Some time ago I began writing a book titled The 7 Habits of
Health: Inner health for the Natural Child. The Introduction of this began: As a generation of human
beings we are becoming sicker. We are relying more and more on medication and
surgery to fight an ever increasing menu of chronic, non infectious health
problems, instead of adopting a lifestyle that will allow us to heal and
thrive. A bold statement I know, at the time it was questioned due
the fact that statistics show life expectancy has risen. True! I know that
when we look at life expectancy this contradicts the above statement, but
whilst life expectancy has risen, what I’m actually looking at is overall
health, quality of life and ability to fight and recover from illness.
My concern is that over the years we have forgotten that we live
in a human body with its own innate intelligence with the ability to grow and
heal. We have become so scared of illness and disease that we have focused on
the wrong things. There is a but here though, in order for our bodies to do
this effectively they need to be given the right environment. Like baking a cake,
we need the right ingredients and the great thing is that the ingredients are
easy to come by. In our practice we refer to these as the 7 Habits of Health:
·
Exercise
·
Nutrition
·
Hydration
·
Sunshine/ Fresh air
·
Sleep/Rest
·
Positive
Mental Attitude (PMA)
Now I appreciate that each of these may need a bit more
clarification, some of them may even be new to you, and we cover these in
more detail in other articles. Please also be aware that there are many other
factors that contribute to health, such as stress for example (physical,
emotional and chemical).
The 7 Habits of Health is the basic recipe we recommend to help
you take responsibility for your own health. At the moment we are collectively
going through a major health crisis and many people may be feeling overwhelmed
and frightened, even out of control. There are many issues here that need addressing,
and now is the time to step up whatever your current health situation and
make changes to improve. One way that we recommend when helping patients who are
unsure of where to start is to try the following exercise: Be honest with yourself
but be kind also, this is not to make you feel bad it’s simply to guide you.
1.
Score yourself
0-10 on each of the following (0 being the lowest or the worst you feel and 10
being the highest or best you feel).
Healthy Habit
|
Exercise
|
Nutrition
|
Hydration
|
PMA
(Positive Mental Attitude)
|
Sunshine/ fresh air
|
Sleep
|
Mind-body
connection
|
Score 0-10
|
2. Now look at your scores and take the habit with the
lowest score. List 3 things that you can change straight away to improve. For
example, you may decide to get to bed before 10.30pm if you feel sleep is the
lowest scoring habit. Or you could list your three greatest achievements of the
day if you want to work on your PMA. Be sure to keep a log of these and work on
them over the next 2 weeks.
3. After two weeks, review your progress. How do you feel
about your original score, has it changed? Did you keep up with the new habits
you set yourself?
4. If you feel ready take the health habit with the
second lowest score and repeat the process. Remember to keep up the healthy
habits you have set yourself.
5. Continue until you have covered all the 7 habits but
remember to work at your own pace. If you feel you need more time in one area,
take an extra week. It is much better to work steadily than to try to change
everything in one go, otherwise you will go into overwhelm.
6. You may find that many of the new habits overlap. For
example, if you are working on your mental health by making sure that you take time out
to go for a walk at lunch, you are also working on Vitamin D and exercise.
7.
If you found
this useful, please pass onto a friend.
I
have lost count of the amount of times in practice that someone has had a health
scare and the said to me ‘‘thank goodness it was a false alarm, as I would have had to make some changes.’’ This isn’t a false alarm, people. Make the changes now.
Take the exercise, if you need help and further guidance, please contact us.
