By Deb Martin, Holistic Health Consultant, Reiki Master
These are Challenging Times! This phrase has been true for as long as I’ve been an adult. I’ve always said, “the next 6 months are going to be so interesting”. From a holistic medicine point of view, now—the beginning of this new year complete with so much ongoing uncertainty–is a time to continue to further deepen and expand our knowledge and good practices of health!
This article is designed to give you food for thought (and body) about decisions and activities to Reconnect to yourself, your friends and family, and communities in fresh, new ways.
What will YOU Reconnect with in 2021?
RECONNECT WITH YOU
Reconnect with Your Body
Let’s start here: There is no time like the present to take a deep breath and be mindfully grateful for that one, cleansing, life-giving breath. Yes, please, do this now as you prepare for an enjoyable read!
Take a moment to consider one or more activities to do this week. Walk, bike, hike, take classes in yoga or qigong, or go sledding or skiing if you are in the Great North! Enjoy activities that reinvigorate your tissues with oxygen and make you stronger. Whatever you do in Nature conveys all sorts of benefits for your nervous system. You’ll benefit in other ways too with a sharper brain, improved sleep. You will find you are more resilient and most likely you will feel more satisfied in general.
Of course, your muscles may need some attention. Time for self-care! Perhaps a massage or acupuncture treatment. How about a Float at the local Float Spa, a warm bath with Epsom salts…or even better soak up the CBD/CBG bath bombs we have discovered? These are simply heavenly bath bombs, in three “flavors” with additional healing ingredients such as activated charcoal for detox and aloe vera in the “Dark Matter” bath bomb. Your muscles and nervous system will relax deeply. Very likely any pain will be gone. Your skin will be oh-so-soft. Soak it up for 20-25 minutes, and get ready for a good night’s rest! Check out our online store or come to purchase in person.
Reconnect with your Mind and Spirit
Meditation has become big business, experiencing leaps of over 200% growth in sales of apps with meditations from superstars and local artists alike. Check out Gulf Coast Meditations on sale on all major platforms such as Amazon, Apple Music, and more. Three of our practitioners are on these multiple-artist albums, and we carry the CD’s at the clinic.
Reconnect your Mind and Spirit with a meditation practice. Five or ten minutes…to a full hour a day…can begin to make a real difference in your level of life satisfaction.
Reconnect with your Food
What is it that YOU can improve with food this year!? Is it to increase your knowledge of how to use food to intentionally create a healthy body, to reverse an illness, or help a loved one feel better?
Got an hour for a consult—or an afternoon for a class? Get some food empowerment going on in your body, mind, and emotions! Take our monthly Medicinal Food Class. https://www.lotusblossomclinic.com/events-2/ Want a consultation in person or via Zoom? Call us! Dr. David works together with his Medicinal Food Consultants to help people successfully use food as medicine.
Amazing Things are afoot! This year, even more than most, we carefully follow the newest science and research of foods. Various foods and spices have been proven to kill pathogens and boost our natural immunity. Good studies abound! Enzymes and other phytochemicals found in many foods mount real defenses in the body toward viruses. The list of powerful foods includes ginger, medicinal mushrooms, turmeric, fermented foods, raw chocolate (cacao), and even non-alkalized 70-85% dark chocolate, green tea, and muscadine grapes. Green tea, grapes, and chocolate are in a very recent study, published in the New York Times, https://news.ncsu.edu/2020/11/food-chemical-compounds-can-inhibit-a-key-sars-cov-2-enzyme/
All three exhibit debilitating effects on viruses, including the “C” strain that stopped the world in its tracks in 2020. At Lotus Blossom Clinic we talk about this one as primarily a lifestyle disease.
Change your food, change your health. Arm yourself and your families with delicious, healing foods and spices. Dream with me for a moment. Just think what can happen as the world at large LEARNS about, BELIEVES, and begins to treat food as medicine! We can be more together again. Businesses and travel open up. It feels like a breath of fresh air and freedom! Speaking of being together….
RECONNECT WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY
The stories are all too familiar. The effects of friends and family being disconnected due to Pandemic precautions and mandates include older Americans left alone and confused, younger ones too, and 40% higher rates of depression and suicide.
With whom and how will YOU choose to Reconnect in 2021? Think carefully, and put a plan into action. Is there a rift to be healed with a loved one? Perhaps you can be part of healing our nation by learning to live with dualities. Here’s a Franciscan monk’s talk which I found enlightening and filled with guideposts in this topic.
Won’t you feel so much better when you take the reins and ride into the future with more friends and/or family connections? Of course, you may well have concerns about the virus, being in person, direct contact, and traveling. Do your research. Find a path forward in ways that serve you and others. For those of us living here in Florida, did you notice how lovely the weather is in the winter? The epidemiologists who study viral transmission say the safest place is outdoors, several feet apart. Meet people for picnics and dog walks!
RECONNECT WITH COMMUNITY
Ah…Community. Belonging. Shared interests, activities, and projects! Here are a few ideas to get your juices going on this topic. Choose one or more, and start planning YOUR Reconnect 2021!
What have you been missing out on? For Dr. David and I, it is social dancing which has been a big part of FUN and exercise in our lives, even before we met!
What bucket list items do you wish to experience? Any of these involve a group/community?
What about any new intentions for personal or financial growth, physical fitness that involves a group?
Any new avenues you want to explore within the context of a social or spiritual group?
What about hobbies such as music, art or travel in combination with other people?
Do you have Gifts you are ready to share with a community, in service to others?
The Magic for this year—or any other—lies in your ability to Expect, to Dream, and to Activate those dreams!
CREATE THE MAGIC IN 2021
The year 2021 is ripe with rich possibilities. Will it be another year like 2020 with more chaos and disintegration? Or will it be one that begins the road back to Reconnection, reversing the disconnections we all experienced in 2020? As a collective, we begin this new year with many questions, hopes, and concerns. Only time will tell how each of us–and our world– will look and feel as 2021 marches on.
As the old saying goes, “The world is your oyster”. Among all the possibilities of 2021 outcomes, what do you most want to experience in your life? We count ourselves honored to have Practitioners who help others achieve their dreams.
May your Expectations be Compelling. May you find healing, healthy Guiding Lights into this new year of 2021.
Health and Blessings,
Dr. David & Deb Martin
…and all the Practitioners at Lotus Blossom Clinic
www.LotusBlossomClinic.com
239-277-1399
Serving the Greater Fort Myers area with Natural and Holistic Medicine, including Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, Massage, Science-backed Food as Medicine, Energy & Transformational Sessions…and Community Classes & Events both Virtual and (carefully) In-Person!