Build Your Immunity One Step At A Time

Do you know the ways you can personally make a change in your immune system and overall health? Or do you try a lot of different tips you read about to see what sticks, ending up feeling overwhelmed and dispirited in the end?

When I see a client that needs touch and self-massage for better tissue health, I tell them this: The solutions to their body’s need are salt scrubs, gua sha massage, or abhyanga oil self-massage. But just pick ONE every day.

When a client ought to be drinking herbal water for replenishment of kidneys, adrenals  and heart health, what do I tell them? The solutions are electrolytes, to make the water taste good with some mint leaves, or create daily goals with a water bottle. But just pick ONE daily.

Is better food intake needed for my client’s better digestive health? I give them these solutions: eat half raw and half cooked at  every meal, or start juicing veggies in the morning, or eat only 2 handfuls total at each meal. But only pick ONE each day.

See the pattern?

Emotions become us, patterns are created around them, and then physical symptoms begin to communicate further imbalances.

You already know that there are more self-care tips circulating in the world than any human can ever hope to accomplish. And to see so many swirling around can be downright overwhelming. This is the opposite of self-care.

I can tell you that over the past 30+ years, I have learned so many different techniques from many countries and cultures and truly there is no one-action-fits-all (except hydration. Everybody really needs more of that.) So, while that gives me, as a practitioner, so many amazing tools at my fingertips to recommend to anyone who walks into my yurt, it can make self-care nearly impossible for many people just trying to live their lives.

You know that your body is a complex system that is both trying to maintain life and vitality by doing all the jobs its cells have been programmed to do.

And you know that there are a lot of different invisible (and visible) foreign invaders everywhere on our planet whose own life-sustaining agenda can clash with ours. I’m talking about viruses and bacteria.

Therefore, the most important system in our body that protects all the rest and sits at the front lines at the struggle for life is your lymphatic system, your immune system.

This month I’ve talked a lot about it. And I talk about it every day to my husband, my clients, my friends, and my family. It’s utterly baffling that the Western medical community doesn’t talk about it more! But here we are.

So, I want you to be able to take charge of your own lymphatic system. You’re the number one caregiver for that protection system, the most valuable system. 

Think of self-care as the bedrock your health is built upon. Choose carefully and wisely. You need practices that are easy and pleasurable to do, so that you’ll keep doing them. You need practices that really do a great job of rejuvenating and balancing all your systems so that they can step aside when needed to smoothly allow the lymph system to rush to your aid daily (and it does!) to stop and eradicate all the invaders that encounter your body.

Learn about the natural world and you’ll see that it’s an intertwined system that supports all the living beings within it. A balanced ecosystem is strong and full of vitality. Foundational self-care practices are key to our human ecosystems, because we function just like nature around us.

We too can get:

Muddy with our water & earth in the form of depression & grief.

Dried out by too much air & wind which reveals anxiety & hyperactive.

Inert with cold atmospheres that become fear & indecision.

Flared by too much fire that enkindles anger & judgements.

These emotions become us, patterns are created around them, and then physical symptoms begin to communicate further imbalances.

Here’s how I came to understand all of this. I started dhyana Essentials while studying with Dr. Lad at the Ayurvedic Institute. I already had 5 years of Tibetan Ayurveda with Dr. Lobsang Rapgay and running an infirmary in India under my belt. 

Dr. Lad put so many pieces together for me and made the theory of the elements user-friendly. He gave me responsibilities too, asking me to create and lead a weekly study group for my classmates.  He also gave me permission to open a Pancha Karma center, letting me know that I was ready to support others.

His way of being with what is made a huge impression on my way of caring for others.  He stayed objective, non-judgemental and focused on solutions that one could take on, if they chose to. He would say “It is their destiny, their life and their choice to heal or not to heal, as we all die eventually anyway.”

This has become the way I have learned I can best support, by allowing room to listen, then assess and offer solutions that best fit into the client's lifestyle.  

I often think, “How can I get someone to make a 40 minute tea brew everyday, when they don’t even drink enough water?”  This allows me to understand the client as an individual and where they are at in their ability to engage themselves.  Guiding baby steps for those who need it & providing advancement when the client is ready for more than the basics. This is where the true healing happens, meeting each person where they are and what they are capable of doing next, step by step, making changes to improve themselves into a better person who feels healthier.

Do you know what your body is trying to tell you? 

Have you stabilized your health foundations?

Have you considered that daily preventive practices can keep you healthy?

If you are living with a dis-ease state, have you thought about the basics being the ultimate way to start to unwind your illness?

As you try different methods of self-care, choose one at a time and really run the experiment. Once you’ve found a method that really works and helps you feel better over time, make sure it’s really a part of your everyday rhythm before you seek out anything new.

And if you’re at the point where you’re feeling uncertain about what’s happening in your body, I’d like you to join me for MyBody Mapping, where I can personally teach you what you need to know to decipher what your body is telling you. 

I know you can make big changes and live a truly energized life. I’m here to support you.