9 Ways to improve your health this year

At this time of year so many of us are setting goals for our health, career and life as a whole (and some of us may have already fallen off track).

Personally I’m so psyched to welcome 2019 and all the opportunities for physical healing and personal growth it offers.

In January I usually take time our during the month to not only plan out my goals for every facet of my life but REFLECT on the year that has been. Whilst I was busy planning and writing, I felt the need to share some of my personal rituals for healing in 2019 with my community.

Below is how I plan to maintain my health in order to keep serving my community. To me, health is holistic, a combination of physical, emotional and mental aspect of self must be addressed in order to in order to maintain my health.

Reflection
 

In 2018 I was so focused on DOING that I often forgot to take time to look around and reflect. As soon as I was finished one thing, I was onto the next. It’s almost like I don't want to jinx it by celebrating too long or acknowledging my accomplishments, because I have this irrational fear that maybe they will disappear!

This can be positive as it keeps me from living in the past but it can also can also be distracting as my vision is focus so far into the future. Writing down answers to these questions really helped to bring me back into the NOW. If this is not something you have already done for 2018 I highly recommend taking the time to complete this exercise.

These are the questions I wrote down in my journal and answered:

What was your biggest triumph of 2018?

What was the smartest decision you made in 2018?

What was the greatest lesson you learned in 2018?

What is your biggest piece of unfinished business in 2018?

What are you most happy about completing in 2018?

What was the biggest risk you took in 2018?

In what ways did you take care of your well-being and physical health in 2018?

Some of the answers surprised me, I never really thought about the risks I took, I just held my breath and jumped!

January isn't just for writing out and manifesting this years goals… it’s for getting to know last years wins. So grab your journal or a piece of paper and get writing.

Diet

As always I plan to eat as close to nature as possible. Much of this year will be centred around fresh, organic, seasonal produce.

Last week I started drinking at least 1 litre of cold pressed vegetable juice before dinner. I also plan to eat lunch and dinner, listening to my body and if it needs food, I will eat as required. Why? What are the benefits?

This gives my digestive system a break. ‘Fasting’ from the night before until lunch time will allow my body to allocate more energy towards healing. I am feeding myself pure nutrition that my body can easily absorb, assisting my liver and kidneys to detoxify naturally.

My favourite juice recipes are:

• Pure celery juice first thing in the morning

• Carrot, spinach, cucumber and celery

Physical

Yoga - My yoga practice is paramount to keeping my body from feeling rigid. Yoga is far more than just a physical practice for me, it really helps me to get out of my head (always been an overthinking) and into my physical body.

Rebounding - I recently bought myself a mini trampoline (rebounder). Rebounding boosts lymphatic drainage and immune function and helps circulate oxygen throughout the body to increase energy, to name a few.

Dry skin brushing - again this is really important to get the lymphatic system moving and stimulate all that waste to be released from our system.

Infrared Saunas - I have written a seperate blog on this click here to read the benefits.

Mind

Meditation - I must admit, I went through periods of being a bit slack with a consistent mediation practice but this year I have committed to a DAILY practice. I have a tendency to think a lot, and I mean A LOT. I am constantly planning and my mind just keeps ticking over. I truly notice how a consistent practice absolutely changes my day to day life for the better. My favourite type of meditation? Mantra meditation. I plan to record some free guided meditations shortly (keep your eyes peeled for these!).

Journaling - I have always struggled with writing, I never knew what to write but I kept reading and being told by friends over and over just how fantastic this process can be for clearing your mind and manifesting your goals. Since I have committed to a weekly (I try for daily) practice in January I feel as though I have been able to literally ‘brain dump’ all of that information swirling around in my mind and make space for creativity and clarity.

Some of my favourite journaling prompts are listed below:

What do I desire right now?

What is this problem really about?

What am I afraid of?

Whats the worst ting that could happen here?

What is really important to me?

What is the best possible outcome of this situation?

What is the first thing i could do to feel better/deal with this right now?

what is my heart saying?

What do I really want to do here?

What are you feeling right now? What else?

What is it really about?

What is it that you would really love to be able to do right now?

How do you need to be looked after right now?

What has been missing in your life the past week/day?

What could you do today to make you feel good when you go to bed tonight about how this day finished up?

And the last thing that will help me to improve and maintain my health this year? FUN! I plan to have more FUN! It might seem silly but last year I didn't take a lot of time out to just enjoy life, I was so focused on ‘doing’ and I know this took a toll on my mental health at times.

This year I am dedicated to brining more fun into my life, this is also an important aspect of healing any illness. I will be taking pottery classes, attending more live classes, events and going to music concerts.

All of these things I implement in my life often become recommendations for my patients too, so I hope you are able to take at least 1 thing from this post to improve your health this year.

If you need some help figuring out where to start with getting on track with your health, click here to book in a free phone consult to see if we can help you get to where you want to be this year.