Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation is to tackle why a simple solution like living a hygienic life is so misunderstood and overlooked. It gives a clear and concise understanding of what is meant when we hear the words “nerve energy habits” such as pure air, sunshine, exercise, clean air, cleanliness, proper diet, sleep, rest, correct temperatures, relaxation, poise, and a good mental and spiritual attitude. Moreover, it touches on “nerve energy robbers” such as un-cleanliness, unclean air, impure water, inadequate rest and sleep, Standard American (SAD) diet, inadequate sunshine, and natural light, abnormal temperatures, lack of regular exercise, emotional unbalance, and slavery to addictions, low self-esteem and a purposeless life without meaningful goals, and toxic relationships. It will explore the basics of how to solve bad behaviors associated with depleting good nerve energy habits in life, along with how to embrace glorious health effectively through living a hygienic life while associating healthy nerve energy habits in daily life. Let me be clear on what living a natural hygienic life means: a hygienic life is simple. There are no cryptic, baffling, or confusing processes to follow. Natural hygiene has nothing to conceal for there is no secret potion that is packaged and sold in bottles as an incredible “miracle drug” that for just three payments of $19.95 plus shipping and handling you too can have marvelous health. No, nature hygiene is clear, concise, and easily understood because the laws of nature enable us to acquire and maintain pristine health.
Introduction
Today I will be addressing the topic of nerve energy and the two different parts that fall under nerve energy, viz. nerve-energy habits, and nerve-energy robbers. In a bid to explore further each part, I asked a diverse group of fifteen individuals, ranging from thirty to eighty years, if they were given the chance to make one health wish, what it would be. Interestingly, twelve out of the fifteen said they would like to have more energy. We do not think or view nerve energy as having a cause-and-effect flow on our body, but it does. Whenever there is an act of stimulation demanded of the body, whether physical, mental, or chemical stress, there will always be an equal depletion of one’s nerve energy. Next, I asked the same diverse group of fifteen people to think of a person who has admirable nerve energy and what stands out in that person. Eleven out of fifteen responded, “That person looks healthy”, while the remaining four responded, “That person does not have a nervous disposition”.
A key to nerve energy success is recognizing that proper diet, good and positive mental attitude, pure air, sunshine, exercise, clean air, cleanliness, sleep, rest, correct temperatures, relaxation, and poise are critical elements of healthy living. According to the Health Seekers Yearbook,
Nerve energy can be looked at from two different views. These views include the energy enhancers: cleanliness – both external and at the level of bodily tissues and fluids, pure air, pure water, adequate rest and sleep, ideal diet, adequate sunshine, and natural light, right temperatures, regular exercise, emotional balance, and freedom from addictions, with high self-esteem and a purposeful life with meaningful goals, nurturing relationships. Versus the energy robbers: un-cleanliness – both external and at the level of the bodily tissues and fluids, unclean air, impure water, inadequate rest, and sleep. Others include the Standard American Diet or SAD Diet, inadequate sunshine and natural light, abnormal temperatures, lack of regular exercise, emotional unbalance and slavery to addiction, low self-esteem and a purposeless life without meaningful goals, toxic relationships.
Until we start to look seriously into our daily routines, the activities we choose to do, and items that we mindlessly consume without pausing and thinking of the nerve energy, we will inevitably face some serious consequences as we continually take diet drinks, alcohol, coffee, tea, soda pop, milk-based drinks, fruit drinks, and other artificial drinks. We are unknowingly contributing to the stress and stimulations in our lives and have more than likely kicked off many health challenges to come. By making an effort to keep the cause and effect nerve energy balance, we need to make the right steps to rebuilding our nerve energy coupled with finding and keeping a nice balanced life.
True SAD follower
I am 5’10” and before the year 2000, I weighed 170 pounds. I was a true follower of depleting and robbing my physical, mental, and spiritual self of good nerve energy. Some of the nerve-energy robbers that were part of my every day life and thus draining me of any and all good nerve energy included unclean air due to allowing my body to be exposed to second hand smoke consistently and smoking for a short period. Another nerve energy robber that I encountered frequently was inadequate rest and sleep, as I could not allow myself to rest in any form. I would work two or three jobs at any given time and during my free time, I would party wildly. This lifestyle would drain any positive nerve energy, which I thought I had kept in a false reserve bank. I also believed whole-heartedly in the SAD Diet, I was a consumer and lover of foods that contained hydrogenated oil, fructose corn syrup, acryl amide, and sodium nitrate. My poor body was lacking in essential vitamins and minerals, but I did not care because I was addicted to fatty foods. At a personal level, I can confidently say that the hydrogenated oils, which I loved, contributed enormously to my obesity, and that trans-fats probably contributed to my infertility. The thought of even considering cutting out high fructose corn syrup seemed entirely wrong to me, not to mention that it is practically in every food nowadays and most likely, it contributes to type II diabetes and heart diseases as well.
Fortunately, after realizing the downside effects of high fructose corn syrup, I vowed never to touch it again in my life, and I have kept this vow to this date. I conferred with all fifteen individuals and all agreed, myself included, that fried or deep-fried foods are the best. Who wants to think of the downside of fried food and how it is fully packed with acryl amide? Yes, eating anything with carbohydrates gave way to high temperatures, which results in eating acryl amide. What is this acryl amide and why should anyone care? Acryl amide damages our nervous system, and can possible be linked to cancer and I did not bat an eye at this reality, until I received results that came back with pre-cancerous cells and I had to have a biopsy done to confirm if I had cancer or not. Fortuitously, I tested negative for cancer. However, having a scare like that, I had no problem with never consuming another yummy funnel cake for the rest of my life. Sodium nitrate is another substance is consumed every day, sometimes twice a day for years. Sure, I knew processed meat was not good for me. Honestly, I chose to ignore sodium nitrate knowing it was the main ingredient in processed meat and I did not give it a damn or the consequences of the health challenges I might possibly have to deal with later in life.
Nope, not a second thought at all, for I was an expert with justifying why I was eating it. Such times were tough, and so was my budget, and that is why I needed to eat processed food – it had a longer expiration date so my grocery bill would not be so high. Given my narrow-minded view at the time, I convinced myself that I was not exposing my body to any type of possible colon, breast, and pancreas cancer. I was becoming a pro in being able to eloquently justify the “why”. However, I never truly accepted the “why”, especially when I had to deal with abdominal pains, dizziness, nausea, and rapid heartbeats due to the excessive consumption of sodium nitrate I was forcing my body to process. I decided that I needed to counter these symptoms, thus I started consuming large doses of vitamin C and E before I ate processed meat or any food containing sodium nitrate. I believed that the vitamins could possibly inhibit the conversion of the normal sodium nitrate to nitrosamine, its carcinogenic form, and thus my symptoms would vanish. Ultimately, this experiment did not work and I realized it would be best to eliminate all forms of hydrogenated oil, fructose corn syrup, acryl amide, and sodium nitrate. Simply put, ever since I took this bold step, the state of my body and spirit has been improving, and I know if you choose to make these eliminations from your life, the state of your body and spirit would also improve tremendously.
Overly Excessive Chaotic Life
As I continued to excessively party and work three different jobs, I missed getting any form of adequate sunshine and natural light, and I certainly did not do any consistent form of regular exercise. I liked to drink and would drink during the week and on over the weekends. My mornings would start with pots of coffee and tea, which would carry on all day long until I would crawl into bed at night and the vicious circle would start all over again less than five hours later. This trend underscores why I maintained a steady and unhealthy weight of 170 pounds for many years. By my own admission, I made a choice to live a chaotic lifestyle, and drained all positive nerve energy out of my life and at the time I did not want to know how to properly eliminate the excessive stimulation and stress that kept me emotionally unbalanced and thus, ultimately, I ended up becoming a slave to my addictions. Instead of investigating why my own internal integrative balance was in disharmony and learn how to build up good nerve energy habits, I felt much more comfortable with keeping my own addictive habits of diet pills, drinking, and purging after I ate. I broke the limits of what is considered “excessive” with stress and stimulations in my life.
During this time, I felt that I was only good enough to surround myself with toxic relationships, which led me to dropping out of college and forfeiting my music scholarship, having my identity stolen, coping with infertility, and being taken advantage of financially, physically, and emotionally. Each year, I continually encountered chronic sinus infections, pneumonia, migraines, and strep throat. I was severally diagnosed with some form of autoimmune disease such as Grave’s disease, Celiac disease, and Shingles, and at this point I started to realize that excess stress and stimulation had taken over my everyday life. Panic attacks, sever agitation, nervousness, anxiety, and insomnia would start immediately I wake up in the morning and I suddenly realized that my life had become unmanageable. I was not doing things for my own highest good and in the year 2000, I became a vegan and started living a hygienic lifestyle, and by following the nerve energy habits, I have dropped over 45 pounds and have maintained it for the last twelve years.
To Accept
Until you manage to see yourself at a higher level of healthy living and resolve to accept and apply the positive nerve energy habits, your life will continually challenge you by putting different forms of nerve energy robbers into your life. Nine of the fifteen individuals told me that whenever there is an event like a company picnic, barbeque, or a gathering at the local restaurant, they feel a tug towards being people pleasers and surrendering the proper diet nerve energy habit so that they do not offend or stand out from the crowd. This scenario boils down to being questioned and explaining the food choices of why they forgo certain items. Sadly, at times we so easily abandon our own self-care by throwing what is best for our own personal highest good to appease those around us, which is definitely a nerve energy robber.
Simplest Form
As a Hygienic Doctor, all I want is for others to see how simple it is to live and uphold hygienic life. I like to use my own life as an example and help others to learn how to unlock their one-sided view and realize that living a hygienic life is not as difficult as we convince ourselves. Looking at it in its simplest form, it is all about aligning and balancing our creative capacity, psyche, physical body, and the human spirit from within our core. When this happens, we all can successfully free ourselves of any physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual addictions.
Now, let us look at the nerve energy habits, proper diet, a good positive and mental attitude, pure air, sunshine, exercise, clean air, cleanliness, sleep, rest, correct temperatures, relaxation and positive poise in life and how these elements can be applied to every day living. We are so accustomed to seeing the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) food chart pyramid, we have assumed that this chart underlines what having a proper diet means and thus anything that deviates from it makes no sense in terms of healthy living.
I often encounter the question: how do you maintain 125 pounds with a 5’10” frame? Well, I tell them that as a vegan, I eat mono-meals every day and I apply nerve energy habits to my daily routine. I do this by always keeping focus on balance for my highest good and applying it in every action I do throughout the day. If I am not present with each decision, especially around food and stress, my nerve energy robbers could easily win and slip back into my old habits, and thus I can quickly find myself back in the negative zone. The follow up question is – If you only eat fruit and vegetables, then where do you get your daily protein. For some, when they hear that being a vegan entails eating fruits and vegetables mostly, there is an overwhelming and almost paralyzing fear of, oh no, I am going to have a protein deficiency. However,
Protein deficiency does not exist. On a whole-food diet that provides sufficient calories, there is no such condition as a protein deficiency. A brochure from the Vegetarian Society of Colorado says, “Studies in which humans have been fed wheat bread alone, or potatoes alone, or corn alone, or rice alone, have all shown that these plant foods contain not only enough protein, but also enough of all of the essential amino acids, to support growth and maintenance of healthy adults.” It is much more likely however, that a person would run into a huge host of other social, health, and nutritional problems long before developing the dreaded protein deficiency. Protein deficiency simply is not part of our reality. So,
on a diet of fruits and vegetables only, it is likely that your total protein intake will average about 5 per cent of calories or slightly higher. Adding a small quantity of nuts or seed results in a slight increase in protein intake percentage, for example:
- A meal of 10 peaches (420 calories) yields 7 grams of protein.
- Another meal of 10 bananas (1,085 calories) supplies 12 grams of protein
- A bowl of soup made from 3 tomatoes blended with 2 cucumbers (150 calories) supplies more than 7 additional grams of protein
- A pint of fresh-squeezed orange juice (225 calories) offers nearly 3.5 grams of protein
- One medium head of lettuce (about 50 calories) provides about 5.5 grams of protein
- Though we have only eaten 1,930 calories so far, the total protein consumed is 35 grams (over 6% of calories).
Pursuer of Truth
As a Hygienic Doctor, I am a pursuer of truth with seeking a healthier and more holistic lifestyle not only for myself, but also for those who also want to embrace the hygienic lifestyle. For me, I started to become clearer, more conscious, and slightly stricter with my eating regimen, which included more simplicity when it came to daily mono-meals. Next, I focused on getting 20 minutes of sunshine every day and I carved out meditation and rest time each day to quite my mind. Things like sitting outside and being with nature will help with your mental and spiritual attitude.
Applying the nerve energy habits to your life is not difficult, it is empowering yourself to recognize that, by self-sacrificing yourself by freely giving your nerve energy to others or to your addictions, you are not doing yourself or anyone any favour. Some of my family members and friends, which I have successfully worked with, have learned this lesson by fully understanding the true meaning of living a hygienic life because one individual has lost 18 pounds in seven months and the rest have an accumulated loss of 70 pounds in fifteen months. By allowing yourself to maintain a good balance of nerve energy in your life, positivity will overflow with helping others to realize and recognize the true benefits of living a hygienic lifestyle.
Nomadic Life
In the last 41 years, I have lived in eleven states. I change states after approximately every four years. One of the challenges I have found with living a nomadic lifestyle is surrounding myself with correct temperatures. The correct temperature Table 1 reflects five of the eleven states that I have lived in coupled with anywhere from one to four of the cities, which I have resided in, in each state. The reason why I included both the overall population and the city population is to show that, no matter the population size, we can still successfully live a hygienic life and learn how to interlink the nerve energy habits with our day-to-day routine.
I currently reside in Gillette, Wyoming, and as demonstrated below, I have encountered a variety of temperatures of each of the states, which range from the desert, south, and the mid-west. I have relocated due to a number of reasons, sometimes due to work, but other times for emotional and spiritual balance. As much as we would like to reside in an ideal climate that would best serve us together with our highest good, sometimes that is not good enough. The good that comes out of living in countless environments is that I have gained a deep appreciation of not only understanding, but also following the nerve energy habits. I continue to appreciate that making provisions to our lives and proper application we can learn how to take exceptional care of our own regardless of the state or city in which we live. It is possible to learn how to balance our positive nerve-energy habits. For me, learning to dress properly, for each of the four seasons, helps with embracing all the positive nerve energy habits in my everyday life.
Towards Wellness
I participate in women and non-profit groups where I direct, teach, mentor, and speak to others toward wellness and how to enhance the quality of their lives while emphasizing on personal motivation to improve behaviours, education, and awareness. I accomplish this objective through many ways; for instance, I post my quarterly newsletter and get my articles published for magazines on how you too can master living a hygienic life by maximizing nerve energy through daily living. I also give my full attention to what other people say, and thus I take time to understand the points made and I ask questions. I am aware of others’ reactions and understand why they react as they do. I follow up to determine if the needs of my clients have been met and their progress with identifying and undertaking the nerve energy habits. I counsel others to improve their lifestyle behaviours, which contribute to poor health and most importantly, I make sure that the goal is understood. Through adherence to the nerve energy habits, you will regain and rebuild you own internal integrative balance.
Works Cited
Graham, Douglas. The 80/10/10 Diet: Balancing Your Health, Your Weight, and Your Life, One Luscious Bite at a Time. Florida: FoodnSport, 2006. Print.
Vetrano, Vivian. The Health Seekers’ Yearbook: A Revolutionist’s Handbook for Getting Well & Staying Well without the Medicine Men. Mississippi: Institute of Hygiology, 1994. Print.