Daily Rituals
With the constant flood of information coming at us through word of mouth, social media and Dr Google, it has become increasingly difficult to know what constitutes being healthy. The current medical model has conditioned us to put our entire trust into doctors, leaving us feeling disempowered and disconnected from our own bodies. We ignore warning signals like acne, muscle cramps, bloating and headaches, because we're either too busy OR have them masked with a cocktail of pharmaceuticals. Unaddressed, symptoms may worsen or even turn into disease.
So what is the solution? Well for one, I think we need to become less busy and far less distracted, to have the time to be in our bodies, notice our thoughts, feelings and physical sensations. Expanding our awareness to identify how our body and mind responds to certain foods, practices and energies (including people in our lives, our workplace and home environment). Once we have developed this curiosity, we must STAY CONSISTENT with our practices. Its all well and good to know dairy makes your skin erupt, but dabbling in a slice of camembert at lunch and ice cream for desert prevents the healing process from taking place. As mentioned earlier, what works for me won't necessarily work for you, but I believe that certain things work for everybody. Here’s a list of my daily rituals, practices and foods, that keep me feeling grounded, energised and good.
(1) Morning meditation
Mindfulness and meditation have become the latest buzzwords, but don't let this put you off. These practices are not only hugely beneficial but essential in our very busy, achievement focused lives. . If you are the pragmatic type that rolls their eyes at anything woowoo, think again! There is actual peer-reviewed, evidence based data to back the benefits of this practice.
Meditation activates the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), the restorative branch of our autonomic nervous system responsible for "rest and digest" functions. An active PNS lowers our blood pressure, reduces heart rate and sends blood flowing from skeletal muscle into our essential internal organs, like the gut, helping the body to focus on digestion and assimilation of nutrients AND repair of cellular damage.
Meditation is proven to reduce stress and anxiety responses and provide benefit for people experiencing depression.
A study done by Ramel and Goldin in 2004 followed a group of subjects with a lifetime of mood disorders that were put through an 8-week mindfulness meditation course, revealing a significant decline in negative thinking after this course.
Meditation improves our immunity, reduces inflammation AND can even transform brain anatomy, increasing grey matter in limbic areas related to emotion and attention.
HOW TO?
Set aside at least 15 minutes in the morning and create a comfortable corner somewhere in your home (cushions, blankets, candles...whatever you need). Sit cross-legged (if you can), leaning your back against a wall or lying down if that feels better for you. There are a many different meditation techniques ranging from breath awareness, body scan to visualisations and mantras. You may like to experiment with these and find what works for you or start by using a guided meditation app like "Headspace". Set a timer on your phone and go for it! Remember, meditation is not about keeping the mind silent the entire time. The simple act of bringing our awareness back to breath, bodily sensations or mantra when the mind wanders is what helps strengthen our mental resilience. Namaste!
(2) Hot cuppa lemon water or apple cider vinegar (ACV)
On waking, before sitting down for your morning meditation, slowly sip on this cleansing, digestion boosting and detoxifying cuppa goodness. Take your pick, I go between the two depending on whats available.
Freshly squeezed lemon in water tricks the liver into producing bile, which is secreted into the small intestines helping to flush out toxins AND boosts liver enzyme function to aid in the detoxification process. As an additional benefit, the vitamin C in lemon juice is a powerful antioxidant that grabs and eliminates harmful free radicals that cause cellular inflammation and damage while also boosting our immunity. Lastly, although it may seem that lemons provide acidity to our meals, their effect in the body is alkalising! (this is a good thing, explained in more depth further down).
ACV on the other hand aids digestion and improves energy by triggering hydrochloric acid (HCL) release from parietal cells lining the stomach. A boost in HCL helps us to break down food so that we can absorb our energy-producing nutrients more effectively. Additionally, increased stomach acidity kills off any harmful bugs clinging to our food or those already residing in the stomach.
Adding a few slices of warming ginger to either drink will help to boost digestion, improve circulation, increase immunity and reduce overall inflammation and pain. In Ayurvedic medicine ginger is recommended to anyone with a weak 'Agni' or digestive fire!
ACV and acid reflux
The common misconception (fed to us by western medicine) is that acid reflux means too much stomach acid when in fact it is usually associated with having too little! Too little stomach acid (hypochlorrhydria) brought on by alcohol use, antibiotics, high sugar intake and processed foods causes the little valve between our stomach and oesophagus to remain open, meaning that the very acidic HCL from stomach travels up into the oesophagus and burns the mucosal cells lining it (stomach cells are super resilient and built to deal with high acidity). Instead of further reducing stomach acid using toxic aluminium containing anti-acids (the most common approach) we can opt to increase our stomach acid using ACV, which will support stomach acid staying in the stomach.
HOW TO?
Squeeze the juice from 1/2 fresh lemon OR 1 tablespoon raw organic apple cider vinegar (with mother) into 1 cup warm filtered water. Add a few small slices of ginger to each drink for something more warming.
NB: Some concerns have been raised about these drinks impacting our dental enamel, so swirl some water around your mouth afterwards.
(3) Daily gratitude and affirmations
The pillars of yoga known as Niyamas and Yamas are designed to help us develop a positive relationship with ourselves and the environment around us. Santosha is a niyamas that translates to contentment through the practice of gratitude. Santosha helps us accept and appreciate what we have and where we are in our lives, relinquishing our need to search for external things to bring us joy. The daily practice of gratitude makes us more present and less inclined to hold onto negativity from the past, search for something better in the future, or live in fear of it. Gratitude can be practiced upon waking or before bed, as a silent thought, in spoken word or written down in a gratitude journal. Additionally, the practice of affirmations helps to support this contentment by rewiring the brain to trust what we have been conditioned not to believe. So if there is something that we feel we are lacking, creating an affirmation around this slowly coerces the mind away from negative self-talk and into a more open and uplifted space.
EXAMPLES
"Today I am grateful for my job that enables me to live in a warm and dry home and eat fresh, healthy food"
"Today I am grateful for the health of my body that allows me to move without pain"
"I am beautiful. My body is beautiful"
"I am capable and successful. I am strong"
(4) Get outdoors
Whether you choose to eat your lunch at the park, take a walk in nature or swim in the sea, spending time outdoors each day is imperative to good mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. Here's why:
People living in urban areas, distant from nature have high rates of mental illnesses with 20% increased likelihood of anxiety and 40 % higher risk of mood disorder like depression
Exposing our skin to sunshine, elevates our stores of mood boosting and inflammation alleviating vitamin D.
Electromagnetic fields (EMF) from WIFI, electricity etc. send waves into our bodily tissues, causing them to become artificially charged. This has been linked to disease and mental illness. Spending time in nature with our barefeet on the earth helps to neutralise this charge as the earths surface supplies us with negative ions. Swimming in the sea has the same neutralising effect.
Walking gets the heart pumping, sending circulation flowing around our bodies and lymphatic fluid moving around, preventing blockages. Additionally, our brains release endorphins when we exercise that provide calm and happy vibes.
A Stanford university study has revealed that walking in nature for 90 minutes has the ability to reduce activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex of the brain, an area of the brain where overactivity is related to depression.
(6) Eat your green leafy vegetables
Who isn't aware of how nutritious green leafy veges are? Most of us had this knowledge embedded into our psyches from a very young age. Green leafies include spinach, silverbeet, kale, collard greens, chard and mustard greens. I'll add coriander and parsley to this list as they are technically green and leafy with extra medicinal properties. Overall, consuming 2-3 servings of these per day is recommended, here's the evidence:
Blood PH is very closely monitored by our bodies. When our blood becomes acidic, due to the consumption of alcohol, sugar, processed foods, dairy and meat there is a very precise system in place led by our kidneys that triggers the release of alkalising minerals from bone into the blood. This leaching of minerals ultimately reduces our bone density, increasing the likelihood of diseases like osteoporosis and bone fractures. Blood acidity is also linked to other chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes. Green leafies are alkalising on the blood and body, balancing the acid load, protecting our bones from degradation and reducing inflammation.
Green leafy vegetables provide a good dose of insoluble fibre, providing roughage and bulk to move things along the intestines to keep you regular
They are high in iron, folate, vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C and magnesium - for energy, detoxification, reducing stress, immunity, blood clotting, the health of our bones, skin, hair, nails and cartilage (and much much more!).
Parsley has loads of calcium, necessary for bone health AND both parsley and coriander work as chelators in the body, helping to bind and eliminate toxic heavy metals.
NB: When consuming greens from the brassica family (Kale & collard greens), lightly steam or fry these up to reduce goitrogen load as these reduce iodine which can impact thyroid gland activity.
Whether you choose to adopt some of the tools in this toolbox or compile a list of your own beneficial practices, remember to set aside some time to be with yourself, listen to your intuition and discover what you and your body need right now. Peace, Love and light, Shaz xx