Health, wellness and happiness are far more than cutting calories or smashing yourself in the gym. Health is total body, mind and spirit.When it comes to women’s health we need to think very differently than we do for men, no matter what their age! A great metaphor would be to think of men being like trucks – they could drive down a rocky dirt road without much permanent damage. However women are more like Ferraris –if you drive a Ferrari down that same rocky dirt road you would completely destroy it. Keeping this in mind here are my top 10 key essential areas that women should focus on. Everything that occurs in life will fall under at least one category and sometimes in multiple categories:
1. Movement: Balancing the systems in our body (hormonal and energy systems, just as a start point)with working out and working in. We need to move in ways that bring energy into the body, while taking into consideration our personal enjoyments in life. For example I horse ride, I do dressage and jumping and just love having fun riding in general. Thus any training that I do around that is to help me with my balance, strength and agility, to aid my riding passion. Apart from this we all have areas that are our personal weaknesses and can leave us open to injury. It is very important to work on these areas, because as we go through our lives, our bodies and much more start to change. Keeping on top of all these changes is essential so that they don’t have a negative effect on us.
2. Nutrition: “You Are What You Eat” – we all know this saying but don’t quite grasp the magnitude of what that really means. Every single cell in our body is built from the food we eat. There are many misleading statements such as “we burn off what we eat”, which is a complete myth. Everything we put in our mouths creates our organs, skin, hair, eyes etc. What do you want to be building your body from, quality organic, natural foods that our bodies are designed to eat, or highly manufactured and processed rubbish?
Diet controls so many elements of your health and too often is neglected or completely misunderstood. Please take the time to learn your individual body’s needs nutritionally – not just a cookie cutter approach, as your body is not the same as everyone else.
3. Hydration: Every function in our body needs water to operate and survive. We need to replace all that we lose on a daily basis just from breathing, digesting, thinking, pumping blood around our body – everything requires water! A simple mathematical equation to work out how much water you need each day is: 0.033x your body weight in kilos = how many litres of water you need per day just while sitting here doing nothing. Then you need to add more into your daily intake to allow for hot weather, movement etc. Please make sure this water intake is quality water – there is no substitute.
4. Sleep Cycles: Sleep is free and there is nothing out there, no supplement, shake or anything else that can repair the body like sleep can. We have a specific cycle of repair that our body goes through during the night for physical and psychological repair. If we miss this we cannot make it up later. We are in tune with the sun and our hormones are supposed to rise and fall with this natural rhythm.
5. Breathing Patterns: You will breathe an average of 23, 000 times a day. The normal range for a good breathing pattern should be 8-12 times a minute, depending on your body size. Your breathing pattern tells your body what state you are in, so when your breathing pattern isn’t in the correct order or breathing too rapidly, your body thinks that you are already stressed. I cannot emphasize enough just how important it is to have your breathing pattern checked by a skilled practitioner. Every function in your body requires oxygen and without oxygen we will die within minutes, which is a reminder of just how significant this is.
6. Relationships: Life is all about relationships with our partner, children, family, friends and work colleagues. While all of these are important we tend to forget the biggest relationship we can ever have and that is the one we have with ourselves! This tends to be the biggest relationship that women need to rebuild.
7. Stresses: Most women associate stress with that feeling of being stressed, tired, or wired which is only one way that we experience stress in our lives. There are many more such as digestive stress, fungal stress, stimulant stress and the list goes on and on. Stress is the number one cause of any disease, illness, ailment or injury nowadays so it is vital to identify your individual stresses to enable you to rectify them.
8. Work/Finances: Nowadays our work provides us with most of our income so they tie in together. There are a few things that you should ask yourself. Do you like your job or is your work doing you?
Do you worry over money? Does money cause you drama? What do you really want and need from your finances and be really honest with yourself. There is no word like “money” that causes such a vast array of human emotion and responses. How is it affecting your life?
9. Thoughts/Emotions: Your thoughts lead to your words and your words lead to your actions. With this in mind, statistically the average person thinks 68,000 thoughts a day and 90% of those thoughts are negative in nature! Wow- we have shot ourselves in the foot before we get beyond the thinking stage! Remember that women are more emotional creatures, so our thoughts can dramatically alter our emotions and our hormones too.
10. Being True To Yourself: What is your dream/goal/motivation in life? Who are you really? Do you show yourself respect? Do you follow your passions? What do you want from life? All these
questions and many more are important, because you DO matter.
Interested to find out more? Contact Michelle on: Email – michellevitality@gmail.com Phone: 0423 365 481 Michelle coaches one on one in person or via skype. Michelle conducts keynote speeches, corporate programs, workshops and more. Michelle loves coaching holistically intertwining such specialities as Reiki and Life Coaching into her sessions.