The 6 Essentials

1. Evaluate what you eat.

There are two kinds of foods — acid and alkaline. Your body was designed to function in an alkaline state, which requires alkaline foods — mostly fruits and vegetables. Eating too much of the acid foods makes your body acid, causing acute physical stress.

2. Evaluate what you drink.

Your body is mostly water and needs water as its primary liquid. Since your body was designed to regulate itself internally, drinking external stimulants puts added stress on your body and interferes with the regulation of blood sugar.

3. Evaluate how you exercise.

Your body needs exercise that increases your heart rate, promotes muscle activity and aids neurological integration, so your body works as it was designed. Excellent exercises that achieve all three are swimming or walking correctly.

4. Evaluate how you rest.

Adequate, uninterrupted sleep each night is essential for cell repair. If you eat large meals too close to bedtime or drink the wrong liquids throughout the day, you over-stimulate your body. This makes uninterrupted, restful, repairing sleep difficult.

5. Evaluate how and what you breathe.

How — correct breathing is important because it activates the diaphragm in a manner in which it was designed, which augments heart action. Correct breathing helps rebalance the autonomic nervous system.

What — if you can smell the air you breathe, it’s stressful. While the toxins in your food and liquids are cleaned by the liver before entering the bloodstream, the toxins you breathe — from smoking or living/working in a smoke/smog–filled environment, go directly into your bloodstream.

6. Evaluate what you think about.

What you think about affects your body. Think about a lemon and your mouth fills with saliva. If you are angry or in fear, your body is as uptight as if you were fighting a tiger. If you worry, your nervous system triggers more acid in your stomach even if you have nothing in your stomach — producing indigestion and ulcers. And most of these physically harmful feelings come from replaying the past.