Physical lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, rest, personal habits and environmental factors can adversely affect your health. If you can discover your physical stressors and what triggers them, you can take specific and targeted actions to recover from them.

UNCOVER YOUR STRESSORS: TAKE THE FREE HOLISTIC HEALTH QUESTIONNAIRE

How is your body doing? What are your strengths and stressors?

The key factors in maintaining optimum physical health are diet, exercise, rest & relaxation, personal habits (smoking/ alcohol) and sociability & laughter. Here are some guidelines and questions to get you thinking.

Diet

• Consuming more fresh vegetables, fruit, whole grains and nuts regulates the production of adrenaline and boosts immunity. (A simple rule of thumb is to eat a ‘rainbow diet’ i.e. try and get all the seven colours of the rainbow on your plate, during every meal).
• Question: What colours are usually missing from your diet?
• Consuming foods with a low GI or Glycemic Index (less than 55) regulates sugar levels in the blood; this stabilizes our moods and energy.
• Question: How GI-friendly is your diet?
• Drinking 2 litres (8 normal size glasses) of water daily, in addition to all its other benefits, also improves neural activity and regulates the production of various hormones.
• Question: How much water do you have on a typical day?

Exercise

• 20 minutes of aerobic exercise counters and neutralizes the previous 24 hours of adrenalisation. (An additional 10 min aerobic exercise protects against the next 12 hours of adrenalisation.)
• Question: How much aerobic exercise do you get in a normal week?

Rest & Relaxation

• 7-8 hours of sleep is optimum, both for rest and repair at the muscular and cellular level.
• Question: How much sleep do you get routinely?
• Deep sleep (brain waves at Delta state) is important for the long term health and repair of the brain itself.
• Question: Do you enjoy deep, restful sleep?
• 30 minutes in a meditative state provides the same benefits as 6 hours normal sleep
• Question: Do you practice restful awareness (meditation, Tai-chi, yoga etc.)?

Sociability & Laughter

• Spending 60 minutes once a week with close friends in a purely social (non-work related) setting produces high levels of endorphins
• Question: How much time do you spend socialising with close friends every week?
• 20 minutes of ‘belly-laughs’ every day give us a significant rush of endorphins. (This explains the global popularity of laughter-clubs!)
• Question: Are you getting your share of belly laughs?

Personal Habits – Smoking/ Alcohol

It is medically well accepted that smoking is a major cause of cancer. But did you know that heavy drinkers develop cancer at a rate 10 times higher that the general population … and worse still, that their combination is lethal?

Dr Jeremy Geffen, in his book The Journey Through Cancer, points out: “While the link between smoking and cancer has been well-established, the link between alcohol and cancer, although well-established, is less known to the public. Alcohol seems to amplify the effects of carcinogens, particularly tobacco smoke. It causes irritation to tissues of the mouth, esophagus, larynx, stomach and liver in ways that might contribute to cancer. It also increases the risk of breast and colo-rectal cancer, through other mechanisms.”

• Question: What does your smoking/ alcohol profile look like?

Reflection

• Review your key lifestyle factors. What are you primary physical stressors? What changes/ improvements can you make?
• How often are you ‘high’ on the adrenalin rush? How addicted are you to its buzz?
• What are your strategies to release the  ‘feel-good’ endorphins in your body?
• How do you balance the negative effects of your physical stressors with calm and tranquility?

The Holistic Health Questionnaire (HHQ) will help you understand your stressors. To take the free test, please visit hhq.cancerawakens.com

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