Your health and happiness are affected by a variety of factors, internal and external.  There are essential human needs that, when ignored, contribute to health problems, lack of vitality, loss of creativity and productivity, emotional disharmonies, spiritual malaise, and unhappiness.

Physically you need good nutrition, activity or exercise, good sleep, rest and relaxation, and human touch.

Food is Foundation Medicine

The basis for your health is what you put into your body.  Food is creating the quality of your blood, cells, tissues and organs, and greatly influences the way you think and perceive.

Many are looking for the perfect diet that will ensure good health.  No such diet exists. There is no one way of eating that works to bring everyone good health and balanced weight.  Not everyone benefits equally from foods that contain the same measure of nutrients.  The appropriateness of foods cannot be determined without knowledge of the constitution, condition, age, lifestyle, environment, and emotional state of the person eating them.

The best foods to use as a basis for balanced health are not extreme. They do not overly cleanse, build, or stress the body and mind.  There are foundational foods that benefit everyone.  They form the foundation around which other parts of the diet can revolve.

A diet based on whole, unprocessed whole foods, including unrefined whole grains, beans and legumes, and vegetables–is the most beneficial.  These food groups contain a rich variety of foods that have ample protein and a variety of vitamins and minerals.  They are essential for enjoying the best possible health.

Emphasizing these foundational whole foods will help to resolve health issues, normalize weight, improve energy, digestion and elimination, provide restful, sleep, and harmonize negative emotions. health supportive recipes.


Your Mind is Magnetic

Your mind strongly influences your health. Your dominant thoughts on any subject will drive you to make choices that match those thoughts.  Most people are not aware of persistent thoughts that are causing suffering.  All things are possible.  If you’re suffering with health problems, then the opposite is possible–without struggle, but not without some effort and inner work.

It’s difficult to change poor health from the same level of thinking that created it.  If you want to be successful, changing your mindset is crucial.  This doesn’t mean simply thinking positive, but rather discovering and changing attitudes, beliefs, and personal truths that have led to your problems. Your mind, to a large extent, determines the shape of your body, and the state of your health and happiness.

Your health and life reflect what’s in your conscious and subconscious mind.  Every choice you make is done in an attempt to fulfill your beliefs. Beliefs are personal truths that you live by.  Most of them are learned from your families, role models, religion, media, science and our culture. Negative, fear-based, disempowering beliefs are huge obstacles to success. They limit your ability to experience good health, happiness and freedom.

Spend some time examining your personal truths that are guiding your life.  If you don’t know what they are, look at the reality of your health, finances, happiness–everything.  Your current conditions will tell you what you’ve been believing.

Cultivating the ability to focus your mind on a positive vision for your health and life is a crucial key to good health and happiness.  This is true no matter what is happening in the world. It takes awareness and shifts in perception.  Thoughts without awareness cause you to react with fear, anger or other negatives, rather than respond intelligently and effectively to your personal challenges.

You use your mind and imagination every day to create nearly everything you are experiencing.  Do you daily worry about health, weight, money, and other things?  Do you imagine lack, struggle and difficulties?  Do you expect to get every disease your parents, siblings and friends have? Are the choices you make coming from fear based thoughts?   Do you have deep-seated negative concepts about life?  Your thoughts continually become your experience.

Taking control of your mind is essential in transforming unwanted conditions.

 

Healthy Emotional Expression


Are your emotions making you sick and unhappy?  Persistent negative emotions always precede health, weight, and lifestyle problems.  Paying attention to how you feel can prevent small problems from turning into a crisis.

Emotional problems are issues of your Whole health.  Negative emotions are communicating to you that something is out of balance and needs to be changed.  Emotions are a wonderful guidance system.  Many people are not interpreting and understanding the messages their emotions are trying to give to them.  Instead, emotions are often repressed, denied, or dulled with pharmaceuticals. These messages will persist until you understand the Higher purpose for your emotions.

Treat your emotions as friends.  They have come to your awareness to help you in some way.  Perhaps they are urging you to communicate how you feel, to say no to things you don’t want to be doing; to work on forgiveness of self or others; or to take better care of your personal needs.  Negative emotions may be a nudge to seek some professional counseling to resolve something from your past.  Given the profound effects of food on emotional health, the negative ones are often a push for a better diet.

Do you have opportunities for full emotional expression?   Everyone needs someone in their life they can speak with openly and honestly without fear of being judged– someone who is a good listener.  This may be a therapist, holistic counselor, good friend, or member of the clergy. Holistic Health Counseling can be effective for resolving emotional disharmonies.

Life can throw a lot of curves and it’s important to process and move through the negatives with a hopeful expectancy and trust in life.  Learn and practice seeing all of your challenges in a new light.  They are an invitation to change so that you may experience life in more radiant ways.

 

Simple, Effective Practice

Sit quietly for a few minutes and ask your emotions what good thing they are trying to do for you.  Note any impressions that come to mind.  Tell them that you want them to help you evolve in healthy, positive ways that feel good.  Thank them for being in your life.   Focus on bringing light to the emotion, even if only for 15 seconds.   Again, note any awareness that comes to mind.  This is a simple, yet powerful practice for deliberately shifting your thoughts and feelings which will, in turn, direct the course of your life in positive ways.

Your emotions tell you exactly where you are in relation to your Vision and Dreams.  Learning to listen to and extract the positive meaning behind your emotions will develop within you the ability to more easily create a life you love.  Your emotions will become steadier, quieter, more peaceful, and positive.  Rather than reacting to outer conditions with negative thoughts and emotions, you learn to perceive these conditions as positive guidance and allow them to inspire you to create the joyful, healthy, abundant life you are meant to live.

This is a critical and necessary aspect of health and happiness.

 

Build Your Spiritual Connection

The spiritual is the highest and most effective path to resolving any issue. This has nothing to do with religion.

It’s essential to understand the nature of your existence and your connection to a larger whole. A spiritual orientation and relationship with a Divine Being that loves and adores you unconditionally will move you forward more quickly.

You are energetically connected to the Divine Source of all creation–the realm where all possibilities exist. Understanding this will not interfere with your particular religious orientation.

You have an invisible part of you that is always trying to guide you toward joyful, abundant living, and a healthy, fit body and mind. By working at the spiritual level you will strengthen your connection to this Source, tap into its guidance, and understand how you have been resisting it. This has nothing to do with religion and will not conflict with your personal religious beliefs.

Your invisible, unlimited spirit will always guide you toward radiant health, and joyful and abundant living.  Applying spiritual awareness in every day life is vital to health and happiness.  If this comes first, food and other factors fall into place more easily.

Spirit is stifled by struggle, busyness, lack of unconditional self love, perfectionism, overwork, overuse of your intellectual mind, fear-based emotions, excuses and justifications, complaining and whining, defensiveness, negativity and pessimism.  These all widen the gap between you and the wonderful possibilities for your health and life.

Your all-knowing spirit responds to you when you are being creative, exercising your intuition, and being generous and kind to yourself and others.  She is enlivened when you are happy, playful, and enjoying yourself in healthy ways.  When you are in a state of gratitude and appreciation for yourself, others and your life’s experiences she brings you more things to be grateful for.  Being happy for others’ successes, finding the good in what is, and using positive, uplifting, affirming words when you think and speak make her a stronger presence in your life.

Can you carve out 5-30 minutes a day to focus on your life’s vision and for quiet reflection, meditation or prayer?  Or simply sit quietly in a state of presence and focus on breathing. Doing so will bring greater awareness of and a stronger relationship with the Divine Higher Forces in life who want you to be happy and healthy.

 

A Nourishing Rhythm

Do you hit the floor running when you awaken in the morning?  Do you stop only when you drop into bed at night?  Is your yearly vacation the only time you relax?

You need “down” time daily when you can mentally and emotionally let go.  Reading a book for pleasure, meditating, taking a nap, observing a sunset, watching a move, taking a bubble bath, doing something creative that relaxes you are essential for a balanced life.

Taking time to sit down and eat meals in a relaxed way is far more nourishing than eating the same meals on the run.

Do you get adequate rest?  Some people require more sleep than others.  There is no standard that applies to everyone, but you should get at least 7 hours.  Your body renews and restores itself during sleep.  It’s the time you totally let go of all resistance, and is hurtful to deprive yourself.

Does your daily rhythm include exercise or activity?  Time for meditation, prayer or reflection?

Being involved regularly with a community of positive, like-minded, caring people is an essential ingredient to health and happiness.  This could be  friends, a professional group, supportive family, a book club, a church group or spiritually oriented organization, or others.  Do you allow time for this regularly?

Determine where you are out of balance and what you need more of to create a healthy rhythm to your life that feeds you in positive ways.

What can you let go of, delegate or simplify?  You could get your family involved in meal planning and preparation, errands, chores, and others things that are taking up so much of your time.

  • Look at how you spend your time and you’ll know what your priorities are. Is it time to reprioritize?
  • Turn off the computer, phones and television at specific times of the day.
  • Put more play, fun, laughter and recreation in your life.

A consistently nourishing life will add years to your life and prevent many health problems.

Start with small changes and a momentum will build.  Measure the payoffs with your investment in yourself. Those of you ready will do what’s best for you, your health, and your life. You have a lot of power to create health and happiness.  Exercise that power now.


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