Sprituality and Health Promotion Behaviors #17: Quick and Easy Way to Clear Your Bowels Everyday

The only thing you need to remove waste from our body is water. Here is a quick and easy way to clear your bowels every morning.

When you wake up, stay silent for 20 minutes. First, take a 750-ml or 25-ounces bottle of water and drink it while standing feet apart in your bedroom. Drink one mouthful at a time. Feel the water as it enters your throat and guts.

Second, remain standing and message your limbs in long circular strokes from your heart out to your torso. Stretch your arms, waist and limbs. Swing your arms and rotate your knees and ankle.

Finally, stretch your face (to keep it wrinkle-free) by opening your mouth as wide as you can while standing on the ball (front) of your feet (a detox position). Spell p-e-a-c-e slowly 10 times. Imagine the letters flowing down your arm to your finger, one finger at a time.

Your body will now naturally signal you to the washroom. Then, you're ready to start your day!

Spirituality and Health Promotion Behavior #16: List Your Goals

We need to have a direction in life. If we can maintain our focus in life, we will do things with zest and look forward to each day. Write down your goals. Repeat each of them 10 times first thing in the morning. You can do it (as I do), seated on my bed and looking out of the window. Look at the sky and articulate clearly your goals aloud. Your positive posture will automatically make you optimistic. This five-minute exercise re-sets the rhythmn for the day and helps you to persevere, persevere, persevere.

Spirituality and Health Promotion Behavior #15: Meditate-Exercise

I swim every morning. The truth is, as I swim, I silently repeat 2 verses in my mind: "Freedom celebrates the beauty of my soul. I am sacred, I am purity, I am all possibility." It is a Tibetan meditation that I learnt some time ago in in the book, The Tibetan Art of Positive Thinking (2003) by Christopher Hansard, pg 240. Positive words uttered silently in the head give us strength to overcome challenges. To achieve spirituality and good health, you too can start meditating while you exercise.

Spirituality and Health Promotion Behaviors #14: Focus on improving yourself

It's been a long time since my last post. A lot has happened and I learnt so much. I hope to share with you what I have learnt.

The most rejuvenating thing that happened to me was that I started learning golf. I used to play volleyball twice a week until I bruised my hand badly. While resting from the injury, I realised that rigorous daily exercise is fuel for vitality. When we exercise, we learn to focus on the game and co-ordinate our minds and bodies.

Unlike other leisurely activities such as swimming, golf requires complete focus. It was not possible to think of any other thoughts while preparing a swing. In the beginning, it is just you and a still, white ball. Simply preparing yourself well is the biggest challenge of all.

So it is with life. Instead of comparing ourselves with other people, focus on improving yourself without harming others. In this way, each of us can achieve spirituality and good health.

Spirituality and Health Promotion Behaviors #13: What is love?

How do we know if a friend is just a companion or someone we truly love? If we first define love, we can use our definition as a starting point to knowing the truth in our relationships.

What is love? This is a question to think about. There is no right or wrong answer. Each of us is unique and our experiences will lead us to define love differently. However, to be useful as a guide post in life, our definition of love should be concise.

Can you complete the following sentence using 5 words?

Love is ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ .

You may have to try many times before you arrive at your answer. Each time a potential definition arises, test it by asking if it accurately describes the love that has been clearly demonstrated by the people that you can always depend on and are closest to, e.g. your mother, best friend, sibling or pet?

If we can define love for ourself, we will be more at peace in the way we handle our relationships, because we know the extent that it has developed and can better estimate its potential.

When we cannot decide whether to admit someone into our special circle of 'loved ones', we can start by asking if the relationship falls under our definition of love.

Spirituality and Health Promotion Behaviors #12: Music

The only thing that can send a shiver down the spine without fear is good music. Most of us would know this universal language. It speaks to us in a way we cannot explain. It is thus important for our well-being to listen to good music.

Like our choice of food, our preference for music varies with our tastes. I may like jazz while you prefer pop. Yet like diet, we should be discerning in the music we fill our minds with. It is more uplifting to listen to clear compositions and positive lyrics than to be drown in noise and depressing verses.

If you have the opportunity to do so, learn a musical instrument. It adds a unique touch to our personalities and gives us a means to express ourselves where words fail us. Just singing in the shower can also help to rejuvenate our cluttered minds and inject timeless beauty into our lives.

Spirituality and Health Promotion Behaviors #11: Taking photos

Memories are reinforced by photographs. Without photographs, we may never remember everything that happened to us. However, people often focus on how they appear in the photographs and forget that there are other things that are worthy of being captured.

Taking photographs not of ourselves, but of details, surroundings and other faces, is a good way to broaden our perspective of life. As we train our eyes to look for beauty in everything beyond our image, we begin to appreciate the time and place that we live in.

We do not need to have special talent to create happy memories for ourselves though photographs. We only need to truly open our eyes and engage in new experiences and places that will help us grow our photo album. This may be as simple as going to a new cafe with friends or taking a stroll in a park that you have never visited. In the company of a simple camera, we also learn to spend time alone and appreciate our unique perspective of this world.

Spirituality and Health Promotion Behaviors #10: Poise

A costume designer once said that an actor who is new to a role needs only to put on his costume and everything will fall into place. In a way, we are all actors playing different roles at different times of our lives. So it is important to present ourselves in a positive way so that we can perform effectively.

Dress in comfort. This takes practice. It takes skill and discipline to choose pretty apparel or footwear that do not also hurt our health e.g. choosing high heels that damage the back, or body-hugging clothes that are made of synthetic materials that do not allow the skin to breathe.

Comfortable clothes, however, only look smart on someone if the clothes are clean and well-pressed and more important, the person has a good posture. Here are 3 basic steps to developing good posture:

1. Sit straight (check with your hand that your lower back flat).

2. Stand upright (an easy way to do this is to gently place your middle fingers on the side of your thigh where the hemp of a garment would usually run).

3. Walk in a balanced way (a moderate swing of the arms can be achieved by having your thumb touch your first finger while you are walking).

Dressing smartly will make us act in a more confident and positive way.