BLOG 122: 5 EASY TIPS WE CAN ALL USE TO TRANSFORM OUR HEALTH IN 2022
Jan 11, 2022
Have you set some intentions this New Year? If one of your aims is to feel strong, healthy, and energised in 2022, I have some tips and techniques to share in this post that will help you on your journey.
Back in December, I shared a wonderful conversation with Carrie Drinkwine, a regenerative health coach, yoga teacher, nutritionist, and mother of five based in Minneapolis. In fact, our chat was the first episode of the Face Yoga Expert Podcast for this year.
As well as sharing her journey to overcome chronic illness and infertility, Carrie gave some fantastic advice for people on their own health journeys, so you can continue to focus on wellness past January and form habits that last a lifetime.
You can catch up with our full conversation by listening to the podcast episode here. In this blog post, I’m summarising some of the techniques we discussed to give you five easy tips you can use to transform your health in 2022.
CARRIE’S STORY
Some of you might know that I originally started on my journey into holistic wellness when I became bedridden with a chronic illness in my early twenties. There’s more on my story here if you haven’t heard this background before.
Carrie had a similar journey. After struggling with ill health as a child, as the result of a kidney issue she was born with, she was drawn to nutrition and qualified as a holistic nutritionist. She also trained as a yoga teacher. But, even with all her knowledge and focus on health, Carrie had five miscarriages before she reached 30 and was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease.
Like me, Carrie wasn’t content to simply accept her diagnosis and resign herself to a life of illness. She started to explore other options, eventually meeting a massage therapist who was also a regenerative detoxification therapist.
Carrie agreed to try the therapist’s suggestions. Although they required lifestyle changes and dedication, the suggestions were surprisingly simple and quickly began to make a difference to Carrie’s health.
This eventually led to Carrie diving into her own studies, becoming a detoxification specialist, and setting up her own clinic.
The basis of the changes Carrie made was understanding and prioritising the health of her lymphatic system.
UNDERSTANDING THE BASIS FOR HEALTH: THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM
Those who follow my Face Yoga routines will already know a little about the lymphatic system – I often talk about lymphatic drainage and how it helps our skin look and feel healthy. But let’s dive a little deeper into this system and its vital role in our health.
The lymphatic system is the body’s waste removal system. Carrie calls it the body’s bathroom. The waste from everything we eat, drink, breathe, or put on our skin ends up in the lymphatic system and is eliminated from our bodies via the kidneys.
When they are working properly, the kidneys filter the waste delivered by the lymphatic system and it leaves our bodies in our urine. However, if the kidneys aren’t filtering properly, waste begins to accumulate in our bodies.
This build-up of waste creates inflammation and will eventually cause chronic illnesses. It also encourages the overgrowth of disease-causing bacteria and parasites in our guts.
There’s a simple test you can do when you wake up in the morning to see if your kidneys are filtering properly. Just collect some of your urine in a clear jar. If it is cloudy or has flakes or sediment, your kidneys are doing a good job – that cloudiness is the waste leaving your body.
However, if your urine is crystal clear on rising, your kidneys might not be filtering properly.
This is about the clarity, not the colour. You probably already know that light urine is a sign you are well-hydrated, while dark urine means you aren’t drinking enough fluids.
When Carrie tried this after first speaking to a detoxification specialist, her urine was crystal clear. She began to work on cleansing her system, eating mainly fruit, berries, and melon to detoxify her body and support lymphatic drainage.
TIPS TO SUPPORT YOUR HEALTH IN 2022
Now you know a bit about Carrie’s journey and the importance of the lymphatic system, here are five simple tips you can use yourself to support your health and wellness in 2022.
1. SOME IS BETTER THAN NONE
We often approach our health with an all-or-nothing mindset. January comes around and we make all sorts of radical changes to our lives, only to abandon them as soon as we have a bad day.
Making small, gradual changes is a much more sustainable way to build healthy habits that will last for the long term. Over time, those small changes add up to become a massive lifestyle shift.
Cutting things out of our lives can also lead us to feel deprived and puts us into a scarcity mindset. If we focus instead on adding habits into our lives, we avoid that scarcity thinking and are more likely to keep up those changes.
2. FOCUS ON NUTRITION
Diet and nutrition have had a major part to play in Carrie’s return to health and are the basis for her practice now. She recommends focusing on ‘living foods’ – those that come from living trees and plants, such as fruit, berries, melons, and greens.
Try eating only fresh food before noon – this can include smoothies and fresh juices. Don’t worry about portion sizes or counting calories. When you listen to your body’s wisdom and eat only whole foods, you’ll naturally fall into a pattern of only eating what you need.
Look for organic food from farms that practise regenerative agriculture, which will be more nutrient-dense and free from pesticides and other chemicals.
You could also incorporate some superfood blends to make sure your micronutrient needs are met. Often cravings are a sign that you are low on minerals like magnesium.
3. PRIORITISE MENTAL HEALTH
Our mental health is inextricably linked to our gut health. 90% of our serotonin is produced in the gut. So, taking care of our guts by eating a diverse range of whole foods, grown organically, can do a lot to support our mental health too.
Getting outdoors is also vital. Spend a minute or two each day with your bare feet touching the earth to connect with nature and ground yourself. Fresh air and sunlight are great healers.
Mindfulness and meditation are also fantastic for our mental health. Carrie starts every day with a gratitude meditation and uses breathwork and yoga too.
4. TRUST YOUR INTUITION
Something I talk about often is the importance of listening to our intuition and trusting our inner voices. With so much advice out there on health, much of it contradictory, it is essential to listen to your own body. Does what you are doing or eating help your body feel good?
Often, we look for complex solutions to our wellness. But when we listen to our bodies, we find the things we need are usually very simple – getting more rest, drinking more water, going outside, eating more nourishing foods.
5. CONNECT TO YOUR PURPOSE
When I asked Carrie for her one tip for inner peace, she told me that she strives to remind herself that every moment is ‘perfect and purposeful’. When she feels herself getting lost, she reconnects to her purpose by closing her eyes and asking herself three questions:
‘What do I want?’
‘Why do I want it?’
‘What would it look/feel like if I had it?’
This helps shift her mind back to her purpose and reminds her that everything that happens is another step on the journey.
WHERE WILL YOUR YEAR TAKE YOU?
Perhaps you are ready to take the next step towards your own true purpose this year or want to make changes to your career. If you already work within the wellness/beauty space or feel called to start your career in this area, I offer teacher training courses in both Face Yoga and Facial Gua Sha.
Both courses are fully distance learning, and you can follow along at your own pace. Accredited by the International Practitioners of Holistic Medicine, the courses give you everything you need to teach these amazing skills to others, meaning you can lead classes or teach individuals, both in-person and online.
