Consult your General Practitioner, doctor, before modifying anything.
Everyday someone asks me why they got sick now? They have been doing XYZ for years and have always been okay.
Many answers and one is, are you the same person? I got the idea reading one of my favourite authors blog on how 140 businesses in Japan have been operational for over 500 years!
The relationship between debt and health comes from my teacher, Elisabeth. She is always talking about margin, how much margin does the patient have before they fall off a cliff.
I stole some slides from the article to help explain and then I will give some tips on how to have more margin.
Life goes up and down, that is just how it is and it is a good thing. The first time you have a $200 steak it is really nice. The second is okay, third….well it’s still good. By the time you have had 40-50 in a row, you would like something different. Well good thing, life is like that it provides variety. I do not want too much variety, but some is critical for a happy life.
If you have lots of margin you rarely get outside of the red lines and you have a much higher chance of doing fair to middling because outside of the red lines is a bad place to stay for long. Full of dangers which can be health, wealth or a myriad of other maladies.
But if things do not go your way and the margin you are use to, shrinks. Life will get difficult and this is a HUGE reason people get hurt and sick. If you are well watered, rested, fed and generally happy. Your margin’s are pretty good. But bad things do happen to good people and even good people occasionally do dumb things that get them in trouble.
What to do.
Pop quiz. Put these in order of importance to keeping you alive: money, food, breathing, water, friends, sleep.
There will be some debate but it will be tough to argue number one: breathing. Don’t believe me? I tell you what hold your breath for 5 minutes, NO WAIT DON”T DO THAT!!! Imagine an average person being without air for 5 minutes. How would their margin be? Would they have more margin (better health) or would they be dead? Most would be dead. So breathing is the number one way to get and keep more health margin.
But you say everyone knows how to breathe and does an excellent job, well sorry but you are incorrect. I rarely meet people that can pass most general breathing tests. I am still working on a couple. Eg. Breath in and then out, hold your breath and walk or run and count your steps. If you are under 60 a passing score is 50 steps, a winning score is 80. Last time my daughter did it she got 110! I have not made 50 yet. (sad face)
Step 1, get better at breathing: Talk to me and or read James Nestor book, breath. Or Dr. Belisa Vranich book, Breathing for Warriors. Both available at the library. If you want a deeeeeeep dive into breathing Patrick McKeown and his books are wow. These authors are all on the practical side of breathing there is many others on the more subtle side of breathing like Dan and some great guy I follow and can not find at the moment… I’ll keep looking.
What is next on the list? It’s a close tie between water and sleep. You can last about 3-4-5 days without either and that’s about all.
Water: Everyone in my generation NEVER had a water bottle and we all lived. We are meant to get dehydrated, just not stay that way for years. Most people are scary dehydrated for years, like years and years. It’s just so amazing at work hearing people have 2 cups of coffee a day and that’s it for the day! Yes you can get lots of your liquid from fruit, vegetables and a very limited amount from coffee but not all. If you are growing some pineapple or other fruits and juice them properly (low temp spinners) then yes that counts. But dollar for dollar plain room temperature water is the way to go. Have a cup an hour for 10 hours a day. If you wake to pee, stop drinking water sooner in the evening.
Sleep: If you do not get a 4.5 hour block of solid sleep every 24 hours you need to book an appointment ASAP! It is absolutely imperative you get that 3.75-4.5 block of sleep for longevity. Most people need a total of 8 hours per 24. I remember when our child was new, that never happened. There are exception to the rule, like new baby. Or my Granddad had some weird “disease” he slept 3-4 hours a night and often had a 1 hour nap. Lived to 94. But my many years and articles on sleep and more articles lead me to say. GET 8 hours of sleep, some even more.
What’s left: Money, Food and Friends. They all help. Even me, I could likely live 30 days without food. Much of the world lives on a few dollars a day, certainly not here and the hottest topic of this decade, Mental Wellness.
Never trust a study you did not alter yourself.. but in 2018 the World Bank put out a study saying $5.50 a day for 40% of the world, that is middle class! Like holly cow, how lucky am I to be born in Canada. In 1993 I went to Guatemala for Spanish language school. My professor who had an actual degree in language from a Central American University made the equivalent of $32 US a month. He had a wife 2 kids, house and was loving life. He thought he had it made.
One day we went for a walk in the town to practice Spanish and I got us two glasses of orange juice from a road side stall. It was $1.04. Later he told me my Spanish needed more work. His juice was .04 and mine was a dollar. Gringo tax he said, the seller did not like my conjugation of the verb. I had to smile.
Food: Never have we ate more and been less nourished. If I had a magic wand I would make Health Canada adopt European food labelling laws. I’d do a few other things but… What you can do is eat three meals a day, SIT DOWN, and chew your food. You can visit, listen to music or shut up and no electronics, no cell phones, TV, computer. SIT, CHEW, repeat. It will change your life. A funny thing happens when you do those things, your body will naturally change what and how much food you eat. It’s magic, give it a try for 10-80 years, you’ll be glad you did.
Friends: It is interesting the shift to “Mental Wellness”. I think we all hear that term daily. I am not sure I ever heard it in school but it slowly has taken over the health headlines. It is certainly something I talk about at work multiple hours a day and generally it is tough to be general about it. I find it easier to talk about specifics with individuals.
My short answer is, put away your phone and call someone and go play cards. I do not think tech is the enemy. I think busy is the enemy. Something my family has worked hard at doing is: Keep the big things the big things. We do that by the big rock story. Hit the link for a YouTube simple example and here is my favourite example. It’s the big rocks in the jar story. If you don’t put the big rocks in first they will never fit. Stop doing busy work, do important work.
Important work is: breath better, drink adequate water, get enough sleep, eat better – eat better quality food and eat it better – sit down, chew and no electronics. Money – spend less than you make. Did I tell you I did a stint as a ‘financial planner’ it was a long time ago but there are so many great resources to help people educate themselves. Believe me I know for a personal fact that bad financial things happen to good people.
Schedule time with people you know and in no time they will be your friends. You may go through a few to find the group for you, but by using the Big Rock rule. Schedule time doing the important things and leave the busy work behind.
When you improve the air, water, sleep, food, friends and money situation you will have more margin in your health and you will go farther not needing people like me. But if you use people like me properly, helping to educate you on your specific health needs, you would also last longer.
I wish you all the best in your up down journey in life. Yes there are many other ways to improve your margin and I’ll write about those another time.
Be Well,
Ward Willison R.Ac.
allbodycare.com
Kelowna Acupuncture & Other Natural Therapies