and listless? Are you aware that you could easily be more productive, stress-free, and healthier starting today, right now? All you have to do is choose to be healthy instead of continuing to choose the opposite. Everytime you eat or drink something, it is totally your own choice, and you probably know how it will make you feel.
Today, let’s look at some ways you can choose good health today, right NOW.
Choose plant-based. Choose plants over animals. You don’t have to be 100% vegan or vegetarian unless you have health issues. Choose plants 90% of time if you need to. If you choose animal products, know where they came from and how the animals were treated. Stick to animal products such as yogurt, honey, and eggs instead of flesh if you can. Do a little research and find out how corporate animal farmers actually treat their animals. You will be appalled. The senseless torture and inhumane practices used to butcher animals is not what your God, my God, or anyone else’s God intended. Choose not to be ignorant about how your animal products came about.
Choose whole. Choose whole foods. Instead of purchasing processed foods in boxes and bags, or pre-prepared foods, prepare your own meals using whole foods! Stop ordering food for delivery and stop going to restaurants so much! Increase what you know about the food you are eating by preparing it yourself. There are super-simple, quick recipes you will love and can make. Find them. Make up your own recipes from foods that you like. Of course you may have to experiment, but once you have it figured out, you are set for life!
Choose local. Support your local farmers. Choose products that have been grown locally. Even if you can’t find or afford organic produce, choose local produce. This will boost your local economy and at the same time reduce the income going to big business, GMO-filled, super-agricultural companies. We were meant to eat what is grown right around us! Try every locally grown fruit and vegetable you can find! Join a Consumer Supported Agricultural (CSA) group and find out what you have been missing. REAL FOOD has super taste and so many more nutrients, vitamins, and minerals than everything else. Experience it for yourself and you will make new choices!
Choose what you know is the right thing to do. You already know what is the right thing to do. Stop making poor choices for lazy or unconsciously self-sabotaging reasons. DECIDE TODAY THAT YOU WILL MAKE GOOD FOOD CHOICES AND DO IT WITHOUT EXCEPTION. If you don’t, you are choosing disease, every time you make a poor choice.
In Conversations with God, Book 1, we learned that people are making themselves sick, and “Most people do so quite unconsciously. (They don’t even know what they’re doing.) So when they get sick, they don’t know what hit them. It feels as though something has befallen them, rather than that they did something to themselves.
This occurs because most people move through life—not simply health issues and consequences – unconsciously.”
Choose to be conscious. Choose to be healthy today!
(Beth Anderson is a certified Holistic Health Coach and founder of the Holistic Health Hotspot in Evansville, Indiana. She is also the author of “The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life.” Beth received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Beth offers holistic health coaching to individuals and groups via internet, phone, or face-to-face visit. Contact Beth for a consultation. You can find Beth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHealthHotspot or email her at beth@holistichealthhotspot.com)
In Conversations with God, Book 1, we learn that “…all illness is self-created. Even conventional medical doctors are now seeing how people make themselves sick.”
Let’s look at what you need to do in order to get healthy, stay healthy, and stop making yourself sick.
There are three basic steps you have to take for stellar holistic health. If you are vigilant and careful, you can improve your own health, reduce occurrence of illness, heal yourself, and start feeling great! First you must cleanse and detoxify your body, inside and outside. Get rid of the toxins that are hanging around in your intestines, clogging your arteries, wearing out your organs, and causing symptoms. You must also detoxify your mind, thoughts and relationships. Second, you must learn to avoid toxins in everything possible from food, beauty products, air, water, household cleaners, emotions, and thoughts. Finally, you must nourish your body with good, clean, whole food and subject your body to nutrient-dense foods, exercise, positive thoughts, actions, and activities.
Today in Part 3, we will look at nourishing your body with everything it needs to run perfectly.
Your Food
In order to nourish your body in every way, you need to avoid toxic foods and indulge in nutrient-dense cleansing foods. Foods that don’t build your cells are dry or dead. They are animal-based or processed foods. These foods are high in sugar and laden with chemicals used to flavor, color, sweeten, or enhance. These are the foods in boxes and bags that are advertised most on television. Marketers love to target children for these foods too.
Nourishing foods build your body up and make you feel good. Nourishing foods are alive or as close to alive as possible. Nourishing foods are hydrating and pure, they are free of chemicals and are in a natural state or close to it. Nourishing oils are cold-pressed, non-chemically expelled oils such as olive, coconut, nut oils.
In order to nourish your body and systems, you need to decide that you will seek pure, whole foods whenever you can. You will not find these foods at fast food joints or at most restaurants. If you do eat at restaurants talk to the staff and find out what kinds of ingredients are used and how they are prepared.
Keep vegan snacks in your refrigerator such as homemade hummus, salsa, guacamole, fruit and vegetables salads. You will be tempted to eat whatever is most available, so keep healthy whole, pure foods available at all times and already prepared.
When you fix a plate of food, make sure that you build it by selecting the vegetables (all colors), beans and legumes, and fruits first. Add some whole grains if you want. Then add a small amount of animal product if you choose. Eating this way will guarantee that you will stay healthier and avoid chronic disease. If you are already sick or healing, consider eliminating all animal and processed foods completely.
Your Skin
Anything that touches your skin can be absorbed directly into your blood. This is why prescription drugs are administered often using patches. Make sure that anything that touches your skin is made from clean, pure, non-toxic, natural ingredients. This includes household cleaners, fragrances, makeup, soap, and hair products.
Your Mind
In order to nourish your mind and emotions, there are hundreds of things you can do. I’ll make some suggestions and you pick a few you want to try first.
Slow down, meditate or do some yoga. Detach from the everyday pressure you normally put on yourself and think about your priorities. Engage in the positivity that comes into your thoughts and ignore the negativity. Do what you need to do to improve your self-esteem. Get help for your addictions. Learn some humility. Stop getting involved in everyone else’s drama and let the world happen on its own. Stop judging other people and look at yourself. Love yourself and give your time and resources freely.
Enjoy your pets. Walk your dog. Take a nap. Call your mother and ask her how she is doing. Have lunch with a friend. Hold hands with your partner and take a walk together. Think about fun times you had when you were a child. Stop thinking and talking about politics and religion. Participate in your own community. Do some volunteer work. Make a list of nice things you can do for other people that you would enjoy. Whenever you have negative thoughts, do one of your items.
Work to fix old relationships that are strained. Make amends with people you have hurt. Is it really a big deal to admit you might have done something wrong or hurtful? Identify your own character defects and give them up too. Be who you want to be. It all starts in you. Let go of all of your expectations and your attachments to material things and outcomes.
Eating, touching, and thinking clean, natural, and pure things will make you healthier in every way. You can make a big difference by doing one thing at a time, one day at a time, and building your life from the inside out!
(Beth Anderson is a certified Holistic Health Coach and founder of the Holistic Health Hotspot in Evansville, Indiana. She is also the author of “The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life.” Beth received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Beth is helping people improve their lives through nutrition and lifestyle education, health coaching, and by helping others to learn to make informed choices. Beth continues to spread understanding of the connection between body, mind, and spirit and encourages all to discern the truth about food, consumer products, environment, and life choices. You can find Beth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHealthHotspot or email her at beth@holistichealthhotspot.com)
In Conversations with God, Book 1, we learn that “…all illness is self-created. Even conventional medical doctors are now seeing how people make themselves sick.”
Let’s look at what you need to do in order to get healthy, stay healthy, and stop making yourself sick.
There are three basic steps you have to take for stellar holistic health. If you are vigilant and careful, you can improve your own health, reduce occurrence of illness, heal yourself, and start feeling great! First you must cleanse and detoxify your body, inside and outside. Get rid of the toxins that are hanging around in your intestines, clogging your arteries, wearing out your organs, and causing symptoms. You must also detoxify your mind, thoughts and relationships. Second, you must learn to avoid toxins in everything possible from food, beauty products, air, water, household cleaners, emotions, and thoughts. Finally, you must nourish your body with good, clean, whole food and subject your body to nutrient-dense foods, exercise, positive thoughts, actions, and activities.
Today we will look at avoiding toxins in your food and environment.
There is no way to completely prevent toxins from entering our system through food, air, water, environment, and thoughts. If we aren’t careful, we will ingest large numbers and amounts of toxins that will build up and make us unhealthy or diseased.
Food
First of all, learn what is actually in the food you are eating. Processed foods contain many chemicals and synthetic substances used to flavor, color, preserve, or even make you addicted. Sugar is hidden in products you would never suspect, such as tomatoes or beans, toothpaste, ketchup, and canned fruit. Excitotoxins are regularly added to foods to make you crave them or continue eating them after you are full. Oils are partially hydrogenated, which causes trans fats to form. Big agricultural farms douse your produce liberally with pesticides and herbicides, and worse yet use GMO seeds.
The best way to avoid toxins in your food is to increase the amount of food preparation and cooking you do at home for yourself. When you go to a restaurant, you don’t know what kind of oil in which the food is cooked, whether the ingredients are organic, or what additives have been included. Stop buying processed foods when at all possible. Processed foods are anything that is pre-prepared, or in a box or bag at the grocery store. I consider deli and restaurant food “processed” as well because they are constructed from processed ingredients instead of homemade ones. It’s pretty safe to assume that anything that has a commercial on TV is a processed food.
Stop drinking bottled beverages, sodas and diet sodas, or restaurant offerings of tea or coffee, and just drink water. Carry a water bottle with you at all times and drink water all day long. You will flush out your system and prevent new toxins from entering your system. As a bonus, you will save a lot of money.
When eating animal products, know where it came from and how they were farmed. Big farms use antibiotics and a host of chemicals to promote growth and appetite, and the animals are processed in horrible conditions. Check that fish hasn’t come from an area that is known to be contaminated. Environmental groups recommend that you avoid Atlantic halibut, king mackerel, sea bass, shark, swordfish, tuna, and farmed salmon among others.
Environment
Your skin is the largest organ in your body and anything that touches your skin is absorbed into your system. In order to avoid toxins in the future, be aware of what household products you use to clean, such as bathroom, oven, drain, and detergent cleaners. Even many “green” products contain toxic substances. Some of the most damaging chemicals are in fragrances which don’t legally have to be identified as anything except “Fragrance.” Many detergents still have phosphates, surfectants, and petroleum-based ingredients which have been shown to cause cancer.
Consider making your own cleaning products from simple ingredients such as baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, and borax. And again, you will save money!
Surprisingly, you are also exposed to toxins in many health and beauty products like soap, hair products, skin products, makeup, and perfume. Look for ingredients such as synthetic color, DBP, Triclosan, DEA, TEA, metals such as titanium or aluminum, Petrolatum, fragrance, parabens, benzophenone, ceteareth, and more. Don’t buy products with poisons in them. Great guides to find out whether your health and beauty products are toxic can be found on Environmental Working Groups website www.ewg.org.
Before you use a product, ask yourself this question: Would you give this to a baby? If not, then don’t use it on yourself either!
Emotional
Your thoughts, behaviors, and relationships can add to your stress and disease! If you have regular negative thoughts or an involved in toxic relationships, if you repeat destructive behaviors or participate in “office gossip” or triangulation, you are adding negativity to your health bank.
Reduce your own stress and toxicity by replacing your negative thoughts with positive ones. If a negative thought pops into your head, ignore it and move on to the next thought. Or better yet, intentionally replace it with a positive version. Don’t allow yourself to talk about other people or hurt other people even indirectly.
If you identify that you are a negative person or you keep ending up in negative situations or relationship, ask for help from positive family, friends, or seek the help of a counselor. You will be much happier and your health will be better.
What’s Next?
We have examined how to detoxify yourself and how to avoid toxins. Next time, we will look at nourishing yourself with nutrient dense foods, positive thoughts and behaviors.
(Beth Anderson is a certified Holistic Health Coach and founder of the Holistic Health Hotspot in Evansville, Indiana. She is also the author of “The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life.” Beth received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Beth is helping people improve their lives through nutrition and lifestyle education, health coaching, and by helping others to learn to make informed choices. Beth continues to spread understanding of the connection between body, mind, and spirit and encourages all to discern the truth about food, consumer products, environment, and life choices. You can find Beth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHealthHotspot or email her at beth@holistichealthhotspot.com)
In Conversations with God, Book 1, we learn that “…all illness is self-created. Even conventional medical doctors are now seeing how people make themselves sick.”
Let’s look at what you need to do in order to get healthy, stay healthy, and stop making yourself sick.
There are three basic steps you have to take for stellar holistic health. If you are vigilant and careful, you can improve your own health, reduce occurrence of illness, heal yourself, and start feeling great! First you must cleanse and detoxify your body, inside and outside. Get rid of the toxins that are hanging around in your intestines, clogging your arteries, wearing out your organs, and causing symptoms. You must also detoxify your mind, thoughts and relationships. Second, you must learn to avoid toxins in everything possible from food, beauty products, air, water, household cleaners, emotions, and thoughts. Finally, you must nourish your body with good, clean, whole food and subject your body to nutrient-dense foods, exercise, positive thoughts, actions, and activities.
Today we will look at cleansing and detoxifying your body, mind, and relationships.
How To Cleanse and Detoxify Your Body
Detoxifying and cleansing your body can promote weight loss, boost your energy, and help your body heal itself naturally from many symptoms including digestive problems, acne, and inflammatory issues. Detoxifying isn’t anything new, the ancient Eastern medicines have been promoting detoxification for thousands of years.
In order to effectively experience a detoxifying cleanse, you need to relieve, clean, and nourish your body starting from the inside! Once your internal organs have experienced this refreshing break, they can work more effectively to do their jobs – and heal the body naturally.
During a detox, the blood, intestines, and liver are cleansed by using fasting, stimulation, elimination, and nourishment. You can detox for a day or two, or for weeks, depending on your needs and goals. You should ask your doctor first if you have any kind of compromising condition such as pregnancy, chronic disease, or cancer.
We are surrounded by toxins everywhere and in everything from our air, water, and food to our health and beauty products, household cleaners, and work environment. The body stores the toxins it can’t get rid of and will eventually have symptoms such as infections, fatigue, skin problems, mental fog, or even weight gain.
During any kind of detox, you should avoid coffee, alcohol, refined sugar, smoking, and household poisons. Get plenty of rest and quiet time, and eat light foods. Avoid meat and fatty foods.
Water Cleansing
A great way to detox your gut immune system is to do a hot water detox. For 1-2 weeks, simply drink a mug of heated water (plain – no lemon or flavors) every hour or so. The hot water will open up the drainage in your gut and allow toxins to flow out. Repeating this every hour or so for a few weeks will completely boost your immune system naturally!
For a gentle daily detox, drink a large glass of lukewarm water with lemon when you wake up. Give your body a half hour or hour before eating breakfast. This habit will help you rehydrate your body after sleeping and will wake up your digestion so it can perform its work later.
Detoxifying Foods
Many foods can assist your body in naturally detoxifying. Raw fruits and vegetables provide the most cleansing, especially greens such as broccoli, kale, swiss chard, dandelion, turnip, or beet greens. You can also do a 5-day juice-only fast and consume water and juices of fruits and vegetables only.
Herbal and Special Detoxification
You may also choose to use an herbal supplement that will promote gentle cleansing and elimination. Be sure to use completely pure herbal cleanse products without fillers, gluten, chemicals, and artificial color or flavor. Look for a product containing psyllium husk, marshmallow and licorice root, bitter gourd, and slippery elm bark.
After you complete a digestive cleanse/detox you may wish to do a liver cleanse as well as a gallbladder cleanse, especially if you have suffered from headaches, mental fog or confusion, or lethargy. The best liver detox products will contain bio-available turmeric and milk thistle. There are also total cleanse products that are packed with bio-available chlorella, spirulina, or other algaes, and probiotics that can do wonders for your system and energy level!
Detoxify Your Mind
You must also detoxify your mind, thoughts and relationships. Negative thinking and attitude, gossiping, judgmental thinking, and toxic relationships are planting the seeds of disease in your system.
A great way to start thinking more positively is to try affirmations. You can choose a daily affirming statement about your body, health, love, peace, or any area you need to work on being positive. For instance if you suffer from anxiety, use the affirmation “I am at peace.” Just thinking or meditating on affirmations can start reprogramming your mind.
If you are a negative person, try to identify your negative thoughts, stop, and reword the thought into a positive one. Doing this day after day will help you to become positive instead of negative. For instance, if you think about a part of your body you dislike such as your nose or your stomach, think about all of the good things that body part does for you instead of your thoughts about the bad side. Your thoughts about how big your stomach is can turn into “My stomach helps me daily to digest healthy food and make me heal.” You might even start eating more consciously with thought like that!
As far as relationships, if you are spending time with toxic people you have two choices: 1) Work to fix the problem, or 2) Eliminate the problem. Toxic relationships can take a toll on your health and it’s not worth it to maintain unhealthy relationships.
Now you are on your way to detoxifying your body, mind, and spirit! In Part 2, we will examine how to avoid toxins!
(Beth Anderson is a certified Holistic Health Coach and founder of the Holistic Health Hotspot in Evansville, Indiana. She is also the author of “The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life.” Beth received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Beth is helping people improve their lives through nutrition and lifestyle education, health coaching, and by helping others to learn to make informed choices. Beth continues to spread understanding of the connection between body, mind, and spirit and encourages all to discern the truth about food, consumer products, environment, and life choices. You can find Beth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHealthHotspot or email her at beth@holistichealthhotspot.com)
People seem confused by the term “holistic health.” Maybe it’s because businesses are using the catch-phrase inappropriately. Holistic practices aren’t presented thoroughly or followed by some “holistic practitioners” as they prescribe the same old pharmaceuticals without another natural approach first. So what do I mean when I say holistic health? I’ll tell you!
Holistic health includes all aspects of the person – psychological, physical, social, and spiritual otherwise known as mind, body, and spirit. Whatever words you want to use to describe holistic health, it includes all aspects of well-being in you. To be holistically healthy, you must care for your body, your relationships, work and purpose in life, and your spirituality. You care for yourself, your friends, and your community. In order to do that, you avoid toxins in your food, environment, emotions, and life. You nurture your body with nutrient dense foods, relaxation, sleep, and exercise. You attempt to keep yourself healthy proactively through foods and natural healing, and you incorporate the same practices when dealing with an illness or disease. Don’t get me wrong, we need our medical doctors – our trauma care and advanced medical practices are necessary when other things don’t work or aren’t appropriate!
But let’s try to allow our body to heal itself when we can!
Holistic Health is nothing new. Ayurvedic medicine has taught us for thousands of years that we must treat the whole person to avoid illness, cure disease, and have a happy life without suffering. Through Ayurveda you learn to balance your biological tendencies, metabolic activities, and body functions using diet, sleep, activity, and sex. For instance, using Ayurveda you choose your food based on your imbalance, the taste, preparation, combination, quantity, and time to rebalance your body based on your constitution or symptoms. Here in the USA we eat at fast food restaurants, eat processed foods without paying attention. We eat fast food, junk food, and nutrition-less food and then take expensive vitamins and supplements.We eat fiber-less white bread and white flour in everything, but we take expensive fiber supplements.
So, in Holistic Health we look at the Whole…… the whole person.
In order to be whole and healthy we need to change old attitudes and pay attention to the following aspects:
• Remove from and avoid toxicity in the body, food, relationships, daily life, and thoughts
• Increase nutrition and positivity in food, emotions, priorities, exercise, positive mental energy, relationships, spirituality, and purpose in life or job
• The result of the above will be a less stressful, more comfortable happy life full of meaning, health, and happiness
With all of this being said, I also believe that no one has all of the answers. Therefore we are open to and experiment with all kinds of healing through
• Tasty, fun, and healthy food
• Healing foods
• Spices, herbs, natural remedies
• Physical activity
• Natural healers and practitioners
• Energy work
• Emotional Health
• Connection
• Drugless practitioners
• Alternative healing methods
• Alternative Medicine
• Spirituality
The list goes on.
Are you healthy as a whole? Think about the areas you need to change based on what I have shared with you. Any positive change you make in any area of your life will surely improve your overall holistic health.
(Beth Anderson is a certified Holistic Health Coach and founder of the Holistic Health Hotspot in Evansville, Indiana. She is also the author of “The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life.” Beth received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Beth is helping people improve their lives through nutrition and lifestyle education, health coaching, and by helping others to learn to make informed choices. Beth continues to spread understanding of the connection between body, mind, and spirit and encourages all to discern the truth about food, consumer products, environment, and life choices. You can find Beth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHealthHotspot or email her at beth@holistichealthhotspot.com)
