Health, Wellness and Wholeness

Health, Wellness and Wholeness

Health, Wellness and Wholeness

Today, I would like to begin a new conversation around health by looking at the difference between health, wellness and wholeness.

 

Health is a state of the body. 

When we talk about health, we usually mean the state of functionality of the body.  Does it operate at a ‘normal’ level without pain, or at least minimal pain?  When we seek to help our body function better, we look to physical treatments.  Medications, herbs, massage, diet, exercise.  Medical doctors, naturopaths, functional medicine practitioners.  

The focus here is usually attempting to diagnose and change the biochemistry of the body.  Often this approach to health is an outside in approach meaning we need to control the biochemistry of the body in order to feel healthy.  We are doing something to our body to make it function properly. 

 

Wellness expands our concept of health. 

Along comes the wellness industry which redefines the concept of health.  Wellness expands our definition of health to include the mind, emotions, lifestyle factors and searching for happiness in our lives.  We engage in positive thinking, lifestyle modification, honoring our emotions.  Perhaps finding work that inspires, re-evaluating our relationships.  In addition to the physical modalities, we seek out counseling, therapy, life coaching.  

 

Then emerges the idea of Wholeness. 

The overriding name of my business is Integrative Wholeness.  This idea expands the concept of health to include all dimensions and parts of who we are.   It focuses on understanding our multi-dimensionality and bringing all parts of our multi-dimensionality into balance and harmony.  

Integrative Wholeness embraces our physical body, our emotional body, our mental body, our energy body, and our spiritual body.  The intent is to create balance in each dimension.  When balance in each dimension is established the dimensions begin to resonate in harmony with each other.  The soul, mind, heart and body are in alignment with each other.     

Integrative Wholeness is also a process of meeting, greeting, embracing and integrating all parts of who we are.   We each have a personality that includes parts of us that we deem acceptable.  Yet there are parts of us that are wounded and/or considered unacceptable. These parts need to be accessed, healed and integrated.  Some of these exiled parts are the innocent inner children who hold our joy, gifts and talents but were deemed unacceptable by those who raised us and/or our society at large.  When we integrate these parts, we begin to feel more whole.  We reclaim our joy and our passion for life.  

It is this experience of integration that will create health from the inside out.  When all dimensions and parts are in balance and harmony, health on all levels is the natural result.  Your body will be healthy.  Your mind will be clear and focused.  Your emotions will be balanced.  You will feel a connection with your spirit and God.  You will be expressing your gifts and live abundantly.

 

In Summary 

I began on a search for health many years ago.  I discovered that health was more that just the body.  I also needed inner peace.  I discovered that the path to health involved the process of healing and integrating all parts of myself.  

This is my vision and what I am here to teach others.  I invite you to listen, learn, evaluate and apply what feels right to you.  

 

Wishing you peace, love and vibrant health, 

Bindu

 

Healing from the Inside Out

Healing from the Inside Out

I often use the phrase ‘healing from the inside out’. The first time I heard it, I wondered what it really meant. I suspect that you also wonder that same thing.

 

Let’s start by looking at different health care models:

Allopathic Medicine.

Per the National Cancer Institute, allopathic medicine is a system in which medical doctors and other health care professionals (such as nurses, pharmacists, and therapists) treat symptoms and diseases using drugs, radiation, or surgery. Also called bio-medicine, conventional medicine, mainstream medicine, orthodox medicine, and Western medicine.

Green Health Care

A system of health care in which natural, alternative, and holistic practitioners address symptoms using natural herbs, supplements and other holistic modalities, which could include acupuncture, massage, aromatherapy, and many others.

Many of these practitioners work to alleviate symptoms while also exploring and addressing the deeper causes the the illness. It depends on the practitioner, their approach, perspective, training and expertise.

Healing from the inside out. 

A system of wellness care that uses detective work to identify underlying cause of symptoms and then supports the body in healing itself. This is based on the understanding that the body heals itself. Your entire body was built from 2 cells joining together. Every function in your body was created from those two cells. If the human body is capable of that, then it is also capable of healing almost anything that goes wrong in the body.

It is also important to alleviate symptoms along the way. This is called smart or holistic symptom relief.

All three approaches have their place.

The patient or client needs to work with their practitioners to find the right balance of the three models. They each have their own pros and cons.

 

Let’s explore the Healing from the Inside Out model.

From my perspective, the body is designed to heal itself. When the body is exposed to stresses, it is designed to meet and resolve the stress and return to homeostasis. When the body is not healthy, it means that the body is not able to meet and resolve the stresses. This can be caused by many factors and in the case of chronic illness, it is that there are more stresses that the body can handle, and the dis-ease process has been initiated.

A common mis-understanding is the symptoms themselves.

Our society commonly see symptoms as something bad that needs to be gotten rid of. From the inside out perspective, symptoms are either a sign that the body is healing or a message from the body that something has gone wrong and we need to grab our detective hats and get to the investigation.

A symptom can be a sign that the body is healing itself.

When the body is healing itself, there will almost always be a symptom. You cut your finger and it become red, inflamed and sore. That is the body sending energy and healing chemicals to the cut. If you wash the cut, and keep it from getting infected, the finger will heal. Nothing else needs to be done.  This is a very simple example, and yet often our symptoms are just that, the body in the process of healing itself.

Our symptoms may be the body telling us that something is wrong.

Imagine that the oil light came on in your car. Rather than putting more oil in the car, you snipped the connection to the light so that the oil light didn’t come on. Without the simple act of adding oil, you might very well burn out or freeze the engine.

Maybe your fatigue is because you aren’t getting enough sleep. Your heartburn is caused by eating too much of the wrong foods. Sure, you can take a medication or supplement to make the symptom go away, but without addressing and resolving the underlying cause, the health of the body may decline, the symptoms may reappear or show up in a different and perhaps a more serious problem.

From my understanding, this is what happens in our body when we use drugs, supplements and other tools to ‘stop’ the symptoms. Sometimes intelligent symptom alleviation is appropriate, but it is best used along with a deeper look and resolution of the underlying cause.

Finding a practitioner who is seasoned in supporting the body in healing itself

A practitioner who is skilled in assisting an individual to heal from the inside out will have many ways to inquire, identify and resolve the underlying causes of symptoms. As the underlying causes are identified and resolved, then the problematic symptoms simply go away.

 

Supporting the body to heal from the inside out.

I spent a lot of years chasing symptoms with both allopathic medicine and green medicine. In order to fulfill my desire to completely heal myself, I needed to go deeper. I could manage my symptoms with supplements, but I couldn’t make them completely go away. My intention was to be symptom free. So I continued searching.

I studied wholistic health from many angles, including physical, emotional, mental, energetic and spiritual aspects. I am also very intuitive. By blending my studies with my intuition, I was able to identify and resolve the underlying causes of my symptoms and they began falling away.

Now talking with an individual, listening, and asking for questionnaires to be completed I can have a pretty good idea of the areas of stress.  Then comes the work of identifying specifics and using the right tools to neutralize the stresses.

Healing from the inside out can seem to take longer and be more expensive than the allopathic approach, but in my experience the opposite is true. It embraces the whole being and becomes an experience of tapping into and neutralizing stresses that you never knew were lurking under the surface. These stresses impact you on all levels, robbing you of your vitality, inner peace and satisfaction in life.

The result of healing from the inside out is that you discover a new you that may be well beyond what you ever imagined possible.  That is true healing. 

Stayed tuned.  Next week, we will look at the kinds of stresses that underlie the experience of fibromyalgia. 

May you heal, 💕Bindu

Coming In September

Is Fibromyalgia Progressive?

Is Fibromyalgia Progressive?

I recently read a post on twitter by My Name is Fibromyalgia that says that fibromyalgia is progressive. And goes into details of the 6 Stages. It is a good article and quite dire. 

It makes me sad when I read posts like this as it projects a negative future for “most” cases of fibromyalgia. It makes me sad because I know many people with fibromyalgia, maybe even most, will go down this path.

Because I know there are options that can change the trajectory. It makes me sad that so many men and women with fibromyalgia are suffering and can’t, don’t or won’t believe that the possibility of improving their health exists.  Or don’t even consider it as a possibility.

It is a bit scary to write and share this, as sometimes people with fibromyalgia will be offended by my belief that we can improve.  And I truly don’t like to offend people. One of my worst fears is offending others. 

Yet, I have written and posted this because I need to share my experience and hopefully plant some seeds of hope that you can improve. You don’t have to go down the road of progressively getting worse. You can turn around your health and improve. 

 

I know there are options

My fibromyalgia symptoms began in my early childhood. I was told the pain I was experiencing was normal, so nothing was done. It also created the belief in me that being in pain was the norm. 

It wasn’t until after I graduated from college that I realized that what I experienced wasn’t the norm. I had taken a backpacking class and the final session was to backpack up the side of a mountain and camp overnight.   Halfway up the mountain, I had to stop because my shoulder was in such severe pain.  I was carrying a camera on that shoulder.  I stopped and watched the other people continue up the trail. In that moment, I knew that there was something very different about me. That the pain I was experiencing was not normal. No one else on that trail with me was in severe pain. 

My fibromyalgia started in childhood and slowly but progressively got worse. By three years out of college, I was in severe pain, depressed, anxious, severe IBS, fatigued and had severe interstitial cystitis and suffered from insomnia. It was so bad that I ended my job as a CPA to find solutions to my health.   

Over the next 40 years, I studied and immersed myself in holistic health and spirituality. 

I was really sick. For 14 years, from age 34-48, I lived with my parents as I couldn’t work enough to support myself. 

 

And I have improved. Greatly. 

Many of my fibro symptoms are gone completely. Others are mild. Some I am still working on. Here is a summary: 

Mild: Pain, depression, anxiety – comes and goes.

Rarely: Brain fog

Gone: Insomnia, fatigue, interstitial cystitis

Some symptoms that came on later: itching and burning skin was very severe for a while-now rarely occurs and if so, very mild. 

Right now, the IBS is the greatest challenge, but improving. 

I have come so far since those torturous years when I was living with my parents. That is when the pain, fatigue, insomnia, depression, and anxiety were at their worst.  I literally wanted to die. I didn’t want to continue living in so much pain. 

I am not completely free of fibromyalgia. It still limits me. But I am soooooo much healthier.  One of my biggest problems is that now that I can do more, sometimes I push myself too much, which can flare up old symptoms.  But, as I balance my work with play and rest, I don’t flare up as often. 

All this is a result of what I learned and experienced in my studies of holistic health and spirituality. They go hand in hand. 

 

It is Your Choice

You get to choose. With a strong intention and commitment, you can improve your health. It can be a challenge, but it is worth the effort. 

 

5 Stages of Moving Beyond Fibromyalgia

Below is an article that I wrote several years ago and re-posted last year. I am including it here as a reminder of what is possible.  If anything, I invite you to consider the possibility that you can improve your health with some guidance, intention, and commitment. 

5 Stages of Moving Beyond Fibromyalgia

My goal in life was to move beyond the experience of fibromyalgia.

As I moved through my experience of living with fibromyalgia, with that as my goal, I noticed 5 distinct phases that I went through. They were, in essence, 5 steps of empowering myself in relationship to fibromyalgia. These steps are:

  1. Understanding Fibromyalgia
  2. Living with Fibromyalgia
  3. Managing Fibromyalgia
  4. Rebuilding your Health
  5. Life beyond Fibromyalgia.

Understanding Fibromyalgia

In the simplest of terms, fibromyalgia is an experience of multiple physical, emotional and cognitive symptoms including (but not exclusive) to widespread pain, heightened and painful response to pressure, fatigue, sleep disturbance, joint stiffness, difficulty swallowing, constipation and irritable bowel syndrome, bladder abnormalities, numbness and tingling, brain fog, depression, and anxiety. The exact symptoms and severity of symptoms vary from individual to individual. Fibromyalgia is estimated to affect 2-4% of the population and effects 9 women for every man. The term “fibromyalgia” literally means “muscle and connective tissue pain”.

It is said that there is no cure for fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is not fatal. My experience is that the symptoms do increase over time if not managed and addressed properly. Diagnosis can be difficult and even after diagnosis, finding a practitioner that truly understands fibromyalgia is rare.

 

Treatment for Fibromyalgia

Generally medical treatment for fibromyalgia is management of symptoms via medications and lifestyle management. In the holistic arena you will find acupuncture, herbal treatments, “miracle cures”, chiropractic treatments, diet and exercise recommendations galore, and many countless modalities. All of these have their place.  

Personally I think that rather than focusing on treating or healing fibromyalgia, we need to focus on healing the individual. I believe that the underlying cause of fibromyalgia is different for each person so the idea of healing or treating fibromyalgia or the individual symptoms may bring some temporary relief, but do nothing to create permanent or lasting change. Treating symptoms only can detract the attention from identifying the underlying cause and thereby making real progress.

 

Living with Fibromyalgia

Living with fibromyalgia is a difficult endeavor. In my experience, the symptoms can change radically from day to day, leaving me unsure of what I would be capable of accomplishing on any given day. Fibromyalgia can impact every area of your life including career, family, relationships, hobbies, finances, and self-esteem.

It is difficult if not impossible for someone who does not have fibromyalgia to understand what you are experiencing. Many times I heard, “it is all in your head”, “everyone experiences pain”, “you’re just too sensitive”, or “just get over it”. 

People rarely understood why I couldn’t keep up with everyone else or often had to say, “I am just going to stay home” simply because I needed to rest. Many times, I would push myself to do more than my body could handle, and end up in extreme pain and miserable. 

Truthfully, it took me years of suffering before I understood how to live with fibromyalgia. Trying to push through isn’t helpful. In the years that I did that, I did more damage to my health and paid dearly for it.

 

Managing Fibromyalgia

Slowly, I began to listen to my body and understand the limitations that it imposed on me. When I fought the limitations, I suffered. As I learned to respect my body and the messages it sent me, I began to be able to manage my symptoms so that they were tolerable and that I could maintain a consistent level of functionality.  

By listening to my body, I found foods that were more supportive and exercise routines that worked for me. I discovered how much sleep I needed and what would disturb or enhance my sleep. I found the kind of regular schedule that would support me in keeping the symptoms at a tolerable level. I discovered what kinds of activities I could engage in and others that I needed to avoid. I could tell when my emotions and anxiety were spiraling out of control and learned ways to pull back to take care of myself. I found tools that helped my body to relax and release pain and tension.

As I listened, I began to hear more. I became aware of unresolved emotional experiences and how to release them. I learned to listen to my mind and become aware of the kinds of thoughts I fed to myself and then began to slowly re-script my inner dialogue. I learned to how to take care of myself the times that I was severely depressed. I learned how to take my power back and communicate effectively with others.

I think I have learned more from listening to my body than from any book I have ever read. Although, the outside information was valuable and if I asked for it, I would receive information that was helpful to me. I found that most medications did not work for me so I chose a more holistic approach.

(This doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t take medications. Sometimes they are helpful in managing symptoms while releasing underlying causes.)

 

Rebuilding Your Health

Once I accepted the limitations that fibromyalgia imposed on me and learned to manage my experience, I was in a more stable position. From there I could begin to research and experiment and look for the underlying cause of my symptoms.

I had the belief that I could heal myself and I needed/wanted to do that. With this approach, I have been able to root out the underlying causes of my fibromyalgia and put myself on the road to healing. Finding the underlying cause was one step, applying the needed protocols to my life a second step and then re-balancing, detoxing and rebuilding my body was the third step.

Out of my own experiences, I have pulled together the tools and methods that work most effectively as well as an understanding of how to evaluate others as to how to guide and support their exploration.

 

Life Beyond Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia can be an all-encompassing experience. It can become the center point of our life. While dealing with fibromyalgia, it can be helpful to remember that it isn’t the whole of our life or the whole of who you are. We need to find outlets for ourselves and our expression that bring love, peace and enjoyment into our lives while on the journey to healing. We also can look beyond the experience of Fibromyalgia and see or envision ourselves whole, healthy and fulfilled.

As a result of having fibromyalgia I explored areas of myself and experiences in my life that have brought me great peace, contentment, empowerment and inner strength. I am a more whole and complete person as a result of my illness. I have learned a great deal about human behavior, health, wellness and spirituality. I have found my own unique voice and each day give way to my authentic self.  This is a result of the inner work that I did along the way.

I am grateful for this and love the person who I have become. Healing all parts of myself, physical, emotional, mental, expression and spiritual, became the journey. That journey will continue as I grow and evolve.

 

My wish for you

When I talk with women who have fibromyalgia, I can fully relate to their pain and their experience of fibromyalgia. I have no doubt of the real pain, physical, emotional or mental that they experience. I was there. While I didn’t experience exactly where you are and what you experience, I know what it is like to be in massive pain and suffering on all levels.

My wish for you is that you find your unique path to the experience of Beyond Fibromyalgia. My commitment to you is to share my experience and what I have learned in my long and agonizing journey with fibromyalgia. I often think that if I knew then what I know today, I could have saved many years of pain and suffering.

I will continue to offer free information and reasonably priced offerings to assist you on your journey to wellness.

Feel free to ask for assistance. You can reach out through my contact form.

May you be on a journey to beyond fibromyalgia,

❤️Bindu

What if?  A new perspective on Fibromyalgia

What if? A new perspective on Fibromyalgia

Consider, for a moment, the possibility that fibromyalgia is a phase or stage in your life that you can move beyond. What if fibromyalgia is a wake up call; your spirit’s way of getting your attention to move you beyond all that holds you back in life to become the person you were destined to be?

What if life is a process of Integrative Wholeness™, that it is time for you to move into the highest expression of who you really are step by step?

What if true healing deals with more than just alleviating the physical symptoms, but that you are composed of separate dimensions – physical, emotional, mental, expression, spiritual and energetic – and your mission is to balance and integrate each of these dimensions back into a whole? What then?

The Integrative Wholeness™ Experience is an 8 fold process designed to empower you in this process of healing, transformation and evolution. In the Integrative Wholeness™ Experience, each dimension of your being is addressed, balanced and integrated into the whole. The result is improved physical health, greater emotional stability, improved mental clarity and focus, an internal sense of well-being, increased ability to manifest your dreams and desires, a greater sense of purpose, and a highly tuned internal compass to guide you in your life. 

  • Heal the Heart (emotional)
  • Balance the Body (physical)
  • Harness the Mind (mental)
  • Enhance Your Expression (relationships, career, finances, and passions/hobbies)
  • Reconnect to Spirit (spiritual)
  • Strengthen Your Energy (energetic)
  • Reawaken Your Innate Intelligence
  • Align with Your Core Values

My Experience

My experience with fibromyalgia, led me on a journey to heal my body. In the process, I discovered healing my physical body, included much more that I expected. I discovered traumas that I wasn’t even aware of. The impact of which were not only undermining my physical health, but my emotional health.

I spent many years walking a fine line between sanity and insanity. Dealing with panic attacks, ongoing anxiety, being easily triggered into rage or terror. I was severely depressed as well. My self esteem was non-existent. I was a people pleaser and felt like nothing I ever did was good enough. I became a work-a-holic and a perfectionist to cover up my deep sense of unworthiness.

I began with taking care of my body. Eating better, exercising, getting rest.

I worked with healing my imbalanced emotions and gradually unwound my traumas.

I had to harness and retrain my mind out of a persistent negative view of life to a healthy and optimistic perspective.

I discovered a spiritual perspective that helped me to accept life as it was, harvest the lessons it had for me and discover a sense of calmness, deep within.

I learned to listen to and trust my body and my intuition and allowed it to guide me in my life.

I learned how to interact with others in a harmonious way. I identified my core values and began to live more in alignment with them. I had to forge my own path in the world, that was unique to me.

I recreated myself. It was worth the effort.

 

The Integrative Wholeness Experience.

Out of my experience, I have created a course call The Introduction to the Integrative Wholeness Experience. I will be launching it in the next month or so.

I look forward to sharing this with you. Stay tuned for more information.

 

May you find health and inner peace, ❤️Bindu

Healing from the Inside Out

Healing from the Inside Out

I often use the phrase ‘healing from the inside out’. The first time I heard it, I wondered what it really meant. I suspect that you also wonder that same thing.

 

Let’s start by looking at different health care models:

Allopathic Medicine.

Per the National Cancer Institute, allopathic medicine is a system in which medical doctors and other health care professionals (such as nurses, pharmacists, and therapists) treat symptoms and diseases using drugs, radiation, or surgery. Also called bio-medicine, conventional medicine, mainstream medicine, orthodox medicine, and Western medicine.

Green Health Care

A system of health care in which natural, alternative, and holistic practitioners address symptoms using natural herbs, supplements and other holistic modalities, which could include acupuncture, massage, aromatherapy, and many others.

Many of these practitioners work to alleviate symptoms while also exploring and addressing the deeper causes the the illness. It depends on the practitioner, their approach, perspective, training and expertise.

Healing from the inside out. 

A system of wellness care that uses detective work to identify underlying cause of symptoms and then supports the body in healing itself. This is based on the understanding that the body heals itself. Your entire body was built from 2 cells joining together. Every function in your body was created from those two cells. If the human body is capable of that, then it is also capable of healing almost anything that goes wrong in the body.

It is also important to alleviate symptoms along the way. This is called smart or holistic symptom relief.

All three approaches have their place.

The patient or client needs to work with their practitioners to find the right balance of the three models. They each have their own pros and cons.

 

Let’s explore the Healing from the Inside Out model.

From my perspective, the body is designed to heal itself. When the body is exposed to stresses, it is designed to meet and resolve the stress and return to homeostasis. When the body is not healthy, it means that the body is not able to meet and resolve the stresses. This can be caused by many factors and in the case of chronic illness, it is that there are more stresses that the body can handle, and the dis-ease process has been initiated.

A common mis-understanding is the symptoms themselves.

Our society commonly see symptoms as something bad that needs to be gotten rid of. From the inside out perspective, symptoms are either a sign that the body is healing or a message from the body that something has gone wrong and we need to grab our detective hats and get to the investigation.

A symptom can be a sign that the body is healing itself.

When the body is healing itself, there will almost always be a symptom. You cut your finger and it become red, inflamed and sore. That is the body sending energy and healing chemicals to the cut. If you wash the cut, and keep it from getting infected, the finger will heal. Nothing else needs to be done.  This is a very simple example, and yet often our symptoms are just that, the body in the process of healing itself.

Our symptoms may be the body telling us that something is wrong.

Imagine that the oil light came on in your car. Rather than putting more oil in the car, you snipped the connection to the light so that the oil light didn’t come on. Without the simple act of adding oil, you might very well burn out or freeze the engine.

Maybe your fatigue is because you aren’t getting enough sleep. Your heartburn is caused by eating too much of the wrong foods. Sure, you can take a medication or supplement to make the symptom go away, but without addressing and resolving the underlying cause, the health of the body may decline, the symptoms may reappear or show up in a different and perhaps a more serious problem.

From my understanding, this is what happens in our body when we use drugs, supplements and other tools to ‘stop’ the symptoms. Sometimes intelligent symptom alleviation is appropriate, but it is best used along with a deeper look and resolution of the underlying cause.

Finding a practitioner who is seasoned in supporting the body in healing itself

A practitioner who is skilled in assisting an individual to heal from the inside out will have many ways to inquire, identify and resolve the underlying causes of symptoms. As the underlying causes are identified and resolved, then the problematic symptoms simply go away.

 

Supporting the body to heal from the inside out.

I spent a lot of years chasing symptoms with both allopathic medicine and green medicine. In order to fulfill my desire to completely heal myself, I needed to go deeper. I could manage my symptoms with supplements, but I couldn’t make them completely go away. My intention was to be symptom free. So I continued searching.

I studied wholistic health from many angles, including physical, emotional, mental, energetic and spiritual aspects. I am also very intuitive. By blending my studies with my intuition, I was able to identify and resolve the underlying causes of my symptoms and they began falling away.

Now talking with an individual, listening, and asking for questionnaires to be completed I can have a pretty good idea of the areas of stress.  Then comes the work of identifying specifics and using the right tools to neutralize the stresses.

Healing from the inside out can seem to take longer and be more expensive than the allopathic approach, but in my experience the opposite is true. It embraces the whole being and becomes an experience of tapping into and neutralizing stresses that you never knew were lurking under the surface. These stresses impact you on all levels, robbing you of your vitality, inner peace and satisfaction in life.

The result of healing from the inside out is that you discover a new you that may be well beyond what you ever imagined possible.  That is true healing. 

Stayed tuned.  Next week, we will look at the kinds of stresses that underlie the experience of fibromyalgia. 

May you heal, 💕Bindu

12 Steps to Balance the Body

12 Steps to Balance the Body

Beyond Fibromyalgia – Balance the Body

The Beyond Fibromyalgia program is a comprehensive system of healing and balancing all aspects of who we are, including our body, emotions, mind, expression, spirit, and energy.  The body is the foundation and connects with all other dimensions.

In this article, we are going to introduce 12 steps to support your body in rebuilding wellness.

Steps 1-8 talk about the basics to becoming and staying healthy.  Steps 9-12, give us an opportunity to go to a deeper level of healing and well-being.

  1. Listen to your body
  2. Eat Real Food
  3. Drink Water
  4. Move your body
  5. Breathe
  6. Get adequate sleep
  7. Honor your bio-individuality
  8. Manage Stress
  9. Uncover and eliminate food sensitivities
  10. Detox Your Home
  11. Detox your body.
  12. Identifying imbalances and malfunctions and rebalance and restore the body and its systems.

 1.  Listen to your body

Your body communicates to you all the time.  It tells you what foods support health and healing and what foods don’t.  It tells you when you need to rest and when you need to move your body.  It tells you when you have too much stress in your life.  Your body tells you when something in your body or life is out of balance.  Your body is your friend and if you learn to listen to and interpret its signals, it will become a trusted guide in your healing process.

We have cut ourselves off from the communication from our body.  We ignore the body’s signals, we take pills and potions to silence the signals, and we do not know how to interpret the messages that our body is trying to send to us.   Step one of the healing process is to reestablish communication with the body.

2.  Eat Whole Food

The fuel for your body is whole foods, including vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, meat, and fats.  Just as nature created your body, nature created the perfect food for your body.  Each food that we eat provides our body with unique and irreplaceable nutrients in the proper balance for our bodies.  Our bodies know how to use the foods created by Mother Nature to keep our bodies healthy and in balance and the systems in our body functioning at maximum efficiency.

In the world today, our food supply is being tainted with highly process, modified and even manufactured “food.”    Eating processed, modified and manufactured foods does not give our bodies the proper nutrition in the proper balance so in essence we become malnourished.  As our bodies are not getting the proper fuel, our systems begin suffer and malfunction.  Our body does not have the right fuel to heal and support itself.  Plus the body cannot keep up with eliminating the on slot of chemicals that it needs to dispose of.  The result includes faster aging, aches and pains, poor sleep, fatigue.  Our body also sends us signals to let us know what nutrients we are missing from our diet in the form of food cravings.

Step two of the healing process is to return to eating whole foods as close to its natural source as possible.

3.  Drink Pure Water

Your body is somewhere around 50-75% water.  Water performs many vital functions in the body.  Your brain needs water to function, your body needs water to flush out toxins and cellular wastes from the body, and your blood is primarily water and works to bring oxygen throughout the body.  These are just a few examples of the importance of water.  The quality of water is also important.  Filtered or spring water are the best options.

We often replace water in our diet with coffee, teas, sports drinks and sodas.  These types of beverages often contribute to dehydration rather than to hydration and are filled with unhealthy chemicals or stimulants.  Sometimes we simply don’t drink enough liquids of any kind.  By the time you feel thirsty, your body is already dehydrated.

Step three of the healing process is to drink adequate high quality water.

4.  Move Your Body

The human body was designed to move.  Movement of the body keeps the body healthy and strong.  Moving the body keeps the muscles toned and strong, the heart healthy, the joints lubricated and healthy, and assists the organs in fulfilling their functions.  Movement assists the body in detoxifying cellular wastes and helps to transport nutrients and oxygen throughout the body.  Movement also gets you where you want to go in life.  A variety of movement is needed to include strengthening, cardiovascular, flexibility, and ease.

For many of us our lives are more sedentary than they have been in the past.  We have compensated with gyms and numerous forms of exercise.  Some of us exercise too little, some too much.  Yes, you can over exercise as well as under exercise.  Some focus too much on one category such as strengthening or cardiovascular rather than a balanced routing including all categories.  Exercise can be fun activities such as dancing or playing a sport.

Step four of the healing process is to include a balanced exercise routine in your regular schedule.

5.  Breathe

The most important nutrient that we take in every minute of every day is air.  Breath is life.  Your life begins with the first breath in and ends with your last breath out.  Without breath/air/oxygen, you would cease to be alive in 3-4 minutes.  You can live for up to 3-4 months without food and up to a week without water, but you cannot even live 5 minutes without air.  The breath brings the important nutrient of oxygen into your body and rids the body of metabolic and cellular wastes.  The breath also fosters self-awareness, assists you in listening to your body, and can help to manage stress.

For many of us, our breaths are shallow, we do not use the full capacity of our lungs and we do not exhale fully to empty our lungs before taking in the next breath.  The busier we get, the less breath we take in.  It is a simple yet very valuable process to take a few minutes each day to simply watch the breath and then slow down and deepen the breath.  In addition to this simple process, there are breathing techniques that we can learn and use to support health and balance in the body, emotions, mind and spirit.

Step 5 is learning to breathe more fully and completely.

6.  Get adequate sleep

Sleep time is the part of our day where we allow the body, mind, emotions and spirit to rest and rejuvenate.  The body needs this time to repair and replenish itself so that it can continue day after day.  Likewise, the mind needs down time.  We need time where we can sink into the deepest recesses of our being and reconnect with our source.  This rhythm aligns us with the rhythm of the earth and keeps the cycle of life strong.  The number of hours that we sleep, the quality of our sleep and the rhythm of our sleep cycles are all important factors in getting adequate sleep.

In our busy lifestyles, we lose this natural rhythm.  We compromise our sleep by cutting down the hours available for sleep, by staying awake late into the night (or early morning hours) and by compromising the quality of our sleep.  Good dietary and exercise routines are important in insuring a good night sleep.  A balanced schedule with adequate time for sleep that is in harmony with nature is important as well as managing the level of stress in our lives.

Step 6 is getting adequate good quality sleep.

7.  Honor your bio-individuality

Each person on this planet is as unique as each individual snowflake.  This individuality extends beyond the color of our hair and eyes.  It impacts our personality, our water needs, our exercise choices and our food choices.  Just as some plants like more sun or more water or different types of soil, the needs of our bodies differ from person to person.  Have you ever wondered why some people never gain weight no matter what they eat or some people can lose weight on a high protein diet when another person would gain weight on that same diet?  Why do different people like different foods?

This is all about bio-individuality.  If you are eating foods that suits your unique bio-chemical needs, you can eat all you want with no issues around weight gain or loss.  You will have a stable and abundant supply of energy from morning until night fall.  You will have less aches and pains.  Your mind will be clear and focused.  Your hormones and emotions will be more stable.  Your food cravings will diminish.

In our world today, we get an abundance of conflicting information on diet and exercise.  How do we know what is right for us?  We are taught to not listen to our bodies, but to follow someone else’s idea of what our bodies need.

By learning about your unique bio-individuality and adjusting your diet and exercise to align with that, you will be supporting your body in moving towards health and balance.

8.  Manage Stress

Stress is a part of our lives and always will be.  Stress is that which moves us forward into creating new solutions to the challenges that we face in our lives.  Stress helps us to evolve beyond limiting beliefs and who we think we are into the next grander vision of ourselves.

Stress in the body also helps us to become aware when something is out of balance and gives us notice that we need to pay attention and take action to bring ourselves back into balance.  Stress can be found on the physical, emotional, mental and expression levels of our existence.  And stress in one area impacts stress in the other areas, so it is important to become aware of and address the stress in a timely manner.  If stress is unaddressed, it leaves a negative imprint in the body and can cascade into numerous challenges on all levels.

The steps included in this article are ways to reduce stress on the physical level.  Each phase of the Beyond Fibromyalgia program is intended to bring balance to a different dimension of ourselves and thereby reduce stress on the physical body.   Watch for upcoming blogs . . .

9.  Uncover and eliminate food sensitivities

A healthy food for your body is a food that your body can digest and utilize to provide your body with proper nourishment.  Along with our bio-individuality, there are some foods that agree with your body and some foods that may not agree with your body.

Maybe you love a food, but after eating it, you don’t feel so good.  You may even say, “I like that food, but my body doesn’t.”   You might feel sluggish or get a stomach ache or heart burn or diarrhea or fuzzy minded or overly emotional.  If so, these are foods that are contributing to ill health rather than good health.

Some of these foods are easy to identify because the results are immediate and noticeable.  Sometimes the effects of these foods are more subtle and take time to impact the body.  These are the foods that need some detective work to uncover.  Identifying and eliminating foods that your body reacts negatively to is an important step in creating a strong and healthy body.  Watch future blogs for ways to identify and eliminate food sensitivities.

10.  Detox your home.

Keeping your home clean and uncluttered is another way to support your health.  Cleanliness provides a safe, healthy and comfortable place to live and thrive.  A place to rest, work and play.  A physically clean environment contributes to improved health.

Just as our food supply has been inundated with unhealthy foods, the cleaning products and personal care products you use can provide a constant source of toxicity that the body has to deal with.   This creates additional stress on the body and forces the body to use its resources to deal with the onslaught of toxins.  Using cleaning products and personal care products that are made using natural and bio-degradable ingredients will go a long way to improve your health.

11.  Detoxify your body

The body is designed to naturally eliminate toxins from our external environment and those created by our internal metabolic processes in order to keep the body clean and healthy.  Sort of like an internal bath.  Eating unhealthy foods and living an unhealthy lifestyle over time results in toxicity in the body above and beyond what our body can naturally eliminate.  These toxins create stress on the body, interfere with the normal functioning of the body, stress the immune system and contribute to pain and other illnesses. As you upgrade your food and lifestyle, doing a targeted cleanses can assist your body in more quickly eliminating the toxicity.  It is also a good idea to integrate some detoxification protocols in your lifestyle on an ongoing basis.   In this way, your body will achieve and maintain maximum health.  Watch for future blogs on how to detoxify your body.

12.  Re-balance and repair the body and its systems

The body is designed to maintain balance and health with all systems working at maximum efficiency.  This would include the immune, digestive, detoxification, elimination and hormonal systems among others.  In order to maintain excellent health all of these systems need to be functioning and in balance with each other.  Eating a poor diet and living an unhealthy lifestyle can push the body beyond its ability to stay in balance.

As you change your diet and upgrade your lifestyle, it is important to identify imbalances and compromised functioning within the body.  Once these are identified, targeted protocols can be implemented that will assist the body in returning to full balance and optimal functioning resulting in improved health.   See future blogs on how to re-balance and repair the body.

In Closing

As you can see, rebuilding your health is a process, not an event.  It does take intention and commitment.  Taking baby steps, choosing one thing at a time, implementing it and sticking with that until it feels natural.  Then take another baby step.  With this focus, over the course of time, you will be adopting a healthy lifestyle and improving your health.  

Help is available.  I work one on with with clients who want support in making and sticking with lifestyle and dietary changes.  If you are interested in this, you can schedule a Complimentary Discovery session with me.   By next year, I will be offering group programs so that more people can receive coaching at an affordable price.  

If this isn’t in your budget, keep reading my blogs.  I will be offering ongoing information on how to take the baby steps.  Also, join the online Kaleidoscope Healing Circle.  This is a place for us to come together as a community to support healing, compassion and empowerment.  

Above all, be kind and compassionate with yourself.   An action done with love, love for yourself,  is more powerful than anything else.  You are a beautiful, amazing woman.  You deserve to be healthy and have a fulfilling life filled with love.  Allow that to be your motivation.

Much love to you,

Bindu

Starting July 9th:  Online

Kaleidoscope Healing Circle

All July Sessions for FREE!

  • Every Tuesday
  • Online via phone or zoom

Includes: yoga, gentle movement, self inquiry, energy healing, guided experiences, empath training, integrative presence, sound healing and more.