1 – Drink Half of Your Body Weight in Ounces Each Day
Our bodies are made up of 2/3 water. Interestingly, this is the same percentage that that earth is made up of water. Water is used by the body as a filtration system. Pain can be understood as stagnation in a particular area of the body. Water is something that can help move the stagnation. If you are thinking of water as a filter system, then it is easy to visualize water as something that can wash the pain away. Too much water is also a problem for the body and can cause stress to the body. So, what is the right amount of water? As stated at the caption, about half of your body weight in ounces has been shown to be the appropriate amount of water that is not to much and yet enough to flush out stagnation and inflammation. An example of this would be if you weighed 150 pounds, you would drink 75 ounces of water per day or almost 10 cups of water per day.
2- Move Your Body (But not Too Much!)
Sometimes when pain strikes, the thought is to not move, thinking that somehow this will help the pain go away. Unfortunately, not moving (also known as immobility) promotes stagnation in the areas of pain, further promoting inflammation and pain. In other words, the less you move, more than likely, the longer the pain will remain. At the same time, too much movement or movement that creates sharp, stabbing, or intense pain is a problem. The idea of working through the pain or fighting the pain is never a good solution. The rule of thumb is as follows: move to the point of pain, but not through it.
For low back pain, one of my favorite movements is the standing hip rotation. This very simple movement is performed as follows:
– Stand with your feet shoulder width apart
– With your hands on your hips, rotate your entire pelvis in a clockwise direction.
– Perform this movement in a very slow deliberate motion for 10 repetitions.
– Reverse direction for another 10 repetitions.
3 – Relearn How to Breathe Properly
You can live about 50 days without food, about 7 days without water, and about 5 minutes or less without oxygen. Oxygen feeds and cleans the cells of our body. We take our breathing for granted. Perhaps this is because breathing it is involuntary (it happens automatically.) Our lungs are designed to work automatically so that we can focus on other things in our lives! Unfortunately, we take this for granted by developing poor breathing patterns primarily caused by stress. More specifically, many of us breath too shallow (almost like a dog panting.) This is also known as chest breathing. Observe your breath. Does it begin from the belly? If the answer is no, then more than likely you are a chest breather and are limiting proper oxygenation to your body. Observe a baby breath. You will find that they begin their breath from the belly. You have simply forgotten how to breathe properly and how you were designed to breathe!
Here is an exercise to retrain yourself to breath properly and to increase the oxygen throughout your body. Take 10 deep breaths each day doing the following:
– Start by placing your hand on your belly and inhaling through your nose.
– Feel your belly distend (or push outwardly) with the inhalation, and then observe your chest expand after the belly has.
– Hold for one second
– Release the breath through the mouth
Performing this breathing exercise daily will help you retrain your body to breathe most efficiently and effectively to cleanse your body of toxins and to reduce pain.
Remember, pain can be managed effectively by becoming more aware of your own body. These three simple remedies will typically provide very noticeable changes in your pain levels if you are consistent with them.
0 Comments