One thing the Coronavirus COVID-19 virus has shown is how important it is that we develop our immune systems. It is an illness that affects some more adversely than others, old more than young and vulnerable more than strong. Mindfulness and meditation techniques add a new dimension to this approach in staying safe and healthy by providing us with the very tools with which we might work from the inside out, by improving our immune systems.
What seems clear is that our immune systems play an important role in keeping us safe. Here are some tips on how we can preserve our immune systems and improve it:
- Mindfulness and meditation: We suppress our immune systems through stress, worries, fears and those less comfortable emotions. Meditation allows our immune systems to once again surface as the negative emotions subside following these practices. You can find many of my recorded free guided meditations here along with free live meditations here . You will be introduced to many different ways to meditate, relaxation exercises, guided imagery meditations and simple breathing exercises.
2. Food: We absorb the essence of food into our bodies. In Mindfulness, there is a recognition of this very essence within the food, an essence that recognises the contribution of soil, water, and sunshine that went into the food along with the farmers and everyone else involved in the process that brought this food seemingly effortlessly to us. Mindfulness in eating can also include the whole preparation and tidying up processes which are often seen as less important than eating and the very reason for many of the processed and ready meals that we consume. This awareness can also contribute to the sourcing of food produced in more ethical and environmentally friendly methods.
Diets are a dime a dozen and more important than the food we eat is what we think about it. There is a deep mind-body-spirit connection and where the mind believes a particular food is bad for the body, that food can have a detrimental effect on the body. It’s almost as though the beliefs we have about certain foods result in our body’s abilty to process, assimilate and eliminate them are disrupted and the body instead changes to match the image and beliefs within the mind. The field of quantum physics shows us how atoms and molecules react to thought, whether external to us or within our bodies. In this context, being mindful while eating can also mean releasing such beliefs where we are going to choose to consume a particular food anyway. This can be one reason why each person processes foods in completely different ways and have such varying states of health despite sometimes sharing an almost identical diet and exercise regime.
Recent studies have indicated that an alkaline diet can help the immune system and in some cases, alkaline diets were seen to have reversed the progress of cancer. Essentially live green foods and less processed, canned and sugary foods where possible. Water with a slice of lemon squeezed in can also be an excellent way to alkaline your bloodstream.
3. Drink enough water and keep hydrated: Drinking water includes only plain water. Soft drinks, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate does not count. As for food, water-rich foods are also excellent.
4. Exercise and move your body: there are numerous exercise routines online from simple cardiovascular exercises like walking and running around your neighbourhood to strengthening exercises. There are also a number of excellent DVDs and websites out there on Chi Kung and Yoga that helps awaken the body’s own healing capabilities. For those of you who like music and dance, that can be a great way in which to keep fit. Sometimes, simply adding an intention to a particular physical activity like cleaning the house or gardening can result in the body behaving in a completely different way by increasing the metabolic rate and keeping the heart pumping in a more optimum level.