You can do a great deal to support your own wellbeing during the healing process.

Healthy nutrition, regular body exercise, natural personal and psychological hygiene all contribute to a healthy lifestyle.

Healthy Diet

A healthy diet is rich in fibres, balanced and preferably organically grown. Avoid sugar, pork and white flour as much as possible. If it is not possible to always eat a balanced diet, it can make sense to take vitamins and minerals from natural sources, as algae and herbs.

Exercise

Regular and all round exercise help you to gain endurance, mobility, strength and sense of equilibrium.

Daily exercise: Try to work up a sweat at least once a day! Avoid escalators and lifts, and try to walk by foot as much as possible! Stand up from your desk regularly, stretch and move around a bit. Additionally: work out at least two or three times per weeks for an hour!

Sports with emphasis on endurance: Jogging, hiking, biking, walking, Nordic walking, Nordic skiing and the like. Nordic walking also helps to gain strength and mobility in the upper part of the body. Make sure to warm up sufficiently – this lowers the risk of injuries. Very important: adequate stretching after jogging, walking etc. Pay attention to adequate clothes – several thin layers are more effective than a thick pullover. Make sure you wear good sports shoes and professionally adapted orthopaedic inlays, mainly with known joint problems.

Sports enhancing mobility and sense of equilibrium: mainly Yoga, stretching, physiotherapy, gymnastics, T’ai chi and the like

Professional instructions are important, mainly with joint problems! Ask for appropriate courses at sport clubs, physiotherapists, adult education institutions and private providers.

Psychological Wellbeing

Many factors can influence our psychological equilibrium. Whilst many people complain about stress, being bored and unchallenged may be just as bad. Psychology differentiates between Eu-stress (the greek syllable “eu” meaning good), and Dys-stress (“dys” meaning bad). A challenge that we are probably able to cope with is known as Eu-stress. Conversely, subjectively disagreeable, or overstraining challenge, is known as Dys-stress.

If these situations increase uncontrollably, we become  “under stress”. It is important to balance these states by taking smaller steps, instead of straining ourselves with more risky steps. Sometimes it is just a question of perspective: is the glass half empty, or is it half full? Do I concentrate on past defeats or on the situations where I was successful?

Sufficient and regular sleep is important.  Ensure you spend enough time in a quiet and calm environment. Such factors are important for psychological equilibrium. Although temporary sleeplessness is nothing to worry about, if this happens then try to lie calmly and rest, meditate, count sheep… you will see how much you will feel rested the next morning!

Another factor for health is to approach problems actively rather than pushing them away. If problems are suppressed instead of being verbalised, deeper disturbances can develop. My clinic is full of people suffering from long standing grief, anger and disappointment. Verbalise what depresses you, act instead of reacting, express your anger –make sure you are in a protective context however! It is probably not a good idea to offend your boss Talk to a good friend (and/or your homeopath…) first. If necessary, look for a psychotherapist or supervisor or try to change your work or job.

A good sense of humour is also important – many people believe that laughing is the best therapy. In any case it can be a great relief to have a good  laugh.

Last, but not least, creativity contributes a great deal to quality of life and inner equilibrium. Whether you are baking, sewing, reading, painting, taking photos, caring for your garden or some other hobby – sooner or later you will realise how happy you are.