The body is like a machine in many ways, but it differs in one vital way: it breaks down when it is not used. A typical machine wears out from use, but the body wears out from sitting still. The very act of using the body repairs the body. Using the body regularly is one of The Five Pillars of Wellness and should be a priority in your daily schedule.

Being active means doing anything that keeps the whole body in motion. You need to be active daily. Get outside and walk. Stand instead of sitting. Move your body.

• Activity increases your energy levels: Simply moving your body around increases bloodflow throughout the body, which increases oxygen flow to muscles and tissues everywhere. More oxygen means healthier muscles, organs, and nervous system. More oxygen means more energy through the day.
• Activity decreases stress: More oxygen means a healthier mind, and one great side-effect is thinking more clearly, which results in completing tasks more effectively. Less stress. Plus, many activities bring you to nature or increase social interaction: these are stress-relievers as well.
• Activity boosts the immune system: Movement of any kind helps pump the lymphatic nodes, which circulate white blood cells and other immune-system components to where they are needed. If you don’t move, the lymph system can’t function; it takes activity to make them work.
• Activity aids digestion: As long as you are up and around and moving, the digestive system is better able to do it’s job. When you sit or lie down, you get clogged and blocked: you have to work harder to digest a meal, and some parts of the system come to a complete halt.
• Activity helps you look younger: Better oxygen flow and toxin removal means healthier skin. Wrinkles go away. Saggy bits tone. You look healthier, happier, and sexier.

Exercise is more than just being active. To count as exercise you must get the heartrate up and work muscles beyond their normal levels. Exercise comes in many forms: going to the gym, performing manual labor, hiking, doing housework, or even having sex. You should be strenuously active about three or four times a week minimum: if you work up a sweat and maintain it for about 30 minutes, it counts.

Why exercise?

• Exercise multiplies the benefits of activity: Exercise gives you everything activity does, but in much larger amounts.
• Exercise builds muscle: Having the strength to complete tasks without discomfort is just, well, more fun.
• Exercise keeps you warmer: More muscles means more heat production, which means you don’t get cold under the covers. Fat can insulate, but without muscle producing heat, all the insulation in the world won’t help.
• Exercise makes you feel good: Exercise releases endorphins, which are the body’s natural drug You actually get high, in a totally natural way. You feel less pain and discomfort, and you get a happiness boost. And stress goes down as well.
• Exercise increases your metabolic rate: The more muscle you have, and the better shape those muscles are in, the more calories you burn even when you’re not active. This is the body’s natural mechanism to stay thin. This doesn’t mean you can eat as much of anything as you want, but it does mean that you can get away with extra helpings or treats and still keep a sexy figure.

Get active, and get exercising. Clear away your excuses and get going!

In the news

• This will make it harder to teach personal responsibility: 15 Percent of U.S. Teens Think They’ll Die Young
• Why are some so fascinated by the people who rise to the top? The Psychology of Celebrity Worship
• Just in case the pain alone isn’t enough to keep you from riding: Elite cyclists ‘risk infertility’

Quote for the week

Health is the vital principle of bliss, and exercise, of health. – James Thomson

Healthy thoughts,
Jeff

Maintaining wellness is really quite simple. It’s so simple that most people reject just how easy it is. It’s so simple that it doesn’t take a library or a lifetime of learning. We naturally know how to stay healthy, if only we listen to our bodies when we are children and ignore the influence of the adults around us.

When it comes to wellness, there are only five things that matter:

• what you put into your body
• what you put onto your body
• how you use your body
• what you choose to fill your mind with
• who you choose to surround yourself with

What you put into your body is, well, everything you eat, drink, or breathe. If it didn’t grow in a field or on a tree, be thinking about where it came from. The healthiest diet there is consists of water, raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains, and unprocessed juices. There are other things that are fine to eat (including meats, breads, and the above-mentioned items in cooked form), but the further you get from a raw, naturally-grown diet, the more your body has to work and the less nutritional benefit you derive from the food. Similarly, what you breathe should be natural and unprocessed. That basically means air (nitrogen and oxygen) is good, anything else is bad.

What you put onto your body is a simple extension of what you put into your body. It’s obvious if you’ve every paid any attention that the things that touch your skin end up affecting the skin, and, in some cases, penetrate deeper to affect your overall body function. What’s not so obvious is what you actually come into contact with over the course of a day or a year. Water (rain, creeks, the ocean) is good, as are the juices and husks of just about anything edible (fruits, vegetables, fish and animal oils). Pretty much anything else is bad. This includes harsh household chemicals (cleaners), all forms of airborne and surface pollution (car exhaust, cigarette smoke, machinery smoke, non-natural greases and oils). Basically, if you wouldn’t eat it, you shouldn’t be getting it on your skin.

How you use your body is just as important as what goes in. You can eat a perfect diet, but if you don’t move your body regularly and exercise strenuously a few times a week, it will atrophy. Walk more and pursue active hobbies. Find ways to be active doing your job. And exercise regularly. Three to four times per week, you should be working up a sweat for thirty minutes or more. This builds your muscles, sure, but it also changes your metabolism so you stay warmer more easily and burn more calories even when you aren’t exercising. Additionally, it increases oxygen flow throughout the body, which sharpens the senses, reduces the risk of many diseases and ailments, and sharpens mental function. You’ll need less sleep. You’ll build emotional strength. Plus you get a natural endorphine rush, a healthy high, that lifts you spiritually.

What you choose to fill your mind with affects every aspect of your life. What programs you have running on your computer directly affects how the computer works; the brain is the same. Read to be inspired rather than just entertained. Learn new things and ideas. Decide what results you want and then choose to listen only to others who have achieved them (or at least come close). Ignore gossip, mass-media, hype, and marketing. Programming yourself for wellness starts with what sources you choose to listen to.

Who you choose to surround yourself with brings everything else together. The friends you choose directly impact the choices you make about everything: what you eat, the environment you spend time in, how active you are, and what ideas you try and accept. Equally important, if not more so, close relationships heal and lift the spirit. The more people you are emotionally intimate with, the more power you create to live a life of greatness. Physical touch from a close friend is emotionally strengthening and mentally calming. If you surround yourself with negative thinkers, worriers, drama magnets, and those who always seem to be the first to be sick with whatever is going around, you’ll become those people. If you surround yourself with happy, successful, positive individuals, you’ll become those people. Your choice.

Everything else about your life stems from the five pillars above. Wellness is the natural result when the body, mind, heart, and spirit are fed properly. Disease is the result of being out of alignment. Put your attention on each of them and see what you’re filling your body and mind with. Figure out where you need to make adjustments. Then go make them.

In the news

• Your dog is an angel: Need a Walking Partner? Try a Dog
• Your dog is a devil: A Pet’s Bite Can Pass on MRSA
• Well, which is it? Angel or devil? A guide to help you decide: Things to Know If You’re Contemplating a Pet

Quote for the week

The concept of total wellness recognizes that our every thought, word, and behavior affects our greater health and well-being. And we, in turn, are affected not only emotionally but also physically and spiritually. – Greg Anderson

Healthy thoughts,
Jeff

How many times have you had the intention to start a new habit or get something done, only to find that you just never got around to it? How many of you wish you had more discipline so that you could get things done?

I’ve got important news for you: discipline is a myth.

That’s right, there is no such thing as discipline. It doesn’t exist. No one has it, no one ever will. Discipline is just a name we give to a different concept entirely. What’s that other concept? Motivation.

Everything we do, every choice we make, is based entirely upon the sum total of our motivations. We’re motivated by pleasure and by pain. We’re motivated by thoughts, ideas, and the actions of others. We’re motivated by our bodies, our minds, our hearts, and our spirits.

We have many motivations, and some of them are conflicting. My tongue wants that donut, but my pancreas doesn’t. My heart wants the pleasure of falling in love but my mind doesn’t want to experience the pain like last time. My spirit wants to be free, but my heart is afraid of what I might lose to get there.

When motivations conflict, we tend to become either indecisive (playing the what-if game) or regretful (playing the I-wish-I-had game). Since what-if is more fun than I-wish-I-had, we learn to avoid motivational decisions and put things off.

The people around us call this a lack of discipline. “It’s because you lack discipline,” they say, and then tell us all about their time in the military or during some personal transition or even in their life.

But it isn’t about discipline. It’s about conflicting motivations. Get your motivations consistent with each other and you start to accomplish things. Conflicting motivations go away when your body, mind, heart, and soul are in agreement about what you want.

If you are motivated to do something for the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits, you are more likely to do it than if you just “think you should”. It could be going to the gym, running, hiking, dancing, or any other form of exercise. It could be reading literature instead of pulp fiction. It could be falling in love instead of closing off intimacy. It could be meditating or taking up art or learning to live in the now instead of watching TV.

Anything that “takes discipline” really just takes an alignment of your motivations. Yes, discipline is a myth.

In the news

• Good news on the communicable diseases front: HIV in South Africa ‘levels off’
• Good news on the cancer front: Way to stop cancers seed in brain
• Good news on the vision front: Oily fish ‘can halt eye disease’

Quote for the week

People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents. – Andrew Carnegie

Healthy thoughts,
Jeff

Well, it looks like swine flu could officially be declared a global problem. Cases are showing up all around the world at accelerating rates. People are dying. What should we do?

The same thing we’ve always been doing: live our lives. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: keep a level head through all of this. Even if it’s declared a pandemic, it’s still unlikely to be a major problem for you. Yes, it will probably affect you in some way, but no, it probably won’t be all that major a factor to you or anyone you know.

The economy has slowed. Drastically. If you listen to the news, you know you’re supposed to be in the worst conditions that have existed anywhere in your lifetime. But is it really affecting you? For most people, there are changes, granted, but for most people, life is going on basically as normal. Things have changed, but things are not radically worse.

Yes, yes, for some people things are worse. Really worse. Some people are losing their homes, their jobs, their retirement. But most people aren’t.

News businesses are good at finding and reporting the most extreme cases and making it sound like they are representative of the situation at large. But those situations are not representative. At best they are demonstrative of potential outcomes. Warning flags, if you will.

Yes, there are problems out there. Focus on them and you’ll experience anxiety and fear. But choose instead to focus on the good things you have, the life you’re leading, and the beauty around you, and you will experience a beautiful life.

Mother Theresa was surround by suffering and pain. Did she let that stop her from being filled with love and joy and experiencing beauty?

See the world not through the eyes of the news. See the world through your own eyes. Free yourself from being told what to think about what’s going on around you and you’ll find the opportunity for happiness.

In abundance.

In the news

• I believe they should put more effort into getting and staying in shape, and less in fighting the rules: Ohio state troopers fight weight limit rule
• Return of an old problem: Two Ways to Tackle Tuberculosis
• Another attempt to convey an important message: Graphic video aims to stem teen pregnancies

Quote for the week

There are few nudities so objectionable as the naked truth. – Agnes Repplier

Healthy thoughts,
Jeff

Where are your boundaries?

We all have them. Everywhere. We build boundaries around our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual world. We need them, to some extent. To protect ourselves from getting hurt, for instance.

But boundaries are like leftovers: you need to check up on them regularly, and get rid of them after some time. Otherwise they make your life stink.

Take that wall you’ve built up around your heart to protect yourself from loss, because of a relationship gone bad or a death of a loved one. You know, where you don’t let others get too close to you because you don’t want to be hurt again.

Is that wall really serving you? Is it really preventing loss? If you numb the heart (even just a little bit) so that you can’t get hurt, are you improving your life?

The funny thing is, by not letting others get close, you are increasing the likelihood they will leave you. The very effort to protect has the exact opposite effect.

Sure, you won’t lose a deep, loving relationship. You can’t lose something you don’t have. Instead, you will prevent the depths of spiritual beauty that come from being fully immersed into another’s life.

The same is true with all of your boundaries. Each one protects you from something, but at the expense of blocking depth in that aspect of your life.

Here’s a challenge: every day, identify one of your boundaries. Then spend the rest of the day experimenting with not enforcing it. Open yourself to the good and the bad for one day. Tear down the wall and let the world in.

Walk up to strangers and start conversations. Hug someone you feel uncomfortable around. Eat a food that you normally avoid. Attend a discussion on a contentious topic and try to understand all the viewpoints (even the ones you strongly disagree with). Go out for the day without grooming in any way. Try something new in the bedroom. Belch loudly in a public place. Find something that scares or intimidates you in any way and experience it.

Make this a practice that you continue every day for the rest of your life.

Remove the boundaries from your life, and you’ll live easier, happier, and freer. You’ll start to experience living on a new level. Yes, you will get hurt sometimes. But you’ll also feel an overwhelming joy regularly.

The ideal goal, the desired result, is to eliminate every boundary. You’ll feel a kind of bliss that can’t be described, only experienced. Enlightenment.

And it all starts by picking a boundary and letting it go.

In the news

• Good for the soul: Music ‘nurtures’ premature babies
• Here’s a man who touched more lives than most: US ‘Viagra scientist’ dies at 92
• ‘Vinny’ might have a job for you: Cancer drug erases fingerprints

Quote for the week

A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world. – John Locke

Healthy thoughts,
Jeff