Holistic approaches to fitness and wellbeing

When we invited people in the community to offer “exercise hacks,” one of those who stepped forward was Rita Lynn. Following her FSHD diagnosis, she went through a period of progressive weakening and fatigue that made her despair that she would ever have a meaningful life. She found that following a holistic approach to fitness and well-being that integrates psychology, diet, meditation, and breathing, have transformed her life. At the center of her process is finding a sense of purpose, practicing forgiveness, and spirit work. Scroll down to listen to her presentations.

Rita’s key takeaways

1. Self talk is part of our self-care and using positive high frequency words to speak to our self and about our self can benefit our health in all areas. Here are some examples of “I am” statement affirmations to repeat to yourself daily. Looking in the mirror while you repeat these and or writing them down can also be helpful.

I am joyful

I am creative

I am confident

I am in awareness

I am communicating clearly

I am in wisdom

I am love

2. Food is an important part of our self-care. It has been said in my Ayurveda Cooking class “without proper diet medicine is of no use – with proper diet medicine is of no need.” Proper foods work to balance our homeostasis, have strong tissues, good digestion and elimination, as well as balancing our mind, body, and senses to feelings of blissful versus painful.

Feel free to find a Kitchari recipe or pre-made mix to try. Kitchari has been said to contain all knowledge in one dish with great nutritional value, colors, textures, tastes, and forms. It contains all six tastes, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, astringent for a positively wonderful meal experience.

Here is a Kitchari Instant Pot recipe I’ve used and works out well:

3. Wellness can be found through our daily routine everyday. Incorporating exercises such as breath work and meditation are simple easy practices to find this wellness.

Breath exercise:

Be in a comfortable space

Close your eyes

Begin breathing in through your nose slowly for 4 seconds. Briefly pause before exhaling through your mouth

Exhale long and slow for 6 seconds or longer

Be sure your breath is first deeper into your abdomen (your belly may poke out) then up into your chest lastly, pause

Repeat

Pranayama is another great breathing exercise:

https://youtu.be/WNKwfubq6I8

4. Mantra meditation is a simple assessable and safe practice that can be done anywhere at any time. It is recommended to begin your day off on the right foot with a meditation and then add a second time to meditate later in your day or at bedtime as well to close out your daily routine. Today we used the mantra SAT NAM in our zoom call, the meaning in Vedic tradition is “truth is my identity”.

Instructions:

Commit to practice.

Be in a comfortable safe space.

You can use your phone timer on vibrate or a gentle soft sound to keep the time for you.

Begin with five minutes of repeating your mantra and increase as able to 20 minutes.

The mantra is our vehicle into our silent deeper spaces of our true identity. This has been explained in theory as a 4th state of consciousness.

Take your time and patience coming out of your meditations. To come out you will stop repeating your mantra and begin moving your body in small ways and opening and closing your eyes a few times. Be sure you are physically stable and balanced before beginning to stand or move around after your meditation.