The 9 Powerful Rituals To Make You Live Longer Ameer Rosic Wednesday July 2nd 2014 Read Full Article

Living a long, healthy life is easier than you think, according to guest writer Dr. Daniel Chong

As a naturopathic doctor, I give a variety of advice to people on how to optimize health. Much of that advice is individualized or tailored to the specific needs of the person sitting in front of me. In fact, I feel individualized treatment plans are a key part of my approach. I don’t just see a person with “health condition A” and give them “treatment A”. Very few “protocols” are used in my office. The primary goal is always to identify and treat the underlying physiological factors that resulted in the symptoms each patient has. In other words, what is crucial for one patient may be useless for another. It all depends on what’s going on. That all said, there are also certain basic health tips I give to just about everyone. I have chosen these health tips because, unlike the specific treatments I recommend to work on individual need, these tips will help EVERYONE.

• Skin to Skin Contact with the Earth: Based on the responses I have seen in my own practice, along with a growing body of research, I now consider“Earthing” to be the most simple, fundamental and crucial daily health tip of all. It is so easy to do, and yet so powerful and so potentially beneficial it’s almost hard to believe. There is no reason why every one of you cannot start “Earthing” today!

• Eat real food. Not too much. Mostly plants: This simple piece of advice was originally coined by Michael Pollan, in his book, “In Defense of Food”. The statement pretty much speaks for itself. No reading between the lines here. No labels. No “_____Diet”. Just stay away from all processed,

packaged, chemical-laden foods, choosing “real food” instead. Eat each meal until you’re about 80% full and stop there. Base each meal around a variety of richly colored, organic (preferably local) veggies, then go from there.

• Drink pure water until your pee is light yellow: Everyone seems to have their own idea about how much water you can drink. 8 cups a day. Half your body weight in ounces. Only drink when you’re thirsty. So on and so forth. What is clear though is that water consumption is crucial to good health. I have come up with my own recommendation though, which makes the most sense to me. This is because , depending on a variety of factors, especially activity level and diet, that your body’s water needs can vary widely from day to day, so following some set rule for the amount you need seems illogical. After all, drinking too much water isn’t good for you either! So, take a look in the toilet after you urinate. If it’s dark yellow, go drink some water. If it looks like water, back off a bit. If it’s faintly yellow, you’re just about right. Give this a try and see how you feel.

• Vigorous Physical Activity: Everyone knows that exercise is important, however most people still don’t quite get just how important it is. That said, there are perhaps as many different approaches to exercise as there are diets to eat out there, so it can be hard to know what is best. My first recommendation for all patients is to move your body in some way, just about everyday, enough that you feel energized afterward. If you feel exhausted, sore or injured afterward, you did too much and/or something too aggressively.

• Regular Outdoor Exposure in Nature: Richard Louv, author of The Nature Principle has researched the benefits of getting out in nature extensively. To me, it’s a no brainer. GO OUTSIDE. OFTEN. ‘Nuff said.

• Quality Sleep and Frequent Rest: Unfortunately, this one is much easier said than done. Nonetheless, I would rank it up there along with Earthing and eating well, in terms of importance. If this is a challenging area for you, you should know there is a wide variety of advice available out there on how to get a good night’s sleep. Of course the most obvious advice (Go to Bed!) is also probably the most difficult for most of us, especially parents, to follow. However, if you are having real problems in this area, you need the help of a qualified health professional.

• Play, Laughter and Good Humor: Have you ever heard about how it takes way more muscles to frown than it does to smile? I always loved that bit of trivia. Well, if you’re this lame-o, you can take time out of your precious day to disprove the theory, or you can just go with it! Smiling and laughter will make you live longer.

• Meaningful Participation in Your Community: What good is living longer if you are not helping out the rest of this world? We are all in it together here, and without all of us doing our part to help each other and this planet out, we will just not make it much longer. So start small if you need to, just start somewhere if you aren’t doing do so already. You know, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”. Then go from there. Or, volunteer. Coach a Little League team. Open the door for someone. Plant a tree. Pick up the garbage you see on the ground and throw it away. Choose a job that makes you feel like you are making a difference.

• Positive Social Interactions: This is another important bit of advice that could take a number of different forms, depending on the person. Honestly, most anything will do, as long as it’s not directly harmful to the planet or any of its inhabitants (you included). The biggest problem I see in this category is that people just get stuck in their day-to-day life and don’t go out and have fun anymore! What’s the best social activity I can think of? Go to a park with your friends or family, run around barefoot on the grass playing some game or another that makes you all laugh and breath hard, drink some water, eat some local, organic food, then take a nap. Bam! You just followed all the advice on this entire post in about two hours! Nice job. Now start again the next day…..

Ameer Rosic Ameer Rosic is obsessed with health. A Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Functional Diagnostic Practitioner and Functional Medicine Practitioner, Ameer has spent years empowering himself with knowledge about optimal health, and now his passion is to share that with you! From interviews with top health experts to fitness and nutritional advice and more, Ameer Rosic can help you live a life of optimal health!

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