General Holistic Health Tips, Vol 3

Pay attention to your colors. Although you may have stopped paying attention to color as a young child, there is definitely some benefit to examining what colors you tend to use, enjoy and prefer. Color is directly associated with body energy and emotions. Sometimes, you may feel out of balance and not realize that it is the colors surrounding you that are impacting your mind-body balance. For example, if you tend to wear a lot of red or to surround yourself with red, you may be over-stimulating your emotions. However, if you frequently feel tired or listless you might want to add more red to your wardrobe.

Consider color therapy. Try changing the colors in your wardrobe to better suit your emotional needs during any particular time in your life. For example, if you feel that you are in need of a personal change, or that you need to build your self-esteem, consider wearing more purple, as this color is known for its connection with self-healing. If you are stressed, try wearing light blue. Green is a great color to add when you feel like you have recently made a personal accomplishment, since it is a color known for renewing effects.

Try magnets for pain relief. Magnetic therapy is becoming a very popular method for treating chronic pain and conditions that cause chronic pain. Magnets are shown to increase blood flow through the body by as much as a third. This increased circulation is a great way to alleviate pain.

Use magnets when recovering from an injury. Studies have shown that applying magnets to an injury will help to increase the healing rate because the magnets correct the polarity of the body cells and increase the overall health of the area where they are applied. Healing will be faster, and pain will be less when you apply magnets.

Try bioenergenic therapy when you are feeling depressed or tired. Bioenergetics is an alternative therapy that includes a combination of different techniques used together to help your body fight off illnesses, depression and other conditions. Practitioners observe the patient and form a treatment plan that works to correct things like breathing patterns and stress levels in order to begin identifying and alleviating problems that the patient is experiencing. This therapy combines biofeedback with talk and touch therapy, acupuncture and nutritional counseling in a specific way determined by each individual patient.

Play an active role. If you have decided to see a holistic practitioner, one of the things that you need to realize when you get started is that this is not the passive medicine that you may have experienced in the past. The practitioners are there to guide you as the patient, however you will need to make a significant effort and work with your practitioner to determine the best treatments for you and to increase the effectiveness of the treatments. Many patients find that taking an active role in treatment makes the effects more immediate and tangible.

Consider a whole body detoxification program. The environment, stress and even the foods that we eat can affect every cell in the human body negatively. Sometimes, the body just needs a break so that it can effectively remove harmful chemicals and byproducts that reduce the body’s ability to fight disease and to function at its peak. A whole body cleanse will give you the ability to remove toxins from your intestine, organs and even your skin. Consider working with a holistic physician to see if a detoxification program could help you.

Focus on the dance of life. Life is ever-changing and ever adapting. Sometimes we all get bogged down in our day to day and forget to take time out for ourselves. It is beneficial to take at least some time each day to work on personal growth and healing. Spending time working on personal growth in some way will make you more aware of the ups and downs of your life and give you tools for dealing with whatever comes your way throughout your life.

Try what ails you to relieve the symptoms. Homeopathic medicine practitioners believe that a symptom is little more than the body’s defense against stress. Therefore, they take the approach that finding a substance that behaves in the same way that the body does – that substance can be used to fight off the ailment or infection. Take a walk through a health food, or nutritional supplement store, and you are bound to see a homeopathic remedy for many common health problems.

Try a natural caffeine detox. If you have been promising to give up coffee, or to cut down, you might need to actually remove the effects of caffeine from your system with a detoxification process that includes chamomile. This extract helps to calm you while washing caffeine from your system. You can use chamomile tea, or a specially developed compound designed to detoxify the body.

Consider chiropractic medicine. If you are currently experiencing back pain, chances are that the damage has already been done. Chiropractors are specially trained to manipulate the body in a way that frees nerves and muscles to function correctly, thereby reducing pain in the body immediately. It is important to work with a Doctor of Chiropractic, who has attended college and Chiropractic College.

Try chiropractic for more than just your back. Even if you are experiencing an illness or injury somewhere other than in your back, there is a chance that a Chiropractor will be able to alleviate some of your symptoms. In general, holistic chiropractors believe that most illnesses are a result of nerve impingements somewhere in the body. By carefully manipulating the spine, these nerves can be released and symptoms or even the illness itself will fade. Consider scheduling a consultation with a chiropractor today. The visit will generally include an examination, discussion of your symptoms and possibly an adjustment to see if you experience immediate relief.

Consider working with a holistic athletic trainer. If you are an athlete, you might benefit from the experience of working with a holistic trainer who focuses not only on injury recovery, but also on performance analysis, counseling and injury prevention. Through the holistic approach, your mental and physical needs will be addressed and you can improve your performance significantly as a result.

Try Kinesiology to improve your well being. Kinesiology is a holistic approach to traditional biofeedback therapy, where the body is studied in order to determine the source of potential and current problems. Through monitoring of your body, your Kinesiologist will determine a course of alternative treatments that will help you to perform to the best of your capabilities.

Add some fun to your inner work with transpersonal art therapy. Through the practice, you will create artwork and accomplish personal transformations as your work progresses. Don’t worry, no previous experience or talent is required, and this type of counseling can be very effective even for young children.

(More tips coming next week...)

Links for further reading:
Free book about massage therapy
Free book about body detox
Women's Fitness Beyond 40 - Holistic Approach

General Holistic Health Tips - Vol 1

Improve your posture. It is important to keep your spine as straight as possible, so that your muscles do not strain and contract unnecessarily. Also, in order to keep energy circulating throughout your body, it is important to keep your spine straight and nerves unhindered.

Consider “trigger point massage” for pain relief. If you are plagued by continuous pain and conventional pain medicines are not working to help eliminate it, consider this special type of massage. It will help to not only ease the pain – but to eliminate its source as well.

Try acupuncture. Acupuncture is type of holistic/alternative medicine that has been commonly practiced in the eastern part of the world for thousands of years. Five thousand years ago, the intention of acupuncture was to prolong life. With many alternative medical techniques, the intention is to prevent rather than to cure a specific or general ailment. The oldest recorded practice of acupuncture was over 5,000 years ago. Basically, acupuncture is used to stimulate the nerves in the body and as a result positively affect all of the other bodily systems.

Try Reiki healing. Reiki is a healing art that uses the body’s energy to begin and further the healing process. It is performed by using one’s hands to follow a specific pattern of massage, in order to stimulate energy movement throughout the body. There are many Reiki healers who are specially trained to perform the healing massage, or you can read about it or take a class to become a proficient Reiki healer yourself.

Consider a complete body cleansing. There are many different products on the market today that can help you to eliminate toxins from the body and increase the efficiency and overall health of your body. A complete cleanse will remove toxins and other harmful matter from your kidneys, liver and intestines. Generally how they work is you follow a strict dietary regimen for a few weeks while the cleansing process occurs. Most people who try this agree that it makes them feel healthier and they often report a fair amount of weight loss after the process is complete.

Try to avoid television. Believe it or not, television actually induces negative feelings in most viewers as a result of the commonplace violence and gossip. Television viewing is not nearly as relaxing as some people claim. Try giving up your television shows for a week, replacing them with other activities. You will most likely find that you are better rested, happier and less stressed at the end of that week.

Don’t forget to relax. No human being is equipped to function in constant stress mode. It is unhealthy to have a life filled with all work and no play. Some of the most common health problems that result when a person doesn’t relax enough include high blood pressure, stomach ulcers and other digestive disorders. Be sure to take some time out for yourself at least once a week, preferably once a day. This can help to prevent, and in some cases eliminate, these chronic health problems.

Consider biofeedback therapy. If you are experiencing health problems and cannot seem to find the source, a biofeedback therapist will monitor your body and how it reacts to daily activities in order to find out where it is not performing optimally. In this treatment, you would wear a monitor that actually records how your body is reacting while it is turned on. If you are an athlete suffering from muscle problems, you might want to consider this treatment to determine whether you are properly resting your muscles between activities.

Improve your sleeping habits. One of the best things that everyone can do to improve their well-being is to moderate their sleeping patterns. Unfortunately, poor sleep is a habit learned by nearly everyone during the teenage years. It is critical to allow your body the time it needs to wind down and relax so that you can be rejuvenated. If you feel tired during the day, when you awaken in the morning or exhausted before bedtime it is a sign that you are not getting the right amount of sleep. This could be too much, or too little. Try setting aside eight hours for sleep each night, getting into bed no less than half an hour prior to the time that you want to be asleep. If you do this for a few weeks, you will find positive improvements in your overall health and productivity.

Breathe mindfully. The process of mindful breathing is a form of meditation; however it is also a great way to get more oxygen into your blood and tissues. If you start right now and pay attention to how you are breathing, it is more than likely that you will find yourself breathing quite shallowly. This is not a healthy breathing pattern. You can start out by just inhaling completely and then slowly exhaling completely. If you take one minute to just do this focused breathing each day, you will find that you feel better during that minute. And, you will catch yourself paying attention to your breathing several times throughout the day. If you are stressed or tired, take a minute out of your day to breathe mindfully.

Try reflexology. Reflexology is a technique of applying pressure to and stretching the hands and feet in order to send nerve messages to other parts of the body. Through the careful application of reflexology, practitioners can affect the health of various organs and parts of the body. There are many resources available if you would like to learn more about the practice of reflexology.

Relieve pain with acupuncture. Acupuncture is an age old healing technique used to stimulate nerve endings and to promote healing from within. Overall, the goal of an acupuncturist is to restore well being and good health to the whole body. If you are currently experiencing chronic pain, consider consulting a therapist to see if your pain might be reduced with treatments.

Meditate for better well being. The basic definition of meditation is to concentrate on some object or thought in order to quiet the mind. There are many different types and styles of meditation; however the one thing that is consistent is that not every technique will work for every person. Every one can benefit from some type of meditation, take some time to read about different techniques or talk to a holistic healer for more information about what might work for you.

Try Buddhist meditation. Buddhist meditation deals primarily with the quest for knowledge, and is one of the more popular styles of meditation used in the world today. The premise is that by meditating you are spending some quiet time to improve the state of your mind. Getting started is as simple as finding a quiet space to relax, taking some deep breaths and letting thoughts enter and pass through your mind without concentrating on any specific thought.

Stop the music when meditating. Just as you would probably accomplish more during a study session without music, the same holds true for meditation. While some people will play music while they meditate, there is a question about whether music serves simply as a distraction. Try turning off the music for a week, and see for yourself if you are able to accomplish more with a quiet atmosphere.

(More tips coming next week...)
Links for further reading:
Self-Healing Expressions ~ Holistic Healing
Free book about body detox
Free book about massage therapy
Fully Supported Coaching Program Using A Holistic Approach