Im ready to feel better this year. You, too?
Ok, cool. So lets just go ahead and go to bedearly, exercise six days a week, cut all the junk out of our diets,meditate daily, and install that whole-house water filter, shall we?By January 31?
Wait dont give up on this article. I waskidding. What I meant to say was: lets get crystal clear onthe ONE doable thing we can each commit to. The One Thingthat will help us get the MOST improvement in our health.
When you commit to One Thing that you know will truly help you feel better, getting healthy becomes doable. The clarity feels great. Determination comes more easily.
I want to help you make this easy, and rewarding. Coming up below is some insight based on Chinese medicine wisdom and my experience helping people one-on-one. Well go over five major wellness changes you can make in your life, and how to know which is the most important one for you.
To begin, ask yourself three questions. Jot downyour answers.
Your answers should give you a helpful place tobegin your exploration of these five healthy changes that could beyour One Thing:
Choice #1: EXERCISE
This One Thing will serve you best if youare dealing with Qi stagnation.Thats Chinese-medicine-speak for stuckness, stress, and blockage offlow. How do you know if you have Qi stagnation?
One clue is that you feel better with exercise!Physical movement resolves that stagnation directly, and relievesyour body of blockages. For those of you with pain that goesdown after you start moving around, or you who feel more energy andmental clarity after a workout exercise is important.
Another clue is that your symptoms areworse when youre stressed. What we call stress almostalways means Qi stagnation is happening. Exercise will helprelieve the mental and physical sensation of stress, AND relieve theharmful effects stress has on your body.
Choice #2: MEDITATION / QUIET TIME
Most of us have heard about the benefits ofmeditation, and how it helps with a variety of illnesses. Likeexercise, meditation helps when stress is a big factor in yourdis-ease. But its different from exercise, too.
Rather than as a way to deal with stagnation,I value meditation (and other mindful practices such as yogaor breathing exercises) for folks who need help settling their Heartfire. Thats a Chinese medicine term for a group ofhappenings in the body including restlessness, racing thoughts, fasttalking, and constant activity in general. Meditation might be top ofyour list if you spend a lot of time in that type of state.
Choice #3: DIET CHANGE (CUTTING OUT THEJUNK)
Cutting inflammatory (or dampening)foods out of the diet helps almost everyone, but it tends toREALLY help if youre dealing with respiratory, digestive, and/orimmune system issues. If those are your main concerns, lookinto cleansing, anti-inflammatory, or elimination diets thathelp you determine which foods are causing YOU trouble.
If you want to try a little Chinesemedicine assessment on yourself, look at your tongue in the mirror.If you see a thick white or yellowish coat and/or scallopsalong the sides (imprints from your teeth), cleaning up your dietshould help you feel a whole lot better.
If your answers to question 2 above involved food(as in, better when I eat light in the evening; worse when I havepizza), thats another vote for making your One Thing be theremoval of stressor foods from your diet.
You can break this One Thing downfurther if you want to: just cut One Thing out of your dietfor now (like, only dairy products, or only cane sugar). You can takeit in stages to make your changes more doable and sustainable.
Choice #4: SLEEP
Sometimes Ive got to state the obvious: Ifyou feel better when you get more sleep, you need to get more sleep.
WAY too many of us are chronically sleep-deprived.If your symptoms are worse when youre tired and better whenyoure rested, this suggests you have more Qi deficiency(as opposed to stagnation). Rest and restoration are key for you.
If youve overworked and/or underslept formonths or years, or if youve been through a major stress or trauma,you might be truly exhausted. Allow yourself to rest.
And if youre someone who can hardly stand to stopbefore your to-do list is done and you tend to stay up lateAccomplishing Things then put get 8 hours of sleep on yourlist, and check it off in the morning! Its a legit thing ToDo!
We all need sleep. It doesnt take much googlingto see how much research links getting enough sleep with health, andsleep-deprivation with health problems both minor and major. For someof us, though, increasing and optimizing our hours of sleep is theOne Thing that matters most.
You can support healthy sleep in manyways. Two of my favorites are drinking calming herbal teasin the evening, and self-massage with acupressure. For stubborninsomnia, acupuncture and herbal medicine are outstanding.
Choice #5: MENTAL/EMOTIONAL HEALING
Youll know if this is your One Thing. Everyonesgot emotional healing to do that would help them get healthier, butonly you know when the time is right to dive deeper intoyours.
Ill invite you to reflect for a moment onwhether your negative thought patterns, limiting beliefs, emotionalbaggage, past trauma, or bottled up anger and grief are a big forcein your life. If they are, and if youre ready for this, Idencourage you to develop a daily practice formental/emotional health.
This might be journaling. I mean,simply telling the truth on paper is a powerful thing. It might bewriting down everything you feel angry about (old or new,justifiable or not), and then burning the paper.You could learn Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping)and choose something to release every evening. Maybe you want to walkdown one of my favorite avenues of mental/emotional healing andgrowth: working with your dreams. Move your grief.Seek out a therapist. Explore all of the above.
There we go.
Those are five big changes that often show up onthe get healthier list. Maybe now you have a gut feeling aboutwhich you want to commit to. Look back at your answers to the threequestions I asked at the beginning of the article. Whatsbecoming clearer for you now?
Whatever you choose to start with, practiceit until that becomes a habit. Focus on that oneaspect of your health until you go from, for example, Im reallytrying to go to bed earlier and get more sleep, to, I alwaysstart winding down by 9:30 and fall asleep by 10:30; it would feelreally strange not to. Then, you can build on your One Thing withyour next thing.
For any of you who feel like you need to do ALLfive of those things ASAP, just start now with the one thatwill be EASIEST. Go for the least effortful, quickest win.Youll move on to the next as soon as youre ready.
And whatever you do to get healthier, congratulateyourself whenever you do it! On the days when you meant tobut you didnt, take a moment to congratulate yourself on however youDID care for yourself. Maybe you made a nutrition-packed smoothie,you simply washed your face, or you made it intact through somethingreally hard. I also like to take a moment at the end of my day togive thanks for the opportunity to care for my health at all whata blessing to have this information, the freedom to make thesechoices, and the access to what we need to make it happen. Youve gotthis.
Originally published on healgrowthriveflow.com.
