Baby Boomers 2012

Principles for Better Health and Living

by Jim Rohn

1. HEREDITY: This is what you are given from your parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. If your mother or father had heart trouble, or any organ of their body did not work the way God intended that organ to work, then you know you may have a weakness towards that organ. We know if there is a history of disease in the family you should take extra care of your health regarding that disease. Heredity is something you are born with. However, it is what you do and how you live with what God gives you that will determine your health.

2. DIET: It has been said, “you are what your eat.”

• While heredity does play a large role in everyone’s health, it is not the only factor. A diet with good old common sense is essential!
• By eating the food, you will strengthen the organs of the body.
• You will have pep, vigor and be full of life.
• What does a proper good old common sense diet mean? A diet chuck full of natural food.
• We can always remind ourselves, that what man makes he make for a profit (money); what God makes he makes with love, for man’s good.
• Eat abundantly of herbs, raw or gently cooked vegetables, fruits of all kinds and raw nuts. By eating the natural foods we strengthen the entire body, giving nourishment to a weak organ, helping eliminate waste matter from the body, and most importantly, cleansing and purifying the blood. Eat natural foods as often as possible.

3. WILL: Your mental state of mind.

• How much do you want to be well, free of disease, discomfort and pain?
• You and you alone can improve the heredity factor.
• Eat the proper food with good old common sense.
• Keep the body clean and exercise each day.
• Your good health is a life long commitment of your will, your attitude, and your thinking. Always remember, you need to be healthy.

4. EXERCISE: Exercise means staying active.

• Look to each day as a day of activity.
• To be able to work is a blessing.
• Try to take a good long walk each day. Do not be afraid to use your body
• Exercise so that you breath deeply.
• Oxygen is very important to your body’s needs.
• Research has shown that people in nursing homes, both men and women, in their 70s, 80s even 90s, who have been put on a daily exercise program feel better, and their health has improved. They even feel better about themselves. Do not let a day go by without some form of exercise.

5. Learn How to Relax

The following exercise will introduce you to deep relaxation. It will help create a refreshed and peaceful feeling for the body and mind. Try to do this especially upon arising and before retiring.

1. Lie flat of your back, placing the feet about 18 inches apart. The hands should rest slightly away from the trunk, with the palms up.

2. Close your eyes and gently move all the parts of the body to give a general feeling of relaxation.

3. Start relaxing the body by part. First think of the right leg. Inhale and raise the leg about one foot off the floor. Hold it fully tensed. After five seconds, exhale quickly and relax the muscles of the right leg, allowing it to fall to the floor on its own. Shake the leg gently from right to left, relax it fully and forget about the existence of this leg.

4. Repeat this process with the left leg, and then with both hands one at a time.

5. Then bring the mind to the muscles of the pelvis, buttocks and anus. Tense them and relax. Once again, tense them and relax. Next, think of the abdomen. Inhale deeply through the nose and bloat the abdomen. Hold your breath for five seconds and suddenly let the air burst out through the mouth, at the same time relaxing all the muscles of the abdomen and diaphragm.

6. Move on to the chest region. Inhale deeply through the nose, bloating the chest. Hold your breath for five seconds and suddenly let the air out through the mouth while relaxing all the muscle of the chest and diaphragm.

7. Move on to the shoulders. Without moving the forearm off the flow, try to make the shoulders meet in front of the body. Then relax and let them drop to the floor.

8. Slowly, gently, turn the neck right and left, right and left then back to center, mentally relaxing the neck muscles.

9. Now coming to facial muscles, move the jaw up and down, left and right, a few times then relax. Squeeze the lips together in a pout, then relax. Such in the cheek muscles, then relax. Tense the tip of the nose, then relax. Wrinkle the forehead muscles, then relax.

10. Now you have relaxed all the muscles of the body. To make sure of this, allow your mind to wander over your entire body, from the tips of the toes to the head, searching for any spots of tension. If you come across any, concentrate upon this part and it will relax. If you do this mentally, without moving any muscle, you will notice that the part concerned obeys your command.

This is complete relaxation. Even your mind is at rest now. Observe your thoughts without trying to take your mind anywhere. Remain in this condition at least five minutes. When you decide to wake from this conscious sleep, do so quite slowly. Imagine that fresh energy is gently entering each part of your body from the head down to the toes. Then slowly sit up. This exercise helps create a refreshed and peaceful feeling for the body and mind.

6. How to Stay Young Indefinitely:

• Forget your age. Your number of birthdays isn’t important. How you look, feel and most of all your enthusiasm for living determine your age.
• Be adventuresome! Always stay interested in life. Find new things to do daily. Do the things you enjoy and plan something “SPECIAL” to look forward to each day. Never, never let yourself be unhappy or depressed. This leads to poor health. You are as young as you feel.
• Eat nourishing food. A balanced diet is very important. And never, never overeat.
• Exercise daily. A good long enjoyable walk each day is a must for good health. Get into this habit, and each day you’ll find yourself looking forward to your walk.
• The most important exercise you can do other than walking is the “stomach lift”. This strengthens your abdominal muscles and enables you to permanently keep your waistline.
• Here’s how to do it. Pull you stomach in and hold it for about 20 seconds. Relax, now pull your stomach in so that it feels as if your stomach is touching your backbone. Hold for a count of 30. Do this several times daily. Do it anytime you think of it.
• Follow a regular exercise routine about 10 minutes daily. If you don’t know any regular exercise routines, your public library should have several books on this.
• Good elimination. If you have poor bowel habits, try to correct them. Eat bran cereal for breakfast. Add high fiber bread to your menu.
• Relax. Remember, relaxation is beauty, tension is ugliness. Now here’s how to begin relaxing. Lie on your bed or couch. Pretend you’re floating on a cloud or drifting idly in the ocean. think of anything that will make you feel loose and free.

First tense your arms; stretch them as long as you can. Next tense your fingers. Then ball them into tight fists. Now, let your arms and hands relax. Pretend you’re a rag doll and you cannot move them. Do the same with your legs and feet. Next comes the neck. Roll your head from side to side as if you were saying no. Then pretend your head is so heavy you cannot lift it from the pillow.

Work at this daily until you teach yourself to relax. It can be done. When you’re at work or anywhere that you feel yourself become tense, take several deep breaths through your mouth. This will help relax you. Follow this plan and you should look and feel young INDEFINITELY.

• Keep your mind active and continue to learn. Take advantage of opportunities, like new friends, reading, movies, television, traveling and cultural activities. Take advantage of community resources. Most churches have programs for older people. YMCA college and hospitals have programs. Become a giver rather than a taker, beginning to look at the later years or life as time you can make major contributions to people at a personal level. Help out at the local Y. There are a lot of kids and young families that could use guidance and counseling from older people.
• Don’t let your self become sedentary. Don’t stay cooped up in the house. Plan short walks, visits and shopping trips around your neighborhood.
• Travel can be an aid to living a full and healthy life. Go some place new. It doesn’t have to be a trip around the world. Walk around your community, take a ride across town. Visit the local museum and other interesting places. If you live in a larger town go to the local airport. Travel can be an aid to living a full and healthy life. Go someplace new. A wonderful time can be had on bus tours. You meet lots of interesting people and see new places.
• Friends are a source of energy. Friends and family are important to a healthy lift. Friends make us feel good. They keep us wanting to be alive.
• Be less critical and more appreciative of others. Try not to put enormous demand and expectation on others. Be more appreciative of yourself. See yourself in terms of potentials and talents rather than weakness and problems.
• Learn to take care of your body. Develop a regular habit of exercise. Find some activity that will allow you to stretch, breath and gently exert yourself. Swimming, cycling and golf are good healthy activities.
• Search out and make friends with people who are active and OPTIMISTIC. Spend as little time as possible with people who do nothing but complain or gossip. Look for cheerful people.
• Avoid getting into religious or political arguments. They will just rattle you up. Speak and get involved in healthy projects. Nothing will put more jest into living than some good hobbies, especially ones that you can share with other people. Eat out with other people and go to different places to eat.
• To have real happiness and contentment, simplify your living. Get rid of half of the junk that you have no use for and never need anyway. Don’t clutter up your life with every gadget you see, but don’t want or need.

7. Preventive Maintenance for Smokers and Drinkers:

If you smoke, you already know you’re not going to quit until you’re darn good and ready.

• In the meantime, you know your health is at risk and you are going to suffer some ill effects. There are ways to cope with the physical damage caused by cigarettes, however. We are not medically accredited and cannot advocate the use of any of these ideas for your own personal use. We present them as information only.
• Many smokers are using carotene supplements. This substance is a vegetable form of Vitamin A and converts to Vitamin A in the body. Both carotene and Vitamin A provide protection for mucous membranes and all surfaces coming in contact with air. Many diabetics cannot convert carotene to Vitamin A. There seems little difference in the action of the two substances, and a daily dose of 15,000 units of regular Vitamin A is probably as effective as a carotene supplement.
• The amino acid cysteine is known to provide some tissue repair. It also protects against acetaldehyde, which causes lung tissue to age and scar. Vitamin C is an excellent complement to cysteine’s action. It is so vital in helping the body deal with smoke poisons that we burn about 25 mg for every cigarette smoked. If that is not replaced in the diet, the body will show signs elsewhere of Vitamin C deficiency, including most notably a premature wrinkling of the skin.
• Cigarettes are also known to cause an increase in triglycerides or blood fats. Lecithin does an excellent job of keeping blood fats under control. Alcohol is not recommended for this job.
• If you work in a smoky environment, and inexpensive air filter would be an excellent idea. It will filter smoke particles but not gases, so proper ventilation is another serious consideration. Ionizers have been highly touted, but here is some concern that they may cause premature aging of tissues so we do not consider them beneficial to health.

Vitamins: Vitamin E is of course a supplement that should be given serious consideration. Not only has it been recommended as a preventative measure against cancer, but it seems to help prevent heart disease, another serious complication of smoking. Starting doses above 200 units a day MUST be authorized by a doctor for safety and regular blood pressure checks are a must.