Healthy Living Details

In this post I will follow through with an earlier promise to you where I said I would share the “Healthy Living Tips” that were referred to in a previous post article to you. I decided to include here the details from my latest book:  Autoimmune Cases – Naturally: Treating Autoimmune Using Energy Psychology and Naturopathy. I hope that you will find the info included here – a whole chapter from the book – will help you to stay healthy or to get healthier!

Tips for Healthy Living

Before getting into the cases I want to share the natural protocol tips that every person in a body needs to remember as we’re keeping ourselves healthy, getting healthier, or supporting the body to rebalance and detox.

As part of my doctorate studies in Naturopathy I earned my Certification as a Natural Health Professional. During an intensive eight-day training program for this CNHP credential we covered many kinds of wholistic and natural approaches to helping the body stay in balance or rebalance.

I have chosen here to share with you a list of things that are very paramount in keeping a healthy body. Whether you’re already suffering from something or you are still in a healthy body, in order to keep it healthy I’m sharing 17 different points that you need to know. These are not necessarily things that you’ll get from your medical doctor or from another practitioner. Pulled from a compilation of different disciplines, you can bring the information from this section into your life to help support your health or to help support you to get healthy.

In illness of all kinds your body shows certain symptoms and we’re working to clear the causes of those symptoms so the body can rebalance. The 17 points I’m sharing here are things you can start integrating. You don’t need a practitioner to do most of them; you can do them on your own. Some of them may take a little stretch from you, and some of them may not. You can allow your body to stay in balance naturally if you keep the following points in mind.

Human Body 101

Did you know that your body doesn’t really know how to be sick? The body is a miraculous, wonderful organism. I won’t compare it to a mechanical computer, although a computer has a lot of energy in it that goes beyond just the bits and pieces and the mechanics of it. The body is way beyond a computer, and it works faster and better. It only gets “sick” because it is out of balance. When you suffer from the “common cold” and when you get diarrhea or nausea, or start having mucus coming out of your nose, it is usually a way that the body is detoxing. When you focus on stopping all the symptoms, then the body can’t drain the toxins, so you’re stuck with the toxins inside longer than they need to be there.

Your body replaces all of its cells every 90 to 100 days, so 180 days from now, if you are careful about what you do for your body, you will be living in a totally different body with different cells. Just imagine it. This includes brain cells and all of the other cells in your body; they regenerate. So, in order to nurture these cells, we need to maintain them and the whole body via these 17 points I’m sharing.

Like the full body, each cell requires that it be fed with the right balance of nutrients, hydrated, allowed to eliminate waste, and cleansed of the waste in the environment. In order to support our cells to do this you need to be aware of how to keep the cells and full body in balance. The following points will help you as you maintain living in our modern and toxed-out society
The Seventeen Points

Some of these points are going to be review for you. Some of them may be new material to consider. Each refers to an important part of your life, and when you keep the tenet in mind you will feel the results of a body maintaining balance.

Point #1 – Healthy Air

Air quality is so very important to your health and well-being, and how you breathe is also something to be aware of.

Back in grad school I had an apartment that was close to a neighboring gas station. When my windows were open I could smell the gas fumes and I realized they made me dizzy, and I felt like I needed to sleep a lot. Heavy metal poisoning can come from breathing toxic air like gas fumes. If you live close to an airport, you may have airplanes dumping fuel as they circle the airport, or if it’s an Air Force base or other military base, often they have too much fuel and don’t want to land with that much so they fuel up in the air. If you’re walking down the street and there’s a plane overhead getting ready to land, you may smell the petroleum.

You’ve got to be aware of what you’re breathing. Toxic fumes in the environment can definitely impact your health or lack thereof. I’m a little concerned about my own beautiful cabin sitting up on a mountain that I heat with two propane gas log fireplaces plus a central HVAC system. I don’t really know for sure how healthy the propane fumes are for me and my particular lungs. Look around your environment. Make sure that whenever it’s a nice day out that you breathe fresh air.

Air is really important. Often when I facilitate energy therapy sessions I get into deep breathing. I ask clients to breathe in a deep sense of peace or health and to hold it in, and then breathe it out and feel it leaving their lungs along with the blocked energy. Just by focusing on the breath during meridian tapping or while using other energy therapy techniques can make a profound difference.

But, often people just breathe in the top of their lungs. Shallow breathing does not provide the oxygen that our cells need. All of our cells need that oxygen. Without it, they’re going to die and then we’re going to get sick. Good air and good breathing techniques make a huge difference, and that is why yoga is such a potent practice. It teaches how to breathe deeply. Pilates, when done correctly, is also a really wonderful exercise practice. Neither one of these are too energetic, yet both provide the body with the necessary oxygen that it needs. If you’re in a weakened condition, you can do things like yoga or pilates. Qigong and other kinds of martial arts kinds of exercises are also wonderful in that they teach you to breathe. Your body needs good, fresh air, and it needs lots of it. Start to practice breathing in a full breath so that your stomach even goes out and you feel your lungs totally filling up. See how long you can hold each breath in your lungs and then breathe it completely out. See if you can hold your lungs totally empty for a little while before you breathe back in.

Point #2 – Good Food

You have probably heard too much about diets. I have a number of points that I will list about my recommendations for “good” food diets. The best rule is to remember that everything that enters your body is either beneficial or harmful – except for good water, which is neutral.

• A first suggestion that I have for everyone is to get off of “Round-up” crops. Any crop that has become immune to this potent herbicide is automatically presenting a genetic modification into your system that can wreak havoc with your gastro-intestinal flora as well as your immune system. Another way of looking at this is to eat only Organic or Non-GMO (genetically-modified) foods.

• Good oils are very important to any diet regime, and if you cut out oils or fat you will find it very difficult to eliminate and to assimilate your nutrients. Any partially or hydrogenated oils such as are used in pre-packed pastries, grocery store bakery items, or other off-the-shelf foods are non-digestible and are made for a long shelf life, which does not aid in your digestion process.

• With my autoimmune clients I endorse a modified Paleo-type diet without gluten and dairy, and with very few grains. There are many reasons why gluten is dangerous for the body, and often getting it out of your diet can seem difficult. There are many resources available to help in this.

• It’s also important to keep in mind a balance between the alkaline-ash-producing foods and the acid-ash-creating foods that you intake. This is all related to pH, which we’re going to get into in a little bit. Foods need to supply good health and they need to provide a good balance of your pH in your body. Whenever you go to a swimming pool, you would hope that the lifeguard there or the owner of the pool keeps the pH correct. If not, your skin may burn or break out because the water is too alkaline or too acid. Either way, you may get sick because if the pH is not right, it can grow microbes that can be destructive when out-of-balance in your system. When this happens the water starts getting foggy, or full of algae, and you won’t want to swim there. pH balance is also why you have to test aquarium water. Fish die if the pH isn’t correct. Our bodies also die if the pH isn’t correct. In fact, we cannot assimilate vitamins and minerals and nutrients if our body is not in the right pH range. You may be taking many vitamins every single day, but your body may not be assimilating any of them if your pH is not correct.

• Many people endorse 80 percent raw and 20 percent cooked foods, and at least 80 percent natural, fresh foods, even if you cook them. None of us really should be eating refined foods. Anything that has a whole list of ingredients, including chemicals, colors, flavorings are considered “fake” foods, and your body doesn’t need them. Any kind of refined flours are also not good for your body because the nutrients have probably been refined out of them.

• Many people are becoming allergic to all grains, but do not fear, nut flours and natural seeds are amply available for cooking, baking, and using in all the ways that grain flours have been applied in the past. You don’t have to eat the typical foods that you’ve always eaten in order to get your favorite dishes with your favorite flavors. Good food is really important.

Point #3 – Good Water

When I discuss “good water”, I’m talking about a limited kind of water. We’re talking water that is the best for you and your cells. That water is either distilled water or reverse osmosis water. Many people argue that the distilled has no minerals in it and all the good things have been completely vaporized out. The interesting thing I learned was when you have natural spring water or even typical well water full of natural minerals, the body cannot deal with these inorganic minerals, the ones that are minute particles of rocks, sand, and that come out of the earth. They’re wonderful but the body cannot assimilate them directly. If they go through a plant and a plant takes the minerals up through the soil and into its roots and then we eat the plant or the fruit from the plant, then we can get the minerals. They then become organic minerals instead of inorganic minerals, and our body can assimilate those. So, don’t believe the argument that you have to have spring water with minerals – natural or added back in. Since we’re not assimilating those anyway because they’re inorganic, your body has to take extra energy to digest those and expel them. Again, reverse osmosis water or distilled water are the best waters to be drinking.

You are probably feeling dehydrated most of the time and don’t even know it. Symptoms may include fatigue, fogginess, nausea, dizziness, listlessness, aches and pains, abdominal cramps, and I could go on. So, here is what you need to do in order to adequately hydrate your cells so they can function in a healthy manner. Take your body weight and divide that in half. This number in ounces is the amount of good water your body should be drinking each day. For example, if you weigh 100 pounds, divide that by two, which is 50. You should be drinking 50 ounces of good water per day. And, good water does not mean coffee, tea, juice, or anything except water. And, then, after doing energy therapy work, when I remind you to: “Drink lots of water, more than you usually drink.,” that means you’re going to drink more water than your baseline because energy work takes more water. If you’re not drinking enough daily good water, I highly recommend you change your ways. Your body needs this.

Point #4 – The Digestive Process

Yes, it does start in your mouth. That’s why it’s so important to chew your food. People suggest that your food should be a liquid before you even swallow it. If you’re eating a few bites, chewing a few times and then swallowing a big lump like a dog, then it is more difficult and takes more energy for your body to digest it. We need to baby our digestive system because it is of paramount importance to our overall health and well-being. We need to take food into the mouth, let it go down into the stomach where it’ll sit in the stomach for up to an hour or maybe more. Then it starts going into the small intestine. A lot has to occur in that digestive process. You really need to support your digestion. The best way to do that is to eat good foods.

You know that you don’t want to eat huge quantities of protein from meat. You also don’t want to cut good fats out of your diet. Anybody that’s on a low-fat diet is hurting themselves. If it’s good fat, you can eat all the coconut oil that you feel like eating and it’s going to be good for you. You’re not going to eat that much because it fills you up. It’s nutritious and it tastes good. There’s a certain point where you’re just not going to want anymore. Don’t cut fats out of your diet or else you won’t be able to digest. Your body needs good, essential fatty acids.

Point #5 – “BULLS” of Elimination

Elimination is a big aspect of your digestive process, and this doesn’t just include the intestines and eliminating through the bowels. That’s just one part of a sophisticated and whole-body system. Elimination of toxins from the body is something that we have to keep in mind. Here is an overview of the different body processes that we must be aware of and that we need to maintain in order to eliminate the toxins that come out of every single cell in our body every day, multiple times every day. I want you to imagine the word bulls, “BULLS”.

“B” is for bowels.

We eliminate via our intestines and colon or bowel. When we are healthy we eliminate two or three times a day depending on whether we eat two or three meals per day. We should have an elimination for every meal that we eat. That’s normal. Hydration, the right vitamins and minerals in balance, and oils in our diet can aid this process. If you have trouble there may be nutritional, emotional, toxic, or structural reasons why you have difficulty eliminating, and a functional medical doctor or naturopathic physician can look at your full wholistic profile and help you to understand how to remedy your situation.

“U” stands for your urinary tract.

It is not just the water that goes through you. When you are taking your vitamins and you urinate and it’s very yellow, that is a normal cycle of the Vitamin B coming through you because it only stays in your system for six hours and then leaves naturally. If it hasn’t been absorbed in around six hours, it’s eliminated and that’s why you need to keep taking your multiple B vitamins. Normal urine should look like a light wheat yellow color if it’s healthy. Different people urinate with different frequency. When you are eating a healthy diet urination shouldn’t burn. If your urine burns, that may mean that your urine is too acid or too alkaline indicating an imbalance in your pH, or that you may have some level of irritation or infection in the urinary tract. Basically the urinary system gets rid of the toxins or wastes released from your intestines and processed via the kidneys and bladder. It’s a wonderful way to help eliminate many different things from the body that it doesn’t need.

“L” is for lungs – another way that our body eliminates toxins.

Every time you breathe out carbon dioxide, you’re also breathing out toxins from the cells. When your red blood cells that carry the nutrients and oxygen go through your lungs and you take a deep breath of air, you’re breathing in oxygen. It goes into the red blood cells and then is carried by your cardiovascular system to deliver the oxygen to every cell in your body. As it delivers the oxygen then the blood cell picks up the CO2, the carbon dioxide, which is the waste from the cell having already used the oxygen. The oxygenated blood leaves the lungs via the arteries and then the CO2-filled cells return to the lungs via the veins to be expelled. When you breathe out, you expel many toxins that come out of the blood. What an amazing and intricate system of cleansing this is that includes both the vascular and respiratory systems!

When you exercise aerobically and start breathing deeply and taking full breaths of air – also when you do yoga or Pilates and you take deep breaths, your lungs are expelling more of the toxic refuse from your cells. That’s good for you because while you are de-toxing you’re also energizing yourself by getting more oxygen into your cells. That gives you much more energy.

The second “L” stands for the lymph system.

The lymph system, like the blood system, takes toxins away from the cells. The lymph system also takes the nutrition to the cells, just like the blood system. The lymph system is kind of like a sister system, and it is connected with the neuro-lymphatic rubbing points that we will refer to later. The lymph system is also where the lymphocytes or white blood cells are manufactured and through which they are delivered into the vascular system. Lymph is thought of as being more of a clear fluid that flows throughout the body. This system has no heart to pump it through the body; instead the flow is maintained by action from your big muscles. The only way your lymph system is very active is when you move. The more movement you do, the healthier your lymph system is. Your lymph can then take the beneficial substances to the cells to feed them with nutrition and take away the waste. There’s elimination from every single cell in our human form, and the waste, which is toxic to our body, is taken away in the lymph. Then it is actually placed into the bowels through the intestines or into the kidneys and bladder, and you expel it through urine. The lymph system is so very important.

When you hear somebody with breast cancer and they’ve got lymph nodes that are involved and they have all those cut out, they’ve got a problem. Those lymph nodes are helpful to helping the whole lymph system in feeding the vital cells of the organs and all the tissues and all the cells in the body. You need your lymph system. In order to keep it healthy, you need to do some kind of movement or exercise each day. Your main lymph-related organ is your spleen. When people have accidents and then they have their spleen removed, the spleen makes the blood cells and supports the lymph system. We need our spleens just as we are meant to have all of our organs intact.

The final letter, “S”, is for the skin.

When you sweat or perspire, you are also letting go of toxins. You may taste your sweat sometimes, and it might seem salty. That is letting go of the alkaline pH. Sometimes it may hold an odor or putrid taste, maybe like chemicals, because it’s expelling toxins. Generally if your pH is balanced and you are healthy, you should not have bad body odor at all. You should not have to use any kind of deodorant if your diet is clean and your pH is balanced. I would never recommend using an antiperspirant because you want to perspire – it is the healthy thing that your body requires. Don’t use something that keeps you from perspiring. Some people still need a deodorant, and there are natural, aloe-based options which will work well. If you have a strong body odor or you notice that your body odor changes, you need to look at what you’re eating.

Point #6 – Essential Fatty Acids

There are a group of fatty acids that our body does not make and yet they are required in order for the body to be in balance and to function the way it needs to function. The fatty acids are considered to be Vitamin F. You get these essential fatty acids in fish oil. If you’re taking a good fish oil or flax oil supplement daily, that’s good. Make sure that you’re buying a good brand, not just a cheap, discount supplement. You get what you pay for. If you’re getting the “big box store” brand or a generic brand, it’s like going to a fast food take-out and buying a piece of meat versus going to a special restaurant where you can get grass-fed, organic, no hormone, wonderful, pampered beef and get a beautiful cut of steak. There’s a difference in quality. You’re going to get much more benefit from one versus the other. In fact, the other may not help you at all.

Point #7 – pH balance

I mentioned the importance of this already. pH stands for “potential hydrogen”, and it relates to the body’s ability to absorb minerals which are vital to survival. To stay alive your blood pH must fall between 7.35 and 7.45. Neutral is considered at 7. An optimal range for both urine and saliva should be between 6.3 and 6.6, with a rating of 6.4 considered best. If you stay within that range 6.3-6.6 you will be able to absorb and assimilate most supplements. Even if you’re buying the right foods and vitamin supplements, your body can’t use the nutrients therein if your pH is off. It’s like your body is full of acid rain and that’s not good. In order to check your own level of health based on pH, you can go to your health food store and get some pH strips to test your urine and to test your saliva.

For example, in the case of many Thyroid conditions, both hyper- and hypo-, the digestive system may not have a healthy pH between 6.3 and 6.6, so it cannot assimilate iodine, which is important for this organ, and is a substance that can only be absorbed within this very narrow range. Some other vitamins and minerals have broader ranges, but that will not support the thyroid getting the iodine that it needs to function. This, along with other factors, can create an imbalance that will lead to dis-ease in the thyroid.

Without a proper pH balance, digestion and elimination are moving at the wrong speed which means even the best source of nutrients cannot be assimilated. Without nutrients, every system of the body will be incapable of functioning at 100%. When the pH is balanced, the rest of the body can achieve balance. Naturopaths can usually help you with pH balancing tests and information for your unique body.

Interestingly enough, there is a specific “fibromyalgia pattern” where the saliva pH is lower than (more acidic) than 6.4 and the urine pH is higher (more alkaline) than 6.4. Other indications are:
• blood anemia with deficiency in iron and/or in Vitamin B12,
• diarrhea if the acid number is very low,
• leg cramps indicating problems with calcium utilization,
• muscular discomfort in the lower extremities with aching bones, and
• this pattern can lead to strokes, high blood pressure, and vascular problems with vessel fragility.

Point #8 – Hygiene

Most everybody in our culture generally keeps pretty good hygiene, but do you realize how many poisons are in our clothes washing products, our soaps, our shampoos, our conditioners, our facial and body lotions, our lipsticks, our cosmetics, our air purifiers, our perfumes, our toilet paper? Look around you at all the products you’re using for your personal hygiene and make sure that you’re not poisoning yourself. When somebody comes to me and they say: I’ve got all these breakouts in a certain area of my body, I always ask them: “What are you using to wash your clothes? Are you using the strongest thing that’s going to get out all the dirt? Are you using the cheapest brand on the market?” You don’t want to do that. You want to make sure you’re using good, healthy things that are not going to hurt your body. Everything that touches your skin immediately goes into your blood stream. You might say: “I’ve got thick skin.” Right, but if you put a lotion on your skin, or if your skin is next to new clothes that haven’t been washed and still have chemicals on them, you’re taking in toxins right then and there. Your body has to expel those toxins immediately. It takes extra energy to do that. Just beware.

Point #9 – Exercise

This is so important to all of your systems, and as mentioned before, your lymph system depends on the movement of your big muscles like in exercise. You need to move your body. You need to keep your joints moving or else you will start to get still and lose range of motion. You need to keep your muscles moving or else they will quickly atrophy. Exercise doesn’t need to be strenuous, but you need to move that lymph so that your cells can be fed and the toxins can be removed.

Point #10 – Good Sleep

If you have chronic fatigue, you may sleep a lot or be tired all the time and wish you could sleep all the time. If you suffer from fibromyalgia or chronic pain, maybe it’s hard for you to sleep. A typical body needs at least seven to eight hours of sleep, not less. If you can’t sleep a full seven or eight hours per night, you’ve got to look at what you’re doing to keep yourself awake. Are you ingesting caffeine? Are you using nicotine? Are you using electronic devices late at night before you go to sleep? Are you watching scary movies or very upsetting things? Are you watching the news before you go to bed at night? Are you eating chocolate or drinking coffee in the afternoon or evening? Whatever it is, there’s something keeping you awake. Is it just the stress, where you wake up in the middle of the night and all of a sudden you’re so stressed out, you’re making lists, having conversations with coworkers or your boss, or you’re worried about your health condition, or about your finances?

There are many tools that can be used to help you claim quality sleep in the amounts that you need. The energy therapy meridian tapping can really help you to go to sleep. I would also advise that you do not look at computer screens, cell phone screens, TV screens, or anything bright and light for about an hour before you go to sleep if you’re having problems sleeping. If caffeine may be your problem, stop eating that after noon. Take your caffeine in the morning if you have to have it at all.

Make sure that you get a good night’s sleep. If you can, allow yourself to sleep until you wake up naturally. Don’t set an alarm. If your body is tired, let it take a nap. Don’t beat up on yourself because you need the nap. It doesn’t mean you’re lazy. If you suffer from autoimmune, you probably have a problem with your body, so let yourself sleep.

Point #11 – Emotional Balance

As an Energy Psychologist, I look first at a person’s emotional balance when they present to me with a physical or other kind of problem. In autoimmune there is usually an emotional component stemming from earlier in life that needs to be addressed and the emotional charge cleared in order for the body to be able to move into full healing mode.

In my practice I use energy psychology tools including meridian tapping and pressure point holding, and naturopathy tools including homeopathics and flower essences to clear emotions having to do with the conditions presented, such as: fears, self doubts, pain, stress, and any other emotions involved. We must have emotions balanced in order for other treatments to work and to allow the body to rebalance. This step which is often overlooked, is so important.

Point #12 – Spiritual Balance

Having a private spiritual life is vitally important to humans. Whatever you believe doesn’t matter, whether you believe in the Universe or God or Jesus, you could be Buddhist or Muslim or Hindu or Christian or Jewish. It doesn’t matter. You need to have a private, higher-than-third-dimensional connection. You could say it’s with your Higher Self, your Guardian Angel, your God, your sense of the Creator, your sense of the Almighty Power. When you are connected, you can feel that sense of peacefulness. You can get a sense of inspiration and can let go of your worries. You can ask for help. That is vitally important to your whole self. If you’re an atheist, look for something that you truly believe in. Focus on that. There is a god for you. Look at where you put your energy. What are your beliefs? What do you really stand for? Are you an earth lover? You may believe in the earth. You may believe in the earth spirits rather than God. That’s fine. It doesn’t matter, just have a spiritual balance in your life in order to stay healthy on all levels.

Point #13 – Structural Balance

If your body tissue is torqued or twisted, or your skeletal structure is misaligned, then your imbalance will probably cause pain at the very least, but more importantly, it may impede your physical functions. There are times when energy is blocked, muscles are “turned off”, energy meridians are running too strong or too weak, tendons or ligaments are stretched or strained, and the body cannot function in a healthy fashion. There are experts who can help.

In my own experience, after falling off of my horse at age 17, I was told by a surgeon that I would have to wear a back brace for my entire life and never participate in athletics again. I lived for a few years in pain and worry with this prognosis, until I was introduced to my first chiropractic adjustment. Finding a practitioner whose practice was based solely on supporting health through structural balance solved my problems and helped me to create the active life that I desired.

I highly endorse Chiropractors or Osteopaths with diplomates in Manipulation, who have studied Applied Kinesiology or Clinical Kinesiology, both advanced techniques which allow the body to provide the practitioner the information about what it needs and how to fix it. These practitioners know how to turn muscles back on, balance meridians, check for allergens or nutritional deficits, and identify toxins. Structural balance is so important in its physical and energetic support of all the other systems in the body. Pay attention to it and use the appropriate practitioners in your structural maintenance.

Point #14 – External Influences

I touched on that a little bit when I talked about the hygiene. External influences have to do with looking at toxins in your environment such as the cleaning agents that are used in your home, air fresheners, remodeling construction materials, glues, paints, out-gasses from new carpets or other materials, plus so many more things that you need to take the time to notice.

If you have any of plug-in air filters that are supposed to make your room smell happy and fresh, unplug them and throw them in the garbage can now. Those things are poisonous and detrimental to your health. Any fake fragrances or phalates that are not natural essential oils, are artificial and can create a long list of negative symptoms. The artificial scent industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry worldwide, but it produces poisonous chemicals and you don’t need to breathe their fake smells. If you want to infuse your surroundings with a good aroma, buy a high-grade essential oil. Choose the oil with which you relate based on both the odor and the energetic properties. Whatever you breathe goes right into your lungs and will help shift your energy as well as your mood – for the good or not so good, so choose well that which you breathe.

Here is what one of my clients, Lisa, said about her experience after I shared this information with her:

“It was one simple thing but I feel that it was definitely life changing. Briefly, my mother and I share the same home. She had an automatic air freshener in her bedroom. It was set to operate around the clock, 24/7. It probably sprayed out maybe every 15 or 20 minutes. We didn’t think much of it, even though we do have some other air fresheners that are all natural using just the orange oil, but they don’t fit that little automatic machine. After a couple weeks, I started having flu-like symptoms and even missed some days of work. For me it was foggy head, general fogginess, headaches – I’m not a person that has headaches very often at all – digestive problems and a lot of nausea. I just couldn’t figure out what it was. My mom kept saying that she felt very fatigued. She would come out of her room and say she was just so tired that she wanted to go back to bed.

After hearing the great things you said, I still didn’t speak to my mom. It took me about two days. One morning I said, ‘Mom, if you could, let’s turn this off and see if this may be our issue.’ She turned it off around 1:00. By 6:00 that evening, we were both feeling better – it was very, very noticeable. We were really anesthetizing ourselves. That had gone on for about a month. We were really in bad condition. I just want to thank you so much, Dr. Merkel. It was lifesaving. She would have just kept replacing those little spray bottles.”

What we’re talking about is the fact that our olfactory sense is hotwired right into the brain. It doesn’t go through any other channels. It goes straight into the brain, so whatever you smell gives you an automatic impulse or some automatic reaction. When we’re out in society, there are so many manmade chemical odors. Some of them are considered fragrances, some are perfumes, some are body lotion fragrances, some are considered hygienic and placed on sanitary napkins, adult diapers, and even in deodorants. If they’re manmade, they could potentially be dangerous for your body. The only things that are really beneficial to the body would be the pure essential oils. Even then, you have to be careful because so many people have sensitivity to any odors.

Please be aware of what you have in your home and what you wear or carry with you; whatever you use in the way of fragrances. Be careful of everything you use, all the cleaners in your house, for your body, for your home, for your clothes, for your dishes. Don’t buy any brands that have artificial odors. Those may really hurt you. If you need an odor to change what your inner room smells like, go to essential oils and choose some good, high-powered – not the cheap ones –true, pure essential oil. You can’t get those in a drug store or a supermarket. Even potpourris so often have artificial things sprayed on them so that they smell good. You don’t need any of that, so be a wise and healthy consumer!

Point #15 – EMF’s

I need to throw in here how important it is to turn off and get away from Electro-Magnetic Frequencies (EMF’s) – especially at night when you intend to sleep. I believe, just my hypothesis, that if you are sitting right next to your modem or Wi-Fi, or if you’re constantly being zapped by your cell phone, TV, computer, tablet, iPod, iPad, your lymph is going to suffer and thicken into a slow-moving sludge. That’s the way my body feels when I’ve spent too many hours in front of a computer and I haven’t drunk enough water. You’ve got to drink even more water when you’re around those devices. There are various helpful sources which will give you more scientific data about the dangers of EMF’s.

Point #16 – Grounding into the Earth

And, as a final point in this section, I highly endorse the whole concept of “earthing”. It’s so important to just go out barefooted and stand in the earth. That’s not saying to walk without shoes on asphalt or most concrete because there are fillers and polymers that block the natural electro-magnetics of the earth. It will lessen your pain to be in touch with the earth’s natural electro-magnetics and the electrons that it emits. I highly endorse this to anybody who has any chronic pain like fibromyalgia or even rheumatoid arthritis or basic arthritis. Don’t walk on hard surfaces because that’s not going to help your pain, but instead, go out and stand or sit and touch the ground. If there is a lot of grass, dig yourself a little hole and put your bare feet so that you’re actually touching the earth. You will feel a difference. Sit out there 15 to 20 minutes. I guarantee that this will help. While you’re doing that, move some muscles around, even if you’re just walking in place or walking in a circle on gentle grass. That will make a big difference in how you feel. The earth can help you heal. Nature can help you heal. The electro-magnetics are naturally very healing. When we wear shoes with soles, we’re blocking these. When we’re walking on hard surfaces that are manmade, we are blocking these too. It is time to get back in touch with our home planet Earth so we can naturally re-balance.

Point #17 – It’s up to you! Attitude makes a difference!

Are you willing to put yourself as number one in your life? Your attitude is of utmost importance to your health, and I hope you realize by now that nobody else is going to put you as number one except yourself. Your doctor is not going to put you as number one. It’s up to you. The question to ask yourself is: “Will I put myself as number one?”

Ask yourself and write down answers to the following:

• Will I commit to drinking enough water?
• Will I change my diet?
• Will I get rid of the Teflon pans and aluminum cookware and use healthy cookware that’s not leeching plastics or metals into my food?
• Will I stop eating the refined foods?
• Will I stop eating the gluten and things that can lead to worse autoimmune conditions?
• Am I ready to do that?
• Will I put myself first on the schedule for getting a full night’s sleep and then let everything else come together?
• Will I put myself and my exercise as a high priority in my daily schedule?”

These questions are so important for you to ask of yourself in order to move forward to health. And, if you are feeling any level of resistance to the points I’ve mentioned here, you may use energy therapy meridian tapping to clear the resistance so you will be more open to making up your mind as to what you choose to undertake for the benefit of your own health.

It really is up to you!

 

*In my book this chapter alone includes seven footnotes, and the book includes over 80 footnotes with an extensive bibliography of books and articles about natural health, healing, autoimmune issues, etc. You may access the book in paperback and kindle versions by going to:  http://is.gd/AnnesBooks