Lifestyles of the Healthy, Whole and Conscious: An Eight-Part Program
1) Become Conscious
Full consciousness involves being aware of all our experiences, not just mental, but emotional and physical.
2) Access The Psychosomatic Network
“The more conscious we are, the more we can ‘listen in’ on the conversation going on at autonomic or subconscious levels of the body mind,” says Candace Pert. “Only then can we enter into the conversation , to enhance the effectiveness of the autonomic system, where health and disease are determined minute by minute.” Through visualization and other techniques, that conversation can be redirected, resulting in changes that can improve your health.
3) Tap Into Your Dreams
Get into a daily habit of recalling and transcribing your dreams, because they are direct messages from your bodymind giving you valuable information about whats going on physiologically as well as emotionally. It’s a way to eavesdrop on the conversation going on between psyche and soma. If necessary, use that information to intervene and make proper changes in your behavior and physiology.
4) Get In Touch With Your Body
Getting a massage or a chiropractic adjustment or taking a walk or giving a hug are ways of acknowledging the skin, the spinal cord, and the organs – all of which are entry points into the psychosomatic network
5) Reduce Stress
Meditation, in all its forms, is the most effective method of reducing stress because it allows us, even without conscious awareness, to release emotions that subvert a healthy mind-body flow of biochemicals. Another stress-buster is play – a cheap, easy, and effective way to instantly reduce stress and rejuvenate body, mind, and spirit.
6) Exercise
The value of exercise has less to do with building muscles or burning calories than with getting your heart to pump faster and more efficiently and thereby increase blood flow to nourish and cleanse your brain and all your organs. Of course, exercising hard enough to break a sweat can also result in mood improvement because endorphin’s are released. Yoga and other exercise programs that incorporate conscious breathing, relaxation, and body awareness are particularly health-enhancing.
7) Eat Wisely
Eating, because of its survival value, is a highly emotional event. So listen to the wisdom of your body, advises Pert.Eating when we’re not really hungry and using food to bury unpleasant emotions results in nervous eating and depression eating. However, turning into your emotions as information about your digestive process can help develop your ability to know what your body needs in the way of nourishment ad wen, Finally, avoid processed sugar completely. “I consider sugar to be a drug.” says Pert. “Relying on an artificial form of glucose sugar to give us quick pick-me-up is analogous to, if not as dangerous as, shooting heroin.”
8) Avoid Substance Abuse
All drugs – alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, and others – can alter the natural flow of your body’s own feel-good mood-regulating peptides. Biochemically, drugs are harmful. They can all be abused, which can contribute to sub-optimal health in one form or another, including chronic depression.