5 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH AND MINE IN 2015 (ISSUE 161) JANUARY 13, 2015

By Diane Gold

5 Ways To Improve Your Health And Mine will pick areas that are commonly important to us all. How can we go wrong with these options? Feeling healthy makes us feel happier, be more self-sufficient, be stronger on a daily basis, build our body’s foundation and position ourselves for a longer life. So, let’s consider whatever of these ways makes sense and add one to our lives for the new year.

1) BREATHING

 Obviously, we are involved in breathing all day. The body regulates this action automatically, if we don’t. But we can pay deliberate attention to it for extra health. When we slow down and pay attention to the air that goes in and the air that comes out, we build up life energy, almost as if we are storing valuables in a vault. Not much time is needed here, either. Just consistency.

ACTION STEP – EXERCISE (1)

For, at least, one moment during each day, for a minimum of a week, but, hopefully, for each day to follow yesterday ; agree to take a moment out of each day. This can be a 5 second interval up to 60 seconds, sitting or standing. It’s best to be alone, in silence, with minimal smells around, with no artificial light.

Close the eyes and watch the air as you breathe in through the nose.
Keeping the eyes closed, watch the air as you breathe out through the nose.

That’s it. The valuables you will be storing will make you strong of will, strong of body, strong of mind. The longer number of days you continue to do this action, the better it is for a balanced and increasing quality of life.

2) WATER

Water is crucial. The more fruits and veggies we eat, the more water we have to drink as water. As long as we keep our body’s water balanced, 65% of our body mass, we will be in good shape. The body has water inside our cells, called intracellular fluid. It also has water outside the cells, extracellular fluid, such as water in blood, spine, stomach, both of which have to be kept balanced. Food and salt intake concentrate the “out of cell” fluid while less dilute it.

Drinking more isn’t the answer. Drinking well is.

ACTION STEP – EXERCISE (2)

Drink one extra glass of water a day. But, for this glass, let’s focus our attention on the water as it travels down from the mouth to the stomach, rather than mindlessly gulping it. At least, one time a day, we will drink slowly and thoughtfully, for health.

3) STRETCHING

The great news about stretching is that we can do it almost anywhere. We have joints that move while we are stationary, so we can think of a body part and begin to move it. Moving it brings heat, blood with life-sustaining oxygen, and flexibility. We do not need any special exercise.

ACTION STEP – EXERCISE (3)

All we have to do is to move a joint, the head, the hands, feet, limbs, butt, belly button as far as possible in any one direction and then the opposite of that. An example of this would be pointing the toe downward and then flexing it or bringing the elbows as high as possible in front of the body and then as high as possible behind the body. Every movement requires care and focused attention on the body part of choice.

4) SUPERFOODS

In the past several decades, in the United States, there has been talk about superfoods. The word, superfoods, has been so overused by the nutritional supplement industry that it’s hard to know what’s marketing and what’s science.

My definition of superfoods is those plant-based foods that single-handedly have a huge supply of one or more nutrients and/or phytonutrients.

All of these substances have been used by indigenous people for nutrition and healing, such as maca (for the immune system and vital energy), cacao (for mood stabilizing and bones), spirulina (for vast nutrition), goji berries (for protein and high in anti-oxidants), and, recently, the mainstream media has caught on.

ACTION STEP – EXERCISE (4)

Add one serving of one superfood on a daily basis for one month or to follow from yesterday. I became fascinated with these foods as my energy soared. Maybe you will, too.

5) PRE-SLEEP THOUGHTS

Whether we sleep alone or together, taking a short moment to put a smile into ourselves before we fall asleep will cause relaxed mind and muscles and make for good dreams and restful sleep.

ACTION STEP – EXERCISE (5)

Before getting into bed, or, if you were there already, before deciding to go to sleep, decide to take a moment of time to think about happy sleep, putting worries aside, any heated arguments aside. This moment can take as little as 15 seconds. This is enough.

CONCLUSION

Improving your health takes a moment. Improving my health takes that same moment. I am ready. Are you? I look at it this way: every effort on behalf of our health gives us an extra day or week or month to create, learn or just sit. We have that extra moment that it would take to do any of these 5 exercises. They can only help.

Let’s be proactive to improve your health and mine in 2015, starting now.

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Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition in certificate course, peaceful conflict resolution and habit replacement.

She is grateful to be able to write and spread the word about so many great topics. She says,

“We have great opportunity to care for ourselves. Small efforts on our part make a huge difference in our lives if done consistently. Let us consider one small move on behalf of what our parents would want for us, and take one step to improve our health.

“This step takes good care of us, and we are so worth it!”