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Cold, Empty, & Full of Health | Yoga Highlands
Written By: Ashby Underwood - Yoga Highlands | Issue: 2021/10 – October
Deliberate changes in the rhythms of your daily life can benefit your physical, mental, and emotional health.
Ashby Underwood-Garner
Living on the edge of your comfort zone will boost your health.
How often do you turn your hot shower to cold or turn down a dinner invitation because you are fasting after 6:00 P.M.? Simple pattern changes in traditional methods of healing will jumpstart the body’s immune system. Have you ever done these things as a practice?
Last year, I saw Hilda LaBrada Gore speak at a regenerative farming and human health symposium. We sat in chilly, wet mid-November weather in Virginia on hay bales in a hoop house. We listened to authors, health advocates, and small and large-scale farmers.
LaBrada Gore espoused ancestral wisdom. She said that earlier human realities such as discomfort, scarcity, and being exposed to the elements made humans resilient. The complete model included sustenance, sun, and spirit.
Our ancestors lived in ways that provided them better metabolic flexibility. They had to take what the Earth gave abundantly and sometimes did not give during drought, war, or famine. Modern humans in the developed world have convenience and perhaps less opportunity to build hardiness. If we’re too comfortable, are we still conditioned for adversity when our immune system needs to activate?
Intermittent fasting is a less intimidating way to experience fasting for beginners as it allows for all the food you need but within a framework of time. This practice focuses not on “what” to eat, but “when” to eat. Choosing an eight-hour window – first meal at 10:00 A.M. and last meal by 6:00 P.M.– and fasting with fresh water for the other 16 hours.
Metabolic inflexibility is highly associated with Covid-19 mortality. When we’re ill, our bodies work harder and quick blood sugar drops are dangerous when fighting off disease. We can train our bodies with intermittent fasting and common sense, proactive challenges to improve resiliency.
In our October Seasonal Reset we will spend seven days exploring best practices to boost broad spectrum immunity. Contact me at (828) 526-8880 to learn more.
