In self-healing terms the first step toward self-management to recognise is the physical body is not simply a combination of physical chemical pathways, observable and treatable in scientifically. What we call our mind; the emotional, mental, and spiritual (or higher) nature is energetically related to our physical conception. In other words, self-healing powers embrace the BodyMind -the entire spectrum of life giving and taking influence, and our health (body and mind) is dependent upon the interrelationship of energies that comprise this union.

We must recognise you cannot divorce the relationship between body and mind and expect lasting good health outcomes. Health treatments be they for the recovery of mental and emotional disorders, or body repair, holistically benefit from accepting the BodyMind as a unity will always take a causal view of a person’s health needs.

Key to management and maintenance of good health is the immune system ‘above and below’.

‘Below’ the body’s immune system is a wonder to behold. It defends us from attacking bacteria, viruses, and parasites. A vast network of cells and tissues constantly on the lookout for pathogenic invaders, and when an enemy is spotted, a complex attack is mounted. It consists of many types of cells, organs, proteins, and tissues. Crucially, it can distinguish your tissue from foreign tissue, and can dispose of dead and faulty cells and clear them away out of the body.

Made up of special organs, cells and types of chemicals that fight infection, the constituent parts in our bodies are white blood cells, antibodies, the complement system (proteins whose actions complement work done by antibodies), the lymphatic system, the spleen, the thymus, and the bone marrow.  In common parlance the lymphatic system consists of tubes producing cells that clean and dispose of bacteria -think of it as a dustbin cleaner. The spleen is a blood filtering organ that removes and destroys old or damaged red blood cells. The thymus filters your blood and produces a type of white blood cell called T-lymphocytes. Bone marrow, a spongy tissue inside your bones, produces red blood cells of a type that carries oxygen, white blood cells we use to fight infection, and the platelets we need to help the blood clot.

An underactive BodyMind immune system does not function correctly and makes people vulnerable to infections. It can be life threatening in severe cases. If the immune system is overactive we can suffer from allergies, foods, medications, stinging insects, hay fever, asthma, hives, dermatitis, and eczema. If it compromises and attacks itself, autoimmune diseases arise, including multiple sclerosis, hypothyroidism, type 1 diabetes, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and vasculitis (inflammation of blood vessels).

‘Above’ the BodyMind’s mental and emotional immune nature has a physical relationship with the limbic system located between the brain stem and the two cerebral hemispheres that govern emotions and memory. Within the hypothalamus plays a key role activating the sympathetic nervous system, which is a part of any emotional reaction. The cerebrum, the large, outer part of the brain, controls reading, thinking, learning, speech, emotions, and planned muscle movements like walking.

If we are not emotionally and mentally balanced, i.e., harmonically expressive of our BodyMind character, the immune system will labour to achieve its purpose, identifiable Illness, and disease physically and psychosomatically can take root. 

How we manage our mental and emotional nature is critically important -and it must account for the instrumental nature of our consciousness. We are not islands, or containers -at best we are houses with controllable front and back doors, and viewable windows we are able to curtain when we are not openly inquiring. The house ceases to be home when all the doors are locked, and the windows barred. The BodyMind becomes a prison.

In purely physical terms there are 11 organ systems in the human body, the integumentary system, skeletal system, muscular system, lymphatic system, respiratory system, digestive system, nervous system, endocrine system, cardiovascular system, urinary system, and reproductive systems (male & female). All have self-healing, self-managing capability peculiar to their own design -yet they all are dependent upon the BodyMind immune network of ‘fighters and defenders’ to work efficiently. And as described the emotional and mental counterpart is a key player which has the potential to drive change and ensure compliant health of the BodyMind.

So, there you have it -put the immune system right, ‘above and below’ and you are your own Master.

Whatever your lifestyle might be, wherever you live, whoever shares it with you, the BodyMind is subject to natural influences we do not control -forces external. In essence this is the influence of the Sun and Moon. Sunlight is essential for human health and well-being. The health benefits of sunlight include generating the production of vitamin D, supporting bone health, lowering blood pressure, preventing disease, and promoting good mental health.

 The morning sun kickstarts the body clock and during the forenoon hours of daylight it strongly stimulates all BodyMind functions. During the afternoon and evening the sun’s stimulating influence lessens hour by hour, gradually giving way to lunar energies. The natural effects on our physical, mental, and behavioural nature in the 24-hour cycle, known as circadian rhythms, are fundamentally important to the maintenance and development of good health.

 The moon’s radiation of mineralised energy, comprising largely of oxygen, carbon, and water, not only influences the movement of tidal flows, but it also directly affects our physical, mental, and emotional behaviour, the daily cycle of natural life. The sun’s rays stimulate and interrelate with the moon’s natural energies, and you the movements of both heavenly bodies are a governing influence upon our body clocks.

 We are biological timepieces!

 Nearly every tissue and organ in our body contains biological clocks. A master clock is situated in our brain. Some of the most important genes in this process are the Period and Cryptochrome genes, which build up in the cell’s nucleus at night and lessen during the day. These proteins help activate feelings of wakefulness, alertness, and sleepiness. However, signals from the environment also affect circadian rhythms. For instance, exposure to sunlight and moonlight at a different time of day and night can reset when the body turns on Period and Cryptochrome genes, as can the timing of your own lifestyle.

 Circadian rhythms can influence important functions in our bodies, such as: hormone release, eating habits, digestion, and body temperature. For example, in the morning body temperature naturally rises, alertness and sharpness increases, in the afternoon (from approx. 1.00 – 3.00 p.m.) your energy dips and you may crave food, ongoing to about 7. 00 p.m. your energy output rate slows down -you have to work harder to maintain waking purpose.

 However, most people notice the effect of circadian rhythms on their sleep patterns. The master clock in the brain controls the production of melatonin, a hormone that makes you sleepy. It receives information about incoming light from the optic nerves, which relay information from the eyes to the brain. When there is less sunlight—at night, the master clock tells the brain to make more melatonin, so you get drowsy.

 To practically maintain and develop good health on a daily basis -these are the right things to do

1. Sleep before midnight and rise early. You need approximately seven to eight hours sleep -if it’s less over two to three days, not a problem, but if it extends beyond this the body will become unduly stressed, and mentally emotionally alertness and the ability to coordinate thoughts and action will be adversely affected. If you rise late and sleep after midnight, body clocks will adjust, but there will be a time lag in benefits and overall reduce waking time efficiency -or to put it another way, you have to work harder to utilise your BodyMind energies.

 2. Eat a nourishing breakfast. How big this meal is will depend upon the ‘burn’ capability you have. If your daily activity is not physically demanding, energy ‘burn’ will be slower in the morning than it can optimally be. If work is mentally and emotionally demanding, the ‘restful’ balance between the physical and mental counterparts of your BodyMind becomes stressed. You are overeating if your body feels it wants to sleep after the meal. A stimulating non-alcoholic drink is okay provided you also eat as well.

 3. Move the bowel after breakfast -this is the best time to do so, however if you are a late sleeping and rising person this might not take place until later in the day. Some exercise will promote it and getting out in the open air for 30 minutes sometime between 8 a.m. and noon will stimulate weight loss.

 4. Eat a small lunch, anytime between mid-day and 2.00 p.m. depending on how early or late you rise. Sugar snacks are best avoided, best are foods carbohydrate, protein rich, and as fresh as possible. Weight watchers do well with salads. A balance of soluble and non-soluble vegetable, e.g., celery is good. Again -if you feel like sleeping after eating -you are eating too much.

 5. Dependent upon your lifestyle this could mean a five ten-minute walk in the morning -and again ideally in the afternoon after lunch. If you get exercise by working, nothing additional is required. As little as 15 minutes of sunlight is beneficial to get vitamin D input, strengthen the bones, and synergise calcium in bones and blood. Exposure to sunlight will increase the brain’s release of a hormone called serotonin, which boosts mood and feelings of calm and clearness of mind. At night, darker lighting triggers the brain to make another hormone called melatonin. This hormone is responsible for helping you sleep. If you enjoy exercising you are further benefited provided your ‘workout’ doesn’t leave you feeling the need for rest. The need of rest after exercise is a sign the BodyMind it has been overstressed.

 6. Evening meal. Is best before 7.00 p.m. the later you eat the more you will disturb body clock cycles. You may be mentally and emotionally more active in the evening, largely due to the lunar influence, but physiologically you will be slowing down. If you feel like exercising or moving about -don’t push yourself, take it easy.

 7. Plenty of liquids. What you need varies between man and women and age. In general terms something between 3 and 4 pints (1.7 to 2.3 litres). Some of this is absorbed from food. Whilst drinking clean water is best the body can also meet its quota from other types of drink.

 8. During daylight the sun’s influence regulates your circadian rhythm by telling your body when to increase and decrease your melatonin levels. So, the more daylight exposure you can get, the better your body will produce melatonin when it’s time to go to sleep. Being stuck in an office or under rooves limits what you can receive. If your lifestyle limits exposure to sunlight -then ensure you include fatty fish in your diet, as that will give you vitamin D.

Some general pointers:

 Eat slowly consciously aware of what you masticate. Having conversation or watching TV whilst eating takes away from the full benefit food can give. The more conscious you are of eating and drinking the easier will you be aware of how much food and drink you need to ingest. And more -you consciously live the energy food and drink gives.

 When walking, project yourself about 3 body shapes ahead -this helps you clear your mind and will make you aware of the momentary nature of life. Share yourself with the environment.

If you are watching TV before bedtime this will disrupt your hormones, decreasing melatonin which will mean it takes longer to go to sleep. If you are working on a computer or a phone visually, the blue light will mess with your circadian rhythm sleep cycle. It signals your brain to wake up when it should be winding down. If you must -read a little in bed, drinking something warm -that will help reset the body clock, and is a better way of regulating and increasing the input of melatonin. Even better, stress busting melatonin increases when you project your thinking mind positively sending compassionate loving feelings to someone else who you know needs support.

 The circadian rhythm cycle repeats approximately every 24 hours.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm

Quality sleep is a vitally important part of life, both body and mind need this cycle of ‘unconsciousness’ to regenerate, rebalance, and repair as needed the various systems of energy we are composed of.  Good sleep is even more necessary if your health is below par, you are mentally and emotionally stressed, or physically you need to recover from illness, surgery, and suppressive drugs.

As you might expect modern medicine relies on the self-healing nature of our BodyMind to assist and promote health recovery. The following advice depending in the kind of sleep problem you have will help restore the natural functions of mind and body.

Keep regular sleep hours. Our BodyMind is naturally adapted to positively cycle in harmony with the Earth movements of night and day and electromagnetic waves generated by its relationship with all other planetary bodies in our solar system. An hour of sleep prior to midnight is worth two thereafter. An hour of sleep after dawn plus one will reintroduce stresses. The more regular we are in sleeping and waking the better is the BodyMind able to function efficiently. There is still a benefit achievable if your lifestyle, or your present state of health, prevents you from getting to bed before midnight, or gives cause to sleep longer.

If you are unable to sleep, do not force it. Get up and do something relaxing, like listening to calming music, or just pottering around tidying and cleaning. Avoid any activity that restimulates the mind or over stresses the body. Return to bed when you feel sleepier. If mentally worries and concerns keep engaging your mind, write down these thoughts on paper -don’t use a phone, tablet, or computer to do this.

Sometimes it’s difficult to sleep because your energies have not been physically expended. We can put the BodyMind out of balance by too much mental and emotional activity, particularly so if this is not satisfying. Not only is regular exercise good for your physical health, but it’s good for your mind too – and being active during the day can help you sleep better. Just remember to avoid vigorous activity near bedtime if it affects your sleep.

Pick-me-ups, like caffeine and alcohol can stop you falling asleep and prevent deep sleep. Try to cut down on alcohol and avoid caffeine close to bedtime. A warm bath can help prepare you for sleep and self-administered massage with relaxing oils on neck, shoulders and feet can also help, especially so if you have restless legs. Simple breathing exercises will significantly help. Simply taking a few deep breaths engages the Vagus nerve which triggers a signal within your nervous system to slow heart rate, lower blood pressure and decrease cortisol. What do we mean by deep breaths? When you breathe in first fill the gut (feel your tummy swell), then whilst still breathing in fill the chest and then let the breath out via the mouth. Doing this a few times will slow the breath cycle and allow you to achieve rest periods between the in and out function of breathing.

Which foods make sleepy? Foods containing tryptophan: Tryptophan is an amino acid that is linked to a number of sleep-promoting processes in the brain. Eaten in moderation, turkey, milk, bananas, oats, almonds, walnuts, kiwi fruit, and chocolate can help. Herbal tea, especially Chamomile and  Passionflower tea will also relax the nervous system and help promote sleep.

What are the signs of sleep problems?

You wake up early and be unable to get back to sleep, can feel down or have a lower mood, have difficulty concentrating, be more irritable than usual, feel like you have not slept well when you wake up in the morning. Long-term sleep problems can lead you to feeling your relationships are suffering, struggle to maintain a social life, have a hard time doing everyday tasks, feel hungrier and snack more and feel tired during the day.

During normal sleep, you cycle through REM (rapid eye movement) and four stages of non-REM sleep numerous times a night. Stage 1 of NREM sleep is the lightest, while stage 4 is the deepest.  When you’re repeatedly interrupted and can’t cycle normally through these types and stages of sleep, you may feel tired, fatigued, and have trouble concentrating and paying attention while you’re awake. Sleepiness puts you at greater risk for accidents.

Typically, people sleep at night due to the close interaction between our natural sleep and alertness rhythms, which are driven by an internal “clock.” This clock is a small part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus. It sits just above the nerves leaving the back of our eyes. Light and exercise “reset” the clock and can move it forward or backward. Abnormalities related to this clock are called circadian rhythm disorders (“circa” means “about,” and “dies” means “day”). Circadian rhythm disorders include jet lag, adjustments to shift work, delayed sleep phase syndrome (you fall asleep and wake up too late), and advanced sleep phase syndrome (you fall asleep and wake up too early).

Key Sleep Disorders

Insomnia

People who have insomnia don’t feel as if they get enough sleep at night. They may have trouble falling asleep or may wake up frequently during the night or early in the morning. Insomnia is a problem if it affects your daytime activities. Insomnia has many possible causes, including stress, anxiety, depression, poor sleep habits, circadian rhythm disorders (such as jet lag), and taking certain medications. Insomnia may be temporary, short-term it can be caused by an illness, a stressful event, or drinking too much coffee, for example.  

Sleep Apnoea

Sleep apnoea occurs when the upper airway becomes completely or partially blocked, interrupting regular breathing for short periods of time — which then wakes you up. It can cause severe daytime sleepiness. If left untreated, severe sleep apnoea may be associated with high blood pressure and the risk of stroke and heart attack. Most people with sleep apnoea have a smaller-than-normal inner throat and other subtle bone and soft-tissue differences.

Pregnancy and Sleep

Women often experience sleepless nights and daytime fatigue in the first and third three month periods of their pregnancy. During the first, frequent trips to the bathroom and morning sickness may disrupt sleep. Later in pregnancy, vivid dreams and physical discomfort may prevent deep sleep. After delivery, attention to the new baby’s care or a temporay depression may interrupt sleep.

Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is a brain disorder that causes excessive daytime sleepiness. There is sometimes a genetic component, but most patients have no family history of the problem.

Restless Legs Syndrome

In people who have restless legs syndrome, discomfort in the legs and feet peaks during the evening and night. They feel an urge to move their legs and feet to get temporary relief, often with excessive, rhythmic, or cyclic leg movements during sleep. This can delay sleep onset and cause awakening during sleep. Restless legs syndrome is a common problem among middle-aged and older adults.

Nightmares

Nightmares are frightening dreams that arise during REM sleep. They can be caused by stress, anxiety, and some drugs. Often, there is no clear cause.

Other Things that Impact Sleep

Young age. Infants may sleep up to 16 hours a day. But most won’t sleep through the night without a feeding until 4 months of age. School-aged children may sleep 10 hours a day. Their sleep may be disturbed by an illness or fever.

Old age. People over age 60 may not sleep as deeply as younger people. Sleep apnoea is also more common among older people.

Lifestyle. People who drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, or drink alcohol are more likely to have sleep problems than people who do not.

Medication. Many drugs can cause sleeplessness. Others can cause daytime fatigue.

Depression and anxiety. Insomnia is a common symptom of depression and anxiety.

Heart failure and lung problems. Some people find it difficult to sleep at night because they become breathless when they lie down. This can be a symptom of heart failure or a problem with the lungs.

Too much time spent in front of computers etc. They emit a blue light. While it has a stimulating effect on our mood and wakefulness, blue light inhibits melatonin, the sleep hormone. Emitted by the sun, but also by LED bulbs, the screens of our tablets, smartphones and computers, blue light forms part of the spectrum of light. So, if you use any of your devices before going to bed, the body feels like it would be day. There are different types of anti-blue light glasses on the market. Check that the lenses filter the blue-turquoise light, the one that impacts melatonin.

Finally, the most common cause of sleepiness is undue stress, if this is not controlled ultimately the immune system suffers and many different forms of illnesses can be caused.

Stress is commonly defined as the body’s reaction to feeling threatened or under pressure, but in reality it is a feature of both body and mind and is necessarily present 24-7. It motivates us to achieve satisfaction in our daily life, and enables us to meet the demands of home, work and family life. However, too much stress will adversely affect our emotional and mental nature, in turn weaken our bodily functions, and our relationships with others. Too much stress can become pernicious and cause us to become anxious, irritable, and lose control. 

A simple example of how it works is driving a manually geared vehicle. The engine is partnered with a gearbox and is designed to work efficiently under the pressure of acceleration, however if the driver pushes speed (say in 2nd gear) beyond the tolerance of its design, the engine races, draws more fuel than it requires, doesn’t burn it all off, overheats the cylinders and dirties the filters. If the driver continues to drive inefficiently the strain on the engine and gearbox, along with the braking system and tyres will wear out components and shorten the life of the vehicle.

The BodyMind cannot be so simply described but there is no doubt (the evidence is overwhelming) that too much stress will result in health breakdowns and shorten life.

Unlike a vehicle we are not produced to a patterned design which can be collectively measured for efficiency. Individually we must find ways to live efficiently and harmoniously with life. Complex though we may be we all have the ability to know a feeling of rightness, which we can otherwise know as the RIGHT BALANCE.

So, how do you know if you have it, or need to achieve it?

Here are some questions -if you can tick all the boxes there’s no need to read any further.

□        Do you wake in the morning feeling rested?

□        Do you move your bowels daily?

□        Are you able to make and implement decisions ?

□        Is some part of everyday physically active?

□        Do you daily eat most of your food requirements before 7.00 p.m.?

□        Are you mentally and emotionally creative when you want to be?

□        Do you feel satisfied with what you have achieved?

Assuming you couldn’t tick all the boxes -let’s take a look at the downsides. Possible ways to achieve a healthy BodyMind are in this article.  ‘What can we do to defuse the time-bomb?’

It’s true that some people need more sleep time than others and that can be related to the kind of life you lead, the amount of energy expended, the bio-rhymical characteristics of your physical body, but if you don’t wake feeling rested two conditions are apparent. The physical body in some parts is overstressed. Mentally and emotionally, you are unsatisfied -maybe for something you have done and would like to change, want to do but it bothers you how. It can be caused by others demanding or deciding for you. During sleep the subconscious is like an elephant in the room, it will surface all kinds of emotional thoughts, often in visions you cannot understand, nonetheless it is expression of needs and wants that can remain in day-to-day consciousness as stressful energies. You become overstressed when these needs and wants are not fulfilled.

You need to understand what needs are as opposed to wants.

Self-healing has two aims –Prevention & Cure. The cause of many health issues is stress related -be they serious, or of a nuisance nature. When the BodyMind suffers injury or disease then the imbalance will stress the system -it can be further stressed by medicines and surgery, by inappropriate self-support, by lifestyle wants and habits.

Too much stress of a prolonged nature will adversely affect the well-being of our system as a whole. Stress hormones such as Cortisol, Adrenaline and Norepinephrine are released by the body in situations that are interpreted as being potentially dangerous. Constant stress causes continual release of various stress hormones which can cause: A depletion of energy storage, stress-induced hypertension anxiety & depression, mental illness, memory and concentration impairment, sleep problems.

There are effects on metabolic processes; digestive problems, skin problems (like acne & psoriasis), ulcers, heart disease, weight gain, hampered growth (& bone density issues), high and low blood pressure, high cholesterol. Too much stress can decrease the testosterone levels in males and cause irregular menstrual cycles in females. There is also an increased likelihood of infectious diseases & lower life expectancy.

Stress hormones act by mobilizing energy from storage to muscles, increasing heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate, when out of control they can slow or shut down metabolic processes such as digestion, reproduction, growth, and immunity.

Our body is hard-wired to react to stress in ways meant to protect you against threats from predators and other aggressors. Such threats are rare today, but that doesn’t mean that life is free of stress! Multiple demands each day, such as workload, making ends meet and care issues insist your body treats these so-called minor hassles as threats!

What are these stress hormones and what do they do?

Adrenaline. Commonly known as the fight or flight hormone is produced by adrenal glands. Your hypothalamus, a tiny region at the base of your brain, sets off an alarm system in your body, and a combination of nerve and hormonal signals prompts your adrenal glands, located atop your kidneys, to release a surge of hormones, including adrenaline, which is largely responsible for the immediate reactions we feel when stressed. Your muscles tense, you breathe faster, you may sweat, but it also gives you a surge of energy & focuses attention.

Norepinephrine. Similar to adrenaline, it is released from adrenal glands and the brain. The primary role of norepinephrine, like adrenaline, is arousal, it helps shift blood flow away from non-crucial areas e.g., skin, to more essential areas like the muscles, and also acts as a backup system to Adrenaline to support long term recovery from shock.

Cortisol. Is another stress hormone, produced by the adrenal glands, it takes a little more time than adrenaline and norepinephrine to react  -minutes, rather than seconds, and is a multi-step process involving two additional minor hormones, the corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) which is released from the hypothalamus. Corticotropin then tells the pituitary gland to release the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which then tells the adrenal glands to produce cortisol!

In survival mode, the optimal amounts of cortisol can be life-saving, it helps to maintain fluid balance and blood pressure, while regulating some body functions that aren’t crucial in the moment, like reproductive drive, immunity, digestion and growth, but when you fret and worry on a problem, the body continuously releases cortisol!

Chronic elevated levels can lead to serious issues. Too much cortisol can suppress the immune system, increase blood pressure and sugar, decrease libido, produce acne, contribute to obesity and more. Oestrogen and testosterone are also hormones that affect how we react to stress, as are the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin.

Both eustress (healthy stress) and distress, release cortisol as part of the general adaption syndrome. Once the alarm to release cortisol has sounded, your body becomes mobilised and ready for action, but there has to be a physical release of fight or flight, otherwise, cortisol levels build up in the blood which wreaks havoc on your mind and body.

Eustress creates a “seize-the-day” heightened state of arousal, which is invigorating and often linked with a tangible goal. Cortisol returns to normal upon completion of the ‘task’. Distress, or free-floating anxiety, doesn’t provide an outlet for the cortisol and causes the fight-or-flight mechanism to backfire!

Ironically, our own biology—designed to insure our survival as hunters and gatherers—is sabotaging our BodyMind in our sedentary digital age.

If any one of these chemical forces dominate the other without relief, you will experience an on-going state of internal imbalance –in other words, release of one kind of stress is replaced by another, it can have serious consequences for your brain cells!

To understand further the actions of stress we need to appreciate what our nervous system does. The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) turns on the fight or flight response. In contrast, the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) promotes the relaxation response.

Like two tug-of-war teams skilfully supporting their rope with a minimum of tension, the SNS and PNS carefully maintain metabolic equilibrium by making adjustments whenever something disturbs this balance. The strongmen on these teams are hormones that travel through the bloodstream to accelerate or suppress metabolic functions. The trouble is that some stress hormones don’t know when to quit! They remain active in the brain for too long injuring and even killing cells in the hippocampus. Because of this hierarchical dominance of the SNS over the PNS, it often requires conscious effort to initiate your relaxation response and re-establish metabolic equilibrium.

Think of it this way. The SNS has a stimulatory function, the PNS has a tranquilising function. Stress is not all bad, an appropriate stress response is a healthy and necessary part of life. One of the things it does is to release norepinephrine, one of the principal excitatory neurotransmitters needed to create new memories. It improves mood. Problems feel more like challenges, and it encourages creative expression.

Effective Self-healing decreases the development of stress hormones, releases muscle tensions, improves sleep, removes emotional tension and guards against life threatening health conditions.

Worries and concerns are a permanent part of life’s tapestry but when they refuse to lessen and insidiously become part of daily life, they affect our entire BodyMind and erode our sense of wellbeing. We become uncertain of outcomes -constantly anxious and negatively appraise life’s outlook.

There are many forms of anxiety.

Persistent and excessive anxiety and worries about activities or events —even ordinary, routine issues, where worry is out of proportion to the actual circumstance, difficult to control and affects how you feel physically, emotionally, and mentally. It can be the outcome of depression, whether physically, or mentally emotionally caused. 

Intense anxiety brought on by uncontrollable fears that can peak within minutes are characterised as panic attacks leading to outcomes of feeling disorientated, shortness of breath, chest pains, or heart palpitations. Disorders of this kind may lead to worrying about them happening again or avoiding situations identified as related to their occurrence.

Social anxiety (social phobias) can be caused by feelings of embarrassment, self-consciousness, and the fear of being judged or viewed unfavourably by others often results in a self-enforcement of privacy which is resented and viewed negatively. The inborn need to socially relate and dissatisfaction of isolation contradict and phobic attitudes can develop.

Separation anxiety -usually associated with children, mothers, and fathers where living together relationships have broken down can also be the result of a change in a partner which has the effect of excluding important interactive behaviour from the other. When essentially needed emotions are suppressed or refused expression it can lead to depression, feelings of anger, and a lack of self-worth.

Some physical and mental health conditions give symptoms of intense anxiety or panic. Obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD) can take a number of forms; fear of contamination -physical and/or mental, fear of harm and taboo thoughts, symmetry obsessions -the need for things to be perfect, exact, or ‘just right’.

And of course, there are other types, such as Agoraphobia, a type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and often avoid places or situations that might cause you to panic and make you feel trapped, helpless, or embarrassed. Selective mutism, a consistent failure of children to speak in certain situations, such as school, even when they can speak in other situations, such as at home with close family members. Substance-induced anxiety disorders are characterized by symptoms of intense anxiety or panic that are a direct result of misusing drugs, some medications side effects, and being exposed to a toxic substance or experiencing withdrawal from drugs.

Common anxiety signs and symptoms include feeling nervous, restless or tense, having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom, increased heart rate, breathing rapidly (hyperventilation), sweating, trembling, feeling weak or tired, difficulty concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry, trouble sleeping, experiencing gastrointestinal problems, inability to control worrisome thoughts, having difficulty controlling worries.

What all anxiety states have in common -is the frequency and complexity of the phenomenon. It’s constant, difficult, or impossible to self-assess cause and solution.

To fix anxiety problems you need to slow down and simplify your lifestyle and maintain outward awareness of the environment you occupy. Meditation and mindfulness can be a healing process for some -but not all, because they cannot make the shift in consciousness to switch from busy to idle. Hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an approach favoured by people whose anxieties have reached fever pitch and need someone to interact with to begin the healing process.

A cost-free approach we recommend too slow down and simplify is as follows:

1. Begin your day with a walk before you eat anything. By all means have a non-stimulating drink if you feel the need of one but don’t eat. Reason is because any amount of eating has a comforting effect and gives you a sense of security. Anxieties latch onto feelings of comfort and security and maintain their presence. Walk for the sake of walking -it shouldn’t have a destination purpose over and above the desire of a walking experience. Maintain a watchful emotionally warming interest in your immediate surroundings by projecting your sense of awareness forward and to the side. If you find anxieties come flooding back into your mind it’s because they have begun to dominate your mental and emotional focus. Reassert your conscious focus and warmly agree with it. 15-30 minutes walking like this will lessen the importance of the anxious thoughts which have been governing your behaviour and provide the subconscious a positive anxious free change of consciousness.

2. Ongoing during the day focus on doing one thing at a time. when you are eating -eat for its own sake. Don’t switch on the TV or listen to the radio whilst eating, because these actions invite the subconscious to free range and stimulate anxiety feelings in the background of your mind. Task-wise apply yourself to one task at a time. Complete the task or shut it down if it can’t be completed. The next task, be it simply needful or for pleasure, should be positively accepted as something you want to do. If the activity causes you to be anxious stop doing it. If that leaves you unsure of what to do next take another walk. If you physically cannot do that listen to some pleasing music or allow yourself to be entertained by some sound or visual programme, but better still interact if you are able with other people -take an interest in them.

3. If you find worries, concerns, or repetitive thoughts breaking into the pattern of tasking, despite your best efforts, you need to change the atmosphere -that means get out of the place you have been spending time in. Ideally that is going outdoors. Environments we frequently occupy for any length of time become saturated with our thoughts and emotional energies and playback to a worrisome mind.

4. When you encounter positivity through the actions you take or presents itself from something you observe make a note of it. Write the words down on a postage sticker and put it somewhere in plain sight -don’t try to remember it. As you practise looking outward these messages will come into sight every now and again. Whatever you do, don’t try to remember the sayings -your anxious mind will dispute them.

Lastly, practise breathing correctly. Inwardly breathe from the gut rolling the breath into the chest before exhaling. This is called wave breathing. Not only will it slow down breathing rhythms and de-stress mind and body, it will also re-stimulate the warming nature of happiness the hormonal constituents of the endocrine glands provide.

The clarion call from government around the world is we are on track to return normality to work and social life after the Covid pandemic. To garnish these expected salad days everyone (bar the dog) is being offered the vaccine, and politicians have changed their daily focus, returning to the party infighting we care less about. The damage lockdowns have done to people’s sense of wellbeing more than matches the Covid-19 statistics we have had repeat ad nauseum on TV and radio. The sheep have been corralled -soon the fences will be lifted, and they will be free to graze in the wide blue wander! The alternative press which has raised doubts on the efficacy and safety of vaccines continues to rage in the background. The rich have got richer, and the poor have got poorer.

And all the while, whether you are for or against, in tune with government guidance, lawful do’s and don’ts, everyone (including the dog) has suffered undue stress.

You cannot separate the mind from the body -you cannot manifest change in one without affecting the other. When this happens (and it has happened) the BodyMind becomes unbalance The BodyMind’s reaction to challenge or demand is to supply tensions and pressures to quicken changes -this is an ongoing 24-7 activity physically, emotionally, and mentally. In normal times most people make adjustments to their social and work environments to feel better in themselves -of course there will always be a few that continue to make a hash of things, and they will pay dearly for doing so, having health problems which could easily have been avoided. During these extended lockdown periods the BodyMind’s constituent parts have been in continual contention with one another.

In the broadest sense -the human BodyMind is physical and non-physical, seen and unseen. The ‘seen’ BodyMind is a composition of light matter energies which our senses are perceptive too, are scientifically measurable and comprise solids, gases, and fields of bio-magnetic electricity. The ‘unseen’ BodyMind consists of energies which vibrate at frequencies beyond the measurable ability of science -having said that, molecular physicists acknowledge there is a form of matter, described as Dark Matter, composed of particles that do not absorb, reflect, or emit light, so they cannot be detected by observing electromagnetic radiation. The behaviour of these particles defies the known laws of science and can travel at speeds faster than light. Research suggests planets, stars, asteroids, galaxies –physical bodies we can actually see – constitute less than 5% of the total universe. 70% is composed of Dark Energy, whilst the remaining 25% is composed of Dark Matter.

Long before the ancient Greeks laid the foundations of our modern sciences Man developed an occult view of life from his known native ability to transcend the barriers of normal perceptual consciousness. Historically this is largely remembered as a religious belief strengthened and supported by the mystical experience of ‘chosen’ people recorded as saints on the one hand, and magicians, wizards, and witches, on the other. Divisions between the righteously led and the misguided people having ‘evil’ intent.

History is written by people who want to be remembered, whether that be as an observer or as an active mover of events. For the mass of humanity, the day-to-day experience of consciousness is only fragmentarily recorded by historians and their purpose in writing carries a bias which will never accurately record the momentary nature of its development, but it is remembered and brought into our present day by the correspondence of family memories and genetic transfer at birth. It is quite wrong to suggest our physical foundations of life do not receive memory of prior generations. So, a goodly part of our BodyMind is what we inherit -and it plays a large part in shaping our character.

What this means is we are interactive and inter-reactive. Environment is everything.

We can give too much dominance to rationality and refuse to listen to the inner guiding voice -or we can become over polarised the other way and become a victim of the facts of life but what we all cannot stop doing is interacting with one another. No matter how small or large our social and working worlds are we are dependent upon interaction and inter -reaction with others. Limit or take away that ability and the BodyMind is in contention with itself.

The result is not only mental and emotional ‘starvation’, but our physical nature is also affected as well. During the pandemic period of time some have suffered a crisis of faith, not only in long held beliefs, but they have also lost confidence in their abilities -in their talents. Some have suffered depression and resorted to pills to put it right -only to find they don’t. Some have eaten their way into a corner and their clothes don’t fit. Some have found themselves crying and distressing over events they would in normal times not given a second thought too. And the body has lost its rhythm’s and old ‘wounds’ remake their appearance -issues that you would fight against or ignore until they no longer posed a threat, hang about like skeletons on the closet. Not to mention the months and years some are now having to wait to have their health problems fixed.

I’m sorry to sound like a harbinger of doom, but the harsh truth is people have been changed by lockdowns and what happens next isn’t a return to the old ways -it’s a search for a way to manage ongoing, because that history will not go away.

And yet this dark cloud does have a silver lining. We can do better than we previously did for ourselves. Today many people are questioning their way of life -seeking answers.

How well do you sleep? Consider this….

Right before you go to sleep at night, your core temperature begins to drop, which is a signal to the brain to release melatonin. The exact same thing happens on a smaller scale between 2 and 4 in the afternoon. It’s a mini signal to your brain to get sleepy. Often, the 2pm slump stems from a dip in your temperature that naturally occurs in the afternoon. This can trigger the release of melatonin – a hormone associated with relaxation and sleep. According to a 2018 study of more than 10,000 people, the body’s ability to function declines if sleep isn’t in the seven- to eight

You could say that knowing yourself is taking notice of whom you are and for most that will mean ‘looking’ at the self through the thoughts and actions we have.  Some people devote their lives to this analysis in the belief they improve themselves and perhaps others also by the record of effort.  Have you noticed how time and all its attendant reflections of thought cease to matter when we are able to DO the right thing in the right place with the right people for the right purpose?  In the aftermath of such experiences, we are hard put to describe exactly what happened simply because we were living the moment in present consciousness.  

If analysis and reflection is the answer to all our actions, why are we not getting consistently wiser? We don’t -we continue making the same errors as before. The history books tell us how Hitler made a fundamental error attacking Russia, because when less than 200 years earlier Napoleon had clearly demonstrated how it should not be done!  How many times have you said to yourself ‘here we go again!’ or kick yourself for not seeing the obvious… meaning we’ve been here before?

This merry-go-round of error and reminder continues to wind us up because we are not consciously efficient. If you take a modest view of life’s knowing journey you realise soon enough that most of what constitutes knowing comes from the experiences we subjectively develop.  In relationships for example, doing involves many different kinds of experience – self-knowing comes from the big picture, a ‘subjective overview’ which escapes analysis and reflection.  So, what are we experiencing unconsciously which can from time to time be felt in present forms of consciousness?   To answer this question, we need to understand the instinctual nature; the process of being we inherit physically, emotionally, and mentally.

After birth we take food instinctually, our thoughts are not reflective, language is not yet learnt.  As our persona develops we culture the habit of eating -consciously think about what we eat because our sensorial reactions indicate delight, disgust, or disinterest.  The instinctive action of fuelling the body, however, does not change – the effect is so deeply subconscious we are able to engage our consciousness to other matters almost entirely, confident the actions of our body mind are in our best interests. The body and its functions, quite apart from its impressive chemistry, is a remarkable example of inherited knowledge – it’s always in a doing mode… only when the alarm bells ring do we, ‘the masters’, take notice.

Many situations in our lives are ‘managed’ subconsciously.  Housewives will tell you they have routines – some parts are automatic and never brought to present consciousness, other interests can be thought about, as they carry out their routines.  The accounting clerk, familiar with doing arithmetic calculations in the work environment, can finger-tap out statistical solutions whilst the conscious mind is paying attention elsewhere. The machine minder after a period of consciously attentive training, knows the sequence of operations -actions becoming so familiar the conscious mind ceases to prepare for them -it consigns operations to the unconscious, and time awareness alone triggers instinctual conscious acts to stops and starts the regulative actions required of the job in the right order.  Consciously the minder can think about something else- read a book perhaps.  And subsequently acts to service the machine as an interruption to this other activity.  No doubt you can think of activities that you perform that fall into this category of ‘secondary action’.

  These examples serve to show how our consciousness develops and the more we want to do the more we rely upon this ‘reminder’ mentality.  Education as taught in our world means to remember values that can be drawn upon to enrich life’s experience, but clearly it is not a faultless process -if it were mankind could show progression -gains from efforts and the mass of knowledge, harmonise his entire self.

If you were to become the pupil of an Hindu guru, he might in due time give you a mantra to aid development. The mantra, a word or phrase, needed to be intoned during your meditative practice.  The key to mantra usage is REMAIN FULLY CONSCIOUS OF THE MEANINGS IT GIVES YOU. The guru knows when giving the mantra it is a key to PRESENT KNOWLEDGE -if the pupil consigns awareness to the “secondary action” of their mind – the purpose and power of the mantra will not be realised.

The examples of the minder, accounts clerk and housewife show our earth born mind’s work on more than one level -a dichotomy of differences; consciously doing, unconsciously proposing. The example of mantra usage advises the way of instrumental consciousness -living and learning in the flow of consciousness. If you stop and think about it, you will realise states of acute awareness are present when time, place and purpose are consciously experienced in totality. They create harmony in body and mind. We may have moments of acute perception, like in dreams and inspirational thought from time to time -but invariably we retrogressively value them.

Some people think that meditation means looking inward, sorting and ordering consciousness, and some think it means being changed by what they inwardly experience. Observe the child and how we are all drawn to acknowledge the power of its life – the child experiences present consciousness, momentary awareness taking place before our eyes. We can love animals for the very same reason. The path of self-knowing demands present consciousness; it requires developing the instrumental mentality you are born with.  What is senile dementia but the collapse of ‘reminder’ consciousness and a reversion to child mentality?  Present consciousness is forever doing, changing, non-judgemental and expressive of harmonising actions. Consider the esoteric meaning of the Narcissus myth – this beautiful young man is arrested by his reflection in a pool and thereafter remains a prisoner of his own image. The message is simple; if you look at and admire the reflection of conscious Self, the evolutionary actions of the entire Self are blocked.

So, the points to remember are these:

1. Evolutionary consciousness is a state of awareness ‘outwardly’ born and varies with individuals according to their state of awakening.
2. Nothing (essentially) is new, there is no forgetting real values – we awake to what is present.
3. Consciousness evolves harmonically by outworking the change of awareness through our conscious being.

What we need to do is this:

1. Practise being PRESENT as the child is, truly aware of every moment.
2. BE what you DO as often as you can.
3. Give everything your complete attention, don’t let time-based conditions control.
4. Meditate on this awareness is not perception mantra. Awareness is – Perception was.

Our consciousness as we truly KNOW it, is extremely limited, not only do we remember little; our present consciousness is but a small part of the entire Self.  The DEPTH of what we consciously experience is largely unknown.  All control is based on self-awareness.  The first and last commandment of life is….. “KNOW YOURSELF”, said to have been inscribed above the gates of the Delphic Oracle.

Having said the immune system is not only a physical entity but has a mental and emotional counterpart which is always part of the health solutions we seek. The premise to achieve good health is ‘as above so below’. This saying is a popular modern paraphrase of the second verse of the Emerald Tablet, a compact and cryptic Hermetic text attributed to the legendary Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus.

Another way of describing this premise is by the principle of correspondence -not I hasten to add as scientists do, having a selective meaning in quantum mechanics, rather in the day-to-day common-sense appreciation of its meaning. Like unto.

In health terms if we say we feel good, we mean some kind of balance is being experienced between our mind and body. It isn’t saying everything is hunky dory -indeed we might be in the process of suffering illness or injury or struggling to emerge from some dark place emotionally and mentally. What it is saying is the balance of health is tipping in the right direction. Like unto. The change driver can be mental, emotional, or physical.

And when the inner nature of our energetic BodyMind posits itself as the change driver extraordinary things can happen. Reports of Yogis who have lived hundreds of years are too numerous to be dismissed. Feats of endurance and death-defying conquests overcoming impossible odds are reoccurring patterns in recorded history. And in daily life our admiration extends to neighbours and friends who have stoically extended their active lives by refusing to accept prognosis of terminal illnesses.

In some circumstances the change driver be activated by the physical form of the BodyMind.

Here are a few examples. Two people have a body-blending sexual union and in the aftermath they feel mentally and physically wonderful -indeed they might also say they feel spiritually united. A person addicted to a stimulant of some kind will say they feel good on experiencing its effects. A pain sufferer who has a high threshold of resistance will say they are coping okay without pain relieving medication. People taking drugs to combat illness can say they feel better when the drugs kick in and stabilise their condition.

These examples show the ‘feel good’ factor is temporary and dependent upon repeating or maintaining the physically induced ‘inputs’. Now -look at the same examples which can have a negative mental and emotional outcome.

When the body-blending sexual union is driven by desire to relieve mental and emotional frustration -the result is exhaustion, a kind of peace which temporarily drives concerns ‘out of the window’. It does nothing to enhance mind and body union. When the stimulants addicts take wears off, they are back where they started, the harmony they experienced is absent. The person who is able to resist extreme pain without medication not only suffers tiredness from the effort, but they can also lose function physically by the resistance they manifest. People dependant on drug medication to overcome illness not only alter the natural chemistry of the body -they affect the ‘chemistry’ of their mind.

It is said we are what we eat. Some 60 chemical elements are found in the physical body, but what all of them are doing there is still unknown. Roughly 96 percent of the mass is made up of just four elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, with a lot of that in the form of water. The remaining 4 percent is a sparse sampling of the periodic table of elements.

It is generally agreed we can ‘engineer’ the mind to control adverse physical responses, as we also admit damage control is rarely permanent. By the same token we acknowledge uncontrolled emotion can injure ourselves. Only when we treat the physical body with the respect it deserves are we able to achieve healthy balance of the BodyMind.

The physical body manifests an intelligence on its own account -we can be aware of this by changes in the mental and emotional feelings experienced. Although we most often only acknowledge this intelligence after the fact, there is an awareness, sometimes described as ‘gut reaction’ forewarning of change. Before you think of dismissing this statement soberly remind yourself we have been physically evolving for tens of thousands of years, and analysis shows we are hybrids -having genetic roots arising from other biped, quadruped, and other ovoviviparous species. You only have to look at the functions of these other species present in our modern-day world to realise they express an instinctual intelligence which governs and guides their form of life.

Man is also instinctually intelligent, however, in the course of evolution we have programmed our brain minds to behave rationally -or to put it in simple English; to think, amass, and recall thought. And we conceitedly describe ourselves as self-aware beings, distinctly different and more evolved than any other form of earthly life.

Self-healing can only be lastingly achieved when both minds, above and below, are treated in tandem. To do that we need to re-install and develop instrumental consciousness -learn from the world of nature how that is done.

Regular Physical Activity: any aerobic activity, like walking, jogging, swimming, biking, are great ways to recreate the ‘flight’ outlet and burn-up cortisol.  Just be aware if you walk or jog on hard surfaces, such as pavements, ensure footwear is good enough to absorb the impact of treading, otherwise you could be doing more harm than good! A little bit of cardio goes a long way! 20-30 minutes of activity most days of the week pays huge dividends by lowering cortisol every day and over time your BodyMind will come to expect and welcome it. Fear increases cortisol. Regular physical activity will decrease fear by increasing your self-confidence, resilience, and fortitude. Yoga and Tai Chi will have similar benefits.

If you can’t do something of this nature –you have a lifestyle issue that is biased to creating health problems!

Any type of meditation will reduce anxiety and lower cortisol levels. Simply taking a few deep breaths engages the Vagus nerve which triggers a signal within your nervous system to slow heart rate, lower blood pressure and decrease cortisol. The next time you feel yourself in a stressful situation activating your ‘Fight-or-Flight’ response take 10 deep breaths and feel your entire body relax and decompress. Setting aside 10-15 minutes to practice a mindfulness form of meditation will fortify a sense of calm throughout your nervous system, mind, and brain.

There are many different types of meditation but basically there are two kinds: one will calm and order the BodyMind system, and the other form focuses on something else besides you.

An example of type 1:  put on some meditation music and sit in an upright chair ensuring your thighs are level with the floor and your feet flat on the floor, arms on lap with palms of the hands open and facing upward.  Avoid (if you physically can) leaning on the back of the chair. Breathe quietly to achieve a regular pattern, not thinking but listening to the sound of breath. Try to keep your eyes open. As relaxation increases your breathing will slow down. When it is slow, mentally repeat a chosen word or combination of words that have meaning and significance related to the spiritual world –like a rosary meditation. Stay alert –don’t allow yourself to drift off.

Another type 1 expression is using a self-guided meditation conducted from a CD or connected with the internet, which can take you on a journey through the chakras. You can connect to one here. Another choice is to listen to music specially composed to correspond with brain wave patterns that deepen your responses.

Type 2 engages you as a giver to others in need. This service action has the added benefit of stimulating the creative nature and promoting feelings of self-worth. Make a list of people and pets who are currently having health problems. Conduct the type 1 meditation and when the breathing has slowed right down -instead of an affirmation of spiritual value visualise the colours of blue or purple and yellow or gold on the outward breath whilst intoning the names of your patients on the inward breath. 15-20 minutes should suffice to achieve a lasting value, and you may yet be bettered if you get positive feedback from one of your patients.

With this kind of meditation -once finished it’s important to completely change your mind’s focus, preferably by doing something physically active.

Another way of combating stress is to eat and drink the right foods. In our day and age, the majority of people are unable to grow vegetables, fruits, and rear animals. Living close to nature develops awareness of how to be selective and the qualitive nature of what and when to eat.  When you next shop beware of cheap meat cuts and never buy food which cannot be consumed before its end date and avoid E additives in foods.  We can never be entirely sure of the nutrient quality of purchases, so, consider taking supplements to maintain the vitamin and mineral balance of the body.

Having said that there are some root vegetables very beneficial to health. For example, garlic. It helps boost your immune system, can lower blood pressure, and reduce cholesterol levels. It’s good for the brain, has antibiotic properties and generally assist fitness.  Other vegetables to consider are spinach, carrots, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, and green peas.

Eat plenty of fibre foods, e.g., nuts, brown rice, baked beans, raw or lightly cooked vegetables, bran & wheat cereals, porridge & bananas. Drink lots of fluids, water mostly & herbal teas How you eat is important –as they say in Yoga “drink your food and eat your drinks”.

If you are suffering from stress how much and when you eat can have a telling effect on either increasing or decreasing stress. As a general rule don’t overeat, if you do the work the body has to do to assimilate will slow down your responses -may even make you sleepy. This is also true if you if you eat too much sugary food. Too much caffeine will stress as will alcohol -avoid it if you can. Do your best not to eat after 7 p.m. The later you eat the more it puts the body’s natural charging and resting cycles out of balance.

Too much stress degrades your immune system and be the root cause of ill health. Lifestyle will always feature as a cause for damaging stress. You may not live in a  concrete jungle but you will always be influenced by business life, even if you are only a user. The digital nature of our age also means we are constantly bombarded with electromagnetic waves from computers and phones and messages of demand and invitation. By getting close to natural environments, bathing your mind in their sounds; birds, trees and fauna, the rhythms of your body and mind will slow down and reassert their natural charge and rest cycles.

At home stress can be relieved by ordering and tuning up room spaces. Declutter all your rooms. Items you don’t like or have no current use should be removed. If what you have needs organising -do it, that will make you feel better. If you have rooms with windows the early part of the day is better spent in a room that faces east. Likewise, a room facing west is a good room to use at the close of day. Mirrors can invite energy into a space, especially near a window or front door. A strategically placed mirror can reflect the view of an element that is seen through a window into a room.

Lastly, since we spend upwards of a third of our lives asleep, how your bed is placed can have a telling effect on how your BodyMind system can interact with the natural forces which affect our wellbeing. According to ancient Hindus, the right direction of the bedroom should be the south-west corner of the house. The ideal bed direction is with the head towards the south or east so that the legs are towards north or west direction while sleeping.

The root to all forms of consciousness is Breath. Dictionary definitions are not helpful, they only refer to air taken in and expelled from the lungs or given the appellation of life force. Breath is not only a function of forces in lung bearing creatures -it’s a function of forces in all forms of life -yes I did say that -all forms of life! So, what is happening for example in a plant or a mineral? It’s the same process that happens in you. A movement of energy takes place when we breathe causing a reaction of energy movement in the bloodstream and lungs, a resurgence in our chemical composition. What follows is a movement of energy that accounts for the energy reaction initially made -in humans we breathe out carbon dioxide. Ultimately we know breathing keeps us alive, directly, and indirectly causing the continuation of life in every cell of our body. A plant and a mineral have the same function -the difference is they don’t breathe air as we do, they breathe in terms of energy, seen and unseen. Oh, and by the way, so DO we, but we consciously don’t know it.

We tend to view breath only as an intake of need, whereas the movement of energy is a causative process that operates from without to within and vice-versa. The efficiency of that process is determined by the composite body of energy we can call the Self. Plants and minerals do this very efficiently, but like everything else life is qualitative, in accordance with its design, a measure of what it takes to change and evolve. You can say the same about animals -but NO you can’t say that about us humans! We are very poor processors. When we breathe wrongly the nervous system maintains a level of unnecessary unwanted stress. As a result, we get ill from internal mismanagement and shorten our lives. If we correctly breathe our health, both physically and mentally, is much better.

This is how to breathe correctly.

Breathe in and out of the gut -that’s what babies naturally do. First the gut swells on the inward breath(not just the stomach, the intestinal area also), then the chest swells before releasing the breath. It’s a rolling action. Try it. No surprise if you don’t get to do it first time. Because we overstress or retain unwanted stress we tend to be chest breathers. Observe animals -they do it naturally. Now -why is that so hard to do? I mean how do you keep it up -do it all the time? You may notice even as you are reading this your thought processes are reacting, whether supportive of this guidance or not, the result of thinking will move the centre of breath intake and expression upward toward the chest. Two things are happening here when you are in thinking mode. The brain in your head in particular the cerebrum, is biased to produce alpha rhythms, i.e., the inward management of thought processes. When this is happening the brain in your gut (oh yes -there is a brain in your gut!) is being suppressed. You probably know the brain in your head represents the largest part of your central nervous system, and the brain stem is regarded by science as the lowest most primitive part of the CNS -it controls basic survival functions such as heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, digestion, taste, hearing, and sight. The stimulus for these functions comes from the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system. The instinctual mind centre is in the gut from where our breath naturally cycles -if we allow it to operate as our body design intended we maintain good physical and mental health.

The way you breathe directly affects the function of the brain in the head!

Naturally, the breath cycle is a wave like motion -now you may fine tune it by time measures of inward, still, and outward breath, but that’s not essential to get the balance right between the brain in your head and the instinctual brain of the body. When you initially practise wave breathing from the gut you will complain it doesn’t allow you to think -so sitting or standing still is not the right way to get the function back -the right way to re-introduce it, is to walk. When you walk your senses must remain alert for obvious reasons -your thoughts will be focussed on getting from A to B. Just one other thing to do -you need to walk in a balanced way, i.e., with your weight centred between the ball and the heel. If you revert to thinking on other things, or you might say ‘unconsciously walking’, the body balance will shift to your heel, if you are in a hurry and your thoughts are biased to future expectations, their expressions become shortened and pithy in character, and the body balance will shift forward to the ball of the foot.

Check it out. Give it a try!

Don’t expect perfection. It’s not possible in today’s information pressured world to get this forever right 24-7, but the more and longer you persist in this practise -the better the benefits. The brain in your head becomes more like a processor, which is what it was designed to be, and less like a storage if information with access to alternative solutions. Your energy levels will improve because food requirements will be less governed by appetite as they are now more instinctually managed, and dare I say it, you may even look younger as your health improves!

There is much more to breathing than expelling and intaking air. I daresay you are respectful of people who practise yoga and in particular Pranayama -yogic breathing, which has the purpose of purifying the energy channels in the body, relaxing the nervous system, and strengthening the body, mind, and emotional immunity.

There are three stages of Pranayama as instructed in the Yoga Sutras. Inhalation (Puraka), retention or suspension of the breath (Kumbhaka), and exhalation (Rechaka). Usually practised by one nostril at a time, though it can be practised using both nostrils simultaneously by partially contracting the glottis. The time periods of these stages can be varied to increase the benefits of practise.

Breathing in this manner is usually carried out sitting in a lotus posture, or in movements designed to increase and project BodyMind awareness. And you must be consciously controlling these actions. For sure you can’t properly practise them when you are half asleep after waking, or thumping the pavements on the way to work, driving, or threading your way through crowds in a busy shopping arcade.

But breathe you must -right?

We can’t help ourselves, we do it unconsciously most of time. Now -how would you like to gain the benefits the yogic sutras speak of on a day-to-day, moment-to-moment basis in a way that doesn’t require you to stop the daily rush of life?

Here’s how -but first you need to know what the function of breath is all about. It begins in the womb of your mother as a pulse activating and developing every part of the BodyMind. It’s a primal function which corresponds to the natural Earthen world our matter and mind is made from -and of course, it is also influenced by your mother’s BodyMind, which whilst it instinctively blends with the natural order of development can also influence the character you create of yourself. When you are born and start breathing a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water, you are immediately connected and influenced by the outside world environment that ultimately govern your perceptive nature. The harmony experienced in the womb is lost and the instinct of survival is born. The uniqueness of your individual self has one overriding purpose -the restoration of harmony.

Easier said than done, eh?

In fact, common knowledge would say it’s impossible. The best we can hope for are periods of relative calm, moments of unity, and the retrospective awareness of harmony, which only goes to show we don’t live consciously aware of our actions.

The ancient masters knew this was our common lot and sought ways in which the primal function of breath could be restored to influence and harmonise our perceptive world. They discovered sound and colour are interrelated and the breath we unconsciously enable encompasses a wide range of frequencies. The higher the frequency the less form/time condition the breath has -the more colour, shape, and movement it experiences. You’ve read about yogis who allowed themselves to be buried alive, and dug up none the worse, days later -yes?

What they were doing were breathing internally -not only a physically able function, but they also invoked the Vach.

The Vach is best described in common English as the sound within the sound -in other words they raised the frequency of breathing until its time/form expression was practically stationary. In today’s world we acknowledge there is a synthesis between sound and colour -we call it Chromesthesia in which sound involuntarily evokes an experience of colour, shape, and movement.

Relax! I’m not suggesting a practise that requires you to dig a hole in your garden, bury yourself, to experience harmony.

What I am suggesting is this – for breathing to provide benefits you must take notice of what the three actions of breath do. Make the unconscious conscious.

Allow me to explain how you can make that happen.

Initially take notice of how your breathing operates. It has three parts, in-pause-out. Depending on how you are exerting yourself and/or emotionally and mentally focussed on something, the three parts of breath will vary in their time signature. The more you are mentally and emotionally maintaining a focus on something the inward breath will be shorter than the outward breath and the pause will hardly be noticed. You may even find that is happening as you re-read what I’m writing you about -it’s a sign of heightening stress. If you are physically exerting yourself the inward and expelled breath will be longer, and unless you are puffing from the activity, will find the middle pausing breath will be longer. When you stop doing the activity the middle breath will lengthen, the intaking breath will shorten before the outer breath does.

What this tells us is this -shortened inward breathing stresses the mind, which in turn incapacitates the body. Longer inward breathing which can come from exercising or physically working an activity naturally ceases when the body demands rest. If you work yourself up mentally and emotionally during the activity the benefit the body naturally manages is lost -because it’s being ‘told’ how to behave.

The breath ‘key’ is the middle or pausing part -if we can manage that the entire BodyMind benefits.

Earlier in this piece I told you what air is chemically -your lungs are never completely devoid of air comprising majorly of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water. When we exhale, the outward breath composition contains more carbon dioxide and less oxygen. If you are unduly stressing the volume of oxygen ingested (the energy giver) is lessened, which has a domino-like effect causing the unnecessary stress to become resident. The middle breath loses its managing role, benefits are reduced, and problems arise.

Stress is a necessary part of our energy making capability -essential to the well-being of our entire BodyMind -undue stress is the No.1 causal killer!

Every type of illness, however it may be defined to have arisen develops from undue stress -and the ‘key’ that prevents reminds you of its presence 24-7. Get your breathing right, or in the very least make it more efficient than it currently is, and your health overall will improve.

In this world where birth right freedoms are being suppressed by actions intended to defeat viral infections nothing is more important than your health. If you breathe right the immune system will continue to strengthen -even in the over 60’s where science tells us it begins naturally to weaken.

It’s not difficult -you don’t have to be brainy -you just need to modify your habits!

Here is a listing of the kind of foods you can eat and supplements you can take that will strengthen the immune system. Just a few words of caution before deciding on what you want to mix and match and go to town on. If your doctor or consultant have advised a medical treatment programme you should consult them before taking supplements or radically changing your diet. To know if the immune system is functioning as it should then daily you should have a movement of the bowels and otherwise urinate with ease. If you are in physical discomfort prior to bed or have headaches on waking -these also are signs that the immune system is struggling to function efficiently. These words of caution are to account for the simple fact that sometimes we eat at the wrong times or otherwise have a sensitivity to some foods and supplements.

 Your immune system has many integral parts. For example, lymphoid organs release white blood cells called lymphocytes that help regulate the immune system. This response causes inflammation, similar to how your body produces a scab and swells up if you scrape your arm. Generally, this response is acute or short-lived and your immune system returns to normal. However, prolonged inflammation can impact your health and make it difficult for your body to defend against common illnesses.

 Where does food come into play? You need vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to keep your body in peak form. You can cause harm to your immune system with poor diet choices — refined sugars, refined carbohydrates, processed and packaged foods, and certain fats (especially trans-fat; Artificial trans-fats are created during hydrogenation, which converts liquid vegetable oils into semi-solid partially hydrogenated oil and can cause inflammation -and some can be found naturally in meat and dairy.

 These foods can trigger the C-reactive protein (CRP), which alerts your body to an inflammatory threat. Many processed and refined foods are also low or void of important vitamins and minerals. Diets low in iron or vitamins A, C and D could lead to decreased production in white blood cells. As a general rule of thumb, natural anti-inflammatories can help keep inflammation in check and limit symptoms when you’re ill. Antioxidants protect you from free radicals and can also repair cells and tissues that become damaged during an inflammatory response.

 As a general guide you should strive for 50% fruits and vegetables, 25% whole grains and 25% lean meats and proteins.

 Here are some food groups to choose from:

 Fruits and vegetables:

Leafy greens (lettuce, kale, spinach)

Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower)

Tomatoes

Apples

Citrus fruits (grapefruit and oranges)

Berries (blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries)

 Whole grains:

Whole wheat, Barley, Oats, Brown rice

 Lean meats and proteins:

Seafood, Poultry, Beans (legumes, lentils, and peas), Nuts (almonds and walnuts)

 Cooking oils

It can be quite difficult determining what’s best to buy, given you could have health concerns. The heart association experts suggest the following cooking oils meet its health standards: canola, corn, olive, peanut, safflower, and sunflower, as well as specialty oils like avocado, grapeseed and sesame. What is the best cooking oil to lower cholesterol? Oils like corn, olive, and peanut oils contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. They help to lower harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and raise healthy high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.

 Nutrition and cooking experts agree that one of the most versatile and healthy oils to cook with and eat is olive oil, as long as it’s extra virgin. An “extra virgin” label means that the olive oil is not refined, and therefore of high quality.

 The healthiest oils are those that are high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, such as vegetable oil and olive oil. These types of fats can help lower your risk of heart disease when used instead of saturated fats.

Olive, canola and safflower oils are healthier choices overall than butter and most margarines. Use them as replacements for butter and margarine in most of your cooking but watch the amounts – those fat calories can add up fast.

 If you are looking for a diet to lose weight, you must pick a cooking oil that has the least amount of saturated fat in it. Coconut and canola oils are your best bets.

 Here are more examples of ways you can boost your immunity through your diet.

 Garlic is a building block for many food dishes, but did you know it has health benefits? Garlic releases allicin when impacted by some sort of friction, such as chopping or chewing. This sulfuric compound has antioxidant properties that can help protect your cells and produce more white blood cells. Ginger is similar to garlic in that it isn’t a primary food, but its addition to meals or drinks can give your immune system a boost to fight infections. The use of ginger for medicinal purposes dates back thousands of years. When you’re not cooking with ginger, try adding it to your tea.

 Prebiotics and probiotics.

 Gut health is key to the microbiome diet. Probiotics and prebiotics help replace the good bacteria your body loses when fighting infections. Think of probiotics as live bacteria that help your digestive system, while prebiotics are dietary fibres that provide food for probiotics. Greek yogurt and other fermented foods have high levels of probiotics. You can also find probiotics in sauerkraut, kefir and kombucha. Many common high-fibre foods, such as apples (leave the skin on), bananas and beans, contain prebiotics.

 Vitamin C is an important antioxidant that can help control infections by increasing white blood cell production. Oranges, lemons and grapefruits are popular sources of vitamin C. It may come as a surprise to know they’re present in vegetables, too. Feel free to load up your plate with bell peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower.

You won’t find vitamin D present in as many foods, but it still can help with immune health by reducing inflammation. Your best bet is fatty fish such as salmon, tuna or mackerel. Many commercial milk products have vitamin D added, and cheese, mushrooms and egg yolks contain small amounts of vitamin D. Your skin also absorbs vitamin D from the sunlight, so take advantage of the warmer temperatures outside.

 Supplementing your diet

Your supermarket is likely to have hundreds of supplements that claim to work wonders for the immune system. These supplements can help you if you have a deficiency, but natural foods remain the best way to absorb key vitamins and minerals. Vitamin D supplements remain popular because it’s harder to get your daily amount through food. You can take anywhere from 600 to 800 International Units of vitamin D. Anything more than that can likely cause harm.

 Immune-boosting teas

Teas have been popular for thousands of years, primarily for their health benefits. Our guide on the basics of tea provides a refresher on the types of tea and their uses. All forms of tea come from the Camellia sinensis plant. This plant has polyphenols, which are micronutrients that can boost the immune system, improve heart health, and lower cholesterol. Green tea is especially good but nonetheless if you like black teas -they help too. Many herbal teas are helpful, some in particular aid a good night sleep.

The article ‘Eat your way to good health’ was all about eating -eating the right stuff! In this article I’m focussing on how to lose weight without taking on a special diet. Some people put on weight quickly, generally that’s associated with lifestyles which relegate eating to a ‘must have when I can’ or encourages comfort eating to make you feel relaxed and happy.

Getting back to your ideal weight not only makes you feel better in yourself mentally and emotionally -it means the body works more efficiently and your immune system is strengthened. If your Body Mass Index (BMI), the measure of your weight compared to your height is within the healthy weight range (18.5kg/m² – 24.9kg/m²) then you will be a practitioner of some advice I offer here. How can you calculate your BMI? Go on- line -access Google BMI calculator and get the good or not so good news!

Assuming you need to shed some weight the first thing to do is get the right amount of sleep.

Ideally this is between 7 and 8 hours nightly, however, some people’s lifestyles have to do with less, either because of work schedules, or because of health reasons. If you don’t get the required sleep nightly -then the solution is to catnap. After eating is the best time for catnapping because the heaviness of food in your gut will slow down your energy release rate and quieten brain activity. Beneficial catnaps are anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes. If you are not a catnapper already just sit quietly for 10 to 20 minutes after eating -the energy release rate will slow down, and you will find you can nod off for a while. When the body is stressed by pushing yourself to be active whilst it’s trying to digest and turn food and drink into active energy you will put on weight. In effect the body is saying I can’t transform that food into useable energy at present, so I’ll store it. What you don’t utilise goes to fat.

The next thing to do is drink plenty -the more you drink the more your appetite will lessen.

Don’t over stimulate the body with teas and coffees -and needless to say,  or with alcohol. It doesn’t mean you can’t have any -just don’t overdo it.  Best to drink plenty of plain water, or fruit juices, or herbal teas. By drinking plenty you improve and speed the digestive processes and believe it or not drinking plenty will help regulate the optimal bio rhymical efficiency of all your organs.

We can also lose weight without eating less -you don’t have to drastically cut calories to lose weight.

Simply focusing on healthier choices can lead to a decrease in weight provided those choices meet the necessary criteria. You do this by focussing on nutrient dense options rather than eating less food. By choosing higher nutritional quality foods, you will be more likely to stay full without feeling famished, and by default, you may be eating less calories because of the power of satiety, rather than snacking throughout the entire day. The more you think about weight loss and dieting, the more you want to eat. It’s ultra-important not to skimp out on your daily caloric requirements and what suggest doesn’t do that -mostly we absorb too many calories by not eating the right foods. And mentally you need to focus on the intention to lose weight (and keep it off), by switching your mindset from one of deprivation to one of high-quality foods. Not sure how to get started?

Here are four more ways to lose weight without eating less.

1. Chew your food thoroughly and slow down the rate of eating. And most importantly consciously focus on what you are eating and drinking -that means not getting distracted by TV or radio. Switch your phone off. Don’t indulge in conversation whilst eating. Make this a habit and you will lose weight.
2. Smaller food portions. If you follow the advice on point 1 you will be pleasantly surprised to notice how your appetite is satisfied. Always tell yourself you can get more food if it is required. If you heap the plate (I must not waste the food I’ve cooked) then you will feel obliged to eat it all -and on goes the weight!
3. Eat plenty of protein. Chicken and Turkey (avoid factory farmed birds if you can), lean beef, Loin of Pork, Liver, and black beans, soybeans, and legumes, low fat milk, plain yogurt, Salmon, Tuna, and Tofu. Cottage cheese, and eggs.
4. Fill up with Fibre.
   Food high in fibre, such as raspberries, Brussel sprouts, nuts and seeds, avocados, apples, dried fruits, potatoes, brown rice, or black beans. Whatever you do, don’t overcook the rice, potatoes and sprouts!
   Eating fibre-rich foods may increase satiety, helping you feel fuller for longer.
5. Eat Breakfast! Why? When the sun is rising the body metabolises food much more quickly and efficiently than when the sun is sinking. It also means you are less inclined to overeat during the day and evening.

As mentioned last week, Garlic is a building block for many food dishes, and Ginger is similar to garlic in that it isn’t a primary food, but its addition to meals or drinks can give your immune system a boost to fight infections. Prebiotics and probiotics. Gut health is key to the microbiome diet. Probiotics and prebiotics help replace the good bacteria your body loses when fighting infections. Think of probiotics as live bacteria that help your digestive system, while prebiotics are dietary fibres that provide food for probiotics. Greek yogurt and other fermented foods have high levels of probiotics. You can also find probiotics in sauerkraut, kefir and kombucha. Many common high-fibre foods, such as apples (leave the skin on), bananas and beans, contain prebiotics.

Vitamin C is an important antioxidant that can help control infections by increasing white blood cell production. Oranges, lemons and grapefruits are popular sources of vitamin C. It may come as a surprise to know they’re present in vegetables, too. Feel free to load up your plate with bell peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower.

You won’t find vitamin D present in as many foods, but it still can help with immune health by reducing inflammation. Your best bet is fatty fish such as salmon, tuna or mackerel. Many commercial milk products have vitamin D added, and cheese, mushrooms and egg yolks contain small amounts of vitamin D. Your skin also absorbs vitamin D from the sunlight, so take advantage of the warmer temperatures outside.

Immune-boosting teas

Teas have been popular for thousands of years, primarily for their health benefits. Our guide on the basics of tea provides a refresher on the types of tea and their uses. All forms of tea come from the Camellia sinensis plant. This plant has polyphenols, which are micronutrients that can boost the immune system, improve heart health, and lower cholesterol. Green tea is especially good but nonetheless if you like black teas -they help too.

I know, I hear what you say, smartphones, tablets, and computers are essential. In our present world of restricted social and work interaction these devices especially the mobile phone has become a lifeline; a means of staying in touch with loved ones we cannot see, to shop, manage the business of making a living, monitor and make decisions on how we spend -but it’s more than that, isn’t it? It’s a comfort -if you leave the house without it, you are not dressed right, or if it’s mislaid, everything stops until you find it. We may not like to admit it, but we are addicted to these things. And for many social media is a mental and emotional environment that begins before breakfast and doesn’t cease until they fall asleep -for them it has become a compulsion -without it, they don’t feel connected, feel unwanted, unappreciated, lacking purpose.  That innocent looking wad of metal and plastic in your pocket or handbag can ruin real-life relationships, suppress the ability to be conscious of real time, change the nature of your BodyMind energies, fill the heads with useless information, and determine what you should do next.

 We don’t initiate -we react. A Brave New World scenario where the elite govern by suggestion, where freedom of choice is the mantra of power, refusal is not smart, and people without phones and computers are ‘hidden’.

         IT gurus hire people they call attention engineers. Experts in usage statistics from which they develop advertising strategies and give birth to new applications designed in such a way people stay connected for longer. Whenever we upload a picture or update our status on social media, we wait to see how many people will like the picture. How much like has gone to us? How many social shares and comments our post has got. According to research, when you use a cell phone, a chemical continuously discharges from your brain, which is called “Dopamine”. This Hormone is called the “Feel Good Hormone”. According to studies, this hormone is released if you drink or smoke. It means we can be as addicted to our cell phones or a soap on TV as we can be slave to drugs. There are restrictions over the usage of drugs and cost alone can limit how much you drink or smoke, but cell phones, computers and TV’s are made easy to buy and there are few restrictions on usage. Whenever we feel uneasy or lonely, more often than not, we think about using our cell phone, tablet, laptop, or switching on the TV.

         And how often do some people represent themselves on social and business media not as they are -instead how they would like to be known? You know it happens a lot, so in turn you become cautious on how you represent yourself to them. They fake you and you fake them. Not good is it?    It is a fact that the way some people represent themselves on social media are not honestly portraying themselves and as much as they appear to have it ‘all together’ many in real life have a plethora of problems they cannot solve.  

         Stress, anxiety and depression are the outcomes of reactive fake lifestyles. We are constantly being addressed by the media 24-7, even when we are asleep, so to speak ‘dead to the world’, the subconscious mind is mulling over concerns and needs, and though you might not realise it also open to ultra-high frequencies that propagate like to like communications and can enhance issues of concern. So, how do you deal with it?

         To start with we must accept that the world of IT is here to stay -the need of phones, computers and TV’s won’t go away. What we must do is reduce the level of reactiveness in our lives and regain our true identities. The way to do that is to uniquely create -it can be as simple as doing something with your hands, making, repairing, gardening -even cleaning. Any activity requiring focus and attention which provides a pleasing result. It can be artistic if you are so minded, and if you’re not, crafting is a capability open to all -again simple does the trick to achieve as well as a skilled person who gets results. And if you can’t engage in a practical way -give a service to another person. The act of doing that is even more creative than the self-satisfying outcome from doing something for yourself.

Why creative -and why would I call it a game-changer?

        Before you had the ability to speak and interact consciously with the world you had a very clear idea of what made you happy. Consciously as a small child that was comfort from eating, sleeping, and knowing you were cared for -feelings that arose from the instinctual urge to live. That urge is a maker, a creator born of a higher Self. When we get older and ‘put away childish things’, see in a mirror darkly, know only in part, we forget who we in essence are, and take comforts to assuage anxieties. Giving rebirth to your creative nature is the road to regaining your true identity -love of oneself.

And that makes you aware of your life’s purpose.