If there is one thing I can teach in this life, it is the importance of knowing yourself! I have lived my life for 51 years and realize how important this premise is. Most of your life has taken you away from knowing yourself…all the programming you have absorbed from your environment…the messages you absorbed, applied, and carried forward…the teachings and conditioning you learned in order to survive in your family, your work environment, your social milieu, on and on it goes. Now is the time when all that learning that was false to your self is unravelling. It is time to embrace your authentic being. It is time to be free of all falsities and embrace your inner knowing about how you choose to live your life. This creates peace in your system. It involves self care that truly fits you. Following your intuition, reading books that you have been directed to read, taking courses in the area you are drawn to, keep searching for the inner you that resonates with these things.
I know to live my life with a high degree of self care. I go to bed early (10 pm) and rise early (by 6 am) if I want to feel most energized. Some people may deem that boring but I understand that living my life in a more structured way that honors my rhythms is important to me. Other people can throw caution to the wind that are not as sensitive. People that stay up all night and love to live their life on the edge, not paying any attention to the clock, are not as sensitive. I was born sensitive and instead of lamenting that fact, I work with my life path, knowing that to live in alignment with that sensivity is my ideal and my choice. As a result, I choose to eat cleanly and really practice what I preach. I do better choosing to avoid sugar, gluten and dairy products. I like the OMS plan but note that I am sensitive to some lectins such as legumes so minimize my intake of them. You can know yourself too by paying attention to how you feel and what is helpful to implement in your diet and what is best to avoid. This is called increasing your self- awareness. Getting objective testing can help you too. There are plenty of functional medicine tests that can uncover root cause of your problem.
I am back to drinking green smoothies. It is the best way to get a lot of fruits and veggies into your diet and that helps reduce inflammation. Choose your greens- preferably organic and stuff at least 4 or 5 leafs into your container. Choose a rotation of organic greens- a few days choose kale, a few days choose swiss chard, a few days choose collards, etc. The point is to choose a variety of greens to get in different nutrients. You can blend in 2 tbsp seeds for extra fibre- flax seeds are ideal for women with hormonal issues but other seeds like chia seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower, pumpkin seeds, etc can be added to your smoothie. (Blend them in a coffee grinder first before you add them to your smoothie). Add some fruit like chopped up pear, a banana or frozen berries- currently I add wild organic blueberries and organic cranberries to my smoothie. Keep the variety in rotation and vary it. I add half an avocado to give me some good fat. I add around 12 oz filtered water and then blend. Try this and let me know how much energy you feel you gain from green smoothies.
One book I have read repeatedly is Dirty Genes by Dr. Ben Lynch, ND. He explains why your genes might be contributing to your health sensitivities and how to compensate for them. He talks about what foods to eat if you have ‘dirty genes’. For people that need this fine tuning, genetic testing can be helpful to gain a deeper understanding on how to support your body. Taking the time to know yourself helps immensely too. In his book, he has quizzes that you can take to understand if you have dirty genes and what you can do about it. I highly recommend his book if you like reading about health. Knowing yourself can be greatly helped by reading more books so you have more knowlege and can make informed decisions about your life.
Being a highly sensitive empath, I absorb a lot of the environment around me even when I don’t wish to. Therefore it is important that I avoid crowds and environments with a lot of people. Otherwise I feel drained. I put protection around me energetically but you won’t see me at local shopping malls for that reason. If I am in a busy environment with a lot of other people. I will have a salt bath after (1/2 cup sea salt) and (1/2 cup baking soda) with 5 drops of lavender essential oil to stimulate my parasympathetic nervous system (the rest and digest system). I get into nature as much as I can and breathe. I exercise for at least 30 minutes daily. I do yoga to strengthen my system and spend time in meditation. I am doing a Deepak Chopra meditation which takes about 20 minutes to do daily. Keep doing what you need to do to stay in balance right now. Only you know what that means to you. Last of all, love and accept yourself! If u would welcome more support, please join my membership club Robin’s nest or book an appointment with me. 4032321283 Kind regards, Dr. Robin Vinge, ND