How To Stay Mentally, Physically, and Spiritually Healthy

By now everyone knows what is necessary to live healthier and longer lives, but most people can’t seem to motivate themselves to maintain what needs to be done. Prevention is the key to wellness and longevity.
I can provide you with what you need for wellness in mind, body and spirit, however, it’s up to you to make the choice and just do it! A great quarterback is only as good as his wide receiver!

MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH

Clean out your mental closet! Wreckage always catches up with you!

PSYCHOTHERAPY

Socrates once said that an unexamined life is not a life worth living.

If you are carrying around baggage from your past into your present, you will be emotionally affected by your past wounds. This is when you should consider therapy to help discharge the “gook” from the past that is keeping you stuck in your present life and will for sure adversely affect your future. Once you are able to be in your authentic self and give up your survival role, your essence will demand integrity in every part of your life!

A healthy mind is a healthy body. Self esteem and self love are essential to spirituality and well-being!

DE-STRESS!

Did you know that most disease is 75-80% caused by stress?

Here are six proven ways to de-stress.

1. Meditate
   Learn to meditate at least 15-30 minutes a day and it will change the colors of your mind. Breathing is the most fundamental rhythm of life: holding on and letting go. Your breath can alter your state of mind, slow down your heart rate and calm your nerves.
2. Exercise
   Make exercise a part of your life style. Whether you choose to run, play a sport, work out at a gym, go to Zumba, Pilates, Yoga, bike, swim or just walk 30 minutes a day, include it in your life at least 3-4 times a week.
3. Stay productive
   If you love what you do, you never have to work again and it keeps your mind active and your self-esteem polished.
4. Find a hobby
   Having a passion for something in your life adds to your well-being and positive state of mind. Creativity is a great brain exercise!
5. Socialize with family, colleagues and friends
   Staying connected is imperative to feeling well. We are wired for connection and it’s when we disconnect, that we go into crisis.
6. Relax
   Sometimes it’s important just to do “nothing”. Just chill-ax, veg-out, zone-out and just breathe. Learn to stay still and discover your inner self. Read a book, watch a movie, take a nap or be present to what is around you. Finding an activity that soothes your mind can be a form of relaxation such as travel, fishing, golf, tennis, sailing, boating, observing nature in the raw, attending a ballet, concert, opera or theater or just listening to music is food for your soul. Make your leisure life important. It is essential for the human spirit!
7. Altruism
   Last, but not least; do something good for others! When you extend yourself for the sake of nurturing another person, you are receiving the same benefit. When you are kind and giving to others, you become kind and giving to yourself. Passing it forward is gratifying, rewarding and self-healing.

NUTRITION

• Stay away from refined foods; especially sugar and flour. Sugar is the number one enemy to your health!
• Stay away from processed foods! They have high sources of cancer producing ingredients
• Beware of “non-fat” products. They use extra amounts of sugar to compensate for flavor
• Minimize or avoid red meat.
• Minimize or if possible, avoid dairy. Milk has the highest level of casein which is one of the highest contributing causes to cancer. (Colin Campbell, THE CHINA STUDY)
• Consider becoming a vegetarian or go VEGAN! It minimizes disease. A plant food diet has been proven to prevent many illnesses.
• Eat plenty of green and yellow vegetables. They have more protein than you can imagine.
• Eat a lot of fruit. They are the best substitute for refined sugar and can satisfy your sweet tooth if given a chance.
• Enjoy nuts and legumes. They have plenty of protein too!
• Limit intake of all oils!
• Avoid fad diets. They DON’T work!
• Remember portion control. Less is more!

Choose your informational resources carefully. Read only what has been documented through empirical data. Below are a few choices of recommended readings,

• HOW TO PREVENT AND REVERSE HEART DISEASE by Caldwell Esselstyn, MD
• MY BEEF WITH MEAT and THE ENGINE 2 DIET or THE VEGAN FIREMAN OF ENGINE HOUSE 2 by Rip Esselstyn
• THE CHINA STUDY by Colin Campbell, PhD

DVD’S TO WATCH:

1. FORKS OVER KNIVES
2. FAT, SICK AND ALMOST DEAD

(*Avram Cooperman, MD is an expert in nutrition and offers presentations of this subject)

The big question is: How do you get people to integrate and maintain this healthy LIFE STYLE?

In this age of enlightenment everyone knows all this. Books, articles and DVD’s have been produced. Experts have given presentations, lectures and seminars. Dr. Oz is world renowned. But, even when cigarettes have “SMOKING KILLS” on each package, people still smoke! When empirical data proves that certain life styles are dangerous and harmful to human beings, people still maintain them. Even when you have conclusive evidence that good nutrition, exercise, meditation and productivity maintains healthy lives and add years, people can’t seem to integrate the information to help themselves.

What will motivate change? What will create better living habits and sustain them?

This is the part that I address. As a psychotherapist who has spent nearly 37 years in private practice specializing in second stage recovery, personal growth and development working with individuals and couples, I have learned that unless you change the unconscious processes to conscious awareness, change is not possible. ALL COMPULSIVE BEHAVIOR IS DICTATED BY THE UNCONSCIOUS! The goal is to move the unconscious to the conscious mind with an abundance of self love to learn how to take better care of ourselves. The best way for change to occur and be maintained, is to find new neuro-pathways to the unconscious and re-wire the brain for new learnings and practices. This is MY EXPERTISE!

Joan E Childs, LCSW is a renowned psychotherapist, inspirational speaker and author of Do You Hate the One You Love: Strategies For Healing and Saving Your Relationship. In private practice since 1978, she specializes in individual and couple’s therapy, grief therapy, EMDR, NLP, inner child work and codependency. Learn more about her services at www.joanechilds.com.