Over these last few weeks I’ve been pondering the many and varied ways in which we work at attaining good health. How many of you count calories, force yourself through workouts that exhaust you, or feel guilty for not doing a better job on your health? It’s really crazy how much time gets spent on feeling bad for not doing enough.
I want to make it easy for you so I’m going to share with you the #1 thing you can do for your health.
This thing is the biggest factor I’ve seen in having and maintaining good health. It affects ALL of the other ways that we strive to be healthy. When this thing is NOT addressed you can be doing all the “right” things and still not feel amazing.
Now before I jump into the #1 thing I want to talk a little about stress (yes this is related to the #1 thing but probably not quite like you think). We typically view stress as external factors in life, things like a death in the family, an accident, a job loss, a breakup, financial trouble, a move, a career change…you get the idea. While these things can all be very stressful it is NOT these events themselves that create stress.
No, it is the fact that these things are ALL catalysts to change. They force you to experience a new reality whether you want to or not. So they can be good things because they make us face parts of ourselves that without a catalyst we may never address…however facing these challenges can of course be extremely trying.
The other thing about stress is that because it is an individual, internal experience the things that cause stress for each of us, differ. This aspect is directly correlated with our unconscious patterns or instilled beliefs about ourselves and our lives.This is why stress can be such a silent killer because your unconscious patterns can be causing stress in your body. You don’t even realize it! There doesn’t always need to be a big external factor to act as a catalyst. It can be something incredibly mundane that you wouldn’t even consider stressful to be acting as a catalyst for change. Unless you bring it into your awareness you will have no idea what it is really doing to you.
So…The #1 thing then that you can do for you health is:
Become more aware of your unconscious patterns!
This will reduce and/or eliminate the stress response. Your habitual patterning will NO LONGER be the driving force. Your unconscious patterns keep you stuck in struggle…trying to release habits that don’t serve you but continually ending up back at square one. I’m sure you’ve had that experience where you are going along doing quite well with your diet and exercise regime, something happens to knock you off course and before you know it you are just about back where you started. You’re left feeling frustrated with yourself for ending up back in that same place knowing you have to somehow get yourself back on the health bandwagon.
When the underlying motivation has not been released, you will keep going back to your default pattern.
How do you become more aware of your unconscious patterns so that they can be released for good?
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Meditate, Relax, Reflect.
Any of these tools can help you quiet the unconscious chatter in your mind and connect you with the messages of your body. When something is not known in the mind, it is known in the body. To connect with your unconscious messaging, you can start paying attention to what you feel in your body. For example, when you recognize that you are stressed ask yourself, “how am I experiencing this in my body? What does the stress feel like?”
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Keep a thought journal.
In an effort to better understand the kinds of things I was telling myself, I experimented with carrying around a note pad. I would check in with myself a few times per day and write down what was on my mind. It really helped me notice how I talked to myself. If you want to take it one step further, you can spend some time with the thoughts that you’ve written down. Are they true? Are they pertinent to what you were doing at the time? How positive or negative are they? It’s not about judging what you’ve written down, it’s simply about gaining more awareness of your own voice with yourself.
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Clear your patterning with tapping and/or homeopathy.
These are two tools that I use all the time with patients. First we determine what the unconscious patterning is and then we clear it using a simple tapping technique or with homeopathic remedies. It amazes me all the time the big shifts that happen for people when we start doing this work.
From one appointment to the next, they come back in with so much more clarity where there was none before. I have seen many patients no longer need medications, gain freedom from anxiety and depression, start taking a stand for themselves in relationships, feel less stressed, have more energy, seem happier, and have more time and desire to put into the simple tasks of health without the guilt or force.
If you’d like to learn more about reducing the stress response and feeling more free in your life to do the things you want to do, send me a message or schedule a free discovery call with me.
Dr. Kim Gowetor
Naturopath Sherwood Park
Naturopath Calgary
780-328-9088
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Well Dr. Kim, this is another good article. Very practical, and seriously, useful. It took a tragedy of immense proportion for me to finally not stress the small stuff. Once I realized how strong I truly was, having survived the trauma I was forced to endure, I got in touch with me and realized I had spent way too much of my good energy sweating the small stuff before my world was turned upside down. Once I worked through the realization (and it doesn’t have to be of immense proportion, you just need to be aware), and learned to better understand myself and my environment, I learned not to dwell on things that were not life threatening. This allowed me to really put things in perspective.
Meditating, relaxing and reflecting are HUGE, HELPFUL tools. It is an excellent way to get in touch with ones’ self and calm down.
I have taken many notes. It helped me be way more objective about myself, and not be so hard on myself. I am only human.
The tapping and homeopathy has been excellent recommendations from you. The simple act of tapping has been immediately helpful in clearly my immediate state. It really, honestly, clears the mind. The homeopathy remedies have truly helped with the aches and pains I have encountered as I age. Very helpful 😆
As I said, this is very helpful, honest, practical information for me. Thank you.
Awesome feedback and realizations Kimberly. I so appreciate your thoughts. It is unfortunate that for many of us it takes an immense tragedy to change but once you come out the other side you DO really get to see how truly strong you are! 🙂
Dr. Kim, thank you for this article. Really good reminder of the need and how to take control of my health and hence my life!
Thanks Dele! I appreciate your feedback 🙂