Health

Retired people need to do a number of things to stay healthy. We need to exercise, eat right, get enough sleep, and stay involved. The last one of these is my topic today. We need to have one or more projects to be passionate about. Mine include serving on a committee for my condo association, volunteering for a local arts organization, and working on Heart Speak. Between these three activities and a few others that I do, I am as busy now as when I was working full-time to make a living.

Hi, it’s Marilyn Fuller again: health coach, nurse, nutritionist.

I talked to you last time about the Circle of Life: primary foods, secondary foods. Primary foods being Relationships, Regular Activity, Fulfilling Career and Economics, and Spiritual Practice. Once you are satisfied and balanced in those areas, you’ll be happier and more fulfilled. You’ll be satisfied with life!

Then you can go on to what you're putting in your mouth, which is secondary Foods.

Have you ever felt that your life was completely out of control? So out of control that you thought you would never get it back again? That's what drug addiction can do. I've been there. It was a long time ago but it changed my life.

In my case, the drug was Xanax. Xanax is a benzodiazepine, a class of super-addictive medications used to treat anxiety. Valium, Lorazepam, and Klonopin are other benzodiazepines. Xanax was prescribed for me by a doctor who did not take the time to explain how to use it. By misusing it, I became addicted.

If the stars are out there in the daylight, and we don’t see them, what else don’t we see?

Perhaps we need the contrast, the foil, the opposite to see what is hidden.

It really is a gift to appreciate what we have, and not take it for granted. There is a saying, that some dream of what we see as everyday normal, common place. I’m not saying this is bad, or that we are decadent.

Rather, it’s the difference between seeing objects and seeing essence. Being thankful for a spoon is just as important as being thankful for a smartphone.

Birds singing, trickling water, crickets humming – I’ve found these sounds to be powerfully healing.

I use muscle testing, also known as kinesiology, to see the healing power of sounds, measured on a scale of 1 to 10.

The crows, the hawks and the sparrows all – all birds – the peacock, the gentle “cooaw cooaw” of the chicken – these all give a power of 10 healing sound.

And trickling water too. I am always drawn to tickling water, in a fountain, in a brook – so meditative, so healing.

One of the key things that retired people have to do to maintain a healthy lifestyle is staying busy. Watching TV all day, every day, is a recipe for decay and decline. This is something that working people sometimes have difficulty understanding - because they have to be busy every day, it can be hard to grasp how important it is to remain occupied when work does not fill the day.

Hi, it's Marilyn Fuller, nurse and life coach.

I'm going to talk to you about Inflammation, and that leads to chronic illness.

According to Dr Barry Sears, who wrote "The Wellness Zone", inflammation leads to chronic illness.

So, disease comes in 3 stages: first you have wellness, then you have cellular inflammation, and then you get chronic disease.

Artwork by Bruce Zboray www.bruce-zboray.artistwebsites.com

All the foods that we are close to, both drink and hard food, vegetables, fruit, etc., how do you know if they are good for your body?

There is an easy way of finding this out. The autonomic nervous system, which lies down the center of your body in the front of you, all the way down to your belly button, can identify, if you hold the product in front of you under, your chin, dead center in your body.

If it is good for you, you will tilt forward.

If it’s not good for you, you will tilt backward.

As we age, we all begin to show it. But there is a sample in the population that seem to defy aging. At least a little.

This group, they stay younger longer. They stay more active longer. Their bodies are capable of movement longer. Their minds seem to be more interested in new activities longer. And their spirit definitely seems younger longer. In fact, all the senses stay more vital, their eyes, their taste, their ears, their torso, their mind, and their spirit.

All six are revitalized, so what is this activity? What is this fountain of youth?