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Meditations

Introducing the
Body Principles

The three principles for Body which reflect our relationship with ourselves are: 

Principle 1: The importance of healthy food and drink 

Principle 2: Meeting our physical needs to be fit, flexible, rested, relaxed, physically expressed and full of fresh air. 

Principle 3: The need to detox our bodies from tobacco and chemicals and live free from excessive consumption of food, alcohol and medicines

Your relationship with yourself and your body 

Many of us can be seen to have a rather poor relationship with ourselves and our bodies as we eat an unhealthy diet, lead sedentary lives with little exercise, or fail to give ourselves time for the necessary physical self-expression. We may also sicken ourselves with alcohol, tobacco, drugs, overeating and stress. By neglecting our needs long-term, our life energy drops and are we at risk of lifestyle-related illnesses.

The benefits that you will derive from the Health Creation Programme will depend on building a much more loving relationship with yourself and better self-care. We can learn to improve our self-care by having a nurturing relationship modelled for us in therapy or mentorship. Once you begin to feel the benefit of this kind of supportive care, you will start to take better care of yourself, becoming over time your own good Mentor. Taking care of our body greatly affects our life energy, vitality and state of mind whilst also protecting us from serious lifestyle illnesses.   

Principle 1 – Food and Drink 

When we consider healthy food, it is not just about what food we eat, but also how we eat, where we shop, how it’s grown, how we store food, how we cook it and how we can avoid taking toxins into our bodies. It is very important to make changes to our diet that are sustainable, rather than flipping between periods of very healthy eating followed by binges on unhealthy food. We all love treats, but an ideal approach would be to eat according to the Health Creation guidelines at least 90% of the time. 

In this principle we will look at:

The Health Creation dietary guidelines
Filling the ‘Nutrition Gap’ with food supplements
The benefits of healthy eating
Reducing our meat and dairy food consumption
Eating a plant based, wholefood, organic, low sugar, low acid diet
How to change the way you eat
Gathering information and making a healthy meal plan
Wholefood shopping, cooking and equipment
Special diets and dietary concerns
Getting support to eat healthily.

Principle 2 - Physical Needs 

The aim is to combine forms of exercise that build stamina with those that increase suppleness, strength and harmonisation of body, mind and spirit. An ideal combination is to take aerobic exercise, preferably outdoors, for 45 minutes daily, along with a regular practice, at home or in classes, of yoga, tai chi or qigong. We are now told that ‘sitting is the new smoking’ and that people who are sedentary all day are at as big a health risk as smokers!

Learning, through regular relaxation, to let go of physical tension and the fear we carry in our bodies is another vital step, as is resting and sleeping well. It is also important to find ways to be physically expressed and sexually fulfilled, even if we are single. As we tune in to our bodies, we are learning physical intelligence. This means listening to our bodies and acting upon the messages they give us before serious illness develops. With this increased physical awareness, we can fine-tune our self-care, reaching really high levels of health, wellbeing, flexibility and strength. 

In this principle we will look at: 

Fitness and aerobic exercise 
Yoga stretching for flexibility, strength and balance 
Energy flow – tai chi, qigong, and martial arts 
Posture - Alexander Technique and Feldencrais 
Breathing – calming and deepening the breath 
Creative movement – dance, 5 Rhythms, Biodanza, acrobatics 
Rest and relaxation 
Sleep 
Sexual fulfilment – tantra training and practice
Relieving aches, pains, symptoms and repetitive strain

Principle 3 - Detox 

Toxicity arises both through ingestion of alcohol, drugs, cigarettes and chemicals as well as excess consumption of things our body needs such as fat, sugars, salts and proteins. Our body works hard to maintain optimum levels of vital nutrients in the blood as well as ridding us of toxic chemicals. But when the load is just too heavy to maintain balance in homeostasis, then we build up fat, calcium, acids, glycogen and persistent chemicals in our tissues, organs and bloodstream and eventually the body systems fail, causing such illnesses as Type 2 diabetes, arterial and heart disease, liver and kidney failure and cancer.

This is an extremely important principle for us all to address where the support of a Mentor (and perhaps therapists) can be crucial to help us make and stick to our healthy goals, especially when we have become addicted or emotionally dependent on unhealthy habits.

In this principle we will look at how to avoid: 