3 Ways to Activate Your Internal Doctor
Living in health and holistic harmony can be challenging in today's toxic, fast-paced world. However, you can activate your internal healer to help you repair the damage done to your body, mind and spirit.
One of the principles of a vitalistic outlook of health is that the body is a self-healing and self-organizing organism. It is designed to work properly when it is treated well and given the correct resources.
Within it, resides an Innate Intelligence, which is like your own Doctor within. Your Innate Intelligence, works tirelessly day, in and day out to maintain your body's natural balance (homeostasis) and keep you healthy.
Take a moment to marvel at what your Innate Intelligence does for you every day, without you having to even think about it:
*Your heart beats approximately 110,000 times per day to send nutrients and vitality to all your organs tissues and cells.
*Your lungs breathe up to 30,000 times per day to send vital oxygen to your system.
*Your 700-plus muscles work constantly to allow you to move, dance and smile.
*You body eliminates, repairs and re-builds the 7,000,000,000,000,000 cells of your body approximately every 6 months.
Your Innate Intelligence works so hard for you and asks for so little in return.
This Doctor Within really is a powerful and wisest physician!
"The natural force in each one of us is the greatest force in getting well."
-Hippocrates Quote
When you appreciate and trust your body's own internal healing mechanism, you will find yourself treating your body with more respect as you look for health-enhancing activities rather that symptom-reducing drugs.
Here are 3 ways that you can instantly enhance your body's self-healing capacity and activate your internal doctor:
1) Take care of you MIND:
Your thoughts create a physiological effect in your body. Stressful thoughts of anger, impatience and frustration stimulate the release of damaging hormones such as Adrenaline, Cortisol, Norepinephrine. Positive thoughts create health-enhancing hormones such as the "feel good" endorphins that are stimulated through exercise.
Create an easy stress management routine to cleanse your mind of negativity, such as meditation or daily exercise. Even a short 5-minute meditation can serve as a "mental shower", leaving your mind refreshed and renewed and rid it of the toxic negative that have built up during the day.
At the end of the day, I can end up just totally wacky, because I've made mountains out of molehills. With meditation, I can keep them as molehills. - Ringo Starr
2) Take care of your DIET:
You are what you eat! When you fill your body with highly processed, nutritionally feeble food, you are asking your internal doctor to work longer hours for less pay. Eventually it may rebel and go on strike!
Why not help out your internal doctor and feed your body nutritionally dense food such as fresh fruit, nuts and organic vegetables. Avoid toxins such as white sugar, caffeine, saturated fats, and excessive alcohol.
As nutrition expert, Cyndi O'Meara of Changing Habits says:
Over 60% of death in the world today is a result of diet-related disease. That means that more that half of the world is feeding themselves to death in some capacity. It is time to change and to use food to heal and no to harm. - Cyndi O´Meara.
3) Take care of your SPINE:
Your spine plays an important role in your health as not only does it support you, but it also protects your all-important spinal cord and nervous system. Your spine has had a huge job from the moment that you took your first step in life. That's when it began the life long fight against gravity. Not to mention that it is no small feat staying upright as it takes approximately 200 muscles to support you so that you can have the luxury of the bi-ped lifestyle. Additionally, your spine was designed to run, play and hunt throughout the day. NOT to sit in front of the computer for 50 hours a week!
Minimize the damaging effects of modern life on your spine with daily exercise, yoga, chiropractic care and correct posture.
"Look well to the spine for the cause of disease." Hippocrates, "Father of Medicine" (460 BC - c. 370 BC)
Take care of your body and it will take care of you!
Health emergencies are handled well at hospitals and within your doctor's office, but for your day-to-day wellbeing, your own health depends on you and real health comes from within.
It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. - Mahatma Gandhi
References -
1) Paul Susic MA Licensed Psychologist Ph.D Candidate. "Stress Management: What can you do?". St. Louis Psychologists and Counseling Information and Referral. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
2)Cannon, W. (1939). The Wisdom of the Body, 2nd ed., NY: Norton Pubs.
3) Glaser JL et al. Elevated serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate levels in practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) and TM-Sidhi Programs. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 1992, 15: 4, 327-341.
4) Smith D, Dillbeck MC, Sharma HM. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate and Transcendental Meditation. Alternative Therapies in Clinical Practice, 1997, 4 (2), 35-37.
5) Wallace RK, Dillbeck MC, Jacobe E, Harrington B. The effects of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program on the aging process. International Journal of Neuroscience, 1982, 16: 53-58.
6) Prakash R, Rastofgi P, Dubey I, Abhishek P, Chaudhury S, Small BJ. Long-term concentrative meditation and cognitive performance among older adults. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Rastogi P%22%5BAuthor%5D
Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2011 Dec 13. [Epub ahead of print]
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