Boost your immunity - A few tips on staying healthy and strong.

Stay Strong - Get Grounded

Do you ever walk barefoot? Do you own shoes with leather soles? 
In our "clean" world we tend to fear dirt, going out and spending time around nature and connecting with mother earth. But did you know that grounding has so many incredible health benefits? The earth's  negative ions can help to boost your immune system. Now that spring is upon us, at least here in the northern hemisphere (even though we got a foot or more of snow today), get outside and get your bare feet on the ground. Studies show that grounding decreases inflammation, increases circulating cytokines, and can help to boost your immune system naturally. Also, just being out in nature decreases the production of the stress hormone cortisol, and in turn reduces your body’s stress response. Less stress means a healthier immune function.
So get out in nature and get your bare feet in the grass, dirt, mountain, lakes and beaches as often as as you can. Take this time to reconnect with nature and mother earth!
   If you do not have a yard/garden and cannot step outside in this time of the global pandemic, gently close your eyes and imagine yourself stepping on earth and grass. Feel your breath going down your spine, traveling like the roots of a tree towards the center of the earth. Feel the earth and it's layers absorbing your breath and cleansing it before you inhale it back up and into your lungs. Feel the cleansed and charged new breath fill your lungs, your heart and your whole body! Spend at least five minutes grounding in your mind and feel yourself become relaxed and energized at the same time.

Welcome the life force - Get some Sunlight

We could not live without the life force that the sun provides us with. All life here on earth depends on its warm rays and energy giving qualities. Did you know that the sun is also paramount in helping us produce healthy amounts of Vitamin D in our body? While it is recommend to avoid the sun during peak times, from 10 am- 2 pm, this is the time is when Vitamin D is most highly synthesized. Some people might be in high risk of skin melanomas, especially when you have fair skin or have overexpose yourself, so do consult with your physician before heading out. A healthy amount of sun exposure however, shows it enhances our ability to synthesis adequate Vitamin D. Research has also shown that this vitamin/pro-hormone is not only vital for calcium absorption and bone growth and remodeling, but it also helps in modulating cell growth and immune system function. 10-15 minutes of sun exposure at a time helps our body regulate its functions. 

Adding healthy fats also increases your intake of  D and other vitamins. Those fats may include olive oil, lard, tallow or duck fat, grass fed butter, and avocados. Fruits and veggies such as tomatoes, strawberries, grapefruits, sweet red peppers, red cabbage and carrots are rich in lycopene and will help protect the skin during sun exposure. So crunch away on some raw veggies.

To recap, the sun increases feelings of well-being, boosts our immune system, and helps to relieve pain. The sun is is not only life giving and healing but it also promotes relaxation and a healthy body.

Eat fresh, Eat healthy, Get Nutrients

Consider your body your vehicle to get through life. The better the fuel you give it the longer and farther it will drive. Simple right? Make sure to consume fresh and health foods, veggies and fruits daily and avoid boxed foods as much as possible. Besides the fact the these foods hardly have any nutrients they are often filled with toxins, sugars and other ingredients that were never meant to enter our body!

• Vegetable & Herb Greens: A diet high in green vegetables can help to reduce inflammation, as they are rich sources of antioxidants and other biologically active substances, which in turn can improve immune function.
• Fresh Fruits: Fresh fruits are good for you but also tend to have a lot of sugar. As a rule of thumb the sweeter the fruit the more the sugar content. Green apples and grapefruits are some great choices if you want to avoid too much sugar/fructose.
• Turmeric: Rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory effects. Turmeric is an excellent immune-booster. I often find the fresh root at the market, but you can also get it in powder form or a liquid supplement.
• Bone Broth: Bone broth is easily added to recipes and can help the body with inflammation. Full of vitamins and minerals it can boost our immune system and keep us healthy. I would recommend finding a well sourced organic and clean form to ensure lack of toxins passed down from the processed animal.

Hydrate all day - Drink plenty of WATER

For some it is almost a burden to drink even one glass of water, but hydrating is so important in staying healthy. Drinking enough water is important for absorbing nutrients, keeping a healthy weight, avoiding brain fog, keeping your nervous system and your structural system healthy and strong to name just a few benefits. The proverbial eight glasses of water a day is a minimum standard. In general if your pee is a pretty dark yellow when you go to the bathroom chances are you are dehydrated to some degree. For the most part clear urine means you are doing a good job.

 

Mind your chatter - curb negative thoughts

Science tells us that we have around 75,000 thoughts a day. That is quite the number! Some of those thoughts repeat from day to day and hopefully once in a while we have a glimpse of something new. That is when change happens. Not only do we not want to move through our day in a mindless way but if we are looking to improve our life it is imperative that we change the way we think. Have you heard of the saying: Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change? That sentence hits it right on the nail. If you are looking to bring some positive changes to your life it is important to question what you have in place right now, what works, what doesn't work and chuck the latter out. Often we have had a routine in our lives simply because a relative always did it this way or we just never questioned if it fits our beliefs. And as we grow older we find ourselves struggling with the way life treats us and crave a different outcome. The key is to begin focusing on what you really want and carve a path that supports that desire. If you are looking for a quieter life for example you will not be deciding to move to the city. Instead you will search for some place further out from the city limits that will most likely support your dream.  Our thoughts are mindless loops that need direction. Learning to be mindful and present can help disconnect those old subconscious programs that are running and replace them with fresh new ideas that support who you are now. Lucid hypnosis and NLP has helped a lot of people redirect their energy and their effort and create the life they have always wanted.

 

Nourish your body and your mind - Get good sleep

In today's world we have completely lost our natural rhythm and sleep patterns. Before life extended to the wee hours of the night, we would go to sleep at a reasonable time and get enough rest and re energize ourselves for next day's activities. Our circadian rhythms or our internal biological 24-hour clock followed the seasons and the cycles of the sun. But nowadays our sleep-wake cycles have completely changed - whether it is because we watch TV late into the night, we have a graveyard shift at work or we choose to party all night long we are not allowing our body to go into the quiet hours and get rest. Without enough hours to rest in the peaceful darkness we do not produce enough seratonin and melatonin and end up feeling tired, hang over and exhausted the next morning. Only to repeat it all over again night after night and end up with a chronic sleep pattern that is exhausting instead of rejuvenating. 
 Our natural biological rhythm is part of our basic biology, down to the cellular level and our sleep cycle plays a much more critical role in our health than most of us realize . Without getting too much into neurons and hormone receptors it suffices to note that a healthy sleep/wake cycle controls our metabolism down to the cellular level, and contributes to our health and well-being.
 It seems that sleep loss has been associated with everything from cancer, heart disease, anxiety and depression levels, weight loss resistance, and decreased cognitive performance. Sleep has been shown to be important for hormone health, muscle repair, mood, energy, weight, mental health, and cognition.
In other words good sleep is paramount to our health.

Six ways to enhance your sleep

1. Follow your circadian rhythm as closely as possible. Be an early riser and an early recliner :-)
2. Enjoy some sun rays throughout the day to help melatonin levels. 
3. Exercise every day. It helps your body and mind feel good and restores your rhythm.
4. Shut off all electronic exposure two hours before bed and give your nervous system enough time to calm down. If you have a pain of orange glasses wear them to tone down the blue lights.
5. Close your blinds/curtain and create a soothing dark environment to sleep in. Darkness promotes the production of melatonin and seratonin as the body thinks it is time to go to sleep.
6. Practice HeartMath breathing techniques to help your build coherence and resilience and to easily fall asleep at night.

 Here's to a healthy, wealthy and joyful living,