How Physical Health Affects Your Mental Health

Simply put: Our body can affect how quiet and calm our mind is.  And, our mind can affect how healthy our body is! Here is part 1 of our 2-part series…

Now is the time of year that many of us tackle Spring cleaning.  That fresh spirit of renewal is exactly what your body and mind need, too.  Your body is constantly processing food and drink, and your mind is constantly churning thoughts and emotions. The cleansing of our body and mind brings forth new opportunities for transformation, and is beneficial for productivity and mental clarity.  After all, a clean body supports a quiet mind.

Most everyone has heard the proverb, “Cleanliness is next to godliness”. This “cleanliness” not only refers to keeping our physical body clean, but also includes the cleanliness and purity of our mind, both in our thoughts and intentions. When your physical space is disorganized and unclean, it creates mayhem, frustration, and negativity. Just the same, when your physical space is organized and clean, it creates peace, harmony, positivity and alignment.

So let’s start our Spring cleaning by cleansing the body and mind in three simple ways:  through a check on our diet, our movement, and our breath.

1. DIET

One of the best things we can do for our body is clean up our diet.  What we put into our body determines how the body will be able to perform and function.  If we are constantly filling up on junk, our bodies will not perform as well as they could.  When we only fill up on the good stuff, the body is able to perform to the best of its ability.  In the discussion of diet, we should look at it from three different aspects — food, hydration, and the pH (alkalinity vs the acidity) of your body as a whole.

Food:  It goes without saying that processed foods, carbonated beverages, bleached flour and sugar are highly detrimental to your health, and everyone should eliminate these from their diet.  OHI advocates that you pursue a plant-based diet that focuses on raw, dehydrated, and fermented foods.  While a guest at one of our OHI campuses, we support you with a cleansing detox diet and juice fasting to help purge the body of toxins, so a Spring detox should be on your to do list.  The juicing portion of the detox permits the digestive system to have a rest, and frees up energy for more detox activity in the body.  The limited caloric intake of the cleansing diet (less than 1200 calories per day) is an ancient fasting practice.  Recent studies have shown that many forms of cancers have been stopped, slowed, or reversed by limiting calorie intake.  OHI’s detox diet does not contain nuts or oils as the addition of these foods slow down the detoxification process.  We also eliminate salt during detox because it interferes with blood pressure and promotes fluid retention, and an effective detox needs your body to release fluids to flush out the toxins.  The OHI detox diet only features “live food” where all of the enzymes and nutrients in the food have been protected from the effects of cooking.  We also do not vary the temperature of food with the use of ice as it can shock the digestive system.  Food pioneer, Ann Wigmore, believed that raw-live enzymes were the most important ingredient in assimilating nutrients, and that has become a cornerstone to our full body detox.

Hydration:  Water surrounds toxins in order to protect us.  Therefore, in order to flush out those toxins we need to flush out our entire system and rehydrate appropriately.  OHI recommends that the amount of water you should drink equals half of your body weight in ounces each day.  And when you stay at an OHI mission, we provide guests with pure drinking water from a custom designed water filtration system, where water is alkalized to a 7.35 – 7.45 pH level.  Drinking alkalized water optimizes detoxification regimens, helping your body expel heavy metals and toxins.  It also hydrates better than plain water, and helps supply the body with essential minerals.

pH (alkalinity vs acidity):  The OHI cleansing diet has limited calories but is rich in nutrients and enzymes, which can help bring the body from an acidic state to a more alkaline state.  The purification and alkalizing effects on the body help to quiet the mind.  We don’t use lemon in food preparation or as added flavoring to a glass of water because it changes the mouth pH, and the acidity interferes with carbohydrate digestion.

Join us next week for the second part of this article where we expand on how to cleanse the body and mind through Movement and Breath …

Many OHI classes and activities can help you with your body-mind-spirit Spring cleaning.  Our stretch classes add movement to your life.  Our Body-Mind Connection class steps you through mindful meditation and breathing.  And our Prayer Circle brings you closer to God in a safe and sacred circle of fellowship.

In these uncertain times, look to OHI as your safe haven.  As we celebrate 43 years of holistic healing, we can teach you how achieve your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual goals for optimal health.  Stay safe, and be well.  Above all, embrace positivity!

Visit our website at www.optimumhealth.org, or call us at (800) 588-0809 to make your reservation.