7 Tips for Health

My health is worth everything to me. At age 36, I was told by top doctors in Denver, “There is NO hope for you.” For over 20 years, I have been on a journey to learn and understand wellness. It has taken me many places and I’ve learned what “health” means to people. What I know for sure is that the little things you do every day will determine how healthy you are ten years from now. The following are priceless tips:

1. Drinking soda pop daily for your thirst is one of the most dangerous things you can do. It will rob your body of nutrients and leach minerals from your bones. 

2. Drinking ice cold drinks with your meal is something that everyone does; no one thinks about how this affects your digestion and "waters" down your enzymes. One hundred years ago, no one drank with their meals, let alone ice drinks. They waited until they were thirsty and then drank water when the body signaled thirst. Drinking with your meals puts out the fire you have in your stomach for digestion. Giving up this one habit alone can help improve your health beyond measure. Be like a hound dog, eat your meals and then drink later from your bowl.

3. Sugar beets and corn sprayed with "Roundup Ready,” which is made into sugar and corn syrup, is like a thief breaking into your house and robbing you of your wealth/health. Excess sugar builds up in your bloodstream and is eventually stored as fat. Princeton University was able to demonstrate how rats become obese by drinking high-fructose corn syrup. Today, Americans consume 60 pounds of this sweetener on an annual basis. It acts as a neurotoxin to your brain; not a good match for a computer that isn't supposed to wear out until your heart stops beating.  

4. People do not think that the words they speak will affect their health, but in fact they do. Each word that you think and speak enters into your body. Your thoughts can build health or take away from it. Knowing this can give you tremendous power over your body and building your well-being daily. It is interesting to listen to people go on and on about how badly they feel, how every year they’re susceptible to the flu or bronchitis, and so it goes. Through their thoughts and words, they are directing their bodies to be sick every year. What you think enters your cells, and each cell will communicate that throughout your body's systems. For example, are your thoughts making you fat? Let your body eavesdrop and absorb things like "I am getting better and better in every way, every day" or "My body is thin and healthy.” I see how really mean people are to themselves and how they speak cruel words out loud. This won’t help you be happy on the inside or in the outer world.

5. Your body is the vehicle that helps get you around while on this planet. If you don't know how to take care of it, your "car" will break down on you. Eating anything you want will affect the engine and how much get-up-and-go you have. I don't want you breaking down alongside the road and not being able to make it to your destination. I write this with humor and, yet, I see so many good folks who don't know how to take care of this marvelous machine called your body and they have lost their health. Once this happens, it literally takes the life out of them and they are miserable, they give up and don't want to live. I have learned so much from these people even though the outcome is very sad, but perhaps they would have experienced a different result if someone had told them.

6. For many people in today’s society, taking care of others and not taking care of YOU is the “human condition.” This can bring you to a huge STOP sign, cutting you off from those things that bring you balance and peace. People believe that caretaking of others is normal and that that’s the way they should be. The problem is that if you are a caretaker, you are taking from those whom you care for. Simply put, you are getting your needs met by caring for another and ignoring what you want and need, for whatever reason. Your cup then becomes empty from a lack of focus on you and nurturing what you desire to be happy, healthy and balanced. When we put our families and those who we love before ourselves, we are headed in the wrong direction of our own well-being. Huge resentments in the heart can be created by people-pleasing and the inability to say “no.” What works is to become a caregiver, which is helping another and giving, NOT taking. Caregivers help themselves first and then, by choice, they decide to give to you. Caregiving is a loving action which is reciprocated between the giver and receiver. Neither goes away bitter because there is no taking, and not giving to self. Not only will this little tip make you feel better, it will help you take responsibility for you.

7. If there is a situation in your life that you are unable to change, i.e., a job that really bothers you and causes deep stress, then change your attitude towards it. This will make a huge difference for you at the heart level. You are responsible for your own happiness, and happiness is an inside job. Changing your attitude about a boss, husband, wife, sister, brother or mother who is driving you crazy will allow you to keep your power, instead of giving it to that person, place, or thing.

I hope that these tips will help you understand the importance of caring for yourself and your health. It is a vital step in having the freedom you want to travel through this life. Your health is priceless, please don’t through it away carelessly, the price is too high.