What comes to your mind when you think about going to visit the doctor? Is it that dreaded moment when it comes time to get on the scale? Maybe you were thinking about what your co-pay is going to be, or worse yet if you don’t have insurance, you might be wondering if you are going to be able to afford a visit. If you’re any thing like me, I would do just about whatever it takes to only have to visit my doctor for my yearly check ups. Today, i’m going to be talking about the six best doctors in life that don’t include an office visit at all! I like this saying: “ If you think the price of wellness is expensive, just try illness.” I also like this one: “Medicine is not healthcare. Food is health care. Medicine is sIck care.” Here is one of my health quotes : “We can’t get happiness from a pill; why would you think that we can get good health from one?” ~Rhonda Hendricks ~
We all want to live a happy, healthy, abundant life! In a way, we should be our own holistic doctor, taking some responsibility for our own health, happiness, and well-being. God has given us all good things that pertain to life.
- Healthy Eating
What kind of building materials are we giving our body to work with? We cannot expect our bodies to function at its best capacity if we are giving it nutritionally deficient, processed foods, or even fruits and vegetables that have been sprayed with pesticides and chemicals. God created our bodies to be like a doctor within, which has the ability to heal itself if given the right building materials to work with. Life comes from life! It is so vital for us to make it a priority to eat plenty of clean, raw, living foods, preferably organic so that we give our cells the necessary vitamins, nutrients, and enzymes to provide energy and life-giving essentials for our body to function at it’s fullest potential. You really are….what you eat! You can’t consistently eat junk on a continual basis and expect your cells to communicate or function properly. It is possible for us to get well, stay well, reverse aging, and even stop and reverse sickness and disease, when we give our cells what they need to do their job. - Sleep
A good night’s sleep helps us feel energized and alert for our next day. Our body is in repair and healing mode when we are sleeping. When our body is sleep deficient it produces stress hormones and can increase our risk for high blood pressure, and puts our body in a state of stress. Lack of sleep can also affect the balance of our hormones, affect our appetite, and can even make it hard for some people to lose weight if they get less than seven hours of sleep per night. A good nights sleep is is as important to our health as eating healthy foods, drinking water, and breathing fresh air. Poor sleep is linked to many physical problems and even mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. A good night’s sleep is very important in helping our bodies function at its best. Studies have discovered that links are connected between too little sleep and high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. Stress affects our ability to get a good amount of sleep, and not getting enough sleep affects our ability to deal with stress in life. - Exercise
Physical activity, regardless of what it is, can help you sleep better and feel more energized during the day, decrease inflammation and oxidative stress, and can help prevent chronic disease. Exercise is very effective in helping improve our brain function and has been shown to help improve our mood, feelings of anxiety, or stress. I like to switch my exercise routine up so that I continually enjoy what I’m doing and don’t get bored from the same thing day in and day out. I did 5 years of martial arts and earned my 2nd Degree Blackbelt in Taekwondo. I have been an avid runner all my life, enjoy lifting weights at the gym and doing the elliptical occasionally. Recently, I’ve been switching things up with a “Pound” class, which involves Pilates with weighted drumsticks, to music. So fun! Exercising is important for our overall health and well being. Exercise helps us to manage our weight, moods, and helps our brain to function more effectively. It is also a good tool in keeping us grounded in the present, and helps us create space for creativity to flow in life. It does for me, anyway! Getting regular exercise should be part of our healthy lifestyle, just like eating healthy foods on a daily basis. Staying fit, helps keep you strong, vibrant, gives oxygen to your cells, increases and supports your immune system, helps move and stretches our cells, relieves tension and stress… among other benefits. The benefits are numerous, so get that body moving! Movement is life! - Sunlight
Sunlight is one of nature’s most powerful, healing agents. Vitamin D is also known as “the sunshine vitamin.” Cancer is more prevalent in northern latitudes where less sunlight is available. Vitamin D is one of our most important nutrients, and we are designed to get most of our vitamin D through sunlight. Vitamin D plays an important role in preventing cancer and disease. We need to be smart about using the sun. If we don’t abuse it, it will be our partner in having good health. Vitamin D is a crucial ingredient for overall health; protects against inflammation, lowers high blood pressure, helps muscles, improves brain function and may even protect against cancer. Exposure to sunlight has a huge impact on depression, seasonal affective disorder and sleep quality. Sunlight and darkness trigger the release of hormones in your brain. Exposure to sunlight is thought to increase the brain’s release of a hormone called serotonin. Serotonin is associated with boosting mood and helping a person feel calm and focused. Vitamin D from the sun is essential for many bodily functions including supporting our immune system, strengthening our bones, teeth and much more. Spring has finally arrived and the sun is a welcome sight here in PNW, Wa! I’m looking forward to all the outdoor activities I enjoy doing, like gardening, horseback riding, running, and venturing out in our new boat on one of the local lakes. I’m looking forward to soaking up some of those light energy rays that bring life to my cells and make my heart sing! - Drinking Water
Water helps to regulate body temperature, keeps the joints lubricated, prevents infections, and carries nutrients to the cells of the body. In addition, the liver and kidneys work to get rid of toxins in the body and these organs rely on water to complete their job. Staying hydrated is important and is just one of many reasons that you should be drinking water. It is recommended to drink at least eight glasses of water each day. Drinking water will also help get rid of any toxins that are picked up through the skin. This can help make the appearance of the skin much clearer. If you drink enough water your overall health is going to improve. When your body is not getting enough water toxins will saturate the blood and blood flow will slow down. - Fresh Air
There are a range of benefits to getting fresh air; it can help you destress and improve your physical and mental wellbeing. Regardless of the time of year, we should always take more advantage of being outdoors regularly.. The more fresh air you get, the more oxygen you will breathe which will increase the amount of serotonin (the happy hormone) you inhale, consequently making you happier. After spending time outside, you always come back indoors feeling brighter and perhaps even ready to get back to work. More oxygen results in greater brain functioning, improving your concentration skills and providing you with more energy. We could all benefit from more energy that doesn’t come from drinking more coffee than we really need, as a substitute. Let’s do our best to get outside regularly, regardless if the weather seems unfavorable or desirable. Fresh air, combined with some exercise on a sunny day, and a tall glass of water to refresh us would be a fantastic way to combine a few things we discussed that can greatly benefit and impact our health and wellbeing in considerable ways.
These 6 doctors that I have discussed in my blog are vital for us to be able to create and maintain a healthy, vibrant life, and even stop and reverse sickness and disease in it’s tracks. We are in the driver seat when it comes to having and creating a life that is abundant for us, so that we can be our best self and be able to give to others from an overflow of life-giving energy, presence, and fortitude. They help us to be fully alive.
Rhonda Hendricks
Life Coach/ Writer/Designer