Winter 2021
Greetings from Faiz Healing!
Within the Phoenix Teachings Newsletter you will find our seasonal reflections and offerings for how to align with healthy choices and create support for self-care in the body, heart, and mind.
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General Health Update:
The Power of Meditation for Stress Release & Manifestation
Life moves to the rhythm of our demands for energy. Different phases of life require more energy output that challenge one’s ability to go beyond the threshold they think they are capable of. During these fast paced periods, life routines can form bad habits and defer acts of self-care. Yet these periods of demand are when restoration and attention to self-care are essential for continuing to meet the demands without significant depletion of one’s internal resources. Meditation has been a practice for eons to clear the heart, mind, and body of stress, mental resistance, confusion, or physical illness, and to harness deeper understandings of life experiences by creating stillness and receptivity. Stillness and receptivity are the balancing compliments to productivity and responsiveness in the internal and external scenes of life.
Science has shown over the past few decades the benefits of meditation for restoring ease and strengthening the nervous system, endocrine system, digestive system, immune, and circulatory systems of the body. By slowing the breath, the mind, and the body to expand one’s attention to simplicity in a moment, the integrative function of the body systems is supported and harmonized. When the body has time to integrate in a state of subdued awareness that is more active than sleep states, sleep quality may actually improve due to the reduced need of the mind and body to process the day’s events or life circumstances. This also improves mood, focus, clarity, and vitality with endurance for life’s demands.
Meditation may be achieved in many ways. For some it is sitting or laying in a sanctuary like environment for 15 minutes-1 hour. For others, it may be a walk in nature, gentle yoga, Tai Ji, or Qi Gong exercises that engage the body while quieting the mind or focusing the mind on a specific intention. Some prefer absolute silence, while others use relaxing instrumental music or guided visualizations. This array of choices can be utilized in alignment with the flow of needs to benefit any individual moving through different states of stress or attempting to harness skills and goals for manifestation. Manifestation requires a clear, focused, intentional mind, receptive and enduring heart, and varying functional abilities in the body, in order to achieve it successfully. Many guided visualizations support the cultivation and specific strategic intention that increases the attention and efficiency of the individual seeking to manifest a need, desire, or dream.
Take the time to restore yourself every day and see the difference in your perceptions of the world, your interactions with others, and satisfaction with self. If you don’t take time for you, who will? Seek the balance of self-care and soak up moments of restoration to subdue the hustle bustle feeling of never catching up, fatigue, and complacency with life’s responsibilities.
Life Hacks:
(Photo By Jay Smith via DiscoverMagazine)
#1 Gargling and Singing for Vagal Tone and Bodily Harmony
Want to support your brain a little more for the long-term and see a change in overall bodily function?
Gargle for 3 minutes 2-3 times a day or sing aloud to dramatic vocals that open the throat 3-4 times a day for 5-10 minutes. This life hack is becoming a fast favorite in health journals for gastrointestinal, neurologic, circulatory, and immune health because it activates the Levator palatini muscles at the back of the throat and stimulates the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is the most intricate cranial nerve in the body, innervating almost every organ system. Stimulating it helps improve vagal tone which transfers to better function and health as the body becomes inundated by inflammation due to age, poor lifestyles, diet, and/or disease. These simple exercises are so easy to incorporate in a day why wouldn’t you? Make some throat bubbles and sing on! Just have fun with it!
#2 Justifying those Rose Colored Glasses for Neurologic
and Immune Health
Do you spend 70% of your day looking at a phone, a computer, tablet, or TV with a backlit screen? If you are like most of the world in this age of technology and data transmission then your eyes may be feeling achy, fatigued, or hard to focus. Many studies have shown that Blue light is over-stimulating to the brain influencing health outcomes and quality of life for the average individual. When the brain fatigues immune health and digestive health are reduced. Sitting or standing for long periods affect circulation integrity. These lifestyle demands combine to deplete your resources to feel calm and satiated.
This means digestion and sleep are less restorative and immune strength begins to falter. Apps that change the blue light or dim the light in different settings or at times of day are helpful but they are not enough. The only way to protect yourself the most is to make mandatory breaks from screen time and shut down all screen time influence at least 2 hours before bed to assist the nervous system and circadian rhythm normalization. If your job, lifestyle, or desires keep you from that option, adding in sunglass shades that are rose or orange toned will help reduce the amount of antagonistic light coming through the eye into the brain when you are using your devices. It is important that you actually be looking through the color to the screen and not just a filmed reflective layer on fashionable sunglasses. KD sunglasses are great for this with many shades available for inexpensive pricing. Other brands include Uvex and FitOver.
Self-Care at Home:
Winter is a time of quiet and stillness for restoration on the earth. Chinese philosophy aligns the organs of kidney and bladder to this transformational season of water. Meditation is a great way to focus inward on what you want to release from the cycle of the previous seasons and what you want to call forth in the spring when the energy naturally activates to support growth and manifestation again. Check out the links below for supportive meditations to explore and refine personal intention.
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