MZD - Ep 94 Cultivating Health

MZD Podcast – Ep 94

 

Welcome to the Mountain!

Well how are you feeling today?

Are you the picture of health you always dreamed you would be?

Today we’re going to talk about cultivating one of the most important aspects of your being – Your Health.

Our bodies are tied into our entire being and affect not only the way we feel, but our mind and the way we see the world and interact with everyone around us… that is, our relationships.

Have you ever been “hangry”? Then you know what I mean! You’re not necessarily mad at the world or angry at the people around you. You’re just hungry with low blood sugar and it’s affecting your mood at that very moment. For Pete’s sake, (everyone else’s around you), eat something!

Not only are our minds and emotions and relationships affected by our health, but our spiritual well-being is as well.

You see, we cannot divide ourselves into fragments of being – saying things like, “Well, we are Spiritual beings, so the Spirit is the only thing that matters!” or, “The Mind is the most important thing, because without thought, there is no being”, or, “No, only the body matters because when the body dies, you die”. The truth is, we are all of those things, Body, Mind and Spirit, and the well-being of each affects the other.

Alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra tells us in his book, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind,

 

“The biochemistry of the body is a product of awareness. Beliefs, thoughts, and emotions create the chemical reactions that uphold life in every cell. An aging cell is the end product of awareness that has forgotten how to remain new.”

 

But how do we remain new? It’s a question posed daily, coming at us from every angle through ads and promotions offering anti-aging products, promising that if you buy this or try that, you will look younger, feel better, be sexier, and on and on.

Books and magazines and TV show and movies glorify youth and beauty, jumping to the superficial rewards of taking care of yourself; things like glamour and popularity, sex-appeal and even fame, while apparently ignoring the underlying importance of health, well-being and longevity.

So back to the question. How do we “remain new”?

This is a very deep and involved subject that has been studied and written about in many articles, books and journals filled with hundreds of thousands of pages of research, tests and observations, breaking down the biology of the human body and how it ages, and what it needs for optimum health and performance.

I know this is going to sound obvious or over-simplified, but in a nutshell, the answer is simply to live a healthy life. Our bodies were created to regenerate billions of new cells daily, and have been doing it since the day we were born.

We know how to, we have simply forgotten that the way to cultivate health is to simply live by health principles. And don’t lie to yourself, you KNOW how to do it.

Let’s dumb it down into seven simple steps:

Simply put, get plenty of sleep, eat healthfully, drink plenty of water, abstain from unhealthy ingredients and activities, and exercise regularly. And the two we are primarily here for today, Daily Meditation with Time Spent in Nature.

More specifically, here’s a quick bullet-point checklist with a few pointers:

• Sleep – 7 to 8 hours a night. Keep in mind that the hours before midnight are typically the most productive in healing and body repair. Ad avoid erratic sleep times and hours.

 

• Diet – Make it your aim to be a Nutritarian. This means you eat for nutrition, not just flavor, or what seems healthier than just “the bad stuff”. Stay away from processed foods. A quick list of the good stuff might include Greens – Broccoli, Kale, Spinach, Bok Choy and other leafy greens. Fruits like bananas, oranges and lemons pineapple and grapefruit. Berries, like blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and cherries. Eat Onions, Mushrooms, Beans and Seeds like Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Flax Seeds and Chia Seeds.

Daily portions of each of these categories are known sources of full nutrition for a healthy body. And don’t forget healthy fats like avocados and nuts, especially walnuts, almonds and pecans. While I really enjoy eggs for breakfast, I replace cow’s milk with almond milk and non-fat, plain yogurt with berries or bananas and cinnamon. Other favorites include oatmeal and quinoa. And remember yogurt is a great source of healthy bacteria important for gut health.

Now I’m no doctor or health expert, and this is not a comprehensive list, but it’s a great place to start the next time you’re at the grocery store. By the way, don’t forget your vitamins and minerals and things like ginger, turmeric and fish oil.

A great book Melissa and I would recommend is Eat Smarter by Stevenson Shawn, where he teaches how to use the power of food to reboot your metabolism, upgrade your brain and transform your life. A wonderful place to start in educating yourself in nutritional health. Another favorite of ours is the website Simple Green Smoothies with Jen Hansard, offering plant-based recipes and ideas for delicious smoothies. Yum!

 

• Drink plenty of water. 64 ounces, or 8 tall glasses a day is recommended. First thing in the morning when I wake up, I like to bath my inner body with a tall glass of water, chased by another half cup of water filled with 3 or 4 splashes of Organic, Raw, Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar. The kind with the “Mother” included which contains strands of proteins, enzymes, and friendly bacteria.  It may take a bit getting used to the taste, but it’s a great way to lower your blood sugar in the morning, setting the tone for developing a hunger for only healthy foods at the start of the day.

 

• Stay away from things you know are bad for you – tobacco, drugs, excessive alcohol, sugar and processed foods, AND destructive, negative thoughts and behaviors.

 

• Simply put 10,000 steps per day, along with get-your-heart-pumping cardio 3 to 5 times per week. So much more can be said about this but I think you know what this means. Move! By the way, Green Exercise, that is, exercise outdoors is all the better if you can do it. More on this in upcoming episodes.

 

• Meditate daily. This will help you maintain a positive, healthy outlook on life, which influences and affects your entire being dramatically.

 

• And finally, Get Outdoors in Nature, breathe fresh air, walk in beautiful, natural surroundings and fill your heart with the sights, sounds and full-sensory experience if Nature. It has been scientifically proven to:
• Significantly reduce your stress levels
• Lower your blood pressure
• Improves cognitive functioning
• Control your thoughts and behaviors
• Improve your relationships
• Increase your confidence
• Boost your health in a plethora of ways including,
• Elevate your mood, happiness & outlook on life

So there you have it. All you need to know about how to cultivate health, given in under ten minutes! Remember, if you want to have the energy that it takes to create momentum and change in your life, there is nothing more important, (or irreplaceable) than your health and well-being.

Let’s revisit Chopra’s statement,

“The biochemistry of the body is a product of awareness. Beliefs, thoughts, and emotions create the chemical reactions that uphold life in every cell. An aging cell is the end product of awareness that has forgotten how to remain new.”

We set up our body by living with healthy principles, and then we help it remember how to remain new through awareness and meditation.

So if you’re ready, let’s begin cultivating health today by integrating our body into the entire experience through today’s meditation.