We are back again to my favourite topic.
Yours and my health and vitality.
Essentially if we don’t have health, vitality and energy, it is hard to stretch yourself into your FULL POTENTIAL.
Achieving your big hairy audacious goals (BHAG) requires a large amount of consistent, high-grade energy.
So this health stuff is essential.
If you haven’t read Part 1 (Health Tip 1-6), focused mainly around nutrition, check it out too.
Plus you might want to check out my book The Guidebook to Optimum Health, where I obviously go way deeper.
Now, let’s check out round 2.
Health Tip #7: A general overview of ‘toxicity’
The level of toxicity (and type) in your body is one of the principle causes of illness and disease.
Meaning it is important to understand some of the basics. There are a few organs that help remove toxins from the body – liver, kidneys, lungs, skin and lymph nodes – with the liver probably being one of the hardest working of them all. There is a reason that “live” is the first 4 letter of liver. Now, there are different ways to upgrade and optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of these organs, but there comes a point where they reach their toxic threshold. Meaning, a level where there is just too much toxicity in the body for them to perform their billions of miraculous functions. So we obviously want to enhance the effectiveness of these organs (e.g. doing a liver cleanse), but to help them out best we need to REDUCE the amount of toxins we introduce into the body, onto the body, or create within the body.
Here are the main causes of toxicity:
- Toxins in our food and fluids (e.g. glyphosate, artificial sweeteners, oxalates, etc.).
- Toxins we ingest by breathing (e.g. pollutant particles or cigarette smoke).
- Toxins we put on our skin (e.g. non-natural ingredients in deodorants, make-up, sunscreen, etc.)
- Toxins created by excessive exposure to Electromagnetic Frequencies (EMF) (e.g. mobile phones carried against our bodies or being in close proximity to cell towers).
- Toxins created by long-term negative (or survival) emotional states (e.g. chronic stress or anxiety).
So the tip here is simple.
One of the best ways to improve your health and vitality is to REDUCE your exposure to TOXINS, in order to give your detoxification organs the best change of clearing toxins from your body.
Health Tip #8: Reducing toxins in our food and drinks
Because our food can be our medicine or our poison, it is important to buy the best quality food we can afford, and from the best sources. The best sources are natural whole foods, which are organic (free of harmful pesticides and herbicides) or even better (IMO) the food is produced on from a regenerativefarm. To help you make some great practical choices, here is a list called the Dirty Dozen, that list the fruits (e.g. strawberries) and vegetables (e.g. spinach) with the highest levels of pesticides and toxins. When it comes to the Dirty Dozen it is really is best to spend a little extra and buy organic versions.
The other thing when it comes to reducing toxins in your food and drinks is to greatly reduce the amount of processed foods you buy and consume. Their additives, processing methods and quality of produce are going to increase the toxic load on your body. And for me, flavoured drinks just don’t feature in my healthy life plan. They are again just too riddled with additives and sugar. Plus the other food, harmful to the body due to the processing methods, is almost all vegetable oils and nut oils (choose instead olive oil, coconut oil or avocado oil).
Health Tip #9: Reducing toxins in the air you breathe
This one is harder to do. Though for smokers, giving smoking away is an easy start. However, I suspect that having the occasional smoke of a tobacco leaf, which you grew in your back yard (free of chemicals) and dried out naturally, and then chopped up (without adding anything else), was nowhere near as toxic as a modern cigarette with all sorts of rubbish added. I just thought I would slip in the point about how things go from not that great for you, to REALLY REALLY bad for you, once there is mass production and PROFIT in the equation.
My main practical tip in reducing air toxins – which is not for everyone – would be to live somewhere where there is more nature and greenery to breath fresh oxygen rich air, which is filtered by mother nature, and free of charge. Alternatively, add into your lifestyle, as much time out in nature as possible. The idea of living in a big “Smart City” (aka: concrete jungle) is SO unappealing to me, from a physical and mental health perspective. Now that it is much easier to work remotely, choose your ideal living environment, and maybe lean to green.
Health Tip #10: Reducing toxins that are put on our bodies
The skin is the largest organ in the body. It limits what gets into our bodies, tissues and blood stream. It is a first line of defence in keeping our bodies free of toxins. Therefore it makes sense to be mindful about what we CONSCIOUSLY choose to put on our skin, so we don’t inadvertently add substances that are harmful once they soak into the skin. One way is to not put anything on the skin – which is not practical or possible for most people who are not into expressing their inner hippie. Another way is to purchase products (skin care, deodorant, perfumes, etc.) that are more naturally based and produced.
I love a company my partner Ferry does the branding for, called Edible Beauty. It is a company that uses naturopathic principles and practices to create products you could actually safely eat. AWESOME!! It is a small enough company that you actually know they are still in touch with people and their mission of supporting peoples health, beauty and vitality. Go out of your way to find these type of companies, who are doing great stuff, actually care, and are not mass-producing products for your skin that are adding a toxic load to your body, which then needs to be processed.
For me, deodorants, which contain aluminum are a definite no-no. If you want to smell nice check out someone who specialises in aromatherapy or essential oils. Noting that a poor (toxic) diet, and lack of physical activity, can lead to unsavoury body odour.
Health Tip #11: Reducing toxins created by EMF’s
If you have read any of my work before, you know excessive EMF exposure is a long-standing concern for me, which I became aware of in 1999. There is not definitive scientific agreement on the harms, and what exposure, by what devices, for what periods of time, cause adverse outcomes. However there are also trillions of dollars at stake in the conversation, and therefore the quality of research, the conduct of high quality research studies, and the presentation of high-integrity data, is often suspect. So we need to take our own lead on this.
My reading and research has got me to the point where I believe that lowering my exposure to EMF’s is PRO-health. I do this by limiting my screen time, not carrying a mobile phone against my skin, turning my WiFi router off at night, having no technology in my bedroom, using earphone cables as opposed to Airpods, not having a microwave in the house, having my office computer cabled in, and turning my mobile phone off between 8pm and 9am.
Since there is no down-side to getting less non-natural EMF exposure, I figure a little inconvenience is something I can live with.
Health Tip #12: Reducing toxins created by emotions
This is an area in the health space that is less understood, and considered, when it comes to our health, energy and vitality. I think we all understand that chronic stress and anxiety, and excessive amounts of cortisol in our blood streams, can lead to a breakdown of healthy functions at the cellular level. What I don’t think is understand or appreciated is just how impactful our negative or survival emotional states can be on our overall health – not just energy wise, but also physiologically.
Our language acknowledges things like a ‘toxic’ relationship or job or family, not being good for us, but it doesn’t make it clear how impactful that stuff is on our physical and mental health. From the work I have done, and the teachers I have studied (e.g. Dr Joe Dispenza ‘You Are The Placebo‘, Dr Bruce Lipton ‘The Biology of Belief‘, etc.), I have not doubts that many of the illnesses and diseases we experience or witness in others are the result of, or highly attributed to, consistent emotional states or circumstances.
If we want to be healthy and vibrant, we need to work on our emotional health (emotional mastery) and life circumstances, to reduce toxic build up in our physical bodies.
My parting words
Our bodies are miraculous!!
However, there is a limit to the amount of toxicity our bodies can safely process.
Our personal job, is to make better choices to lower the amount of toxins we introduce into, or onto, our bodies.
Ask yourself this question:
“In which area could I lower my toxicity exposure?”
Then commit to making a choice, or choices, which lower it, and see how it makes you feel.
Have a fabulous day and do your best to reduce your exposure to different toxins this week (physically and emotionally).
Take care,
Carl
The image below is from my book “The Guidebook to Optimum Health”.
