Being sick on the road sucks. Today we look at 

1) How to prepare while at home to be travel healthy

2) What steps do you take to avoid getting sick/injured when traveling

3) If you do get sick on a long trip what to do

1. Prep - Stay healthy with steps below. Healthy is goal #2 of mine so this is easy for me to focus on each day.

• Healthy food, exercise and plenty of sleep/naps. Lots of water. No coffee, alcohol or smoking.

• For exercise I do the Donna Eden 5 minute energy resets and 30-60 minutes of kundalini yoga/meditation each day. Plus a lot of walking.

• Daily multi-vitamin and 1000mg Vit-C

• Brush and flush teeth daily. I just got a travel water pik as that helps my gums stay healthy.

• Set intention of being healthy and young.

• Visualization of each body part in turn - sending light and seeing them each happy, healthy, smiling and youthful.

• Clearing any emotions as they come up rather than stuffing them into a body part as I used to do. Journaling also helps.

• Listen to my intuition "What does my body want to eat in this moment to be super healthy?" rather that eating what my mind/ego wants. Ditto on type of exercise.

2. Avoiding sick/injured while travel.

• Keep to practices from 1. Even if that means getting up 4am to do yoga before an early flight.

• Avoid alcohol on flights as it is dehydrating and planes are kept at low humidity. Bring my own water on flight and drink it. Get up from seat every few hours - in theory to pee - in practice to stretch. (Avoiding deep vein thrombosis).  Get aisle seat to facilitate this practice. Take naps rather than stay up all night on plane watching movies.

• Take extra naps/rest.

• Schedule extra "rest days" in my travel schedule so it is not all "go-go-go". No business calls scheduled on these days (I mark whole day as "busy" in google calendar so ScheduleOnce won't put a call there). I often leave a day before intercontinental flight and a day or two after for rest.

• Keep up maintenance. Get a general check up once per year. Get teeth cleaned and checked every 6 months.

• If I feel I am "coming down with something" then I head it off by take a packet of Emergen-C that I carry with me, drink more water and have a long nap. And meditate on clearing the sickness pattern from my body. This is rather than keep going if tired/getting sick. Change my plans/cancel side trips for the day so can rest. It is hard to enjoy a trip if sick.

3. When got sick when traveling.

• Rest for as many days as needed with last step from 2.

• Tell friends that I am sick and to check in on me. Preferably in person, though Skype can work too. Easy to get depressed when sick so this is a help to reduce that.

• When I was sick in Bangkok at DCBKK 2013 with mystery disease (itchy red spots, tired as a dog, sore throat) I went to see a doctor at an expat health service where they spoke English. It was Thai chicken pox, I could stop worrying what it was. Cure: rest (and the other things I was doing). There is nothing Western medicine can do for viruses.

• Talk to the disease or injured body part. Tell it I love it and ask if it has any messages for me. Often just hearing the message makes the sickness significantly better. Sometimes it cures it. The book "You can heal your life" by Louis Hay has a big table of symptoms and standard messages at the back that is useful when starting this practice. I keep a copy on my Kindle as I travel for this purpose.

• Use the Busting Loose from the Money Game Process to take back my power from this illusion of sickness. (Health Game)

• Ask a remote energy healer for help by email.

• Get acupuncture. Often helps heal any underlying energy imbalance.

• Get a massage - helps relax and also to move lymph fluid which is where the body gets rid of toxins and waste from fighting disease

This entry was posted on May 11, 2015 at 5:22 AM and has received 1609 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I stopped watching cable TV over two years ago now. I use Netflix and Amazon Prime and DVDs when I want to watch a particular movie. Actually to be honest I watch a lot less TV now - I see friends and read books more.

I also went cold turkey on my news addiction about 10 years ago - gave up a heavy daily newspaper, TV news and NPR news habit. I have to say that helped me be much happier and if anything important happens I always hear about it from friends or in newsletters anyway.

Their is the paying the cable and internet bill cost and then there is your time and energy cost in watching stuff that you really don't want to because it is there. How much is your time and energy worth?
 

This entry was posted on June 1, 2013 at 12:35 PM and has received 1651 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Could the rise in auto-immune diseases like hay fever, asthma, diabetes and even autism over the last 150 years be linked to a corresponding drop in rural living with "dirty" food rich in bacteria and parasites?

So begins An Epidemic of Absence, Velasquez-Manoff‘s new book about a tantalizing hypothesis for a modern medical mystery: Why autoimmune diseases, in which a person’s immune system attacks their own body, are becoming more common, even as infectious and parasitic diseases are beaten back. (Read an excerpt from the book)

 

According to Velasquez-Manoff and the scientists he writes about, it’s no coincidence. A fast-growing body of research suggests that immune systems, produced by millions of years of evolution in a microbe-rich world, rely on certain exposures to calibrate themselves. Disrupt those exposures, as we have through modern medicine, food and lifestyle, and things go haywire.

...

We know tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, came out of Africa with us. It’s been in the human body for at least 60,000 years, and probably longer. But beginning in the late 18th century, there was a wave of TB in Europe, and nobody has ever really been able to explain it. Some people argue that a more virulent strain emerged, and there is some evidence for that when they look at the genetics of it. But there’s another hypothesis.

 

According to this, we had to acquire immunity to tuberculosis because of constant exposure to non-parasitic versions of mycobacteria that basically live in soil. But Europe begins to urbanize in the 18th century. The potato is imported from the Americas, causes a population boom, and people start migrating to cities. They lose the mycobacteria in the natural setting. And without that exposure, immune systems didn’t know how to react to it.

 

Wired: Why is our exposure to parasites and microbes so different now than it was 100 years ago, or 500 years ago?

 

Velasquez-Manoff: Let’s imagine people living in a rural environment, with lots of animals around. That’s the first thing that’s different. We were constantly exposed to each others’ fecal microbes: Feces was on our hands, and we fertilized our crops with it. People were fermenting food or drying it.

 

Today’s processed food is designed not to carry microbes. It’s full of salt and sugar and grease. You’ve seen those photos of McDonald’s hamburgers kept for a year or two that don’t rot: Microbes can’t get a foothold in them.

 

There’s a story about the food question. Bengt Björkstén compared allergies in Sweden and Estonia, a neighboring Baltic country, right after the Iron Curtain started drawing back in 1989. In Estonia, they were lower by two-thirds. He thought the protection came from their food. They had been getting microbes from food that was grown locally and fermented, essentially because it was a poor country. Modern food has to have a shelf life. It has to travel long distances. That happens by various mechanisms, but essentially you’re taking the microbiota off food.

Read more at
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/09/epidemic-of-absence/

This entry was posted on September 4, 2012 at 9:59 PM and has received 967 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

This might be worth trying out for a month or two to see if your health improves. Both GMO soy meal and  corn syrup are in many processed foods, ice cream etc. It might help high blood pressure and skin issues shingles issues because an immune response can affect blood vessels and skin.

I think GMO items are labeled in UK and Europe. In USA there is no labeling so far, but there is a move in California to start requiring GMO labeling of foods (I imagine there is too much industry lobbying by Monsanto against labeling)

Are genetically modified (GM) foods making you sick – I mean really sick? Up until recently, all that we could say was thank goodness you’re not a lab rat; GM feed messes them up big time. GMOs (genetically modified organisms) appear to trigger the immune systems of both mice and rats as if they were under attack. In addition, the gastrointestinal system is adversely affected, animals age more quickly, and vital organs are damaged. When fed GM foods, lab animals can also become infertile, have smaller or sterile offspring, increased infant mortality, and even hair growing in their mouths. Have I got your attention?

 

Biotechnology corporations such as Monsanto try to distort or deny the evidence, sometimes pointing to their own studies that supposedly show no reactions. But when scientists such as French toxicologist G.E. Seralini re-­analyzed Monsanto’s raw data, it actually showed that the rats fed GM corn suffered from clear signs of toxicity – evidence that industry scientists skillfully overlooked.

More at http://vitalitymagazine.com/article/dramatic-health-recoveries-reported/

This entry was posted on August 17, 2012 at 5:59 PM and has received 963 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

The mind-body is a very powerful healing system, even more powerful according to current research than many drugs. And it is an effect that has been increasing in the last 20 years. More details on this in this article with exerts below

In a study last year, Harvard Medical School researcher Ted Kaptchuk devised a clever strategy for testing his volunteers' response to varying levels of therapeutic ritual. The study focused on irritable bowel syndrome, a painful disorder that costs more than $40 billion a year worldwide to treat. First the volunteers were placed randomly in one of three groups. One group was simply put on a waiting list; researchers know that some patients get better just because they sign up for a trial. Another group received placebo treatment from a clinician who declined to engage in small talk. Volunteers in the third group got the same sham treatment from a clinician who asked them questions about symptoms, outlined the causes of IBS, and displayed optimism about their condition.


Not surprisingly, the health of those in the third group improved most. In fact, just by participating in the trial, volunteers in this high-interaction group got as much relief as did people taking the two leading prescription drugs for IBS. And the benefits of their bogus treatment persisted for weeks afterward, contrary to the belief—widespread in the pharmaceutical industry—that the placebo response is short-lived.

It's not only trials of new drugs that are crossing the futility boundary. Some products that have been on the market for decades, like Prozac, are faltering in more recent follow-up tests. In many cases, these are the compounds that, in the late '90s, made Big Pharma more profitable than Big Oil. But if these same drugs were vetted now, the FDA might not approve some of them. Two comprehensive analyses of antidepressant trials have uncovered a dramatic increase in placebo response since the 1980s. One estimated that the so-called effect size (a measure of statistical significance) in placebo groups had nearly doubled over that time.

It's not that the old meds are getting weaker, drug developers say. It's as if the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger.

Benedetti has helped design a protocol for minimizing volunteers' expectations that he calls "open/hidden." In standard trials, the act of taking a pill or receiving an injection activates the placebo response. In open/hidden trials, drugs and placebos are given to some test subjects in the usual way and to others at random intervals through an IV line controlled by a concealed computer. Drugs that work only when the patient knows they're being administered are placebos themselves.

Ironically, Big Pharma's attempt to dominate the central nervous system has ended up revealing how powerful the brain really is. The placebo response doesn't care if the catalyst for healing is a triumph of pharmacology, a compassionate therapist, or a syringe of salt water. All it requires is a reasonable expectation of getting better. That's potent medicine.

Read more

This entry was posted on May 10, 2012 at 10:19 PM and has received 1085 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Sat Nam Rasayan is the healing modality of Kundalini Yoga. Done with partners it is similar to pure meditation in stillness and listening to our own inner life while touching into another. It is the practice of bringing someone into your life without conditions. If someone affects your space, you need to question how you are seeing the world in relation to him or her.

We use Kundalini meditations to open up a field of silence beyond normal perception. This expanded awareness, in each of us, is a powerful tool to heal one another. Text from Devi Dyal’s (Dana Verkouteren) who teaches Kundlalini yoga and SNR in Cabin John MD

This video is of Guru Dev explaining Sat Nam Rasayan and the capacity to heal from the state of shuniya. Guru Dev Singh the healer talks about how we can heal through understanding out interconnectedness. He also talks about how you can't have compassion if you have anxiety yourself. It is through becoming completely objective (shuniya) that we can heal others.

This entry was posted on May 4, 2012 at 12:29 AM and has received 1033 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I do yoga every day and some of the poses are held and create shaking, which my yoga teacher always said was a good thing. I recently learned about TRE (Trauma Release Exercises) - there is a good book and video about them. They use stress positions very much like the ones in yoga to release deep stress from the body. So not only are you strengthening yourself when you do this kind of exercise you are releasing old stress or PTSD too. Which is good for your overall health and not just muscle strength!

Here are some links on TRE
http://www.traumareleaseexercises.com.au/
http://www.amazon.com/The-Revolutionary-Trauma-Release-Process/dp/1897238401/

This entry was posted on April 22, 2012 at 6:24 PM and has received 886 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Here are some natural cures that have worked for me to cure back ache

• gentle swimming - the water supports the back and you can move gently in many different directions to release tension
• long walks have helped me in the past
• relaxation yoga (where you lie on piles of blanklets for 5-10 minutes in one pose and breath deeply). I know Thrive yoga in Rockville used to have a class Friday evening of this format. Might be called candle light yoga or some other name
• a massage or shiatsu can help
• acupuncture
• going into a trance or shamanic state and then moving to a crystal house and inviting your back pain to come into the house with you. Then telling it that you love it, thank it for coming and asking if it has any messages for you. Often once the message has been heard the pain goes away.
• related to this is Sedona method where you connect with the pain and allow it to be and allow any judgments or resistance you have just to be. Seeing if you can dive into the pain or double how intense it is ironically can often allow it to dissolve
• If you are into totums you might ask for a power animal to help with the issue and give you information on it.
• EFT is good with releasing pain
• On a spiritual level lower back issue are to do with feeling lack of support, especially around money. The text below is from Louise Hay
  • Back: Represents the support of life. I know that Life always supports me.
  • Back Problems: — Lower: Fear of money. Lack of financial support. I trust the process of life. All I need is always taken care of. I am safe.
    Hay, Louise (1984-01-01). You Can Heal Your Life (p. 207). Hay House. Kindle Edition.
• Which ever the ideas you use drinking lots of water can help during any energy healing to remove toxins from the body

This entry was posted on April 10, 2012 at 10:02 PM and has received 806 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I used EFT six years ago to stop the cravings when I gave up drinking alcohol. Would use it every time a "habit cue situation" came up eg

• It is Friday and end of work week and I deserve a drink
• I am tired and a bit sad and I want a drink
• I am at a party and feel anxious and want a drink
• I am on vacation in Mexico and see others drinking at lunch and I want a drink
• I am in a pub with friends and want a drink too

Each time I would tap on the feeling and self judgments and get through the situation fine. Sometimes I would do full tapping other times just finger tapping to be more discrete in public. I recall there being about 20 different cues that I tapped through, and the cues became less and less frequent over 6 months. Now I have no craving for alcohol. And I find it even easier to let my hair down at a party or with friends than I did when I drank.

This entry was posted on March 15, 2012 at 2:04 AM and has received 1020 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is a great way to eliminate pain, release emotional problems, improve relationships and reach goals that you are stuck on. This Steve Wells ebook on EFT goes beyond the basics and gives lots of tips on using it. I went to a Steve Wells EFT workshop in Florida about 9 years ago and he is a great teacher and EFTer. If you download the e-book it would be fair to sign up for Steve's EFT newsletter as the book is free for subscribers and is $19.95 for everyone else. Links below.

PS Given the extra potential stresses in 2012 I would recommend one of the ideas in this book which is just tap every day whether you are working on a special issue or not. There is a hand version of the tapping that is unobtrusive to do in public or at work. Secondly as the founder of EFT Gary Craig suggests "Tap on Everything" - you never know what improvements you might see!

This entry was posted on February 3, 2012 at 9:25 AM and has received 969 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.