6 ESSENTIALS

Your Choices Matter

The choices you make on a daily basis truly determine your health. Creating good habits in the areas of the six essentials will give you the foundation you need. Poor choices in the six essentials can lead to breakdown of the body and disease.

What You Eat

Your diet should consist of approximately 75% organic fruits and vegetables and 25% everything else. This keeps your body alkaline (its natural state) and functioning at its optimal state. When our bodies become too acidic our system becomes bogged down and a state of dis-ease is created.

What You Drink

Over half of our body is made of water! Many people do not get enough quality water throughout the day and suffer in their health because of it. The formula for drinking water is to drink ½ your body weight in ounces of water per day. Make sure you have a quality water source; reverse osmosis is best. Simply making a habit of drinking 16oz of water first thing in the morning will do wonders for your health! (You can even add a slice of lemon or cucumber to make it more interesting).

How You Exercise

Get 30 minutes of whole body exercise at least three times a week. Help your body stay flexible. You’ll be surprised at how good it feels and how the tendency to suffer injuries is reduced.

How You Rest

Good sleep every night is essential to your body’s ability to heal and recharge itself. Not getting enough sleep on a regular basis leads to hormonal disruptions which can lead to many different states of dis-ease within the body. To get quality sleep, it is best to go to sleep at the same time every night, avoid screens (TV, computers, phone) at least two hours before bed time, as well as avoid heavy meals and stimulants before bed.

What You Breathe

Breathing provides oxygen for cellular metabolism and helps to maintain the acid alkaline balance in the body. Diaphragmatic breathing pumps cerebral spinal fluid to nourish and remove waste from the central nervous system. Breathing moves life force throughout all parts of the body. These many important functions often become dysfunctional when people get busy, stressed or lose the optimal breathing pattern. To breathe correctly we must breathe in through our nose and breathe deep into our diaphragm reaching the lowest part of our lungs. Proper breathing allows for optimal oxygenation of the body, alkalizes the body and activates the parasympathetics, decreasing the stress response in the body.

What You Think

This is by far the most important of six! What you think about, you bring about. Developing an attitude of gratitude can be one of the most important things you can do for your health and your happiness! How we perceive the world will determine not only the quality of our experiences, but the physiology of our body responds to our thoughts and beliefs. Therefore our thoughts have a huge impact on our physical health. And, don’t forget to forgive!

Every day of your conscious existence you make decisions. Conscious choices. Some decisions affect your future more than other. Every day you decide how you will respond to six vital areas of life. You decide what you eat and drink, what you think, what you breath, and how you exercise and rest. Each of the six decision areas is so important to your current health and well-being that i call the group the B.E.S.T. Essentials.

Choices in the B.E.S.T. Essentials are so common-place that most people don’t even recognize them as conscious decisions. Eat and drink decisions are often based on ease, speed, and convenience. Exercise and rest choices are usually based on schedule loads. Choices you make in these six essential areas usually aren’t dramatic; they’re constant.

The fallout from your choices in the six essential areas affects how you feel and how healthy you are. When the decisions you make in all six areas keep your body functioning at its best, you are healthy and you feel good. If you consistently make essential decisions that keep your body in crisis, you are – or will be – sick.

Although diet is the most popular area of an I’m – going – to – improve – my – life campaign, thoughts and feelings are the most important areas. Your body responds to constantly and intensely to how you feel about everything that goes on in your life. And these responses can be behind major physical problems.

Survival in this instant is your body’s only goal. Not survival later today, or next week, or next year. Survival now. You may not be happy with the by-products of your body’s survival techniques. You may have aches and pains that range from annoying to excruciating. You may be in the throes of a serious disease. or you may be in the process of developing a disease that you haven’t even noticed yet because you are still symptom free.

Those who are constantly anxious, afraid, up-tight, jealous, judgmental, or self-critical, keep their bodies ready for a fight. Being ready for a fight is fine if you’re in physical danger. But being ready for a fight constantly – days, nights, and weekends – is really hard on the body. After a while, it gets exhausted. If exhaustion continues, organs and systems curtail production or shut down.

Usually the first organs or systems to go are those that aren’t contributing to immediate survival. For example,you can manage with gallstones a lot better than you can manage with acidic blood. the good news is that you have control over most of the situations your body must survive. The choices you make in the B.E.S.T. Essentials set up the survival threats your body must respond to. And the biggest survival threat is stress. Mental, emotional and nutritional stresses exhaust both you and your internal organs and systems.

The decisions you make about everyday activities – what you eat, drink, think, and do – affect the climate of your cells’ home and the way your body works. When you make and carry out decisions that allow a favorable internal climate, health is your reward. On the other hand, when you make and carry out decisions that produce an internal climate in which your body must constantly “fight for its life”, pain and disease are your rewards. Therefore, you can decide to be healthy….. or not.