Overthinking and even obsessive thoughts run rampant in our culture. The constant feeling of never having enough time, energy, money, or love wears us down. Not only does it rob us of the ability to enjoy the moment, stress actually causing physical damage as well by causing inflammation in the body. Inflammation is the bodies natural response to infection, injury, and stress. It is meant to kill invading foreign pathogens that cause disease, cause swelling, and pain to immobilize injured areas so they can heal, or to send a message to the body to get away from a stressful situation.
The problem is that for whatever reason many of us are in a constant state of inflammation and irritation so the body is unable to heal itself. Your inflammation may have started with an injury but the constant stress from life and environmental factors keeps the inflammatory response going. We can’t always remove ourselves from stressful situations but we can make our bodies stronger so we are able to handle the stresses of life better.
Here are 4 simple ways to strengthen your body, decrease stress and inflammation:
Diet
The best thing you can do for your health and the health of the planet is to eat as local, organic, and seasonal as possible with 70% of your diet coming from vegetables and fruits. You may also want to consider getting allergy testing and genetic testing done to better understand how your individual body and genes respond to certain nutritional intake. If you have been diagnosed with inflammation or an autoimmune disease then I strongly recommend you go on a cleansing diet for 30 days that includes no grains, no dairy (especially industrial), no sugars, no nightshades and limit foods high in lectins like potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, chili, beans and legumes. See how you feel in 30 days and then decide what you want to reintroduce into your daily health routine.
Exercise
One of the most effective ways to reduce stress and cleanse your body is through exercise & sweat. Your skin is designed to protect and detoxify your body. Why not help it do its job by getting enough exercise to sweat everyday. Be sure to rinse the sweat off when you are done so the residue doesn’t have a chance to reenter your body.
Bowel Cleansing
Recent research is showing a direct connection between gut health, immune function and overall health. Some research is evening showing that the bacteria that live in our gut has an effect on the expression of our genes and our mental health. What this means is bowel health directly affects how genes function and what they tell the cells of our body to do or become. This also means that what we eat affects our mood and perception of the world around us. Science has also shown that our bodies replace all cells every 7 years, so we truly are what we eat. Here are some basic things you can do to cleanse your bowels.
1-3 teaspoons of food-grade diatomaceous earth a day mixed in 1 cup of water will cleanse your body and bowels.
Every day you should drink about a half ounce of water for every pound you weigh.
Probiotics and fermented foods are great for restoring gut health so enjoy your pickled foods, sauerkraut, kimchi, beet kvass, or whatever your favorite ferments are.
Colonics or enemas- Sometimes our bowels become so toxic that the most effective way to clean them is to wash them out. There are many folds in the intestines where undigested foods and waste products can get stuck and cause inflammation and pain. Colonics are a safe way to remove years of accumulated waste.
Stress Reducing Techniques
There are many ways to reduce stress. It is up to us to find which ones we enjoy the most and incorporate them into our daily routines. My top recommendations for stress-reducing activities are meditation, yoga, nature walks, breathing exercises, journaling, and sex. You may not do all of them every day but you should do at least one of them every day.
