My Health Routine
- Hope Stanger, HHC
- Jun 24, 2015
- 4 min read
Photo: A Quart of Fresh Organic Watermelon Juice
WEGO Health Activist 30-Day Writer's Challenge
#HAWMC Prompts
Day 7
World Health Day
April 7th is World Health Day – so let’s talk about daily nutrition and diet. After your diagnosis, did you alter your diet or health routine? If so, how? How do you maintain a healthy regiment? #HAWMC
Day 7 of the Writer's Challenge back in April focused on World Health Day - since I'm still in the middle of completing all 30 days, I'll blog my answer to its question.
Being nominated for the WEGO Health Activist Hero Award for my role as a trauma therapist, my focus has been on helping others to transform their health. Because I am also a nutritional counselor, health routines play an important role with any client I am counseling. Our food affects our emotional state of wellbeing, and shifting our "diet" actually helps clear out the trauma stored in our bodies.
I believe very much in the capacity of raw and living foods to heal the body. I myself am a raw foodist, who has seen these alkalizing foods heal me physically and emotionally after I was hit by a car in 2012 (see my previous blog posts: 'How I Healed Myself and Got a Little Help Along the Way,' and 'Making Molehills Out of Mountains') and cure my hypothyroidism. I have also seen the power of unadulterated food calm and balance emotions, reduce OCD, create focus and clarity in the brain, heal depression and anxiety, eliminate the mineral depletion danger zones of anorexia and make a person laugh and smile simply from eating!
Food is our primary relationship, and co-exists alongside all our other relationships from the time we are born. As we transform our relationship with food, we can see major healing occur in our personal life. When we start including high-level nutrients that blast our bodies with the frequency of health, we begin to crowd out low energy, low mood, low feelings of self-worth and helplessness. I love to watch people giggle from food, when before they only wanted to sleep after a meal. The right foods inspire us internally, which in turn allows us to make external changes in our lives.
I encourage clients to start blending smoothies loaded with plant-based nutrients, drink fresh green juices that bring chlorophyl and oxygen into their bodies and notice how alive they suddenly feel when they stop loading up with meat, dairy, sugar and white flour and replace them with mood-balancing foods. Food can be the greatest addiction of all or the largest healing tool, and the messages we condition into our bodies with what we eat affect all of our thoughts, desires, impulses and actions.
I eat with the seasons, and make sure as much of my food is whole, intact and from as loving a source as possible. I maintain a healthy regimen by starting each day re-committing to the life I choose. I spend quiet time in the morning saying personal affirmations; I journal; read and stretch. In both summer and winter, I go running outide to connect with the life force in the sun. I bounce on the rebounder to detoxify my lymph and do some yoga stretches. I surround myself with good friends who love me, "get me" and support me, as I do them. I ask for hugs and touch when I need it and make sure to give myself both often. I am kind to my body, and love myself when my weight is ten pounds higher or lower. I allow sleep to support my vitality and soothe my soul if I am sad. Most of all, I acknowledge my humanity, and on the days where I don't do any of these things, I love myself up for exactly that reason.
These are all part of my personal healthy regiment and some of what I include in my therapy practice. Our beliefs and feeling safe are also key to health. When we believe we can do it, we can do it. When we feel safe, we have a platform from which to dive into the waters of our life. Those pieces are a big focus for me in counseling others. To understand that health goes beyond our food and exercise and is about the whole of us and how we view our life; what we believe and how we experience the world around us is to me, the holism of health. How we choose to spend our time; what we pursue and who we hang out with are just as important as a balanced meal. Health includes all facets of a rich and full life; each holding hands with the other to support us in who we want to be. There is a magic place inside each of us called health, and a recipe made just for us with our own personal ingredients for a thriving, joy-filled life. When we get quiet enough to see what we need and what takes us to that place, we can open ourselves to a whole new level of health. I encourage you to try...
