MissHopeful-

Thanks. I appreciate your comments. It makes me happy to hear that you found my messages interesting and thought provoking. And those are some great questions as well.

As for health challenges, I did go through a time when I considered myself to be rather unhealthy although there was no one specific health crisis. When I began this journey of mine, I was not healthy in regard to my body, mind or spirit. The pressures of my personal life and work life had taken their toll and I was rather beaten up. I was completely stressed out and suffering from fatigue. There were times I was at work and just didn't have the energy to do anything. Not to mention that my weight and the stress drove my bloodpressure up to the point where my doctor put me on medication. And let me say that this was only two years ago when I was 28. I think that was one of the breaking points for me. To actually be on bloodpressure medication at 28. It just seemed crazy, but every time I went to the docotr my bloodpressure was through the roof. Then there were my bouts with chest pains. I had two really bad incidents with that which sent me to the heart doctor. He set me up for stress tests and echocardiograms. As time went on I also went for an upper GI series and then that one test where they stick the camera up your nose and down your throat. Forget the name of it right now. After all the tests, I was then put on medication for acid reflux.

Eventually I just couldn't stand to continue like this. In actuality, I knew that I would not be able to continue like this. If I didn't start to make some kind of changes something really bad would happen. So this desire to live and be healthy set me off on this journey. A journey of perfect health within my body, mind and spirit. One of the first things I did was to change my diet and begin to exercise. With my diet, I began by cutting out fat and sugar. Especially sugar. It's unfortunate but I don't think many Americans really realize how bad sugar is for our bodies. Prior to the 20th century and maybe it could even be said that prior to WWII there was not nearly the amount of sugar in the daily diet as there is today.Prior to the 20th century, most people could not even afford to buy a large amount of sugar so their diet was almost completely devoid of the ingredient. Also I read once a great point about sugar. It is the only substance that the human body ingests where we have developed an entire system to regulate it's presence in our bodies. Isn't that just fascinating when you think about it?

I also reduced the number of carbs I took in. This helped with my weight loss. Now I don't beleive in any diets. Diets are fads and just don't work in the long run. I think we all have proven that. Instead we all should focus on lifestyle changes. The other thing I changed about my food intake was the kind of food I was ingesting. I greatly decreased my intake of red meats and tried to increase my vegetable intake and switch to organic raw produce where possible. The change in my diet was coupled with exercise which is essential. I began a weightlifting program three days a week and walked/ran as many days as I could fit in. After a couple months of these changes I was amazed to see that I had lost a little over 40 pounds and thankfully I have kept every pound off to this day.

I also made the choice that the stress had to stop, so I made the choice to quit my job. Leaving my job and taking a break from work for a bit allowed me to look at my personal life and begin to change that as well. All of those aspects of myself that held me back or kept me imprisoned were worked on and released. Bringing me closer and closer to being happy within myself. That really is the key. True human freedom is the ability to be completely and utterly o.k. with you. Once that happens than nothing else really matters. To get here takes work and sometimes it's hard, but the rewards (a healthy mind and spirit) are well worth it.

So all that I really could recommend to your friend are the lessons I have learned which would be the following general points for a healthy existence:

1- IMPROVE THE DIET: begin by reducing the amount of fat, sugar, unhealthy carbs (all white/bleached flour products), fast foods and processed foods. Instead, try to concentrate on other sources of proteins like chicken, fish or even some of the vegetarian sources of protein. Use the whole wheat alternatives to regular breads and pastas. And most importnatly try and add more vegetables especially raw vegetable as they have the higher concentration of vitamins and minerals without all the chemicals.

2- EXERCISE/MOVE THE BODY: If possible, join a gym and being a basic weight lifting program. Weightlifting is tremnedously important to weight loss. Most people think that the only way is through cardio. This isn't so. The more muscle your body has the more fat it can burn. And yet, cardio in the form of walking, running or roiding a bike is also essential to fat burning and maintaining a healthy body.

3- REDUCE STRESS/INCREASE JOY: Not everyone has to or can take the drastic steps of quitting their job and going on vacation for several months like I did, but the lesson to be learned is to reduce the stress. Stress affects the body in so many ways. Stress puts your entire system into protective mode. When the body is in protection mode it cannot be in growth mode. The two are opposed to each other. Also because of the nature of this protective system in our bodies and the release of stress hormones our body's normal systems such as our immune systems are compromised. The immune system takes up a tremendous amount of energy. Energy which is redirected to protecting ourselves whenw e are stressed. We have to remember that while we may not actually be running away from a lion that wants to eat us our body reacts to stress and stressful situations in the same manner. However, it wasn't often that our ancestors had to escape a lion and yet today we face stressful situations on a daily basis sometimes on an hourly basis. All of this stress breaks down our bodies and is compeltely unhealthy. So whether it is stress in one's work or personal life, work towards reducing it at any cost. And another key is that as the stress is removed fill that empty space with joy. Do whatever you can to increase the joy in your life.

4- DISCOVER SOURCE OF DIS-EASE: I am a firm beleiver that any health crisis manifested within the body is a reflection of a crisis in either the spirit or the mind or both for that matter. So another key is to discover what dis-ease within a person is causing the disease within that person. What unhealthy thoughts, feelings, emotions, intentions created this dis-ease? It's important to release these in order to prepare the way for health. Many people discount this aspect simply because they don't want to face their demons. It's easier to say that what is going on in one's mind has nothing to do with what's going in within the body. Well guess what? Saying it, doesn't make it so. Every day scientists are realizing what mystics and eastern medicine has been trying to tell us for years. The health of the body is intricately connected to and impacted by the mind. One only has to look towards studies on the placebo affect to determine the power of the mind in regards to health. And while the mind can have such a drasic impact on the restoration of heath in our bodies could it not have the same impact in the reverse, meaning a drastic impact on the breaking down of health in our bodies. I would say, of course, absolutely, without a doubt, it's elementary. We must ask if the illness or disease that is attacking and destroying the body is a reflection of the thourghts and feelings we ahve used to attack our bodies for the last ten, twenty or thirty years.

5- CONNECT TO SOURCE/GOD/UNIVERSE: Now not everyone is going to agree with this one, but I think it is also essential. Our entire body, world, and universe is made up of energy and this energy is essential to our health. And guess what? That energy has and is made available to us from God. God is a giving God. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that God would not give us if only we were willing to receive it. So when dise-ease is created within the body reconenct to that source energy. Allow it to restore the natural energy flow within the body. This is what Bruno Groning preached. He lickened the human body to a battery that can run down and needs to be recharged. The beauty of his teachings to me anyway is that this is something each of us can do on our own. We don't need a miracle healer to heal us, God is the true healer, the great physician, the miracle worker. Want and beleive you deserve it and it shall be done. Ask of God and be open to receive. Envision yourself as a vessel and God's loving healing energies the waters that flow within. On the specifics of how to connect to this energy or tune un as it has been called, you can check some of my messages on Bruno Groning's teachings. If your firend is not confident enough to do this on her own, she can always seek out alernative health practitioners who will be able to do any of the following: energy healing, reiki, long distance healing, chakra balancing, acupuncture, massage and so many other disciplines and arts that are designed to balance and restore the bodies natural energy flow.

So these are my five general points or recommendations I would make to your friend. And again thanks for the questions. They allowed me to express these ideas in one succinct message. Actually this might make for a good blog message, if I have your permission to reprint your message. My love and wishes for the restoration of perfect health go out to your friend.

Best of luck
Thomas