Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Thanks Ric Woods

I have just received my corporate photos from Ric Woods in Newcastle Australia, what a hoot of a time we had, a real artist.
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Monday, June 1, 2009

Health Wake Up Call in Australia

Hi all, must apologise for the delay in updating the blog more frequently; plenty of excuses no reasons.

Below is an article that highlights the attitude issues that need to be addressed in our modern society to really make the shift from dying fast to living long.

I have shared with you in previous messages about developing a 'wellness attitude'. A position where you decide you are worth the effort required to change some beliefs and behaviours.

In my role as a coach / consultant, it is interesting to hear a person self assessment of their diet or lifestyle. Usually it goes like " I know I could do some things better, but I have a healthy diet".

98% of the time this statement can be shown to be less than accurate when considered in relation to what the body needs, what government agencies recommend and natural health models I suggest.

Changes are made and results follow quickly. The SAD model (standard american diet) has eroded the health of westernised communities worldwide and it now that we need to do is; call it quits and get back to the actual needs of the human form. In just a small period of time people have moved from an essentially natural diet to one that is highly processed, void of concentrated nutrients and in massive quantities.

The end result is disorders like cardiovascular disease and cancer being responsible for more than 65% of premature deaths in our region alone. The result of this 4500 people dying each year is massive family loss, a massive loss of skilled contributors to society and a massive financial burden on taxpayers.

This is totally avoidable. Each year nationally, over 78 000 people finish life early and sick from cardiovasular disease. Just imagine the fuss in the media if we looked like having that many people die from say; a new flu virus. Just imagine the efforts all governments would go to if that was the national road toll, to repair roads and improve driver training.

Early death by knife, fork and comfy chairs.

So are you going to keep following the crowd?

You owe it to yourself to make the changes, to live the life and to enjoy an active, productive and long existence.

Catch up soon, I promise :-)

Andrew Fenwick
Health & Wellness Guide
Medical Herbalist
EFT Practitioner







Article from: ( Herald Sun Melbourne)
May 12, 2009
AUSTRALIANS are becoming fatter, drunker and sicker, but are in denial, with most saying they are in excellent health.
More than a quarter of all adults are obese, with 65 to 74-year-old men the heaviest of all, figures from the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics health survey reveal.
According to body mass index, more than 60 per cent of men and 55 per cent of Australian women were classified as obese, a jump from 64 per cent and 49 per cent respectively in 1995.
The survey also revealed children were getting heavier, with the number of obese boys doubling since 1995 and more than 15 per cent of girls and boys classified as obese.
Obesity Policy Coalition adviser Jane Martin said taxing junk food and soft drinks was the only solution, with the ABS report revealing only 6 per cent of children consumed the recommended five or more serves of vegetables a day.
"Overweight and obesity is absolutely preventable and in this day and age we should not be seeing this happen," Mrs Martin said. "It is a tragedy. We will die younger and have disabilities."
The most common long-term medical conditions suffered by Australian adults were poor eyesight, arthritis, back and disc problems and asthma.
But most Australians reported themselves to be in very good or excellent health.
"What an optimistic country we are. But the reality is Australians are fooling themselves: our nutrition is poor and we are putting on weight," Mrs Martin said.
The National Health Survey 2007-08, released yesterday, also revealed:
ONE IN FIVE Australians drink alcohol at a level that poses a risk to their health. 20%
ONE IN FOUR 15 to 17-year-old boys and 16 per cent of girls consumed alcohol in the week before the survey. 25%
SMOKING rates were lower, with 20 per cent of adults smoking, down from 23 per cent in 2004. 20%
Less than half of all adults eat the recommended serve of fruit and vegetables each day. Less than 50%
ONE IN 10 Australians have a long-term mental health problem. 10%

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Swine Flu Protection Advice

Hello everybody,

The world is in the grip of its own terror with the threat of a pandemic flu strain sweeping across the globe.

Now is a great time to take account of your efforts to be well and ramp up those activities.

Take note that we have a particularly nasty flu bug that has originated in a small crowded country where the socio economic status of many is very very low, in fact as many as 50% of the 109,000,000 live in povertyand 70% live in crowded urban areas. Hygiene may be an issue on a community level and many of the people are in close contact with live animals. This nasty bug has probably been incubating for 10 -12 days before anyone showed symptoms and been passed around very freely in the meantime, via sniffly noses, sneezes, coughs and contact with critters.

As a result we have 1500+ diagnosed and 150+ dead in Mexico. What we are not hearing is the health status of those who have unfortunately been unable to survive the illness. Were they old, compromised immunity or otherwise susceptable somehow? Considering the alledged virility of this bug and the conditions, one would expect that more than 0.000014% of the people would be sick at this point.

Here in Australia, there are different flu viruses predicted to breach our shores every year (2008 A type, but B type turned up instead). Each year biotech companies create new vacines to combat the expected 'attack' and the medical system goes into promo mode talking up the risk and encouraging the flu vacine be administered wholesale in the community.

Yet each year people get diagnosed with a flu, the immune compromised and elderly die in significant numbers. In NSW in 2008 we had nearly 6000 people turn up in emergency departments with Flu like illness, with an approximate of 2000 diagnosed through testing as having A or B influenza strains.

In 2008 the rate of deaths attributed to flu or pneumonia at around 150 per 1000 deaths during flu season. Now with a massive 0.0003% of our states population sick with the flu and many dying as a result we would expect panic in the streets and media exposes on the epidemic illness.
Yet, we do not and most of us do not know about it at all and do not get sick. Like the bird flu of just a few years ago this will be contained,healthy people will stay healthy and sick people, it would seem, will be sicker.

Many billions of dollars will have been made and lost inbiotech and stock trading.

The best protection from Swine Flu;

GET HEALTHIER!!

Medical science struggles to enhance immune function, yet there are so many herbal medicines from every culture that effectively can do this.

Go to your herbalist / naturopath and ask for such a remedy. Get into the various super foods that are readily available and boost the protection systems of the body with the real solution, functional nutrition.

Hydrate that body of yours!

Stop eating rubbish!

Stop drinking toxic beverages!

Move about and exercise!

There are nearly 109M people in Mexico, the epicentre of the flu pandemic who are not sick as yet after full exposure for probably close to a month. The protection we need to adhere to is our healing systems, our mind set and our nutrition. To stay in front of every illness, cold to cancer,this is the protection you seek.

So go forth friends and do something about it today. Sitting in fear waiting to see what happens is not a solution.

Joy, Health & Prosperity

Andrew Fenwick
Health and Wellness Educator
Medical Herbalist
EFT - ADV Practitioner

Monday, April 20, 2009

Unlocking Natural Health

When we think of the words "Natural Health" many think hippies and herbs.

Yes to a degree you would be right in making that association, however,it is only because the alternative minded folk have been advocating thebenefits of herbal medicines, homoeopathy, massage, yoga etc for a longtime.I recently heard Bob Proctor, famous personal development coach andfeatured teacher in "The Secret", say, if 98% of people are going oneway, follow the 2%.

I suppose the lesson there is that the minority of people actually,deliberately think inderpendently of the masses. Questioning the validity of mainstream dogma before following blindly.I guess for a long time I have been one of the 2%. At a recent primaryschool reunion my 6th class teacher certainly seemed to think so !

As a result of that style of thinking I have uncovered many things thatare highly logical, very simple and in line with the natural intentionof the body, that when applied to every day living accelerate us into a state of health that maybe was thought to be out of reach.In the foreward of a book i am reading Murray Rose an Olympic Swimming legend writes; the short list of habits affecting our health, I subscribe to the following order of priority:

1. the thoughts we think

2. the depth of breath we take

3. the water we drink

4. the food we eat

5. the quality of the exercise

I have to agree with murray on this, yet all the hype is on the food and exercise. Even worse the main focus appears to be on the exercise, likegoing to the gym will make you healthy.

Well, sorry for the bad news, it will make you stronger and fitter, not healthier so much. Natural health is about living in accordance with the naturalrequirements of the body, allowing the body to maintain balance and healing at its optimum levels. Like every other creature on this lovely blue planet we share, we, the human, originally were equipped with what we needed to survive in our environment as it was. We were also equipped with more than our fairshare of intelligence it would seem.With this intelligence we managed to speed into a situation far removed from our natural adaptations, leading to all sorts of nasty businessthat i prefer not to go on about too much.

Just think pollution,chemicals in food, climate change, and premature death from life style related illness and other similar stuff. The point is; we can not adapt and certainly not evolve to cope with themassive changes that have occurred in the last three generations of our modern mankind. Evolution take millions of years, adaptation 100s of1000s. Remains of humans dating back 60,000 years are just like us. Yet they had no processed foods, fertilised foods, agriculture,information stress, "the Jones'" to keep up with, medicine, guns, bombs, instant living blah blah that we are subjected to daily.

Yeah there would have been a down side to the way they lived, however it would have been a whole lot simpler. Natural health in our modern day is about working with the body to let it do its best, that is it in a nut shell. It is not hard or complex. Infact it is easier then chasing illnesses with questionable drugs and tests. How we think, breathe, drink, eat and move can be enhanced with gentle therapies and herbs to create amazing improvements. It is not just for hippies, it is the way of the future.

All the best till next time

Andrew Fenwick
Health and Wellness Coach
Newcastle Australia
www.soulsabode.com.au

Monday, March 23, 2009

Value in the Attitude

Hi all, welcome to the first Wellness Blog from my desk.

I thought it worthwhile to start right at the start in terms of you achieving life long sustainable health and wellbeing. You may wonder why i always use both these terms at the same time, aren't they the same thing.

Well not really, health is a physical thing. You are healthy, no illnesses, organs are functioning, energy levels are high and you look and feel vibrant. Wellbeing (although it encompasses health) is much broader. Relating to how you feel about yourself, your happiness, your security in the world as well.

The work I do is about your whole wellbeing. Improving physical health makes it easier to enjoy life, enjoying life makes physical health easier. As a result of working with you on both we see much better outcomes.

One of the things that I find holds people back more then any other issue is their attitude to being on the road to wellbeing.

Paradigms (the collection of beliefs, rules and morales we use to stop us thinking about choices ) that we refer to often hold us back until we actually recognise them as paradigms.

Examples could be, " My mother always did it this way" so it must be right. " People who are focussed on being healthy eat rabbit food and can't enjoy themselves", "The government wouldn't allow it on the shop shelf if it would harm us", "Everyone else does it that way".

The point to focus on today is; much of the stuff we use from our own subconscious mind to make choices with is rubbish that other well meaning folk have implanted there along the way.
The next time you find yourself in resistance to a new food, suggestions about the foods you eat now, concepts that are at odds with the mainstream, check with yourself. Where might that be coming from? Who told me that? Is thing resistance based on truth or an old belief?

If you trully wish to achieve excellent health and optimum wellbeing you will require the courage to not be mainstream. You will need to develop an attitude that puts wellbeing at the top of your list of priorities (there is nothing else you can accumulate in a life time that you can trully enjoy without wellbeing in any case).

Creating a life purpose that puts achieving / maintaining health and optimum wellbeing at the top is a powerful tool to access daily. It will help you make decisions along the way, it will help you pursue better results and feelings each day.

A wellbeing attitude helps you know that what you do and think today affects who you become . What you eat and drink, the walk you take, the expanding happy thoughts you choose all have an impact on how things will be in the future.
So if you hear something new (particularly via this weekly tip) that you are challenged by, stop and think, what am I thinking, where did that thought come from, am I thinking or just reacting from an old paradigm?

I will share things that are not mainstream regularly here. Not because it is fun to do it, but because I have chosen to challenge everything I see happening, that I am told or read in my studies. If we just follow the crowd we will end up where someone at the front wanted to go, nothing to do with us choosing at all. Sheep in a paddock, lemmings off the cliff.

Have a think this week, how many rules and beliefs do you have that stop you from opening your mind and heart to pursuing optimum wellbeing.

Joy, health and Prosperity
Andrew Fenwick