10 Body Healing Benefits of Yoga
1. Blood pressure: a regular yoga practice reduces blood pressure.
2. Mindful body and breath work cultivates peace that lingers and weaves its way through your day.
1. Blood pressure: a regular yoga practice reduces blood pressure.
2. Mindful body and breath work cultivates peace that lingers and weaves its way through your day.
3. Aligning your breath with your body's movement aligns body, mind, and spirit. See peace info above.
4. Got gut health issues? Try some yoga poses that are guaranteed to bring digestive tract relief.
Pose images from an online article at Yoga Journal, I urge you to check out this Yoga Journal gut healthy, better digestion article, click here. While you are at it, just check out the whole Yoga Journal!
5. Body Weight Balance that is healthy for you & your body: When your spirit can move through the world with grace, because your physical body is a comfortable place to be (physically, emotionally, AND spiritually) your life and life force energy just flows better.
6. Asthma Relief: Yoga breath & body work creates healthier lungs, better lung capacity, less asthma symptoms, and lowered stress.
7. Stronger Bones, stronger muscles, stronger body-mind-spirit. You gain better flexibility & balance in body-mind-spirit as well. Bonus!
8. Yoga is healing to all body systems. Yes, I said healing! Your cellular metabolism will balance out, because your mitochondria will be happy, making you feel light and energetic.
9. Yoga is your daily happy drug lifting mild depression and making neurotransmitters flow. Yoga literally lifts the corner of clouds so you can always see the sun. As my youngest son said, 6 years ago, "when you lift the corner of the clouds, the sun is always shining!"
10. Yoga helps you relax and sleep better as it engages your para-sympathetic nervous system, the rest & digest system, taking you out of the constant stressed out, fight or flight mode (your sympathetic nervous system on over drive). This reduces inflammation in your whole body.
I could come up with another 90 healing benefits of Yoga in about 10 minutes time. I love to chat about Yoga, if you are interested.
I love to share Yoga... http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/yoga/
Namaste
Translated roughly, it means
"The Spirit within me salutes the Spirit in you"
knowing that we are all made from the same One Divine Consciousness.
Simple & Sensible Reasons To Take Magnesium
A week or so ago I sent a newsletter (not a blog post) titled #1 Supplement I Recommend about the magnificent mineral magnesium. Below I will quickly list and explain, in simplest terms, some of the benefits of taking magnesium: meaning the ill health symptoms you experience from your magnesium insufficiency will buzz off and leave you alone when you actually have enough magnesium in your system for your body cells to use.
A week or so ago I sent a newsletter (not a blog post) titled #1 Supplement I Recommend about the magnificent mineral magnesium. Below I will quickly list and explain, in simplest terms, some of the benefits of taking magnesium: meaning the ill health symptoms you experience from your magnesium insufficiency will buzz off and leave you alone when you actually have enough magnesium in your system for your body cells to use.
- Constipation: having an uptight and anxious colon is not pleasant, take some magnesium citrate and relax the colon for happy pooping daily (yes, I said daily. Anything less is constipation).
- Migraines, headaches: again, tension from tight body tissues, lacking magnesium in the cells, can leave you prone to headaches.
- Anxiety: magnesium helps you relax and release tension and anxiety.
- Gut health: this is a catch 22 as you need strong acid to break down magnesium out of your food and yet adequate body supply of magnesium builds strong stomach acid (trust me, this is a good thing. You want strong stomach acids... get rid of those acid blocking drugs, just saying people. Rx drugs are not body healing).
- Vitamin D levels: magnesium works with Vitamin D. Deficient in Vit D? Help your body work properly with some magnesium.
- Calcium and mineral absorption: calcium alone will not build strong bones. The just take calcium supplements mentality leaves your bones lacking in so much more. Your bones need magnesium... and many other minerals, vitamins, and micro/macro nutrients. Calcium is not the bone issue cure all. Magnesium sufficiency promotes the deposit of calcium in your bones. Magnesium insufficiency or deficiency deposits calcium into your soft tissues. This spells: Plaque in arteries (50% calcium, only 3% cholesterol), kidney stones...
- Magnesium is needed for DNA repair... you want this!
- Magnesium insufficiency and deficiency contribute to hyperinsulinemia... can you say diabetes?
- Got high blood pressure? Maybe you are insufficient in magnesium. Constricted, tight, anxious blood vessels make it hard for your heart to pump blood through them. Think about a garden hose that has been stepped on or kinked.
- Magnesium calms muscles and nerves preventing cramps, excitability, and irritability in both your muscles and nervous system. Got that urge to snap when stressed out about work, teenagers, stupid driving maneuvers? Soothe yourself with some magnesium.
- Prevent sleep disturbances by keeping your body relaxed.
- Prevent depression as magnesium sufficiency is required for adequate neurotransmitters. Healthy levels of neurotransmitters keep the brain, nervous system, moods, etc. fring happily & healthfully.
- Coffee drinker? Soda? Body stores of magnesium are depleted by coffee, alcohol, phosphates, (e.g. in dark sodas) and by calcium only supplements. We are meant to eat whole foods and use supplements that are balanced, not single constituent minerals. No food is made up of just calcium without other nutrients. Real food is a balanced package of nutrition.
- Inflammation is a marker for disease. Magnesium is an anti-inflammatory agent. Relax, release, soothe yourself!
- Got hideous menstrual cramps? Ease the uterine tension and anxiety with some magnesium. Depending on whether your are constipated or have diarrhea pre-menstrually or at the start of your period... see below to pick your magnesium wisely.
In the last century, the magnesium content of food decreased by approximately 50% as a consequence of food processing, loss of top soil, and loss of minerals in soil. If we are no longer getting healthy doses of magnesium in our food, we do need to supplement. Yes, this means single constituent magnesium supplementation because... there are exceptions to every rule!
Questions? Post in the comments below & I'll do my best to help you out.
Or their is always email: pyoumell@paulayoumellrn.com
USE Magnesium Citrate if you tend towards constipation (At least one healthy bowel movement daily should be a happening event with your body).
Available at Nature's Storehouse in Canton, NY
USE Magnesium glycinate if constipation is not your issue.
Need a blend of mag citrate & mag glycinate? This combo will provide just a little assistance with constipation but not a full on intestinal dynamite system?
Available at the Potsdam Food Coop.
Junk Health Food
My Advice: Be Wary... Be Very, Very Wary
I was inspired to write this after shopping in a health food store a couple of hours from home. I am a people watcher and a health educator. I can't help but notice the things people buy. The person in front of me at the checkout had a cart loaded with what I call Junk Health Food: [I observe from a space of love... wanting so badly to reach out and do some community education... but only when asked Paula, only when asked! :) ]
- organic, refined, white flour bread and rolls
- chips of every kind
- natural soft drinks and fruit juice flavored drinks
- organic, sugary cereals
- organic pop tart™ type toaster pastries
Be wary of anything that comes in a box, bag, can, jar, etc. If it is a packaged food product, made in a factory and not your home, be a savvy shopper and consumer. Just because it is sold in a health food store does not mean it is cell nourishing food.
My Advice: Be Wary... Be Very, Very Wary
I was inspired to write this after shopping in a health food store a couple of hours from home. I am a people watcher and a health educator. I can't help but notice the things people buy. The person in front of me at the checkout had a cart loaded with what I call Junk Health Food: [I observe from a space of love... wanting so badly to reach out and do some community education... but only when asked Paula, only when asked! :) ]
- organic, refined, white flour bread and rolls
- chips of every kind
- natural soft drinks and fruit juice flavored drinks
- organic, sugary cereals
- organic pop tart™ type toaster pastries
Be wary of anything that comes in a box, bag, can, jar, etc. If it is a packaged food product, made in a factory and not your home, be a savvy shopper and consumer. Just because it is sold in a health food store does not mean it is cell nourishing food.
WHY?
1. Most food products are manufactured for the corporate bottom line, not your health.
This means that the cheapest ingredients go into the "product" so the company manufacturing this product can make the highest profit margin. Profits before people is the name of this game.
Now keep in mind, there are companies out there creating quality products. Real food, in packages, that are healthy alternatives to what you would make in your own kitchen. These products are sold on the shelves of health food stores, food coops, and in the healthy section of grocery stores.
BUT, just because a product is on the shelves in these healthier places, do not assume that the product is healthy (see below on being self-responsible). Even products you have found to have healthy, 100% whole food ingredients; be aware... the ingredients can be changed. Big corporations love to buy out these smaller "health conscious" companies because the healthier products are money makers. Most people do want healthy food and healthy bodies so the sale of organic, whole, non-GMO foods has soared. Corporate America wants their piece of this pie. But... as soon as a larger corporation owns the food, the food label, the product suddenly changes. Cheaper ingredients are now used to make the very same products. This "ingredient switch" pads the bottom line of the large corporation, not your health!.
You have to be the responsible one in the grocery store... this means reading labels very, very carefully. (This is what I teach in my book and in my workshops; self responsibility around your own health restoration... you healing you!) Read the ingredient list, on anything you are contemplating purchasing, that comes in a package. Your health, your life, depends on this.
Ask yourself questions about the product:
-Is every ingredient in the product a whole food? (organic? non GMO?)
-Could you assemble all the ingredients, in your own home, to make this same food item?
Answering yes to these questions? Then move forward, feeling comfortable that the food will nourish, not deplete, the health of your body cells. Depleting body cells means you are depleting you; creating degeneration in your body.
Answering no to these questions? Put the "product" back on the shelf; your health and your life depend on this.
2. Most manufactured products are full of fake stuff:
Fillers (to enhance textures without using real food, i.e. whole food ingredients. MOST Greek yogurts are one of these filler enhanced foods, read more here: 13 Health Foods That Are NOT So Healthy),
Preservatives,
Artificial colors and flavors,
Fake sweeteners,
GMOs
Fake fats...
the list of fake things, that go into factory made food, is never ending.
Bottom Line: Fake ingredients, factory made substances, do not belong in the human body. They do not create cellular health. Cellular health IS created when we eat whole food.
Fake Food vs Real Food
Have I convinced you to nourish each and every one of your beautiful body cells with 100% whole foods?
Be well; feed your body well. You will lose weight, feel better every day, and restore your body's natural health!
Goodbye to Plantar Warts W/O Chemicals!
Are you pestered with nasty plantar warts? They can be painful, irritating little villains on the bottom of our feet.
Below you see my son's foot plastered with several plantar warts and a big cluster on the ball of his big toe.
(image available in full post)
Here you see his foot with thin slices of raw, fresh garlic (organic and local, from Birdsfoot Farm, of course!).
(image available in full post)
How these warts got so out of control you ask? They inhabited a teen's foot. He never bothered to tell me until the collection had become overwhelming.
Are you pestered with nasty plantar warts? They can be painful, irritating little villains on the bottom of our feet.
Below you see my son's foot plastered with several plantar warts and a big cluster on the ball of his big toe.
Here you see his foot with thin slices of raw, fresh garlic (organic and local, from Birdsfoot Farm, of course!).
How these warts got so out of control you ask? They inhabited a teen's foot. He never bothered to tell me until the collection had become overwhelming.
Here is how we managed to get rid of them in just about 2 weeks time.
Night Time Wart Therapy:
place thin slices of raw, fresh, local, organic garlic over each wart.
Apply duct tape to hold garlic slices in place.
Apply thin, well fitting cotton socks to kid's foot.
Send kid to bed.
Day Time Wart Therapy:
After showering put 1 drop of essential oil onto each wart.
Sit still until essential oil dries on foot.
Get dressed and head out for the day.
Essential oils I used: Rosemary, Tea Tree, and Oregano as seen above. A couple of times I used Thyme essential oil.
Repeat Night Time and Day Time Wart Therapy until the warts literally peel off in layers. Underneath will be beautiful, new, pink skin. This wart be gone process took about 2 weeks and was relatively painless. Well, except for the groaning and moaning of a 13 year old because I was making him take care of these viral buggers.
This garlic and essential oil therapy would work on regular skin warts as well.
5 Reasons Chewing IS A Most Important Part Of Eating & Digestion
The story is that engaging those pearly whites in the chew process is the most important initial step you can take for the health of your digestive tract and your bodaciously beautiful body cells. Think how many people chuck food into their faces at break neck speed, chomp on it 5-6 times, and then swallow large chucks of food.
Pay attention the next time you engage in eating a meal. Are you a chewer or a chunk swallower? All these years picking on cows for their endless "cud chewing" and it seems they had it right all along.
Get Chewing Your Cud People And Here Is Why:
1. Chewing begins carbohydrate* digestion: which prevents reflux as you are revving up the digestive tract with your chewing. The more you chew your food, the more messages are sent to the gut to get the digestive juices flowing.
The story is that engaging those pearly whites in the chew process is the most important initial step you can take for the health of your digestive tract and your bodaciously beautiful body cells. Think how many people chuck food into their faces at break neck speed, chomp on it 5-6 times, and then swallow large chucks of food.
Pay attention the next time you engage in eating a meal. Are you a chewer or a chunk swallower? All these years picking on cows for their endless "cud chewing" and it seems those beautiful cows had it right all along.
Get chewing your cud people and here is why:
1. Chewing begins carbohydrate digestion: which prevents reflux as you are revving up the digestive tract with your chewing. The more you chew your food, the more messages are sent to the gut to get the digestive juices flowing. That means optimal hydrochloric acid for stomach digestion of food. Good digestion in the stomach sets the stage for good digestion throughout the digestive tract.
Little chewing = little time for messaging the GI tract to send out digestive juices = impeded digestion.
Most reflux is NOT an over abundance of stomach acids but in fact a lack of stomach acid (food sits in stomach not digesting and body's wisdom says "hey this stuff is rotting right here... let's get rid of it.” At this point the easiest way to get rid of stomach contents is up and out. Yup, reflux.).
2. Chewing food well feeds your beautiful gut microbes: You waste $$$ taking probiotics if you are not going to offer them kindness and feed them well. Be the gut bug hostess (or host) with the most-ess! Chew your food well. Doing so breaks down the food fibers, the starches, which feed the gut bugs you want surviving and thriving in your gut.
3. Chewing well prevents leaky gut: See above for how chewing feeds the happy, healthy gut bugs. When we are not feeding the "good" gut microbes to maintain a healthy and balanced microbial population, we can create an inflamed and irritated gut lining. This leads to leaky gut syndrome and contributes to many chronic, lifestyle related, health problems.
Belly ache or gut health... you decide!
4. Chewing food slowly and well promotes relaxation: eating fast, swallowing food practically whole, creates a stress response in the body. Stress causes body tissues (muscles, organs etc) to tense, contributes to poor digestion, and chronic fight or flight response throughout body. This digestive tract and body tensing also contributes to constipation.
Chewing IS yoga for the digestive tract, nervous system, and really your whole body. You know how I love, love, love my yoga. Type Yoga into the search bar, below, and I will inspire you with the many body, mind, and spirit benefits of a daily Yoga practice.
5. Chewing food well means food is then swallowed in a liquid state this means your body, digestive tract, is better able to digest and pull the nutrients out of the food.
This means your body cells are being better nourished by the whole foods you spend your hard earned money on. This is very important my friends. The more nutrients we can pull out of the food we eat, the healthier we will be. It is all about what nutrients actually got to your body cells. Poorly chewed food cannot be digested well and therefore the actual nutrition does not reach your intended body cells. Yes, your health pays dearly over the years.
Chew all food into liquid consistency. 30-50 chews per bite or gulp of food (Gulp: I am thinking about smoothies, creamed soups, etc. that are gulped down without any conscious thought of actually chewing.)
If food is already a liquid or mushy consistency (soup, puddings, smoothies) take 20 to 30 conscious chews. If food is solid, take 50 conscious chews.
Example: blueberries and skins of berries require 50 chews. The soft inner part of berry will chew up quickly and naturally move down throat... keep chewing that blueberry skin 50 times. Yes, the cud will get smaller and smaller and the habit of swallowing before adequate chewing has taken place will be right there in your face (literally). Resist and keep chewing as the skins of blueberries are loaded with micro-nutrients and complex carbohydrates (fibers) that feed those gut bugs IF you chew it up well for your gut bugs to be able to use them. Trust me; the gut bugs (microbes) do not have teeth to do the chew job if you leave it unfinished. For goodness sake, show those gut bugs (who do so much for you) some genuine hospitality and chew, chew, chew!
Get Chewing & Get Healthy.
Time to Move with Spring Energy!
I love Spring. The renewal of life, energy, and all it brings is breath taking to me every year.
Today is March 5th. As I walked in the woods with my dog, I can feel the pull of the sun. It is getting warmer, brighter, stronger... another winter survived! I can smell scents that were not there even 2 days ago; scents of the coming Spring.
I even found a Great White Pine whose south side's snow was already melted away. I sat my butt, right in the pine needles, and pressed my spine up along this mighty pine's trunk. The sun was in my face and the pine needles under me were fragrant in the sun's warmth.
I love Spring. The renewal of life, energy, and all it brings is breath taking to me every year.
Today is March 5th. As I walked in the woods with my dog, I can feel the pull of the sun. It is getting warmer, brighter, stronger... another winter survived! I can smell scents that were not there even 2 days ago; scents of the coming Spring.
I even found a Great White Pine whose south side's snow was already melted away. I sat my butt, right in the pine needles, and pressed my spine up along this mighty pine's trunk. The sun was in my face and the pine needles under me were fragrant in the sun's warmth.
The earth I sat on.
The Great White Pine, looking up her trunk, as I sat in the sun.
Spring motivates movement: sap rising, buds opening, shoots sprouting, doors and window being moved up and open, people getting out of their homes, and on & on.
I want to encourage you to move this Spring. Get outside and reap the benefits of moving your body, being exposed to natural light, and breathing in the fresh air.
Movement of the body is a natural, sacred, and healing thing. People moved constantly to complete the tasks of daily living and food gathering (as I sit here click click clicking!) before modern technology and labor saving devices.
- digging
- gathering
- hoeing
- walking
- chopping
- on & on the movement went!
We have traded daily, steady and slow going movement for either next to no movement or run-run-run and get high intensity exercise into an hour movement. It is like we have to fit the whole day's movement, pre-tech, into 1 hour. From a functional medicine perspective, slow and steady is better. Slow and steady does not create the free radicals and inflammation of high intensity, high metabolism exercise. Slow and steady: walks, yoga, tai chi, qi gong, canoe, kayak, hike, bike, mt. climb, moderate weight lifting, push ups... movement for low impact and longevity.
Embrace the Spring the renewed energy of the sun, and more movement this season.
Things I do during my day of client support and education, business work, and blog / newsletter writing:
- get up and do a yoga pose or two or three every half hour holding the pose for 7 long, deep belly breaths
- stop to do the dishes while dancing at the kitchen sink
- walk around my house, up & down the stairs and toss in some push ups for good measure
- throw in a load of wash, I hang all of my wash so the bending to get clothes out of the basket and lifting arms to hang is a good motion to break up the sitting habit
- go out for a walk around my home and maybe do a hand stand or two up against the red pine or the stone wall
- resist the call of the Great White Pines in my back woods... or not and wander off to commune with the White Pines, sit with my back to her trunks, and gather some life force energy while enjoying the peace - solitude - and earthy scents of the woods (then it is back to work for me)
My requests of you:
1. Comment below and share what you do to move more as the Winter breaks into Spring.
Also, I have a request for you natural remedy peoples out there. The sacred, great white pine spot in the pictures above is a favorite spot of mine. Sitting with my back to the trunk, my face is towards the southerly sky and the sun. I am looking over a sweet little body of water. The problem is: when spring rolls on the poison ivy grows there.
2. Does anyone have a natural way of getting rid of poison ivy? Please comment below.
My idea is to use my hand clippers and start clipping it back when the shoots are just popping up out of Mother Earth. If I keep doing this every few days, my logic is this clipping will starve the roots of nourishment (no sun on the new shoots means no photosynthesis keeping the roots nourished) and eventually kill off the roots and plants.
I have never had poison ivy and walk through it frequently. Yes, I now avoid touching the plants as I have become older and wiser. As a kid, I did not care and never got more that 1 - 2 tiny blisters on my bare feed from trodding through poison ivy patches for the reward of a swim in the St. Regis River.
Happy Spring Equinox! Happy Spring Moving! Cheers.
PS I know the season's names are not proper nouns, require no capitalization, but I cannot help but believe they deserve to be honored with capitol letters. The seasons are sacred; nature is sacred, you are sacred (you are nature).
Gluten Free Bread Recipe:
http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/gluten-free-bread/