Self Care Is A Powerful Tool

by | Apr 12, 2016 | ENVIRONMENT, GRATITUDE, MINDFULNESS, MOVEMENT, NOURISHMENT, PURPOSE, SELF CARE, WORK-LIFE BALANCE | 0 comments

walking 5 km a day

So why is Self Care such a powerful tool?

There comes a time when your body’s compass begins to shout out to you to find your “True North”. And it is usually at crisis point, when your life seems to be spinning out of control or as I like to say “when you can’t get off the Merry-Go-Round “ and your health and wellbeing is suffering.

When this happens its your call to ask ” What is it that My body needs to heal itself?” Be guaranteed that there is no drug or prescription that will miraculously “fix” you .

So many people that I talk to are tired of being over prescribed medications that don’t work and feel pressured to take additional drugs to counter the side effects of the other drugs they are taking. Finally people are turning to the doctor that knows them best – themselves.  We know far more about ourselves than we give credit to and it is time that we BACK ourselves. I do not intend this article to be an attack on the medical profession at all, however, what I would like to address is that finally people are stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility for their OWN health .

This is where the notion of Self Care comes into play, and there is some interesting science to back it up. In 1993 the Institute of Noetic Sciences published a database they called Spontaneous Remissions Project. This database compiled 3,500 cases from Medical literature of patients with incurable diseases that had “cured” themselves. These diseases included: Stage 4 Terminal Cancers, HIV patients, Thyroid disease and diabetes. Without the use of any medical treatments these patients were able to eliminate diseases from their bodies.

Dr Kelly Turner travelled the world to study these patients who experienced what she called “unexpected remission” as she believed spontaneous implied it just happened and that is was some kind of luck. All these patients refused Western Medicine or treatments. Amazingly Dr Turner found 6 common threads between them all :

1. A change to a healthier diet – Where more fruits, vegetables , whole grains were eaten and less meat, sugar ,diary and refined products were eaten

2. A deeper spiritual practice – These patients had a great sense of connectedness with a divine source. According to a study at the University of Rochester 85% of people pray when they are faced with illness which is far greater than those seeking herbs or non medical healing modalities as a source of healing.

3. A commitment to being Happy and seeking out Love and Joy – Data shows that unhappy people are more likely to get sick and studies already show how happy people live 10years longer and that optimists have 77% lower risk of heart disease

4. Letting go of Negative emotions – These include fear, anger, grief, or resentment and the thoughts attached to these which activate the flight or fight response filling the body with stress hormones which deactivates the bodies ability to self heal.

5. Taking natural herbs or vitamins – There was no one magic herb or Vitamin though those taken were all to boost the immune system and help detox the body. Even if they were not to work studies have shown that a placebo can have anywhere from 18 – 80% positive effect.

6. Use Intuition – All patients indicated the importance of listening to their ownself  FIRST and did what made THEM feel better

So the saying goes Your Body is Your Business and you can’t just go handing it’s fate over to anyone else … We need to take charge of our own health.

For me, this year was about giving back to a self that has given to so many thousands of people. Some of the acts of Self Care I’ve adopted have included:

  • Talk a daily walk and where possible surround myself in nature
  • Sit down to eat my lunchself care is a powerful tool sacred space
  • Always find time to have coffee with a friend
  • Spend more time in the bath just relaxing
  • Eat a plate full of colour
  • Read more
  • Let the house be messy just once!
  • Eat what makes me feel healthy
  • Spend time looking after my skin
  • Appreciate my view more and spend time taking it in
  • Don’t feel so responsible for others
  • Write in my gratitude journal every day
  • Find amazing inspiring quotes and inspired by them
  • Sit in my sacred space and meditate (see pic above)

Being more in tune with yourself is a gift you are giving back to oneself and that is why Self Care is a powerful tool and is far from being Selfish … It is an essential part of a healthy & joyful life!!