The Spiritual Side Of Health

For as long as I’ve been reading and healing a variety of health issues for individuals, one thing remains true, the state of health is dynamic and ever changing. However, there are typically 6 components that I often see that make up a person’s overall balance of health & wellness.

These components are: structural, physical, bio-chemical, emotional, mental and spiritual.  The first three are all things that can be treated by different types of doctors, herbalists, nutritionists, etc. The last three components to health are more spiritual in nature.

When you fall, get cut and your hand bleeds, it may in fact need stitches, but, did you ever think about the reason why it happened in the first place? A clumsy slip of the heel, perhaps, a message from your spirit, certainly possible.

I often encounter life transitions and changes occurring in my clients through injuries and illness. For example, it’s time for you to move out of the city, you know it, but something is holding you back. Signs continue to come, now you really know it, yet you remain. Suddenly, walking home from work a biker runs into you causing a concussion, or you fall in the street needing stiches. When your inner voice is there and you don’t respond, your intuition is calling and you ignore it, something happens to make you listen. A move you have to make, that book you have to start, the family you need to create, the self-love you need to develop, the pause you have to take in your life to find enjoyment, the list goes on.  

Listen to your injuries, listen to your illness, your disease, your weakness. They hold a story that can unlock emotional and mental blocks, anguish, invalidation, pain and suffering. We are all dynamic beings and in order to manage health we need to honor the entirety of us.

My Guilt Free New Year's Resolution

I get it. You have a baby now and it’s daunting. You are responsible for everything with this tiny human. Your husband is in it with you. It’s true, there was that time when she threw up on herself in bed and he slept right through it. Yes, overall he does an amazing job. But you’re really the one. The default parent. You have that deep connection forged by generations of being human, old as hell instincts and motherhood that is thrust upon you. You must listen to its call!

Yes, as mothers we do have deep instincts. But do we have to automatically attach guilt and worry to our plight? Isn’t it bad enough we get all the tough jobs. Carrying, feeding and giving birth to the baby. Do we really need to add worrying to the list as well? Since the day I found out I was pregnant, I’ve gone from living in a bubble (a beautiful one I might add) to wrought with constant responsibility and worry. Does that sound like fun to you? It’s not! I doubt my husband and my daughter find it fun either. They tell me not to worry all the time. Why don’t I listen?

So when January 2016 rolled around I decided to make my New Year’s resolution about committing to release this added guilt and worry. Let’s just say it didn’t go very well at first. It actually didn’t go well for a long time. I’m the first to admit, this resolution was really, really HARD. Losing 10 pounds would have been easier.

In the end, my biggest realization was understanding that kids vibe of you. When I worry, she worries. When I feel guilt it affects her too. I’m anxious, she’s anxious. I’m no fun, she can’t feel good either. https://sg.theasianparent.com/your-emotions-affect-your-babys-mood/. Kids are just a mirror of you at a basic level. I finally got this concept and it catapulted me in the right direction toward fulfilling my New Year’s resolution.

If you haven’t made your resolution yet for 2017, try this one on for size. Just to help out, I’ve shared my recovery steps with you below. Good luck and God Speed!

#1 Make sure you’re ready! Are you ready to release the guilt? I’m talking about generations upon generations of guilt here. As sick as it is, guilt and worry can be somewhat comforting. So you need to be ready, you need to want it so bad you can taste it. If not, it simply won’t work.

#2 Awareness. Start noticing that your child is a reflection of you. If you fear, so will they. If you worry, so will they. If you feel guilty, you are validating this emotion for them. Take the time to notice your behavior toward them and their reaction. This will take time but eventually you’ll see the truth right in front of you. It becomes pointless to hold on to these emotions when they are not only hurting you but also your child.

#3 Look at the big picture! Do you love your kid? Do you treat your kid with respect? That’s pretty much enough to make them into a stellar human being. Everything else is just gravy.

#4 Positive thinking. Keep reminding yourself that 99% of the time it’s usually alright. Every time your kid gets sick or they hurt themselves, it usually turns out alright. Try not to worry unless there is something to really worry about.

#5 Adopt the fender bender theory. I heard this theory from a friend but it applies so nicely here. You hope your child’s first accident is a fender bender so they can feel the power of the car and understand the gravity of a real accident; hopefully this will cause them to avoid a major accident at all costs. This applies to falling and making mistakes.

#6 Release. This meditation exercise works for me now like magic. While you are feeling extreme guilt, worry or anxiety; sit down. Breath in and out a few times and scan your body (try to locate) where these dark emotions are sitting. Imagine draining the black energy of these emotions out and filling up the empty space with love and faith.

Overall I’ve noticed, the less I stress about my daughter, the healthier and happier she is. It all seems so simple now.

Happy resolution making!

STRONGER BABIES FOR ALL!

A lot of things baffle me about American culture as well as our all-encompassing Allopathic/western medicine healthcare practices. No doubt antibiotics are the bomb, true enough. I unwillingly had to take a cycle last week to finally knock out a lingering nasty concoction made up of some type of strep, sinus, and chest nightmare. I tried all my usual suspects to cure myself; acupuncture, fresh ginger and lemon tea, greens, herbs, homeopathy, bone soup, Vitamin D, the list goes on and on. My husband finally had to threaten me. And I must say, thank you baby Jesus, because I seriously think I could have died without them. What a wonderful, beautiful, lifesaving drug; yet sadly they are over-prescribed and overused which is leading to our longer term sickness.

“How did we get away from the point where antibiotics and pain pills save lives up to 4 billion prescriptions served”. Ben Fuchs Pharmacist, Bolder Colorado

Here’s the low down… Antibiotics are needed to kill pathogens, the bad guys, but in the process, they also kill all the good bacteria living in our gut. This good bacteria (in the trillions) help to regulate our health, how quickly we can lose weight, how we process toxins, the list goes on and on. So we want to make these guys happy. If you are depleted, you’ll have a harder time fighting off the bad guys and the chances of multiple rounds of antibiotics could be greater the next time you are ill. So it becomes somewhat of a cycle. And you think one round of antibiotics isn’t so bad, think again, it could take an adult up to 1 year to build back up their microbiome (good bacteria).

Mothers ask me often about my daughter. She is hardly sick, has never been on antibiotics, and doesn’t have any allergy, asthma, or auto-immune issues. Below I share my insights that have worked for me in keeping her immune system strong and healthy.

Her morning regimen includes: Probiotics, Kefir & fish oil

Her diet is mostly made up exactly what I eat to make it simple: oatmeal, nuts, grassfed and organic protein, wild caught fish, fruits, veggies, fats such as ghee, coconut oil and olive oil. She eats sprouted bread, almond flour tortillas, raw sauerkraut with probiotics. All fresh, all bought at organic markets and made at home.

She drinks plenty of water, coconut water with lunch w/ some vitamin D drops, coconut milk and organic cow’s milk from grass-fed cows.

Snacks if requested: raw nut bars (rx has a good blueberry, one she loves, go marco has a great cashew, one she loves), organic pouches in a pinch, hamburger meat, edamame, apples with cashew or almond butter, ice pops (made of fruit and coconut milk — she makes them herself!). Of course, she eats normal stuff too like ice cream, and the occasional candy.

If she’s around a lot of kids for the day, I will give her a teaspoon of elderberry syrup. She also gets a multi-vitamin but I don’t sweat this too much. She has her own whole food kid’s vitamin or I let her suck on my vitamin drink throughout the day.

If she is starting to get sick, I make her chicken soup right away with bone broth from scratch. The secret is to add apple cider vinegar to extract all the minerals from the bones into the broth. If she won’t eat it, I mix the broth in with her food. I usually cook a whole chicken every 2 months and freeze the broth so I have it.

If it doesn’t look like she’s going to kick it, I take her to the acupuncturist and she can usually needle it out. The symptoms she’ll experience are less and she can also give her an herbal tincture if needed to help boost her immune system to fight it naturally. Alternatively, I might ask her homeopathic doctor for her recommendation. Sometimes she recommends homeopathic medicine you can buy at wholefoods.

That’s pretty much it. Feed her the right food, avoid bad food as much as possible without being extreme. Find ways to help her immune system be strong, get populated with the good bacteria and get her some help when sickness comes on.
 Of course, if more serious signs are present, I take her to the doctors as necessary.

If this seems like too much to change to your routine, pick one or two things to do and slowly work it in over time. Adding the probiotics and fish oil is easy and can make a big difference. In all honestly, this is so second nature to me now, and it’s really little to no effort at this point. I cook double chicken at dinner time and save her some for lunch the next day. Simple things like that.

I think as a society, we’ve traded good nutrition for quick fast food and our overall wellness is suffering. You can either spend the time to set your life up for wellness or spend your time dealing with a sick kid. For me, I’d rather not deal with a sick kid constantly on antibiotics. The stronger she is, the stronger we are as a family. I want to teach her that she has the power to heal her body and keep it healthy — wellness is her responsibility. It’s the greatest gift I’m giving her.

I hope this helps you and your family. Let’s take our health & vitality back!