Hey there guys:) I've had a lot of thoughts rolling around in my head lately, I'm learning a lot about health and even just life in general. My thoughts are developing on things, shifting from where they've been. Anyways, here's a snippet of those thoughts ;)
What is health? The dictionary says that it is the state of being free from illness or injury; a person's physical or mental condition.
But, what all does that entail?
Ask anyone, we all desire to be "healthy", but the sad truth is, very, very few of us truly are. Don't get me wrong, I do believe there are plenty of people in this world that are, but that sure as heck doesn't include the majority of people in this country. Why is that? Because it takes work. And it takes saying, "No", to a lot of things that are normative in our society. Actions that may make your peers and colleagues think you're weird, foolish or even crazy.
I came across this quote the other day, it was on a sticker. I bought it and I'm going to put it on my water bottle, because I don't ever want to forget it.
"If you're always trying to be NORMAL, you will never know how AMAZING you can be." -Maya Angelou
Most of us are raised to be normal, or at least our societies definition of normal. But normal isn't getting us very far in a lot of ways. Especially when it comes to our health. And it isn't just our diet, or the microplastics they are finding in our bodies, or the amount of hours that many people work, or the acceptance of the stress we often put upon ourselves to keep up with the Jones', or the amount of screen time we consume, the lack of fresh air...I could go on, but you get the point.
The more I learn, the more I am convinced that cancer and disease aren't caused by one thing, but rather by a bunch of little things. If looked at singly, they may seem insignificant, but if looked at all together and combined into a "big picture" those little things are then so intricately woven together that you can no longer say, "Oh yes, that is what caused my disease". They literally become one big picture of disease and illness. The opposite of health.
So, how do we begin to change the "big picture"? One little, seemingly insignificant, thing at a time. People who have had what is termed a "radical remission" of their cancer typically approach it from multiple angles, many of which are spiritual and emotional, not just simply the physical.
When I was first diagnosed with colon cancer in the spring of 2020 I very quickly felt it was tied to a car accident I had in October of 2018, I don't know why, I can't explain it. But I had a very strong sense that this was the breaking point. All of my doctor's looked at me like I was crazy when I would ask them about it. That didn't change the way I felt though. I also felt there was more to this whole cancer thing that just what was being addressed by my doctor's. Always having been open to alternative medicine I had looked into some doctor's in the area and just didn't feel good about any of them. They all wanted to charge 2k to walk in the door because of the cancer diagnosis and then it was 30k to treat the cancer with them, but they wouldn't tell me what sort of approach they took to know if that even resonated with me. So, I didn't go.
Luckily, I did find a nutritionist that I really like and she recommended right away that I read The Metabolic Approach to Cancer by Dr. Nasha Winters and Jess Higgins-Kelley. As I started reading through it I got so excited! This is what I had been looking for! They say everyone must walk out their own cancer journey and find what resonates with them and go with it. This was my thing.
I had always thought I was "healthy" before I got cancer. Very quickly it became apparent that I had not been healthy at all. Yes, my diet was decent, but there were about a million other things that weren't. There is a 10 part questionnaire in The Metabolic Approach to Cancer and just the questions being asked opened my eyes to so many toxins in my life, especially in the 3-5 years leading up to my diagnosis. Sooooo many little things that were toxic that truly were the perfect storm. And then, the accident, the final tipping point, that sent me over the edge. My body was so damaged and weak that it simply could no longer function the way God designed it too in order to address the cancer cells present. They took over.
You see, all of us have cancer in our bodies, but we have amazing immune systems that address those cancer cells and eliminate them. Even when we are genetically "predisposed" to having cancer, or any other disease for that matter, our diets and lifestyle can determine whether those genes get turned on or off. It's called epigenetics and it is amazing!!! Since they sequenced the human genome a whole new world of healthcare has begun to emerge. Knowledge is power, we mustn't allow this power to go unharnessed. There are multiple things in all of our lives that are making us more susceptible to disease, some more than others. It is so empowering to learn how our every day choices can impact our health.
The human body is way more complex than simply believing that a disease process is affected by only one factor, one genetic mutation, a virus, or a bacteria, etc. Rather, I believe it is many little factors that create an environment that one of those things can then thrive in. And they aren't all physical. Like the definition at the beginning even says, it's not just physical, but encompasses the mental state as well. We must begin to look at health and wellness as a culmination of the condition of spirit, soul and body. Work must be done to improve all of these areas to achieve true health.
The body is always trying to achieve homeostasis, it is what it was designed to do, and it has so many pathways to try to accomplish this. But if all the pathways are blocked it can't reach this state of homeostasis that it is striving for. That is when disease presents. There are always warning signs that something is going haywire, but our doctor's don't know how and are so busy that they don't have time to learn how to treat the root cause. They are scrambling to just try and stay on top of treating the symptoms of our diseases. While there are doctors out there that have chosen a different method of practice that allows them the space and time to really dig in, unfortunately our healthcare system does not support them, so patients are typically forced to pay for most, if not all, of this kind of treatment. Which, unfortunately is out of reach for many people from a financial perspective.
But, there is so much we can do on our own, if we begin to educate ourselves and utilize integrative and alternative practitioners as much as you possibly can to help guide you. Maybe we can't paint the masterpiece that is the body on the first day we start, but we could easily do one little brush stroke, and then two, and you get better at those little brush strokes and you try a few more. What was maybe difficult or challenging to start becomes the norm, so then add something new in. Humans are designed to constantly be learning and trying new things, by exposing ourselves to new ideas, new patterns it creates new circuits in our brains, new neurons, it increases our capabilities mentally, physically and emotionally.
Back to this idea of our bodies always striving for homeostasis and a place of balance. Our spirit, soul(mind) and body work symbiotically, each affects the other and if one is out of sorts the others will eventually be as well. Our body reacts and can physically change based on what is going on in the mind, which reflects what is going on in our spirit and all that is impacted by what we think, how much we move our bodies, what we eat, what we put on our bodies, the air we breathe, our surroundings and lifestyle habits.
We must begin to address weaknesses in the entire being though, not just the body. Taking control of our thought life is of the utmost importance! If we constantly think we are sick, we will begin to manifest sickness.
It is scientifically proven that practicing mindfulness and gratefulness decreases cortisol levels. Why is this important? Increased cortisol directly affects the immune system. If we are thinking negatively, that alone can cause anxiety and stress, which is accompanied by a rise in cortisol. Lack of sleep increases cortisol, decreases the number of CD4 and CD8 T cells present and the function of the ones that are present and also decreases the number of NK cells. That alone increases risk for disease because these cells play a vital role in stimulating activation of the immune system to fight against viruses' and tumor cells. We all know when we are tired it affects our mental state, everything can seem much brighter after a good nights sleep. Good sleep is vital, not just from a sleep aspect or rest and repair, but in order to keep our thoughts in check and to stay positive.
Our society accepts stress, even embraces it, it's the "American Dream". We must begin to challenge this lifestyle and ask ourselves what is MY "Dream"? What do I want my life to look like in one year? Five years? Twenty years? What truly matters? Do I want to be able to spend time with my family and friends and truly enjoy them? Do I want to be able to go for a walk every day? Do I want to be forced to work a job I don't love to pay for all the things? Do I want to live a healthy life? Do I want to travel? Do I want enough savings to live comfortably in retirement? Do I want passive income? Do I want to eat all organic foods?
Let me clarify what I mean by "Dream". I mean, what creates joy, peace, tranquility, fun and satisfaction in your life. What fulfills you and allows you to be your best self? Create your best you, so that you can then go impact the world around you.
We all need to determine what our "Dream" is and begin to cultivate it, make little changes, one or two at a time and start to work towards it. Willingness to embrace new ideas, habits, ways of thinking and experiences will be a part of it! Embrace it! Create the life you want to live. Don't let fear stop you either! Fear is a liar, it tries to keep you from doing things that will benefit you.
Ask yourself, "What truly makes me happy?"...and then take time to think about it. Does the new car really make you happy? Does the bigger house (that takes longer to clean and more $ to maintain) really make you happy? Does the closet full of new clothes really make you happy? Does spending time with a friend daily make you happy? Does being able to wake up without an alarm daily make you happy?
Maybe one, or all, of those things do truly give you happiness. Or maybe you just like them and it's okay to have them if you can do what you need to fulfill YOUR "Dream" and do those things as well. But first and foremost we must begin to make changes to create our "Dream".
My "Dream" is to live a long life and fulfill everything God has for me to do on this earth. I don't know what that looks like exactly just yet, it's a work in progress. I do know I love to work, but I now know that overdoing it is really bad for my body. I take on too much and then I'm stressed about getting it all done. I always said I work best under stress...not true. Maybe my output seems to be greater, but I'm destroying my body in the process. There's a reason God told us to work 6 days and rest on the 7th. It's a time to rest our body and feed our spirit. But I do believe that we need to be resting and feeding ourselves a little bit on each of those 6 days as well. We need to take time daily to read, rest, meditate and pray, take the time to feed our bodies well, spend time with those we love and are in relationship with.
My main goal in life these days is to try and stay balanced and not over commit myself. To keep peace in my spirit, soul and body. Never in my life would I have described myself as an anxious person, or someone prone to anxiety. Stress and a racing mind, yes. Now that I've been focusing on keeping things calm, stress free, practicing gratefulness daily, spending time reading my Bible, time in prayer and meditation on a regular basis I've come to realize that I was a very anxious person. It was a regular occurrence for my mind to race with all the things I needed to do, or with a new idea and all the ways to implement it and I would lie awake for hours ruminating, sometimes heart racing and this intense fear that I wasn't going to be able to do it or I would fail.
Finding a healthy balance of work and relaxation has never happened in my life, historically I have worked hard and partied hard, basically a recipe for disaster. Saying, "No" didn't really happen. Last month I found myself falling into my old routine of packing every day full. I've always felt a pressure to do more, make more money and generally try to cram too much into every day. As I started to feel better physically those old habits started slipping back in. I started to have the racing thoughts again, trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, and just a little sense of panic to get everything done.
The fact that things have been so chill lately helped me to realize this pattern coming back into my life pretty quickly, thank goodness. Now that things have calmed back down mentally I realized I do have tendencies towards anxiety, I think we all do. Also, why God tells us to be anxious for nothing. All we do is make ourselves a hot mess and quite literally change our physical body and make it more susceptible to disease.
I don't have to go back to this way of life though. This is not what I want for my life. I don't have to have apartment A rented by X date, which requires me to work 7 days a week to get it done...I can let it sit empty another week or two and give me time to get it done at a sane pace, or pay someone to do it instead of trying to do everything myself (which I'm learning isn't physically possible anymore anyways). I can, and will, make different choices to change my life and my health for the better...to slowly and steadily make way towards my "Dream" life, and enjoy the journey along the way, staying in a place of peace, contentment and gratefulness. Working on my weaknesses and developing my strengths. Not staying where I am today, but developing a better me, spirit, soul and body.
We are all different, yet all the same, find what works for you to stay in a space that is conducive to health.
Choose one thing you can start doing today to impact your spirit.
Choose one thing you can start doing today to impact your soul/mind.
Choose one thing you can start doing today to impact your body.
Here are some things I am doing:)
Spirit:
reading my Bible daily
prayer
attending church regularly
speaking affirmations
forgiving myself and others
offering grace to those around me
intentionally releasing resentment
goal: start a Bible study with some of my girlfriends
Soul/Mind:
daily speaking out loud what I am grateful for
meditation
focusing on health and wellness, how to improve it
reading daily
daily walk (been bad about this with the cold weather)
taking time to be creative
not overpacking my days
spending time with friends regularly, even if it's just a short walk
saying, "No"
not putting such restrictive deadlines on myself
not overcommitting, even if it is just telling an Airbnb guest they can check in
early
reasonable expectations for myself and others
goal: start a regular yoga practice
Body:
diet, eating whole organic foods
no sugar
supplements
light and moderate exercise/stretching
water
epsom baths 2-3x/wk
sauna 5x/wk (been slacking here too)
going to bed early/sleep
acupuncture weekly
not working so much that I am in pain
daily outdoor time
castor oil packs
coffee enemas
intermittent fasting
48 hour fast about 1x/mo, goal is weekly
goal: only 1 glass of wine, 1x/wk
goal: daily walk at sunrise
goal: get in the woods weekly
What is one thing you can implement to improve your health today in each area?
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