So many people feel overwhelmed today, and stumble through their life trying to stay a-top the wave of obligation and busyness, without falling and crashing. Just staying up there requires energy and effort. Getting rid of stuff can help clear some space in your life and your head to make that balancing act just a little easier.
As life continues to speed up the feeling that we need to simplify, if only to stay on top and survive, is expanding and gaining importance. De-cluttering is often the first step towards a simpler life. The beauty of clearing out the junk in your life is that it’s not limited to just the old clothes you no longer wear but can be undertaken as a conscious project where you target clearing on every single level of your being.
Everyone is familiar with spring cleaning but not so many set themselves up to undertake the “whole enchilada”, to declutter more than just their possessions. When you begin to view de-cluttering as a “life-cleanse” rather than as simply a bit of a clean-out you set yourself on a path for a cascade of dynamic life-changing effects.
Everyone has stuff in their life that no longer serves them, baggage that no longer supports them to be the best they can be. Sad to say this outdated stuff can even include people.
To do a full de-clutter of your life really takes some hard soul-searching. In order to totally renew ourselves on every level we need to clear not just belongings but also outdated or negative beliefs, debt, bad habits, people that who leave us feeling bad about ourselves, judgments and criticisms of self and others, or mental clutter.
For many of us holding onto excess possessions, thoughts, emotions or beliefs, has to do with our past experiences and what we learned as we grew up. Relationships, feelings of obligation, debt can all be tied tightly to emotions that are rooted deep in our early years, so they can sometimes be difficult to dislodge. Often we are not even conscious of where they arose from.
The process of life de-cluttering can seem a mammoth exercise. It can seem completely overwhelming and confusing. Where to actually begin could even stop you from starting.
But the same rules that apply to spring-cleaning also apply to making the total life clean out happen. Just as you start spring-cleaning in one room and work systematically through the whole house, so too do you start with one small part of your life and clear that first.
It is all about recognizing what needs to go and then breaking the huge challenge down into small steps that are easy to manage and succeed at.
The beliefs, habits, and possessions in our life can have a great hold on us and shifting them out of our life can be very challenging and difficult. Often by clearing out excess possessions in our life we create a ‘roll’ that then eases us into decluttering the trickier things.
By starting in our homes and removing the excess we open the way for a decluttering on all levels. We open the way for clarity and space not just in our surroundings but also in our mind, body and spirit. Once we declutter our possessions we can begin to recognize, examine and discard those more challenging things in our life, the mental clutter, debt, bad jobs, even relationships.
Often we can have a sense that we don’t really feel happy, or passionate about life. But we may not be able to pinpoint where the feeling stems from. Sometimes we have just become so caught up in living, juggling work, kids, friends, parents, money, plus all the other obligations of life, that we have lost sight of our own needs. The negatives in our life have been absorbed and become so ingrained that we don’t even notice them as being less than ideal anymore.
I like to think of these outdated parts of our life as the grain of sand in the oyster shell. The sand grain sits there irritating the poor oyster. But with work the oyster is able to transform it into a beautiful gem, a pearl. By opening up the shell of ourselves and working on the irritating grains of sand in our life we can transform problems into pearls.
When we de-clutter we learn to let go and create space. There is a saying that if we want something new in our life we need to first make a space for it to fit in. With our life becoming even fuller and more challenging every single day it seems imperative that we clear every aspect of it that we can. New things will always move into our life, it is the nature of living, but whether we have the space in our life to embrace the positive that waits to arrive depends on whether we are prepared to release the negative first.
As we declutter we gain a sense of lightness as each non-supportive thing leaves
us for good. These are heavy burdens and releasing them lifts the weight from our shoulders giving us a sense of freedom.
Whether the clutter in our life is physical, emotional, or mental it takes a good deal of effort to maintain our relationship with them. When we own less we need to devote less attention to stuff and so we gain the precious commodity of time.
To begin your declutter start by drawing up a plan. Don’t worry if everything isn’t included. Things that need to good will become apparent as you go ahead. Start simply with releasing the most obvious things. Break the process down into small steps and tackle one at a time, then move on to the next. Stop along the way to acknowledge what you have cleared and pause to notice if more stuff has arisen.
If you need help to get clarity about where to begin, or help to form a plan of action, or you know you’ll be able to do this if you just have the support to keep you on track, I am here to help.
Disclaimer
All information and opinions presented here are for information purposes only and are not intended as a substitute for professional advice offered during a consultation. Please consult with your health care provider before following any of the treatment suggested on this site, particularly if you have an ongoing health issue.
Giving advice for improved sleep is a normal part of any Wholistic Health practice, and I’m used to delivering. But today I am suffering the effects of a wakeful night after not ‘Walking My Talk’. Last night I sat up on the computer until well after midnight when the cold finally drove me to bed, only to then wake repeatedly through the night.
Sleep is so important, especially now as the days have shortened and we approach winter. Sufficient sleep allows our body to recover from the day and leads to improved brain function and memory.
But sleep doesn’t always come easily.
These simple actions will help you create a calm sleep-friendly environment.
De-Clutter and De- Junk
Is your bedroom a soothing sanctuary or is it also a place where you work? It is vital to establish and maintain the boundary between work and rest. Your bedroom needs to be a place where you unwind and take ‘you-time’. If the boundaries are unclear, you never get a break from the pressure and stress of work.
When you keep your bed for sleeping or other fun bedtime activities, your brain comes to associate bed with only these activities rather than work, which makes it easier for you to nod off.
Clear away clutter and mess; open the windows to refresh the energy; add fresh flowers, beautiful and meaningful ornaments, a candle or Himalayan Salt Lamp.
Create an EMF-Free Zone
If you are surrounded by electronic devices while you sleep your brain waves are affected throughout the night and you will never get good sleep.
There’s some concern that the pulsed frequencies of electronic devices interfere with the body’s own signals. These electromagnetic fields (EMF’s) affect the emotions, the organs, hormone production and the immune system. Cosequently this can then lead to poor sleep, as well as many other problems.
There are many studies that show exposure to electronic devices (even electric lights) before going to bed interferes with sleep patterns. Far from allowing you to wind-down in the evening using electronic devices actually increase your alertness and interferes with REM sleep.
Light, from any source including the low levels of light emitted by electronic devices, disrupts circadian rhythms and causes poor sleep
There have also been studies into how electromagnetic fields (EMF’s) around electronic devices affect the release of melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone. In 2007 this study showed melatonin production, and therefore sleep quality, may be affected in some people.
For good sleep switch off your smartphone, your tablet, your laptop, your TV, e-reader and other devices at the source. If you need an alarm to wake, find an alternative to your phone. Sleeping close to an active smartphone (or other device) is absolutely NOT worth the wide-reaching adverse effects it has on you.
If you do need to leave any devices switched on, make sure they are well away from your body, at least two metres. Even better if they are right across the room or in the en suite.
Check your bedroom for electro-magnetic fields and remove the responsible devices.
Create Peace
If you need entertainment before sleep place some books or magazines in your room, or perhaps a journal. Not only does journaling empty your mind of annoying thoughts that keep you awake, it’s also has many health benefits. Research even shows it strengthens the immune system and reduces the symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.
Use your journal to establish gratitude practices to build your Happiness Bank.
Check the temperature. A moderate temperature about 20 degrees Celsius, not warmer, supports undisturbed sleep.
Darkness helps you sleep and even small amounts of light interrupt the production of the neurotransmitters needed for sound sleep. Use block-out curtains if there are lights outside your window. Don’t turn lights on suddenly during the night as they disrupt the production of the sleep-inducing hormones, melatonin and serotonin. Don’t use white light as a night light. The soft pink glow of a Himalayan Salt Lamp solves this problem, if you must have light in the bedroom. If you can’t block out light wear an eye mask.
Music is a wonderful aid to help you relax. Gentle, music, white noise or relaxation recordings will all help you unwind. The rhythmic sound of the surf washing onto the beach is one way to induce sleepiness.
No TV right before bed! Stop about thirty minutes before retiring and definitely don’t watch it in bed.
Turn your bedroom into a space you look forward to spending time in.
Create A Scent-sual Space
Our sense of smell plays an important role in mood, memory and emotions. It is linked to the limbic system, which is considered the old primitive part of the brain. As well as promoting relaxation, research shows that certain bedtime scents can even influence the type of dreams people have.
There are a number of essential oils that induce relaxation and are powerful sleep aids.
Lavender stimulates the release of feel-good hormones and is a well known relaxant to help insomnia. Sprinkle a few drops of lavender essential oil on a cotton ball beside your pillow or in your room.
Vanilla, rose, chamomile, sandalwood and surprisingly, coffee are some others that can also help insomnia by calming you. (Although homeopathic Coffea is known to have excellent calming properties, and so maybe it’s not such a surprise!)
Create A Healthy Eating Plan
Shunning caffeine should be a no-brainer. Drinking coffee, tea or hot chocolate keeps some people awake. But many other foods such as soft drinks, processed foods and even medications often contain caffeine, and you need to be wary of those.
Some foods like dairy and wheat can cause gastric disturbances that may keep you awake. Avoid them altogether or at least in the later part of the day.
L-tryptophan found in protein foods promotes the production of melatonin and serotonin to aid sleep. A small protein-rich snack such as nuts in the evening may help you sleep better.
Avoid sugar and processed grain snacks before bed to avoid the rapid spikes and drops in blood sugars that interrupt sleep.
Alcohol is a ‘no-no’ for sound sleep. Although it produces sleepiness and initially sends you to sleep, it prevents you entering the deeper, restorative, sleep cycles. Also, alcohol’s effect is short-lived. After a few hours you are likely to wake up, completely unable to return to sleep.
Chamomile tea before bed is an excellent for promoting good sleep. It has a slight homeopathic effect to relieve anxiety and promote relaxation.
Support your body with nurturing foods to create balance
Create A Sleep-Ready Body
Exercising daily for at least thirty minutes helps you fall asleep but be sure not to do it too close to bedtime. This is because exercise stimulates the release of metabolising hormones that will keep you awake.
Create A Night-Time Ritual
Setting a bed-time ritual sends cues to your brain that it is time for it to prepare to sleep. Just as you might read a bed-time story to a child to help them relax before they sleep, setting routines also reminds your mind it’s time to relax and sleep.
Develop your own night-time routine. It may include a warm bath, some yoga, reading, listening to music, writing your journal, in fact anything that soothes and relaxes you. Repeat this every evening in the thirty minutes before bed so your brain and body associate this activity with sleep.
Write down your list of whatever you need to do in the morning, earlier in the evening before. This shuts down the ideas and thoughts that normally run around your head while you’re trying to drop off to sleep. The same goes for any plans, worries or other thoughts that might keep you awake into the early hours of the morning.
Going to bed at the same time each night and rising at the same time each day allows your body clock to synchronise with these times, making both sleep and waking easier.
A hot shower or bath before bed increases your body temperature. As it falls again you will relax and fall asleep. If you have cold feet warm them with socks to prevent sleep disturbance.
If noise wakes you or keeps you awake wear ear plugs.
Take time to reflect on the day passed as well as the brand-new day ahead, so you can leave stress behind and start the new day afresh.
If you can’t sleep get up and address the cause or do some quiet activity until you feel calm and ready to return to bed.
Don’t watch the clock! If you aren’t sleeping put the clock away. Watching the hours tick away will only leave you stressed
Sleep Problems of Menopause
For some women passing through menopause, insomnia becomes a real and distressing issue. Hormonal changes causing hot flushes, palpitations, or night sweats can interrupt sleep and cause havoc. Before taking Hormonal replacement Therapy (HRT) have a talk to a Wholistic Health Practitioner about the many natural options available to balance hormones and reduce these debilitating symptoms.
Creating an environment that nurtures and supports you allows your body to release the stress from your busy life and relax into sleep at night
What are your favourite ways to ensure you get good sleep? Tell us in the comments below.
Disclaimer
All information and opinions presented here are for information purposes only and are not intended as a substitute for professional advice offered during a consultation. Please consult with your health care provider before following any of the treatment suggested on this site, particularly if you have an ongoing health issue.
Stress has become such a permanent part of people’s lives that many stressors are now considered a normal part of everyday life, or regarded as a necessary evil of modern life.
The world, and our place in it, has developed at an alarming pace. Although we’re still adapting to the world, it’s at a much, much slower rate. Our bodies and reactions are completely out of synch with our world. Our brains tell us stress is just part of living a modern life, but our bodies tell us the opposite.
Ongoing chronic stress is now considered the number one hurdle to good health.
Stressors can be physical, such as illness or violence, extreme heat or even noisy neighbours. They can be caused by lifestyle practices, such as work stress, alcohol abuse or poor sleep habits. Or the stressors can be emotional, originating in your mind. These can be the most complex and lead to the greatest impact.
Stress can have many widespread effects on the body. Sometimes anxiety develops as a result of ongoing stress. But the effects of even low-grade stress are significant:
Blood pressure increases
Muscles tense up
Breathing rate increases
Heart rate increases
Brain waves slow down
Of course these are all signs of the ‘fight-or-flight’ response kicking into action. This is fine in the short term but detrimental to your health when they are ongoing.
When stress is ongoing it leads to widespread problems through the whole body.
Weight Gain – Stress alters the way fat’s distributed in the body, depositing it around the midriff where it poses the most danger to health.
Faster Ageing – A study from the University of California found chronically stressed mothers aged faster. Another study linked prenatal exposure to the mothers stress to accelerated ageing in the child.
Affects Brain Cells – A Stanford University study found brain cells shrink in the chronically stressed.
Serious Disease – Stress is known to increase free radicals incidence which leads to the development of serious chronic disease.
RECOGNISING STRESS
While anxiety is often the effect of stress, not everyone who’s stressed is anxious. People who suffer from stress often appear calm. So it’s worth learning to recognize other body cues that occur when you’re stressed. If you learn to notice and recognize the signs in your body you can take steps to reverse them.
Do you recognize or experience any of these signs that you are under stress?
Your neck gets tight and stiff and you develop a tension headache at the base of your skull.
Your shoulders and back tighten.
Your chest wall feels constricted. If you cross your arms to compensate it simply further constricts your breathing.
You get a feeling of a tight ball or knot in your belly.
Your jaw clenches, your forehead tightens, as do your lips.
Your fingers feel tight, your hands clench.
People looking at you can easily see your stress – your shoulders hunch, your head bows, your face is clenched and you may even seem to be wearing a defeated air.
You may even experience some more serious problems which include palpitations, stomach upsets, sleep problems, impotence, reduced sex drive, raised blood pressure or a stroke or heart attack.
Perhaps most importantly, stress has been shown to lead to an increase in free radicals throughout your body. Free radicals lead to inflammation and are now seen as the forerunner of serious chronic and autoimmune diseases such as cancer, SLE lupus, other autoimmune disorders, ageing, cataract, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.
YOUR DE-STRESS TOOL KIT
While it can be virtually impossible to eliminate many ongoing, underlying stresses from your life, adopting some simple techniques to use in times of increased stress can help you feel better in moments. When you take steps to reduce your stress response you also create an immediate effect on the stress hormones released through your body. Having a few tools suitable for crisis control can restore your sense of wellbeing and help you cope in difficult situations.
Being able to reduce stress and anxiety without having to fall back on medications will help build your health in the long term.
Some techniques will work better for you than others and so it is worth searching out those that you find most effective. Try any technique you come across, even the esoteric ones, you can never be certain which will work for you. Allow them all the benefit of the doubt and give them a fair try. It is likely you will need to combine more than one technique, so be on the watch for any improvement and don’t reject anything if it is only partially helpful, it will still be making some difference.
Learn the technique before you are caught in a difficult situation. Memorise it and practice it – you need to be able to use the skills automatically. Most important, don’t give up – stress can make you restless and inclined to not stick it out.
There are many ways to manage the symptoms of stress. Acupressure, massage and diet are some of the better known. Flower essences and homeopathic remedies are excellent and very effective. Herbals are available in many forms. But there are also certain simple techniques and practices that you can do wherever you happen to be, right in the moment you need help.
SIMPLE TECHNIQUES TO USE
Relax
Often when your muscles are tense you are not even aware of it. Relaxing is a very basic and simple technique which will not only help you to release the tension, it will also bring you awareness of the state of your muscles.
Sit, stand or lie. Tense up one set of muscles in your leg or arms as tight as you can. (You can even start with just your toe muscles to be more effective). Then let them go so they are quite limp. The contrast between the two states will show you what ‘relaxed’ actually feels like. Concentrate on that feeling as you then tense and relax the other muscle groups in your body – your toes, feet, legs, buttocks, back, abdomen, hands, arms right through to your head. Pay particular attention to your jaw and forehead.
Breathe
Ninety percent of people breathe inefficiently.
Before you begin, reassure yourself that consciously controlling your breathing is one of the simplest and most effective ways to control anxiety and stressful feelings, and to diminish the effect of stress on your body.
Find somewhere quiet, clear your mind and start breathing deeply into your abdomen. Place your hand on your belly, you should feel it rise and fall. Breathe slowly and don’t raise your shoulders.
If you struggle, breathe as you count backwards from fifty. Breathe in on ‘fifty’, out on forty-nine and so on. Keeping your mind focused on synchronizing your breath with the numbers slows down your breathing and forces you to breathe deeper.
You can read more about the technique of deep breathing, and learn how to make effective breathing a normal, unconscious part of your life here – “Mastering The Breath Of Life”.
image: Shawn Rossi
Smile
Frowning triggers the release of stress hormones and smiling decreases them. In addition, smiling causes the release of endorphins, the chemicals that make you feel ‘oh-so-good’.
Stretch
Simple but very calming! Do it as slowly and gracefully as you can. There are three co-ordinated actions involved:
Controlling your breath
Raising your hands and arms
Stretching your whole body from toes to fingertips
Stand. Let your arms, wrist and fingers go limp. Bend your knees slightly, entwine your hands loosely and turn your palms upward.
Slowly breathe in. Raise your hands towards your mouth and start to straighten your legs.
Slowly breathe out, turn your palms outward and stretch your body. Slowly exhale totally, reach your arms up, face your palms to the ceiling. Stand on your toes.
Now reverse the action
Repeat at least five times, slowly. Take a few minutes afterwards to relax and do nothing.
Affirm
Your subconscious is a powerful force. Affirmations tap into your subconscious and are extremely effective if they are worded well and are used routinely. Given the impact and complexity of emotional stresses, affirmations are a useful tool because your subconscious cannot tell the difference between what is real or what is not, it only knows and directs according to what you tell it. If your thoughts are always that you can’t cope or you have no money, that’s what your subconscious believes and will direct accordingly.
The exact words you use form your affirmations are very important and can make or break the effectiveness of the affirmation. It is just as important that they become a regular part of your day and so the way you integrate them into your life needs to be considered.
Keep your statements in the present tense, as if they already exist. “I want to…” or “I can…” or “I will” relate to what you want to achieve and are not as powerful as “I am” or “I (do)” which relate to a state already in existence.
You will find some guidelines to creating and using affirmations here.
It can be useful to consult a practitioner to set up an affirmation technique that really works for you.
Visualise
If you are a visual person imagining a big screen showing a scene that you find calm can be useful.
Close your eyes and choose an image that reflects how you would like to feel, perhaps an idyllic tropical island or a peaceful waterfall.
Next imagine this image on a big screen in your mind.
Keeping your eyes closed ‘examine’ the image – the long stretch of beach, the ferns beside the water.
When you see it clearly, step inside. See yourself in the scene as if you are really there. Notice what you are wearing, what you can hear, smell. Feel the sand or grass, the breeze in your hair.
Once you feel you are really in the scene, reach for the ‘controls’ of the screen and turn up the volume and picture. As everything around you becomes brighter and louder and your physical feelings more intense, you become calm and relaxed almost immediately, as if you were really there.
Relax, keeping the calm with you.
Release
One of the most common symptoms of stress is a clenched jaw and clenched teeth. Releasing the jaw is a simple technique to release much of the tension of stress.
First become aware of the tension in your jaw. Clench tighter, then release it.
Lightly press your tongue against the roof of your mouth behind your teeth.
Part your lips slightly and feel your jaw relax.
Repeat several times a day.
Tap
The Emotional Freedom Technique, or tapping, is SO simple and SO effective. Anyone can teach themselves the basic routine and use it to create all types of changes. It can be very effective for creating calm.
It simply involves a routine of tapping on acupressure points in the body, while saying a set of statements. The process lodges any change in thinking within the subconscious. Changes occur with EFT extremely quickly.
Discover the basics of EFT, watch a demonstration and learn how to do the basic technique yourself right here. If you would like to learn more, many EFT practitioners run free information and demonstration sessions.
Eat
If all else fails eating small amounts of DARK chocolate helps calm anxiety. The theobromine in chocolate helps to elevate your mood and the tryptophan in dark chocolate improves your levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that influences mood and contributes to feelings of wellbeing. Many people with anxiety are known to have low levels of serotonin.
Stress and the inflammation that results are now seen as the forerunner of serious chronic and autoimmune diseases. It’s time to change that right now.
Importantly, remember to try the techniques out when you are feeling ok. Get to know them so you can move straight into doing them whenever you need, without having to think them through. If you struggle to remember what to do it will only add to your stress.
Do you have a technique that you find really helps when you are feeling stressed?
Leave a reply below and tell us about it.
Disclaimer.
All information and opinions presented here are for information purposes only and are not intended as a substitute for professional advice offered during a consultation. Please consult with your health care provider before following any of the treatment suggested on this site, particularly if you have an ongoing health issue.
Source articles
Wilson, P. Instant Calm, Penguin, 1995
Hartley, A. Love The Life You Live, Hart Publishing, 2000
Recently the herb Maca has come up frequently during consultations, so this week I would like to look at this new supplement that is rapidly gaining popularity. Not really a supplement, it is actually a ‘superfood’ with many amazing benefits. Superfoods are those that have very high levels of antioxidants, such as blueberries, spirulina or pomegranates.
Lepidium peruvianum, or Maca, is a tuber vegetable cultivated for thousands of years in the harsh conditions high up at 4,000m in the Peruvian Andes. One of the superfoods of the Incas, it has been used as a medicinal food for over 2,000 years to increase energy, promote endurance and stamina as well as improve fertility and sexual performance in both men and women.
Maca is part of the brassica family and related to broccoli, cabbage and turnip. The harvested root has high antioxidant levels and is loaded with protein. It has more bioavailable calcium than milk, magnesium, potassium, iron, plus other minerals and trace elements, vitamins and all the amino acids. It is rich in the B vitamins and a vegetarian source of vitamin B12.
In addition to the traditional uses maca is great for offsetting the effects of stress, anxiety and fatigue. It stimulates and nourishes the hypothalamus and pituitary glands, the master glands of the body. As these are the glands that regulate all the other glands, maca can help to bring balance to the adrenal, thyroid, pancreas, ovarian and testicular glands.
The glands in the body produce hormones that regulate many body processes including your mood, sexual development, growth, and tissue function. As well they play a role in many diseases ranging from depression to cancer
Maca is an adaptogen, responding to the individual needs of your body. It regulates as and where needed, where hormones are out of balance. This means if you are producing too much of a hormone it will regulate so production decreases, but if you are producing too much it regulates to increase production. Herbal adaptogens, are a rare class of herbs, valuable in natural health prescribing. Other adaptogens are licorice, Holy Basil, ashwagandha, ginseng, rhodiola, eleuthero and schisandra.
Unlike wild yam, maca does not introduce hormones into your body, nor are the active ingredients phyto-eostrogens. Instead it is thought that it is alkaloids in the maca that act on the hypothalamus and pituitary glands. This means that the effects of maca on the body are diverse, and not just restricted to the sex hormones.
Today the main uses of Maca are for balancing hormones, increasing energy and reducing stress. It offers significant benefits for women suffering hormonal imbalances. Studies have concentrated on the positive effects it has on the symptoms of menopause and perimenopause. However it is also very useful and beneficial for other hormonal problems like PCOS or PMS.
Maca has shown anticancer activity in the laboratory.
It reduces low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and decreases the levels of triglycerides.
It seems to reduce blood sugar levels and improve glucose tolerance.
Maca could provide a non-caffeine alternative for those who need an energy boost from coffee in the morning.
Is an antidepressant
Enhances learning and memory abilities
Supports the immune system
Increases energy, stamina and endurance, reducing chronic fatigue.
Remineralizes the body, making up for the lack of minerals in modern diets.
Clears acne and blemishes
HOW TO SELECT AND USE MACA
Maca comes in a number of different colours, the most commonly found is yellow. Scientists have found that each colour has a different effect on the body. Black and red maca improve bone health and black affects memory and learning the best. Darker maca roots contain significant levels of iodine.
The dried root of maca comes in a powder form, tablets or capsules. It has a slightly sweet, nutty flavour and can be added to many foods such as soup, herbal tea, or desserts. You can sprinkle it on bananas or popcorn. You can mix it with honey and eat the paste off the spoon, add it to smoothies, juice or to warm almond milk with some raw cacao for hot chocolate. Added to baking maca gives a maltiness to the flavour. But don’t add to much as the flavour can be overwhelming.
Start with ½ -1 teaspoon a day and build up to between 1 and 5 teaspoons a day, over a few days. Some people may experience adverse responses when they start taking maca. These are a sign of the body detoxing and only last a few days. Cut back the amount you are taking and build up slowly.
Improvement can occur within days, even the on same day, although for most people it takes about four days or even weeks to notice changes.
You can find maca at most health food shops or online. Make certain to buy a quality, organic product. Because it is a root vegetable the growing conditions make a huge difference to the level of nutrients. Cheaply priced good will deliver an inferior product (unless it is cheap on special). Only buy reputable, organic brands of maca root. Don’t buy other parts of the plant.
The brand I recommend to my clients, although I do not sell or have any financial interest in it at all, is Loving Earth Maca Powder. It is raw Australian Certified Organic and the company has awesome 30% off discounts on their website for all their maca products through December.
Maca is generally recognized as safe. However, because of the way it works care may be needed. For example, maca balances out your hormones so they are at the required levels. If you are also taking other supplements, such as Dong Quai, Black cohosh, Vitex or phytoestrogens for womens hormones for example, to achieve similar results, these could interfere with the maca and result in an aggravation of your symptoms.
If you take too much too soon maca can actually exacerbate your hormonal symptoms and make them worse. If you are suffering the effects of stress it could exacerbate that also, causing a racing heart and insomnia. I have seen problems that are the result of taking maca. Simply exercise care, stop taking maca if you notice adverse effects or speak to your health practitioner.
If you suffer from any diagnosed illness, particularly those such as hormone related cancers, speak to your health practitioner before starting to take maca.
Do you use maca? How quickly did it work for you? How effective have you found it?
Disclaimer.
All information and opinions presented here are for information purposes only and are not intended as a substitute for professional advice offered during a consultation. Please consult with your health care provider before following any of the treatment suggested on this site, particularly if you have an ongoing health issue.
This year I decided to ditch my footwear inside the house, ever since learning more about Barefoot Earthing or Grounding. This is a radical new health practice that is quickly gaining momentum as word about its benefits spreads. Its impact can be quite far-reaching and yet it is incredibly simple to do, costs nothing, is always available and feels great.
Have you ever noticed how good you feel when you take off your shoes to walk barefoot? Well it seems there is a scientific explanation, and research into the practice of Grounding has found that it can significantly improve all sorts of health problems. It can help your energy levels, reduce stress, improve your sleep, decrease muscular inflammation and stiffness as well as other chronic pain, reduce anxiety, improve circulation, prevent free-radical damage and associated premature ageing and even heal injuries faster. It brings you back into a state of equilibrium where your body is best able to heal itself. Those who use the practice on a regular basis report great results. I am certainly finding I have less aches and pains whenever I walk round without shoes than when I leave them on.
It all has to do with electrical fields.
These days we live completely immersed in electro-magnetic waves (EMFs) from a huge number of everyday items including mobile phones, computers, wireless technology, many electrical appliances, and even compact fluorescent lights. The air in our houses, our workplaces, our schools and in some outdoor places is full of electro-pollution, harmful positive ions produced by this multitude of electrical contraptions that surround us.
These positive ions contribute to ill health.
Electrical Stress
Electrical stress is now recognized as a significant contributor to many health problems and in fact a new chronic illness. The term ‘Diabetes Type 3’, has been coined to describe illness believed to be caused by electropollution.
Surrounding yourself with sources of negative ions helps rebalance this disharmony, as does being in places where negative ions are in abundance such as waterfalls or the ocean.
The surface of the earth is electrically conductive and has a permanent supply of free electrons sitting just above the surface. The charge on the earth surface is negative and anything that is close to the surface will also carry that charge.
Your body also has an electrical field, sometimes referred to as the biofield or the aura. When your bare feet are in contact with the earth negative electrons can easily pass into you.
Grounding allows an electron exchange between you and the earth. This helps to prevent a build-up of harmful electrons in your body as well as promoting a discharge of the positive ions from your body into the earth. Simultaneously you receive a flood of free electrons from the earth.
When the ions within your body and within the Earth are different an ion exchange occurs. This neutralizes free radicals in your body which cause inflammation and are responsible for many health problems. The flood of electrons immediately ‘re-balances’ you, which is why you feel so good when you walk outside barefoot.
In case you got lost in that explanation, simply, standing on the earth rebalances the electromagnetic field of your body, helping to strengthen your immune system, and boosting both your health and your wellbeing.
For most of our existence humans have gone barefoot and often slept directly on the ground. Things now are very different. As well as being surrounded by electromagnetic pollution we are cut off from receiving the rebalancing benefits from the earth because the shoes that we now wear have rubber and synthetic soles that insulate and block transmission of the natural beneficial energy of the earth. It’s just like how rubber gloves can provide protection from electrical shock. Your shoes act in much the same way.
How to Ground Yourself
Take your shoes off and stand or walk barefoot on grass, beach, bare earth, even concrete when it is laid directly on the earth, although not if it’s painted or sealed, whenever you can.
To gain the full health benefit you need to walk around on the earth for about thirty minutes.
Other ways to ground yourself and reap the benefits are to swim in lakes, rivers, or the sea; wear shoes with leather soles; purchase and use an indoor grounding mat or an earthing bed sheet.
The reason I am able to benefit from earthing when walking barefoot indoors is because my floor is made of unglazed slate sitting on a concrete slab which is set directly onto a rock shelf on the side of a hill. There are no substances between my feet and the Earth that block the passage of negative ions. You would not get earthing benefit in a home raised above the ground, or with glazed tiles covering the floor, or a layer between the concrete and tile, or with other floor coverings.
If you would like to read up on Earthing get a copy of the book EARTHING – The Most Important Health Discovery Ever? by Clint Ober, Dr Stephen T Sinatra and Martin Zucker.
Remember though, Grounding is not a substitute for medical treatment and if you have a medical condition you need to consult your healthcare provider.
Disclaimer.
All information and opinions presented here are for information only and are not intended as a substitute for professional advice offered during a consultation. Please consult with your health care provider before trying any of the treatment suggested on this site.
parts of our life as the grain of sand in the oyster shell. The sand grain sits there irritating the poor oyster. But with work the oyster is able to transform it into a beautiful gem, a pearl. By opening up the shell of ourselves and working on the irritating grains of sand in our life we can transform problems into pearls.
Happy Holistic Health 