The body and skin is over 60% water, the brain & heart are composed of 73% water & the lungs are about 83% water. Getting the right quantity & quality of water is crucial for health as every cell, tissue & organ in your body needs water to work properly.

Depending on where you are from, the quality of your drinking water can vary considerably. Some countries still fluoridate their water, although many have stopped or removed it. Older pipes, filtration quality & chemical contamination can also effect water quality.

Quantity: The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine determined that an adequate daily fluid intake is about 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) a day for men & 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) for women.

Drinks: Teas & vegetable juices are a great way to increase water consumption. Keeping bottles of water & a pitcher ready in the fridge makes it easier to stay hydrated.

Filtration: Install a reverse osmosis water filter as this will remove over 99% of other contaminants including lead, copper, mercury, arsenic, fluoride, glyphosate, chlorine & BPA's. Add a dash of sea salt to remineralise it. If you cannot, get a Brita style XL water filter tank that sits in the fridge and has a dispensing tap. However, this does not remove fluoride so check if your water is fluoridated.

Quality water: Find a source of primary spring water that has come directly from the ground. Water is a living mediumand high quality water is needed for optimal brain and body function. Water hasa memory and can take on different geometric structures based on thefrequencies it is exposed to. There are also many contaminants in tap watersuch as certain drugs and metals from old piping that are not filtered out.

Natural containers: Drink from glass/metal bottles to reduce exposure to hormone disrupting chemicals that can leach from plastics. Drink only from glass, ceramic, stainless steel, clay or porcelain, especially with hot drinks. Don’t refill or reuse plastic bottles.

Structure & charge: Charging your water in the sun is an Ayurvedic practice that increases its energy. Place a glass vessel under direct sunlight for at least 8 hours. Vortex the water to increase it’s life force. Spin it for a few minutes in a high glass or in a large water filled bottle cover the opening with your palm, turn it upside, then move the bottle in a circular motion. Let go of your palm and watch the water vortex out. Charging the water and letting it move and vortex mimics what happens in nature.

Exercise increases blood flow, nourishes skin cells, helps carry away waste products & detoxifies the body. It also decreases stress, improves circulation & your levels of serotonin & dopamine rise making you feel great.

Find exercise you enjoy: Find an activity that you enjoy & integrate it with your lifestyle instead of constantly forcing yourself to do something you don't want to. Maybe it's yoga, tai chi, hiking, swimming at the beach or walking barefoot in nature.

Develop a routine: Find regular weekly classes that you integrate in to your lifestyle. Wash off skincare products before exercising especially on the face & hands. Moisturiser can impede sweating & cause heat rash.

Shower: When you exercise you do heat up & sweat which can aggravate inflammation, especially if you have a lot of broken/exposed skin. Take a cool shower immediately after to remove any excess sweat & irritants. If you don’t have a shower available at least wash your face, hands & the crevices of your body (inner arm, armpits & behind the knees) immediately after exercise & pat dry with paper towel.

Avoid irritants: Use your own towel on your body instead of the gym towels which often have a build-up of detergents. Use the gym towels for your hair to reduce washing. Be careful with surface sprays on equipment, wipe it down with plain water before using it & layer with a towel to avoid contact. Be careful at chlorinated pools as they can be irritating and drying. Apply a thicker layer of moisturiser as a barrier if you must swim in chlorine or preferably swim in sea water. Use the steam room or sauna after to sweat out any absorbed chlorine & shower. Avoid staying longer than 30 minutes to avoid excess drying.

Stress is usually a reaction to mental or emotional pressure. It's often related to feeling like you're losing control over something, but sometimes there's no obvious cause. When you're feeling anxious or scared, your body releases stress hormones such as adrenaline & cortisol.

Stress exacerbates skin problems as it increases inflammation & impairs the immune system. Forms of stress include physical, mental, emotional & social stress. Occasional stress can help us make important changes, difficult decisions & perform. Chronic stress is a signal of imbalance & need for change. When we are stressed, our immune system is supressed effecting healing. Our energy levels are depleted & our amygdala is engaged preventing higher level thinking.

Mindfulness: Pay attention to your thoughts, feelings & actions over time. Keeping a daily journal helps to understand yourself & stressors. Develop a meditation practice. Sound baths or sound healing is a particularly effective way to start. This allows you to have a greater understanding of yourself and how you perceive and react to the world. It allows you to take a different perspective.

Health modalities: Invest in the activities, experiences & people that energise you. Things like exercise, yoga, meditation, music, reading, massages, swimming at the beach and relaxing walks help.

Limit technology: Avoid watching the news, turn off your social media notifications, turn your phone on airplane mode while sleeping, avoid constantly comparing yourself to others and spending too much time indoors on the tv, phone and computer. Engage in your community, spend time in nature and place limits on technology use.

Smoking cigarettes/vapes is one of the worst things you can do to your skin & general health. Cigarettes contain thousands of chemicals & toxins which thin the skin, deplete collagen levels & skin elasticity & reduces oxygen to the tissues. One inhalation of cigarette smoke produces more than a trillion free radicals in your lungs.

Healthier alternatives: If you must smoke consider switching to pipe tobacco which has fewer chemical additives. The original tobacco ‘mapacho’ or ‘sacred tobacco’ is much stronger but is used ceremonially in the Amazon. There it has been used for thousands of years and is considered a great teacher. Switch to herbal smokable herbs which are healthier and nicotine free. You can smoke chamomile, mint, lavender, mugwort, mullein, passionflower, sage, green tea, skullcap, catnip, damiana & marijuana.

Non smoked alternatives: In countries where cannabis is legal, consider using edibles instead of smoking to minimise the lung damage. There is also CBD oil and various forms of edible THC including in gummies and brownies.

Mental blockages: Sometimes addictions are caused by mental blockages or the need for short term stimulation. Leading a more conscious, meaningful, less stressed life and more time in nature helps to quit smoking. If it is a long term problem, unresolved trauma or coping mechanism you could consider mushroom based psychedelics or after careful consideration Ayahuasca, which have been known to help people quit various addictions and align with who they are.

Exercise: A great way to release natural feel good chemicals that makes you feel better energetically. You’ll naturally feel the desire to eat and live more healthy.

Avoid vaping: Vaping is associated with increased risk of developing heart & lung diseases in the short term, such as myocardial infarction, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. They expose the user to a combination of harmful chemical substances like fine particulate matter (PM), cancer causing agents such as carbonyls, volatile organic compounds, cancer-causing compounds like formaldehyde and benzene. Formaldehyde is known to cause infertility as well. Toxic metal nanoparticles like tin, lead and nickel are also derived from the e-cigarette, heating element or vapouriser device itself.

 

Clothing is important for your skin health as it is in direct contact with your skin, effects your mood & helps regulate temperature. Wearing the wrong type can lead to heat rash or contact irritation.

Natural materials: Wear 100% cotton, flax, hemp, bamboo or linen clothing which regulates temperature, doesn't attract much dust & is sustainable. Buy organic if possible. Avoid irritating clothing made of scratchy, synthetic or dust prone materials such as wool, velvet or polyester. Avoid easy care, water repellent, flame-retardant, anti-static clothing which are treated with potentially irritating chemicals.

Cooling clothes: Choose light coloured clothing in hot weather as it reflects light. Dark-coloured clothing absorbs it. Layer clothes to allow for heat control.

Avoid irritants: Keep your clothing dust, irritant, grass & sweat free. If drying outside, do not do so when grass cutting is happening. Store them in a closed closet or cover your clothes rack so they don’t collect dust. Only wear gym clothing once & other clothing a few times before washing them to minimise irritant & sweat build up. Wash any new, vintage & old clothing before wearing it. Also be careful when wearing clothing that you have not worn for a while as they often contain a lot of dust so wash those items.

Sustainability: Buy high quality clothing rather than fast fashion as it is more sustainable, looks better with time & holds its shape longer.

Laundry: Wash your clothes with a minimal amount of bicarbonate soda & white vinegar or ideally use organic soap berries which are all natural. Avoid fabric softeners, whiteners or bleaches which build up & are irritating.

Sleep is critical for health, well being, energy & performance. Many systems are under circadian control, including sleep–wake behaviour, hormone secretion, cellular function & gene expression. Poor sleep disrupts mood, attention & thinking. Insufficient sleep can even affect the microbiota in your gut. In the past, our circadian rhythms timed predictably to the solar light dark cycles. Since the adoption of electric light, however, exposure to night time lighting has blurred the boundaries of day & night, making it more difficult for our body to synchronize biological processes.

Dark/Light: Ensure your blinds block out all light & or use an eye mask. Get at least 30 minutes of direct light exposure in the morning, within an hour of waking. Keep a regular schedule, with a consistent wake time & morning routine. Stretching & going for a quick walk is a great way to balance your circadian rhythms. Watching sunrise & sunset is also useful as our eyes can detect the time of the day based on the wavelengths of light.

Caffeine: The blood caffeine level in your blood peaks about 1 hour after consumption & stays at this level for several hours for most people. 6 hours after caffeine is consumed, half of it is still in your body. It can take up to 10 hours to completely clear from your bloodstream. Keep coffee for the morning.

Nicotine: A stimulant that directly interacts with the neurotransmitters that control the brain's signals for sleep. It also disrupts the natural circadian rhythm & sleep quality. While asleep, nicotine users spend more time in light sleep states, especially in the early parts of the night when they should be in restorative, slow-wave sleep. Two hours after consuming nicotine, the body will have removed around half of the nicotine. Limit smoking, especially 3-5 hours before sleeping.

Food: Don't eat 3-6 hours before sleeping.

Exercise: Regular physical activity can reduce the time you take to fall asleep (sleep latency), middle-of-the-night awakenings (sleep fragmentation) & the amount of time you spend asleep (sleep efficiency). Exercise at least 2 hours before bedtime.
Showering: Allow your skin to be completely dry & cool from showering before sleeping to avoid irritation. End your shower cold.

Laundry: Wash all bedding, clothes & towels using soap berries, above 60 °C every 1-2 weeks to kill the dust mites & dead skin. Place a flat sheet as a layer between you & your blanket so you can wash it more regularly without needing to change the blanket cover as often.

Bedding: Use 100% cotton bedding sheets of a high bed count which is smoother on your skin. Stick with white or neutral colours instead of highly coloured bedding as there are less chemicals. If you are still in a highly flaking stage of recovery, you can add a loosely woven cotton sheet on top of your mattress protector. This allows the dead skin to fall through the sheet while you are sleeping & not create further irritation. Shake off any dead skin in the morning & sun dry the sheet regularly. Use an earthing or grounding sheet on your bed. It plugs into your electric socket, where one of the prongs are for grounding. The outlet itself can be turned off.

Pillow, mattress & bed: Use a high quality mattress with enough support & a contoured memory foam pillow. Make sure the bed is sturdy with a high back.

Feng Shui: Place your bed head against a solid back wall which creates a psychologically comfortable feeling. Your bed should be in a ‘command position’ as they call it in Feng Shui with a view of the door, yet not directly in line with it to create psychological safety. There should be a balance of space on both sides of the bed to create greater air flow & energetic balance. Use calming colours. Keep it clean, vacuum regularly & make it feel like a cosy, recharging place.

Temperature: Overheating during sleep is common especially in the heat prone areas of the body. Sleep naked or with loose cotton clothing. Layer your bedding so you can take layers off it it gets too hot. Ensure there is adequate air flow or ventilation to maintain the right sleeping temperature. The best bedroom temperature for sleep is approximately 18.3 °C. This may vary by a few degrees from person to person. A bedroom that’s too warm can interfere with your body’s thermoregulation abilities & cause fatigue. Body temperature affects not only sleep onset, but also sleep quality & the time spent in different sleep stages. A higher core body temperature has been associated with a decrease in restorative slow-wave sleep & subjective sleep quality.

Ritual/Ambience: Allow some down time before going to bed. Avoid screens or use a blue-light filter, read, journal or meditate. Put some relaxing music, a podcast or guided meditation on before sleeping to calm the mind. 528Hz & 432Hz sounds are extremely relaxing or a sound bath is also great.

Calming Tea: Have a warm cup of herbal, non-caffeinated tea such as chamomile, dandelion, sage, lavender & rooibos tea which are great for relaxing.

Technology: Turn off your router at night & place all devices on airplane mode, away from your head, for peace of mind & a break from EMF exposure. Reduce the amount of screen exposure for a few hours before sleep. When using a device at night, use a blue light filter you can set it to turn on automatically shortly after sunset. Download any music to your device offline so it does not need to stream while sleeping.

Timing: We sleep in 1.5 hour cycles so it is best to wake up at the end of one cycle rather than mid-way through the next cycle. Sleep before 12 midnight as these early hours are critical for deep sleep. The amount you need depends on your age & activity level with 7-8 hours the ideal average for most adults.

The human body requires a constant source of negatively charged electrons in order prevent an excessive build-up of positively charged free radicals. It needs to maintain a balance between positive & negative charge in order to prevent too much oxidative stress & free radical damage occurring. The body is a system requiring occasional recharging by conductive contact with the Earth’s surface – the “battery” for all planetary life – to be optimally effective.

This is important because prolonged oxidative stress leads to DNA damage, inflammation & an increased risk of illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, central nervous system, autoimmune & inflammatory disorders. Our modern lifestyle is often devoid of direct earth contact, particularly in light of the introduction of non-conductive rubber soled shoes.

Earthing (or grounding) refers to the discovery of benefits from walking barefoot outside or sitting, working, or sleeping indoors connected to conductive systems that transfer the Earth's electrons from the ground into the body. The health benefits of earthing are well documented with 21 research studies in peer-reviewed journals in areas from sleep, inflammation, pain, blood circulation, heart rate variability, mood, muscle damage/recovery, hypertension & more.

Go barefoot: Go barefoot in nature ideally daily for at least 30 minutes each time which is great for your blood, connection with nature & inflammation. It could be in your garden, park, beach or forest. A variety of environments is good for your microbiome.

Sheets: Use an earthing sheet on your bed for deeper sleep.

Footware: Use earthing or grounding shoes or sandals & shoes made with conductive materials & often having a copper plug at the base.