There are six key components to my KISS (keep it small and simple) healthy living philosophy. I have come up with this KISS analogy to make it easy to remember (that is if you care to remember).
Imagine your wellness lifestyle as a house. An average house, single family, one maybe two bedrooms, there are some common things you will find in the layout.
We enter on the first floor to find three main rooms- living room, dining room and kitchen. Beginning with the kitchen and dining rooms. This is where the family prepares and consumes nutriment. The kitchen is a central area to any home.
Anciently, many cultures designed there living spaces around the meal prep. and cooking area called the hearth.
The hearth was the floor of the fireplace, usually made of stone or brick. The word hearth eventually became synonymous with house, home family.
The hearth was the first multi-purpose space. It was dining area, family room and guest/living room. This demonstrates the importance of diet and social support in the lives of human beings.
On the second floor, in a small house you will find the bedroom(s) and toilet/bathroom. The bedroom is where for the most part we sleep.
Sleep is one of the most overlooked healing elixirs at out disposal. Sleep is the repairer and restorer.
It is my belief that you should not have a TV in your bedroom and most certainly not go to sleep with the TV left on.
This is an invasion of your psychic privacy of the worst kind.
When you are asleep, you can still hear, you just can’t listen. The conscious mind is the one that sleeps. It is the conscious mind (when functional) that screens, categorizes and files cultural data (words, stories,etc.).
When you sleep with the TV running in the background, you open yourself up to psychic intrusion. Your dreams are an open door to any and all messages; positive and negative.
The toilet is the central space for physical hygiene. Many in the medical profession contend that medical technology is the root cause of life extension and public health in the 20the century.
But any medical anthropologist worth her salt, knows that the health and improved life expectancy of the western population improved exponentially with the advent of universal indoor plumbing, the toothbrush, public sanitation and the embrace of the idea that “cleanliness is next to godliness.”
The attic’ the highest space in the house, is where we store the things we don’t necessarily use daily, but would like to have access to them when the need arises. Much of it’s contents has been accumulated over a long period of time. And many things being held onto their, have long outlived there usefulness. I like to connect the idea of the attic to our mindset.
Our headset or belief system holds a high position in our hierarchy of values. This is the crossroads of the healing journey. When we are unable to get rid of the head trash that keeps us stuck in a non productive, de-evolutionary, diseased death-style holding pattern. We will be at the mercy of home invasion by the local riff raff: virus, germs, toxic foods, pollution, stress and the like.
If you truly want to attain and maintain a life of health, wealth and wisdom. Clean out your attic.
Lastly, the basement of the house, in addition to housing the laundry room and core infrastructure, is where many home owners have their recreational space. In a small house, the home gym is usually found in the basement. Cool in the summer and not too warm in the winter. The concrete walls of an unfinished basement has the gritty, non-frills feel of a grunt gym. This is the the space where we get our workout – in.
So, the six elixirs of Therapeutic Lifestyle Alchemy are: Sleep, Hygiene, Exercise, Diet, Social Support and Mindset. These are all aspects of our lives that are under our control. No rocket science required.
Get sufficient sleep. Pay attention to your hygiene (the rest of us will appreciate that also). Get moving. Eat whole foods. Share your life with, support and solicit help from family, friends and community. Periodically reassess your beliefs, values and idea of self.
These are the keys to transforming base metals (house) into gold (a home).
Dingman’s Falls Hike – Saturday May 15
BodyFit Boot Camp – Branch Brook Park
Mornings: Tuesday, Thursday 6 AM – Saturdays 7 AM
Evenings: Tuesday, Thursday 7 PM – Saturdays 7 AM
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