Reconnecting with good health

After the physical trauma of being cut open to repair damaged tissue, our bodies quickly heal so that we usually end up feeling much better than we did just prior to the surgery. I’m not there yet, but as I write this article, I am already visualizing how well I am going to feel at the end of the healing process.

Never too old

There is no age limit for deciding to start living a healthy life to reconnect your body, mind and spirit -- you can begin again at any time or stage of your life! I just turned 50 and had surgery, but my body is already kicking into gear, healing more and more each day. Overcoming illness is a great time to reconnect because it is a time when one is most aware of one’s body.

Begin with respectful gratitude

With every unhealthy choice, you make your body work hard to overcome the negative effects. Adopting an approach of respectful gratitude for where you are in life will help you to love and honor yourself for where you are at this moment in time. You have a great body because you have a living, breathing, functioning body. It may not be perfect, but is there such a thing as perfection? I think not.

Stretching

Stretches are a great way to celebrate your body! Stretching can help to alleviate stress by increasing blood flow to the muscles and by increasing breathing. Stretching is such a refreshing activity and it costs nothing to do. When you stretch just to move, you gain a higher awareness of your physical self in space and time. This awareness helps you to feel more grounded. Being grounded opens the heart and the soul for a deeper awareness of the connected self. See for yourself: Take a moment to stand up straight and tall with your shoulder blades resting on your back. Imagine your feet spreading out across the ground and rooting into the soil. Take five full breaths. Notice how your body feels both strong and grounded while feeling relaxed. For a deeper grounding, try bringing your arms up over your head as you breathe in, and down toward your sides as you breathe out.

Balancing

When one senses the deeper mind-body-spirit connection, the body moves closer to a state of homeostasis. It’s like coming home; once you’re there, you feel an incredible sense of relief resting in a safe, familiar place.

Natural balance

A balanced self is a powerful self. Think of the power necessary for a blade of grass to find its way through the smallest of holes in a cement sidewalk. If a single blade of grass has that much power, then imagine what your body can do!

Striving toward a relaxed state of mind

When some people think of relaxation, they imagine going totally limp in an easy chair after a hard day’s work. However, relaxation is really a play between the tension needed to maintain good body posture and the softness needed to move with fluidity and limited tension -- think of the yin-yang symbol. This Chinese symbol represents how energy works. When there is balance, the cognitive, physical and spiritual aspects of our being unite in health. The combination of respectful gratitude and gentle movements creates a balance that sends a message to the brain that it is free to heal.

Practice

I walk every day to reinforce the healthy patterns that I want to create. Although some people believe that intermittent exercise is as healthy as regular exercise, the best practice is to implement a daily health routine. In this way, the choices and patterns of health that you make are reinforced and wired in the brain. Your mind, body and spirit begin to have a better sense of what real balance is, so that you will recognize more readily when you fall out of balance.

It’s as easy as breathing

Some people tell me that they can’t get healthy because they don’t have time to exercise. I tell them that all exercise is just movement and breathing is movement; they better be doing that -- there really is no alternative! Even very busy people can find a few minutes to sit and take some deep breaths. While sitting, it’s important to use good posture to get the best benefit out of breathing. People who slouch often look and feel fatigued. The reason is that the lungs aren’t able to expand to full capacity. Good posture promotes balance and healing.

In with the good, out with the bad

Air comes in through the mouth and nose, follows a path down the trachea and branches off into two bronchi in the lungs. These bronchi branch off into bronchioles. At the end of these bronchioles are the alveolar sacs. Blood vessels surround the alveoli, releasing carbon dioxide into the alveoli and absorbing the oxygen that the body needs. As the blood circulates throughout the body, the oxygen is released to allow our cells to function efficiently. Carbon dioxide wastes are then released out of the body.

Get a free internal massage

Think of the lungs like two large balloons filled with air. When you breathe in, the chest expands, and when you breathe out, the chest deflates. These basic breathing movements stimulate the vital organs in the body and assist in the oxygenation and purification of the body. If you take shallow breaths, then some of the air sits in pockets of dead space deep within the lungs. That is why you need to practice deep, abdominal breathing to refresh the air in those areas.

Brain massage

One of the vital organs that loves deep breathing is the brain. The brain floats in a warm pool of cerebral spinal fluid. Each breath creates fluctuations in fluid pressure, causing a gentle wave in the pool that stimulates the brain. Have you ever taken a deep breath when you felt sleepy? Right after you take a deep breath, you get a rush of alertness as a result of this brain massage.

Winter breath

Winter is a difficult time for healing -- that’s why it’s called cold and flu season. The reason is that the lungs don’t perform as well in cold conditions. When it is cold outside, you might find yourself almost gulping air. Your whole body tenses with the shock of the cold air reaching your lungs. To counteract that response, try sipping some warm tea. I know a friend who participated in a study with underprivileged children diagnosed with asthma. Instead of treating these subjects’ asthma attacks with inhalers, the test subjects were given warm water to sip. Incredibly, the asthma attacks subsided with just the warm water that served to relax the lung tissue. So, make sure to add plenty of warm liquids, like herbal teas and soups, to your diet during the winter months to stimulate healthy breathing.

Endorphins

Breathing stimulates endorphin release, a release of brain chemicals that puts the brakes on the fight-or-flight stress response in the brain. The body needs a break from stress because if the body is in fight-or-flight mode for too long, it can really damage the cells. Endorphins help keep things in check. Although I miss the endorphin rush that I get from vigorous exercise, I still get an endorphin push from walking -- and you can get it from breathing, too. Laughter is another way of releasing endorphins. Endorphins allow one to feel peaceful and relaxed, creating a sense of being nurtured while stimulating healing.

Endorphin release has another great side effect: It helps to regulate sleep patterns. It is easier to let go of stressful thoughts and go to sleep when you are in a relaxed state of mind. Also, endorphin release in the morning can help stave off a grumpy mood -- if you’re feeling irritable in the morning, take 10 deep breaths while thinking of something funny. You might be surprised at how much more energized you will feel!

Looking forward

I know that I’m not totally healed. However, I’ve decided to keep focusing on the glass half-full. I know that I have physical limitations at this time and I don’t plan to go against my doctor’s orders. Rather, I’m celebrating what I can do to support the healing process.

I invite you to join me. Just start off small with some deep, healing breaths.