Listen to Your Body!

                Listen to your body or it will get your attention, one way or another. Lately, I’ve had a host of physical challenges from twisting my ankle to catching a nasty cold and now hurting my back.  Apparently, I haven’t been listening to my body’s message for some attention.  Like many of us, I have been ignoring a call for more exercise. Of course January is the time of year many people resolve to lose weight and be more active.  I am no exception and because I haven’t followed through, my body has gone to extremes to get my attention. How about you?

          What message is your body trying to send to you?  Perhaps a plea for movement, more vegetables, or just some good old fashioned rest is in order. Maybe your body is sluggish from junk food and simply wants to detox with lots of water and fruit. Whatever your intuition is telling you to do, your body is constantly trying to communicate with you. The key is to plug into your body and heed it’s innate wisdom. See, the body only wants to be healthy and in balance. It’s main objective is to keep you alive and well. When we don’t listen, it gets our attention in other ways like illness, aches and pains. When we don’t pay attention to these, the body sends even stronger messages with digestive disorders, heart problems, ulcers, or even cancer. The bad habits we engage in regularly, sabotage our body’s ability to maintain optimal health. So why do we do it?

         The majority of human beings use food for emotional comfort or to cope with stress. This habit inhibits the ability to listen to your body clearly. Sugar and white flour adversely effect many people, similar to alcohol intoxication. Millions of people have gluten and other food allergies and struggle with diabetes. Most people aren’t even aware of the correlation between food, beverage choices and negative lifestyle habits that cause a host of physical and emotional symptoms. Some research says the pesticides in our food and water are to blame and claim organic is the best option.  Listening to your body requires slowing down enough to really pay attention to the physical messages that are being sent to you all the time.  So how do we do it?

      Try this simple exercise… Close your eyes and take several deep breaths scanning your entire body for any discomfort. Start from the tips of your toes and move up all the way to head, not forgetting your arms, hands and fingers. Notice your lungs filling with oxygen and your diaphragm exhaling carbon dioxide.  Listen to the sound or rhythm of  your heartbeat. Pay special attention to any aches or pains you may be experiencing. Breathe into them and ask yourself what their deeper message is for you. Allow the answers from your body to bubble forth. Be open to it. Stay with it for at least five minutes. Afterwards, journal your experience, paying special attention to whatever messages your body has just revealed. Repeat this process at least once a day and try extending it gradually to multiple times per day.  This process will help get you in touch with your body in a positive and loving way, communicating often so that it doesn’t have to grab your attention in negative or unexpected ways. If this process is challenging for you, good, that is to be expected. Rest assured however, this process will get easier the more you practice.  Soon you will develop a new relationship with your body. The next step, is following the message.

I will talk more about this in my next post… Meanwhile, see the miracles unfold before you…within you. Listen to your body for once and give it a voice. You will be astounded!

Detox Your Temple part 2

So I’ve been trying this new pH balanced food plan paying close attention to eating alkaline rich foods. Notice the picture of such foods to the left, as these are all highly alkaline forming. There are others too, besides greens, but I liked this pix best.

To recap from my last post, everything we eat and drink is either acid or alkaline forming.  All processed, fast, fried, and packaged food is acid forming along with meat, dairy, baked goods, sugar, soda, sports drinks, and coffee. Greens, most nuts and beans, fruit, lemons, brown & wild rice, herbs, seeds, and flax oil are alkaline forming. Our thoughts, feelings, and environment are also important contributors to pH levels; stress being the number one culprit to increased acid levels which create breeding grounds for illness and disease.

I’ve chosen to try this new way of eating/living, due to wide-spread, physical pain, extreme fatigue, and chronic skin problems. Not to mention, it’s supposed to help balance weight, increase energy, and help with mental clarity;  all of which are pretty great reasons to make some healthy changes.

In order to monitor my progress, I’ve purchased special pH testing strips to check my levels throughout the day via saliva and urine. These can be purchased at Sprouts, other health food stores, or online. My previous post lists web addresses for more information. I’ve actually found it to be fun testing my levels four times a day. I mean, we all have to relieve ourselves anyway, right? Recording these levels on a specific chart along with food journaling really helps to increase personal awareness of how our bodies react/digest the foods we eat. I’ve found that relying on just how I feel isn’t helpful enough to guide me towards better health as feelings are highly variable.

As I’ve become more educated on this topic, and on my own body, I’ve learned that even making an effort towards this new direction has yielded positive results. I have gone from almost completely acidic pH levels  to predominately alkaline while having more energy than I’ve had all summer! I’m drinking more lemon water than I ever have before… 5 glasses (10 cups, which is based on the amount needed based upon my current weight- more on that later) and although I haven’t gotten away from all the “forbidden” food- ice cream, chocolate, meat and dairy- things are still looking up and it’s been well worth the effort.  I’m cultivating positive changes that will help me live longer and avoid dangerous illness/disease or reverse ones I already have.

Each week I will write more about my journey and share additional information and insights from various experts with you. I look forward to hearing your comments and of course support.

Blessings to All