On This Journey: Hope
On this journey, I send you a blessing:
Whenever you touch someone, may you show them love.
In your work, may love, mercy, and justice shine forth.
May it guide and protect you.
– – – – – – – – –
As a reflexologist, whether I heal, teach, write, speak, or dowse, my intentions are the same.
I want us all to become more conscious of ourselves.
It’s time to take charge of our healing.
We can make necessary changes appropriate for us now as we offload things we no longer need.
As we do this, we discover what’s important to us. We learn things about ourselves we never knew.
We find out things about ourselves we once knew but forgot.
We see some items which we may have felt weren’t necessary. Now we know they are.
My job is to help you find your feet.
My goal is for you to know yourself better.
Once you know the truth about your feet, you become aware of your soul.
Things fall into place.
You may empower yourself to assume responsibility for your healing.
A better self-understanding emerges.
You are on a path to deeper consciousness.
Feet are essential. They have been crucial since the beginning of our existence. Our feet carry us wherever we need to go. They are part of our lives spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Reflexology has been with us since the beginning of time when its history is shrouded in mists.
If you travel to Egypt, you’ll find wall paintings referring to feet dating back to 2399 BCE in the Historical Physicians’ Tomb of Saqqara, Egypt.
In Nara, Japan, the Medicine Teacher Temple has a stone carving of Buddha’s feet dating to 790 AD.
In India, the paintings of Vishnu correspond to some reflexology points.
Ancient Chinese writings describe pressure points on thumbs and toes.
Ayurveda medicine incorporates foot reflexology.
When I see a person’s feet, I feel as if I’ve found a book filled with stories, all waiting to be told.
Your feet speak to me.
Before, during, and after a session, your feet change color, texture, and weight. Lines on your feet shift.
Health issues are messengers telling you to seek out and deal with spiritual causes.
When you visit a reflexologist with your health issues, you focus on your spirit.
You may also want to experience an hour of self-care. Or, you may want to bliss out for a short time.
Whatever the motivation, a reflexology session offers a window into homeostasis, the balance of all body systems. Reflexology is all about self-healing reflexology.
Your body changes daily – and continually changes throughout your activities. Whether sleeping, dancing, or taking out the trash, your body tries to maintain a health balance – homeostasis.
When you seek a reflexologist, you may be trying to deal with one or more ongoing persistent health problems.
You seek a solution while saying to yourself: “I may have to learn to live with fatigue (insomnia, constipation, headaches).”
When a person brings a spiritual issue to my table, I go to the chakras.
This is an opportunity to dowse them.
With chronic disease, the chakras commonly seize up.
Balancing a chakra with spinning helps. First, I remove the negative energy, then I spin the chakras. I always work the weakest chakra first.
Trauma clogs the chakras and turns them gray.
A reflexology session reveals things for a client including:
sleep
deep relaxation
more regular bowel movements
instant relief of tired, sore, achy feet
a mild detox
homeostasis
increased circulation
relaxed tension
Conflicting information constantly bombards us with information about our health.
What’s good.
What’s bad.
The bottom line is we’re complex beings. Good health involves the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual body.
We heal five different ways. Healing is physical, symbolic, mythical, energetic, and spiritual.
Physical Healing is undeniable. Your body fights disease by overcoming symptoms, boosting your body systems, changing you DNA.
When a client comes to me in pain, we have a conversation about the situation. This is Symbolic Healing in action. I ask questions:
How long have you had this pain?
When did it begin?
Is it constant or intermittent?
What makes it better, and what makes it worse?
Where does it hurt?
What does this pain feel like?
What does it look like?
What color is this pain?
Can you describe the sound of this pain?
How does it smell?
What is your pain’s size and shape?
What other symptoms follow this pain?
Once the sound is identified, I invite the person to make a chant using this sound.
Symbolic healing works through words. Talking with a psychiatrist or psychotherapist is symbolic healing. Speaking with a physical therajpist about your shoulder pain is symbolic.
Guided meditation is symbolic healing.
Energetic Healing does not rely on words. Energetic healing is meditation, massage, reflexology, Reiki, chakra healing, or other bodywork.
Blended Healing happens when chiropractors, physical therapists, and physicians work on your symbolic level during consultations. Describing your health issues with a physician is symbolic healing.
– – – – – – – – – –
Illness is real. Accidents happen. Medicine and healing can help. They create meaning.
Recent global events spread uncertainty, insecurity, and grief. How we approah our health and wellness is forever changed.
It’s up to us now to keep ourselves and our loved ones well. At some point, you may need to choose a reflexologist or other healer. Not all healers and practitioners are alike.
A 9-word vocabulary clarifies this for you:
Administer – Reflexologists don’t administer anything. We read feet and offer sessions. We have provided noninvasive sessions to our clients the world over for ages and ages.
Advise – Reflexologists support client partners in their healing path. This work supports homeostasis.
Cure – Reflexologists offer our services and empower client partners to control their health as they heal and embrace wellness. This can be a very different thing depending on the issue.
Diagnose – Reflexologists do not diagnose. Physicians diagnose. A disgnosis is essential because it’s much easier to overcome a health issue if it has a name.
Dispense – Reflexologists dispense nothing beyond the sessions we offer.
Examine – Reflexologists read feet, hands, or ears. We notice the locations of our findings. We work the feet, hands, or ears to facilitate healing and homeostasis.
Patient – Physicians and nurses have patients. Reflexologists have clients or client partners.
Prescribe – Prescriptions are allopathic tools. Reflexologists do not prescribe. We rely on our hands and hearts to tell us what we find to encourage healing, and wellness, to facilitate homeostasis.
Recommend – We work feet, concentrating our energies to facilitate healing.
What is suffering really about? Why are we going through this? What is the purpose?
Getting well is sometimes very tough. These are the spiritual questions:
Do you want to be well if getting well hurts?
Do you want to be well if it separates you from your old identity?
Do you want to be well more than you want to stay the same?
A good model for healing involves four steps:
Several years ago, I had a pain in my shoulder. First I met with my health care provided for a diagnosis and whatever else I needed to get over this pain. This was important.
Her diagnosis helped me overcome my problem. An old saying goes like this: It’s easier to slay the .dragon once I know its name.
I had overworked a muscle in my shoulder . I removed the environmental cause of the problem by not lifting anything else until the pain was dealt with.
Then, I set about correcting my painful situation. I scheduled 8 physical therapy sessions and went twice a week for four weeks to physical therapy where I received massage, exercise, ultrasound, and heat treatment
My physical therapist taught me the proper way to lift boxes weighing 40 pounds each.
I scheduled four weekly reflexology sessions to correspond with each physical therapy session I received. A sesion was scheduled to be within 24 hours of each physical therapy appointment.
The reflexologist used her sensory skills to work my feet. She found crystals, resistance, hollows, and mushy tissue.
Her findings gave even more clues. Because my situation was acute, she found a lot of “clues”.
She found crytals that varied from tiny salt crystal size to crystals that felt like broken glass to feeling like beans. Some places on my feet felt as hard as rocks.
Others felt spongy.
Meanwhile, I felt things, too. I felt tenderness, shooting pains, throbbing. My feet felt sore, achy, bruised, and tired.
I also experienced incredible grounding and relaxation. I slipped into a deep, sleeplike state during each session.
Taking steps to keep the situation from happening again, I learned the proper way to lift 40-pound boxes.
More than anything, I followed my truth. I had a “conversion” when I understood the changes I needed to make and the things I had to do to be pain-free and to function well again.
I realized something:
As hard as we try to stay healthy, sooner or later, we all get sick.
Acute illnesses can be cured.
Chronic illnesses are another thing entirely. We live with chronic illnesses. They each have spiritual implications and overlays.
The role of the mind, the state of your health, and your spirituality connect to three things:
What happens in your life.
How you feel and think about what is happening.
What happens in your body.
These three things are the stress created by your situation. Stress is your response to an event and how you perceive and react to it, not what happened.
Stress is a deadly health crisis.
We each have a spiritual core needing encouragement, support, and protection. Your inner core helps you travel through life with the fewest bumps possible.
When guidance, nourishment, and protection are deficient in some way, you risk losing self-confidence.
Give yourself a boost. Life is easier with a solid inner core.
Begin by thinking positively.
Before you get out of bed each day, ask yourself:
“What makes me happy? How can I be happy today?”
Happiness is one thing that only you can give yourself. It doesn’t depend on how much money you make or how much education you have, or how tall you are.
Happiness depends on your inner self.
Listen to your body.
When you listen, your body will tell you what you need. It will tell you what to keep, what to avoid, what to give away, and what to leave behind.
When you understand what your body says, you have a chance to heal life. You can change your life if that is what you want.
Tune in to your body several times daily. Do you have pain anywhere? Is your spine aligned? What is your energy level right this moment? Are you hungry? Thirsty? Tired? Joyful?
Good health is a priority.
When you value your good health, you love your self. You believe you are a valuable person. You expect yourself to be in excellent health. Your thinking can change. Your life can unstick itself. Claim your wellness!
Your emotional self is a best friend.
Your feelings are an opportunity. You can never expand or grow until you own up to the feelings your body sends your way. They help you release pain, extra weight, sorrow, grief, fear.
When you release some of these painful things, you can experience joyful health, peace, grounding. You will find room in your soul for a better quality of life.
Connect with your community.
Volunteer or join a local group such as knitting or hiking. Get a parttime job. Read a local paper. Use your library. Work at a food pantry. Join your local church or synagogue. Teach someone to read.
Include exercise of some kind every day.
In 1513, Ponce deLeon discovered the Fountain of Youth in what is now St. Augustine, Florida. The Fountain of Youth still exists and keeps people everywhere healthy and fit.
There is at least one branch of it in your neighborhood. It’s located on a sidewalk or roadside where you can walk every day. If that branch is inconvenient for you, another nearby branch is in a local fitness center. You’ll be much healthier when you visit your favorite branch regularly.
Reflexology and Reiki
Include a session of Reflexology, Reiki, or other nourishing bodywork every week. It doesn’t matter whether you have a health issue, or whether you just want to get on a healing table and bliss out. What’s important is the self-care you receive.
Review your situation
This last year has been stressful for everyone. I don’t know even one person who has escaped grief.
Now is a good time to write about important moments in your life. You don’t have to focus on what happened in your life. Focus, instead, on what you did about what happened to you.
Write short stories, essays, poems, or keep a journal. Whatever you choose, if you need help, you may get it at your library.
Learn Reiki Therapy
Reiki is one of the oldest healing modalities on our planet. When you take a Reiki class, you learn a healing tool to positively impact your life.
Reiki is adaptable to many different situations. It is easy to learn and use. We all need more Reiki. Every time I hear about a new class forming or a Reiki circle happening, I rejoice.
Get Creative
The fun thing about creativity is that it can be anything you want it to be. When you get creative, you relax, laugh, explore, inspire and imagine. You add more color to your life.
Creativity is an empowering tool.
When you get creative, you are open to positive lifestyle changes. The possibilities are many:
You may develop a working relationship with your healthcare professional and your healer.
You may become more aware of your body and how it works.
You have a basic plan for conquering and preventing disease when you combine quality sleep with healthy eating and physical activity. I have written much about these things in my blog posts, my books, and on YouTube interviews.
When we are in the presence of someone suffering from something we can do nothing about, the first reaction is to run away as fast as possible. It’s frightening to be around suffering.
Feeling helpless in the face of anguish and pain is complex.
A Healing Community
To be part of a healing community, we learn to be with those suffering even when we feel helpless.
Make no mistake. We are not helpless. We offer hope for one another as we keep the faith God, or the Universe, or whatever word you want to use, is working even when we can’t see how. To be part of a healing community means we are not alone.
That makes all the difference.
When you are part of a healing community, you can change. You can experience your life differently, made to feel whole, even as your physical abody falls apart.
Touch can heal you from fear, even when you remain sick.
Healing is about creating meaning. Ask yourself:
What is suffering for anyway?
Why are we going through this?
What is the purpose?
Getting well is sometimes very tough. Do you want to be well if getting well hurts?
Do you want to be well if it separates you from your old self?
Do you want to be well more than you want to stay the same?
This is a all to change.
Since ancient times, healers and physicians have worked with patients to achieve a cure, a restoration.
Healing takes many forms: physical, mythical, symbolic, and energetic.
But, what happens when there are no options?
From the time a person is diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening illness, we must try to make some sense of the days and months left.
Healing appears in many forms, including antibiotics, chemotherapy, and morphine.
Reiki, guided meditations, favorite music, and listening are appropriate.
Whatever form healing takes, flexibility is essential. Any number of situations may arise. A nurse may arrive to do routine and necessary are. A family member may enter.
Let the process unfold in whatever way it happens.
In the end, we offer a smile, an ear, a touch, an embrace.
Sometimes it helps to remind yourself that, even though we’re grieving, death is about the person who is dying.
The rest of us are there to help say “goodbye”, do the laundry, and serve a cup of tea to someone to someone who needs it.
Finally, our job is to let the person go.
Thanks for reading this article. Please forward it to your preferred social media network and share with a friend.
A final note: The third edition, Wellness for All, is now available in a paper edition for $15. with $5. shipping. This third edition is enlarged and expanded, with over 300 pages of information. www.thurmangreco.com
www.reflexologyforthespirit.com
Cancer and Your Spirituality
Spiritually, few diseases have an impact as strong as cancer. Grief eats away at your body. Carrying past wounds makes you fearful, angry. You attack yourself from the inside out. Finally, you are running on empty.
Cancer is a complex and life-threatening disease. It requires specially trained health care professionals. Your journey to wellness will be easier and more effective if your medical knows about any and all alternative remedies you use. Your recovery calls for conventional physicians and integrative medical techniques. In other words, use every tool you feel will work.
Include internists, physical therapists, nutritionists, bodyworkers, healers in your wellness team. Everyone is needed to care for you and give you a better path to success.
As with arthritis, there are many different forms of cancer. Your reflexology, Reiki, and chakra healing sessions, received 24 to 48 hours after chemotherapy help move the medication throughout your body more efficiently.
Regular sessions offer a deep sense of relaxation, homeostasis, pain relief, and reduce stress. If reflexology is not available, try other bodywork modalities. They can change your cancer experience. Safe, effective healing bodywork therapies offer nurturing in tandem with cancer treatment.
When you suffer from cancer, continue all your treatments, both allopathic and complementary. Your reflexologist will support your return to good health through all your treatments. Your sessions will be most effective when you combine reflexology with Reiki, chakra healing.
Do you practice Reiki? No? Now might be a good time to start. Self Reiki sessions can help with fear, nausea, and pain.
RISK FACTORS
The list is long: age, air pollution, diabetes, excess sun exposure, exposure to chemicals, family history, heavy alcohol consumption, obesity, polyps in colon, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, poor health.
Some professions believe cancers don’t need risk factors because many people get cancer who don’t have applicable risk factors or who are not exposed to them. This makes cancer a more spiritual set of diseases.
CHAKRAS
The location of your cancer tells you which chakras are affected. With cancer, the chakras need to be balanced.
Prostate and rectal cancer involve your root chakra. Cancers of your cervix, ovaries, uterus, colon, unbalance your sacral chakra. Cancers of your stomach, liver, intestinal tract, pancreas, unbalance your solar plexus chakra. Your heart chakra becomes unbalanced by breast and lung cancers. Lung cancer unbalances your throat chakra as well. Finally, brain tumors affect your crown chakra.
REFLEXOLOGY SYSTEMS TO WORK
brain reflexes, endocrine system, digestive system, immune system, respiratory system, the lymphatics, circulatory system, nervous system, liver, solar plexus
ESSENTIAL OILS
Canadian red cedar, clove, dill, Douglas fir, galbanum, grapefruit, hyssop, Idaho balsam fir, lavender, ledum, maleleuca, myrrh, myrtle, nutmeg, patchouli, rose, sage, sandalwood, tarragon, thyme, tsuga, valerian, ylang ylang
VITAMINS AND MINERALS
Consult with your nutritionist, your physicians, and your entire support team to choose vitamin and mineral supplements for your situation. Nutritional support will help decrease any side effects you experience. Some professionals believe you will recover faster, have fewer complications if you take nutritional supplements.
If you have questions about which supplements are best for you, I refer you to Village Apothecary, 79 Tinker Street, here in Woodstock, New York, 12498. I get all my supplements at Village Apothecary. I trust Neil Smoller’s advice.
THINGS TO DO
Normalize your cholesterol levels. Exercise. Use smart food choices, portion control to balance your weight. Staying active helps relieve fatigue, reduce anxiety, lift pain, boost energy, preserve muscle strength, protect bones. Avoid overexposure to sun. Skip the alcohol. The list, it seems, is endless.
If you read this section of the book, maybe you’re taking stock of your life. Now is a good time to search your inner self and seek those lost parts you’ve ignored for a long time. Move them onto your front row of attention. Nourish those feelings and thoughts. Put them in the spotlight. Your goal is to feel safe so you can heal.
IMPORTANT FOODS IN YOUR DIET
There’s a correlation between fat, meat, and cancer. Fruits, vegetables, fiber are necessary for you if you are trying to prevent or treat cancer. Nutrition is important.
Some well known cancer-fighting foods include green tea, garlic, soy, turmeric, and ginger. No one food can cure cancer. But a good diet can help your quality of life while you fuel your body. At mealtime, fill your plate with fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
DEFENSE STRATEGIES
Living well offers protection against many cancers. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables as part of a healthy diet. Exercise regularly. Avoid tobacco and alcohol to prevent many cancers. Get a bit of sunlight every day. There is, however, no magic bullet.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
Have I left my community behind? Is deep stress undermining my immune system? Can I be honest about my feelings?
Thank you for reading this article. Please refer it to your preferred social media network.
Thanks for reading this blog!
Eczema – a skin condition we all need to know more about
Spiritually, if you have eczema, you have a negative attitude toward unpleasant events in your life.
Eczema is a fairly common skin condition becoming more and more common. Your skin becomes inflamed as it reacts to soaps, detergents, household chemicals, food, house dust, and other irritants.
Itching, red, inflamed skin is the first step. It’s followed by flaking skin and a rash appearing on legs, hands, face, neck.
In children, eczema likes the inner knees and elbows.
If the condition doesn’t improve within a week, you need to see a medical professional.
Looking at the bigger picture, eczema is also a reaction to stresses in and around you. And, we can probably all agree that life is becoming more and more stressful.
The best way to treat eczema is to identify, remove, and avoid the allergens. Your goal is to control and relieve symptoms.
Looking beyond the emotional, mental, and spiritual stress, we are all more and more stressed by the chemicals we come in contact with daily. The soaps we clean with and the food we eat are becoming more and more laden with more and stronger chemicals as time goes by.
Eczema begins as itchy blotches on your skin. The redness begins later. The three culprits here are allergies, stress, and immune system overload.
These three situations respond positively to regular reflexology, Reiki therapy and chakra healing sessions.
An important first step in treating eczema beyond regular sessions is for you to identify the triggers which set off your bouts of eczema. These may be animal dander, anger, cleaning products, drugs, foods, fragrances, poor circulation, house dust, .
All is not lost. You’ll benefit from a little sun every day.
Because eczema is a situation resulting from immune system overload, a clean environment is critical. This includes your air, body, car, home, work place, water.
When toxins are cleaned out, your health will have a chance to improve. Then, your reflexology sessions will be able to more effectively manage eczema’s side effects.
Eczema responds to conventional medical treatments as well as mind-body therapies. In addition to reflexology, Reiki therapy, and chakra healing, meditation helps.
Although this may seem like a daunting task, cleaning up your body and the environment is easier than you might think. For starters, throw out all your cleaning supplies and cosmetics and replace them with non-toxic products which won’t exacerbate the problem.
A good next step is to clean up the diet by cooking and eating only the foods which have no artificial colors, flavors, additives.
It has been said that health begins and ends in the colon. A colon cleanse followed by a liver cleanse is in order. When your environment is cleaned up and your body cleaned out, it will be easier to cope with stressful situations.
CHAKRAS:
Eczema is a fourth chakra issue.
REFLEXOLOGY SYSTEMS TO WORK:
immune system, nervous system, lymphatics, digestive system, circulatory system, liver, solar plexus
ESSENTIAL OILS:
bergamot, frankincense, geranium, helichrysum, juniper, lavender, myrrh, neroli, peppermint, sweet orange, tea tree, yarrow,
EFFECTIVE FIELDS OF HEALING: Conventional Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Naturopathy, Homeopathy, Herbalism
PREVENTATIVE MEASURES: Keep damaged skin moist using an oil-based cream. Apply emollients liberally and frequently.
TREATMENT GOAL: If you can avoid the itch-scratch-itch cycle and avoid potential infection, your situation will be much better.
Thank you for reading this article. Please refer it to your preferred social media network.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, New York
Longevity and the Fountain of Youth
In 1513, Ponce de Leon discovered the fountain of youth in what is now St. Augustine, Florida. Fortunately for us all, the fountain of youth still exists and there is a branch of it in your neighborhood. It is the sidewalk where you can walk daily as you exercise. It can also be found at your nearest fitness class.
The truth is that the best thing you can do to assure that you live a long and healthy life is move, move, move. Exercise is where it’s at!
A good exercise class or activity is one that you enjoy, can practice at least three times a week, and is one which strikes the right balance between enthusiasm and safety. You are doing yourself no favors if you experience sports injuries. The fountain of youth is one where you move, move, and move.
Everybody has excuses to not be physically fit through regular exercise.
Teens are distracted from exercise by schoolwork and the powerful pull of a social life.
Young adults in their 20’s seem to be physically fit more by accident than anything else. After all, young people are busy with careers and social activities.
Careers and family relationships are the major pulls of adults in their 30’s and 40’s. People exercising in this age group are often motivated by vanity. For some, health and longevity concerns become important as muscle strength declines. Issues surface such as slower reaction time, shortening ligaments, loss of elasticity. People in their 30’s and 40’s need to use warm ups, stretching more often.
If a person in the 50-to-60 age category continues to ignore the fountain of youth, daily life becomes more difficult when the time comes to get out of a chair, lift and carry objects. The quality of life improves when people rely on regular exercise routines. Regular exercise improves the life of a retiree! Go Fountain of Youth!
Exercise which supports physical fitness makes the difference between independent living and an assisted living facility for a person in the 70-to-80 age group.
The good news is that we are never too old to enjoy the benefits of the fountain of youth. Exercise is always there for us – no matter what our age! It ‘s never too late to discover the fountain of youth for yourself.
Whatever your age category, get off the sofa and move for just 30 minutes a day.
Thanks for reading this article. Please share it with your preferred social media network!
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, New York
Easy Wellness: 10 Tips for a Longer Life
Easy wellness is real and is even easier than you think.
JOB STRESS IS A FACT OF LIFE. There is a correlation between workplace stress and obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, gastrointestinal problems, asthma. It’s no surprise that people are more likely to suffer a heart attack on Monday than on the other days of the week.
So, what can you do to ease the pressure and experience easy wellness? Easy wellness techniques you can adopt are easier than you might think.
Go for a walk on your lunch hour.
Take your phone calls while standing up and moving around.
Play relaxing music.
Skip happy hour and go to the gym instead.
Wash your hands at least five times each day with soap and warm water.
Keep your bedroom clutter and electronics free.
Change your sheets weekly.
EASY WELLNESS EQUALS HEALTHY WEIGHT. Being overweight increases your risk for all illnesses and chronic conditions. Being underweight prevents the body from functioning at peak performance.
GET YOUR ANNUAL FLU SHOT. AND, AS YOU AGE, GET YOUR ANNUAL PNEUMONIA SHOT AND SHINGLES SHOT. It’s estimated that over 40,000 people die annually from the flu. An annual shot can prevent at least some of these deaths.
GET NAKED! Occasionally, inspect your body from head to toe. Look for blemishes, lesions, rashes, and other body oddities that are new on the scene. Your skin reflects the state of your entire body. If you will pay attention to your skin, you can catch the signs of underlying internal disease. Your body will tell you how well you are aging through skin tone, wrinkles, and color.
Expand the skin care routine you devote to your face and neck to include a skin care routine for your entire body.
GET OFF YOUR SEAT AND ON YOUR FEET. Easy wellness can go beyond the gym. Is your job physically intense? Or do you spend most of your time at a desk? Find ways to keep yourself moving throughout your day. Your body will love you for this!
DISCONNECT! At least twice a week give yourself a time out. It needn’t be too long. Try for 20 minutes at a time. Cut off your phone, your computer, your TV, your radio, your doorbell. Spend a few minutes enjoying your surroundings without interruptions. Your body, your mind, your spirit will thank you!
QUIT SMOKING – Okay, this may not be easy to do but, once you’ve done it, you’ll be healthier, more alert, richer, live longer. If you can get yourself down to 5 cigarettes a day, it’s easier to quit the habit completely.
GET YOUR HEART RATE UP FOR AT LEAST 20 MINUTES A DAY. This can be real easy wellness. One way to do this is to move your body and force your lungs and heart to work harder for 20 minutes every day. Your entire body will appreciate this effort – including your brain!
COFFEE CAN BE GOOD FOR YOU. Coffee goes in and out of fashion. I recommend a reasonable amount of coffee, especially in the morning. Both coffee and tea have antioxidants which we all need. Your coffee does not need to include the modern energy concoctions which are overloaded with too much coffee and sugar. Nor does it need to include any of the fashionable flavors being added these days.
GIVE YOURSELF THE GIFT OF A DNA TEST. This is easy wellness in action. You’ll be fascinated by the information and you’ll also know yourself better. Results of your DNA test can point you in the right direction for wellness habits.
Results of your DNA test can also point you in a right direction for good nutritional habits. Through your DNA test, you’ll discover where you came from. Eating food in the style of your ancestors can help you nutritionally. I’ll give you an example. One of my clients wanted to know what to eat. He had a DNA test which confirmed that most of his heritage was Jewish. He had his answer right there!
Another client wanted to know what to eat. His DNA test confirmed that most of his heritage was Mediterranean. Well, the Mediterranean diet was a good direction for him to follow. Sticking with the Mediterranean diet food and cutting out all the other food clutter eliminated a few pounds which he needed to lose.
Thank you for reading this easy wellness article! Please share it with your favorite social media network.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, New York
10 Tips Offering You a Longer and Healthier Life.
When you seek a longer and healthier life, you develop spiritual attitudes and habits which resonate with you. A longevity focused life is a lifestyle.
Before it’s all over, the lists in this blog may seem endlessly overloaded with things to do. But, that’s not the object of this series. My goal is to offer you information you can use to enjoy a longer, healthier life. Pick and choose from the choices, as you select the habits that resonate with your body, mind, emotions and your spirit.
EXCESS WEIGHT CAN RUIN YOUR LONGEVITY PLANS – So, what can you do about it?
For starters, realize that obesity triggers arthritis, asthma, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc. These health conditions conspire to rob you of your longer and healthier life.
Getting the weight off and keeping it off is important. And, getting it off the sooner the better is what its all about. When I give my library talks about my wellness book “A Healer’s Handbook”, I spend a lot of time talking about all the things you can do.
Begin by eating fruits, soups, and vegetables, Eat as much of these foods as you want and eat smaller amounts of meats and breads as you work toward a longer and healthier life.
Skip chemical laden products that have been manufactured for you to eat. This means reading the labels. If you can’t pronounce the words on the ingredient list, then you don’t need to eat even one bite of that product.
USE A SMALLER PLATE – Pile it high with fresh salad greens or vegetables.
For a longer and healthier life, always begin your meal with a soup.
Plate up your food in the kitchen and don’t put serving dishes on the table with your food.
DON’T TRY TO LIVE WITH A SLEEP DEFICIT. – A longer and healthier life depends on a rested body. This is really the heart of the matter. I’ve written post after post after post about the importance of sleep for you and your life. And, after this longevity series, I plan to return to a few more blog posts about getting enough sleep.
It all comes down to this: If you get enough sleep, you are going to have fewer health problems. With fewer health problems, you are on a path to a longer, healthier life.
JOIN A CONGREGATION. – Statistics show us that attending regular religious services has a strong, positive health effect resulting in a longer and healthier life.
Congregations offer a community of acceptance to members, an atmosphere which encourages good mental health, a stable social circle, and good immune function.
What this says to me is that our spiritual health is positively affected by a community atmosphere supporting our mental, and emotional beings.
LIVE WITH PURPOSE – Living with purpose influences mental, spiritual, and physical health positively. The way you live with purpose depends on you and your interests. The way you choose to give meaning to your life is completely up to you. Your choices are endless.
Before you get overwhelmed by this, begin by asking yourself some questions.
Does my plant need watering?
Does my dog need walking?
Am I concerned about my environment?
Have I always wanted to……………….?
This amounts to developing a sense of purpose in life by giving of yourself in some way for the benefit of others as you seek a longer and healthier life.
GET REGULAR REFLEXOLOGY SESSIONS – Well, of course I would believe this. I’m a reflexologist. However, if you are reading this article and you’ve never received a reflexology session, you can still achieve your longevity and wellness goals without receiving even one session.
The important thing here is to receive body work sessions regularly. And, in all honesty, there are hundreds of kinds of body work being practiced on our planet today. What’s important is that you receive some form of beneficial body work regularly.
If you don’t feel like you have the money for this bodywork, barter the sessions. I receive a Reiki therapy session every Monday afternoon. I exchange this session with a student. I feel like this is one of the most important things I do every week.
And, one of the most wonderful barters I did in my whole life was when I exchanged a reflexology session with an esthetician every week. What a fabulous time that was! Alas, she moved out of the state.
The bottom line is that we all need doses of the right touch for a longer and healthier life. Touch is important to our spiritual development.
MEDITATION IS IMPORTANT FOR YOU AND YOUR LONGEVITY PLANS. Do you meditate? Do you meditate regularly? If the answer to these two questions was “no” then begin by taking yoga classes. Yoga and meditation work together very well.
Have trouble scheduling meditation time? Join a meditation circle or form one where you meditate together weekly.
Meditation is grounding and offers major stress reduction. The positive health benefits of meditation ripple out to everyone and everything around you.
Make meditation a part of your life.
BRING NATURE CLOSER TO YOUR LIFE – How?
Walks in the park tend to lower your blood pressure.
Plants in your office or home bring their own calm.
Wilderness walks can be restorative.
Add wilderness pictures to office and home decor.
Nature sounds can be soothing as you listen to waterfalls, bird songs or ocean waves. My absolute favorite music is a CD entitled “Dolphin Music” by Ken Davis. It’s ancient as CD’s go, but I don’t want to be caught without it.
When you do these things, you protect yourself from stress.
BE OPTIMISTIC – You’ll live longer and feel better about your life when you look on the bright side of situations.
Build good relationships.
Refuse to see a crisis as insurmountable.
Accept change as a part of life.
Seek opportunities.
Maintain a positive view of yourself.
Finally, try to see things in perspective.
Thanks for reading this article. Please forward this blog post to your favorite social media network.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, New York
