Personal Practice
A personal practice is really important for staying on track with where you want to be and for stepping into alignment with good health, wellbeing, happiness and success. I’ve outlined a few pointers below that may be added to your daily practice to assist with making your personal practice strong and highly beneficial.
DISCIPLINE
Discipline is crucial in this world if we want to survive, keep ourselves alight and succeed at our goals. Discipline and focus empower. If we don’t have discipline and our focus is scattered by distractions and temptations, we’ll constantly get tugged in multiple directions by powers greater than our own.
GOAL SETTING
Lay out your short term and long term goals, a reasonable time frame for achieving them and stick to them. Do as you set out to. If you fall down, don’t be hard on yourself, don’t overthink, just get up again and keep going.
QUALITY SLEEP
Make sure you get it. It is a discipline to set the right amount of time aside for proper rest, especially if you know you’ll be woken in the morning by light, noise, children, etc. Also, a period of fasting two hours before bed and two hours after you wake promotes a digestive system reset so it can function more efficiently.
MEDITATION
Candle Gazing in pitch black is useful for honing focus using sight.
Nothing. The focus is on no one thing except a black emptiness. It’s a dark and peaceful place within which to spread oneself out. Contemplate that the psyche originated from nothingness and from nothingness anything can be conjured. This can be a very soothing meditation.
The Breath. Focusing on the sound and feel of the breath can help to quieten the mind in meditation.
EXERCISE
Exercise everyday. Physical movement is crucial for moving stagnant energy through and out of the body. Whether it’s a nice long stroll or fast paced walk to work or the grocery store or more of an intensive workout to reach burning points, do it. Upon completing your daily movement, thank yourself for loving your body in this way.
FOOD & DIGESTION
Some of these food tips have helped me greatly over the years with resetting my system and getting my digestion functioning at optimal levels. I recommend consulting with a combined allopathic doctor and naturopath for any specific ailments you may have and for personally appropriate quantities and frequencies of dosages.
To start the day, crush and cut up a half garlic clove, leave it for five minutes to convert its alliin into allicin, a compound that acts as a powerful antioxidant and antimicrobial. Coat it lightly in a bit of honey if you can’t handle the taste and consume it with water. Drink enough water to flush the garlic through to stomach quickly so its properties can act in the intestine.
Water first thing in the morning before eating anything, helps greatly in general with giving the digestive system a flush out. Make sure it is of moderate or warm temperature for ease on the system unless you are already overheated as in the case with being situated in hotter climates. Across the day, drink plenty of water (1.5–2L) to ensure daily bowel movements.
Take 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar or the juice of a quarter lemon in warm water before large meals. This helps with digestion.
Any of the teas lemon balm, ginger, cinnamon, fennel or green or any of these in combination assist digestion.
Add bitter foods to your daily diet as they stimulate digestion.
Vegetable juices low in sugar, fresh unadulterated and pesticide free foods and lean proteins satisfy hunger and keep the system clean.
Pau d’arco is a highly effective antimicrobial. It can be brewed as a tea and taken a few times a day for about a week, up to two weeks. Don’t use it for extended periods of time. It is very useful to clear candida overgrowth.
Citrus fruits are a digestive tonic and liver cleanser.
To ease the gastrointestinal tract have a cup of bone broth once/twice a day. Once you begin to feel improvement you can cut back as you need.
To soothe the nervous system and make meditation and focus easier, drink passionflower, skullcap or withania teas and take magnesium one hour before sleeping at night.
Eat less sugar, salt and foods containing artificial preservatives and additives.
