5 Free health hacks to make you feel better
Get More Daylight
Most of us are severely daylight deficient, with over 90% of us spending over 90% of our time indoors. Our ancestors evolved living mostly outdoors, wearing very little, and our bodies need sunlight for many reasons. Firstly the obvious; it’s the most efficient way to obtain vitamin D, which our bodies make from cholesterol, when sunlight hits the skin, if the UV Index is high enough. This is usually from the end of March to the end of September in the UK.
However, we also need the infra red and near infra red rays for our mitochondria (energy production). This is why red light therapy has become big business. However, we can get these rays by going out for a walk, or being in the sun at sunrise and/or sunset, if time allows. This will also set our circadian rhythms, as light enables the pineal gland to know when to inhibit melatonin production, so we wake up, and darkness, when to produce it, so we go off to sleep easily.
I definitely have more energy and sleep better on the days I’ve spent more time outside, especially in the mornings.
Drink 2L Water
Our lymphatic system is part of the body’s waste disposal process; lymph fluid cleans and feeds the cells. However, unlike blood, lymph fluid does not have a pump. The only way it can be transported around the body is when we move and when we drink water - it needs both to do its job. Stagnant lymph has the consistency of cottage cheese and is going nowhere. Healthy lymph is like runny yogurt and can flow easily and clean and feed cells. It goes without saying, that any water we drink should be filtered, to remove chlorine, pesticides and heavy metals that are present in tap water. Two litres a day is the ideal. Too much and we risk over-worked kidneys; too little and we can become dehydrated.
Movement
Our bodies were built to move. We are not meant to be sedentary creatures, sitting on our backsides, staring at screens all day. No wonder, so many of us feel like rubbish when we spend our days like this. Whether we do twenty star jumps before we go to work, have a brisk walk to the station or at lunchtime, or go to a class, we need to move throughout the day. Movement or exercise also doesn’t have to cost anything either. Join a youtube class, such as yoga with Adrienne or jog in the park. Just don’t be a couch potato and expect to feel good.
Meditate
I know, everyone struggles to meditate, me included. It’s hard to quieten the mental chatter, but the idea isn’t to stop it altogether. It’s to notice it and observe what passes through our minds. When we start to become the ‘observer’ of the thoughts, we can start to recognise the egoic mind or societal conditioning we’ve become accustomed to and detach from them. Then we can (ideally) make decisions and act from a more centred part of ourselves. Even just listening to guided meditations can calm the nervous system and help us to relax or sleep.
Journal
This is something that many people benefit from and swear by. After all, it is good to get thoughts out of your head and onto paper. Writing a diary was common practice just a generation or so ago and it is clearly having a resurgence, although now it has a new name. Finding the time (or even inclination) to journal is something that I struggle with, but I do like the idea of Julia Cameron’s morning pages. Just writing a brain dump of three A4 pages of stream of consciousness every morning, apparently frees up space for more creativity to come in.
If you still don’t feel better after trying these basics, book in for a kinesiology treatment and we can find out what else is going on and restore your health.