The absolute essentials to improving your health and performance, and to overcoming chronic pain and disease.
The world we live in today is largely focussed on chasing what we want and we perceive our body as a work tool with which to get it. A new TV, a pair of fancy shoes, or holidays in Bermuda may seem essential at times, but in reality they rarely help us with what really matters: our health. These are things we often want, or are conditioned to desire, in order to distract us from actually paying attention to what we (and our bodies) actually need to cultivate our vitality and to fully participate in life.
We live in very technologically advanced times, we have more doctors and health professionals per capita than ever before, yet, as a society, we are getting sicker and sicker. You might want to pause to reflect on that.
My personal goal is to stay healthy and to enjoy life for as long as it lasts. A future where I am expected to feel rubbish, live in pain, and pop a handful of pills every day just to stay alive, while people tell me ‘it’s normal, you’re just getting old’, is a nightmare scenario for me. So far, my health has been improving as I have been aging, and I feel a lot healthier and stronger now, at the age of 42, than I did in my 20’s. If you, like me, wish to stay vital and mobile, and actually enjoy the life you have, I have good news for you.
I would like you to understand that the great majority of the population could resolve their health issues just by taking some responsibility for their body. All the information is out there, and the solutions are within our reach. In fact, there is so much information available that it has become confusing and overwhelming. In truth, the path to good health is very individual. What is good for me might not work for you. However there are some basic principles that apply to all of us. In this post I will draw on more than a decade of study and practise to simplify and outline some important things that apply to all of us.
What I learnt, and more importantly, how I’ve been implementing this knowledge, literally changed my life. It also changed the lives of many people around me, so I feel very excited to finally share the ‘good stuff’ with a larger crowd. Sadly, many people still find it shocking that simply paying more attention and manipulating small aspects of our lives can resolve most of our chronic health problems. We can actually build a stronger and more resilient body that will be more disease resistant, and also able to train harder, recover faster and perform better!
The absolute essentials to improving your health and performance, and to overcoming chronic disease”.
1. We can live without oxygen for only a few minutes before our brain starts to die. The act of breathing is involuntary, but HOW we breath can make or break our body on every level. I will expand on this topic in future posts, but keep in mind that conscious breathing practices offer the most accessible and profound health benefits despite being incredibly marginalised and underused in modern medicine.
2. Our body is about 70% water, yet statistically we are chronically dehydrated. It is not difficult to imagine that drinking enough clean water is essential to our wellbeing, however as much as most people will agree that hydration is important, few people truly understand what proper hydration means. Nor are they aware of the very real price we pay for this ignorance.
3. Food is so much more than fuel, and our nutritional needs vary tremendously. ‘One man’s food is another man’s poison’ the saying goes, and it is time to stop this silly race to find the best, healthiest diet for everyone. Dieticians, governments, and ‘gurus’ to stop telling people what they should eat, and instead start helping them understand wether what they eat works for them, or not!
4. We are designed to move. Science demonstrates over and over again that we need to move in order to be healthy. Just ask yourself how you felt the last time you were bed bound for a few days. I would guess that you ended up feeling weak and sluggish. Our physiology literally depends on our movement for many of its processes. The good news is that there is no need to head to your local gym and sign up for regular punishment sessions! Movement for health, and training for performance, are two very different subjects and ideas like ‘exercise equals training’, ‘no pain no gain’, and ‘go hard or go home’ are large contributors to why we experience so much chronic pain these days.
5. I probably don’t need to convince anybody that sleep is great and necessary. We generally understand this intuitively, but research, and my own clinical experience, clearly show that we are easily tempted to sacrifice our sleep time for work, parties, or just to watch the latest hit movie. Many people tell themselves that they can easily get by on seven, six, or even five hours of sleep per night so they can have more time to ‘be productive’ or to get more ‘work’ done. But I have a fun fact for you: Sleep deprivation of just a few hours will depress immune system function by 50% in just two days. Eating sugar has a similar effect, but your body will usually manage to recover within six hours. A lack of sleep, however, will keep you vulnerable for days, and at least until you actually let your body rest fully. If you are prone to picking up infections, then getting the sleep you need is where you should start your journey to normal immune function.
6. Our thoughts have a very real and profound effect on our lives, our wellbeing, and on our relationships. For survival reasons, we are hard-wired to focus on potential sources of danger. As a result, our brains are often invaded by unwanted thoughts. We must realise that our thoughts can, and often do, materialise as self-fulfilling prophecies. Every moment you spend thinking about things that you don’t want to happen inadvertently puts energy into making them happen. Holding on to disturbing thoughts forces your body into stress, a state where all actions become disproportionately draining.
My experience leads me to believe that the pressures of our busy lives, and the challenge of keeping up with ‘progress’, are forcing us to barely survive, rather than to live, let alone thrive. By addressing the essentials of good health, you are likely to resolve most, of not all, of your health issues. Even if you only work on one of the items I mentioned above, you will notice positive effects. However if you keep ignoring your body’s needs, and if you use pharmaceuticals to ‘solve’ your problems, you are simply sweeping dirt under the carpet. You may feel better for a moment, but the dirt will continue accumulating, until everything blows up. Doctors are very good at fighting fires, and will likely stop you from dying when you face a health crisis, but they won’t usually help you get your health back. Downward spirals of illness and pain often begin when people are prescribed handfuls of medications to manage one condition and sent on their way, only for further conditions to be triggered by these ‘helpful’ drugs.
Luckily we can do a lot better.
If you would like to find out more about my coaching methods and how I can help you get stronger and healthier, please get in touch (przemek.koecielak@me.com, +41786835966). Good communication is very important to me, therefore our first conversation is free of charge and commitment.
Resources:
- “How to eat move and be healthy” – Paul Chek HHP
- “Holistic Training for Triathlon” – Andrew Johnston