mindset

COVID – What To Do What’s the current status? COVID with its Omicron variant has thoroughly spread worldwide, the chances of getting COVID are much higher. It is somewhat reassuring that according to a South African Study an infection with Omicron has a 70% chance of getting seriously ill compared to infection with Delta. We still don’t know about some of the long term effects of a COVID infection and if Omicron causes long COVID. However we do know that even a mild COVID infection can cause long COVID, so ideally it’s still better to avoid getting sick with COVID   Simple steps to reduce the likely hood to attract COVID (as much as possible) Get vaccinated, and if you are eligible, get the booster. It won’t necessarily stop you from getting COVID, but if you get infected with COVID, your immune system is already primed to deal with it. As a result the disease is going to be milder. According to research by the Australian Kirby Institute an mRNA booster is 86.2% effective against symptomatic infections and 98.2% effective against severe infection in the Omicron variant. In your day to day life, practice good hygiene i.e. washing your hands regularly, keeping physical distance from people, wear a N95 or P2 facemask they provide better protection When you catch up with people, choose well ventilated places or meet outdoors. If you are concerned that you might have gotten too close to an infected person you can immediately after the exposure gargle with Betadine. It also helps to spray some Fess into your nostrils or if you have use a Neti pot. The aim is to reduce the viral load in your nose and throat area by diluting it.   What can I do to support my body? It’s all about having a super fit immune system. Eat a colourful diet full of fresh fruit and vegetables. We have an abundance of fresh plant foods which are all fantastic supporting your immunity Even though it’s summer, if you know that your Vit D levels are on the lower side, take a Vitamin D supplement. It’s not only great for your immunity, it also supports your bone health. General supplements that help and support your immunity are Zinc and Vitamin C. Mushrooms such as Reishi, Shiitake, Maitake and Cordyceps are also fantastic. They supporting the immune system. If you want to find out more how to support your immune system, feel free to inquire about a naturopathic consult: Contact Your Lifestyle choices make a huge difference to your immune system as well. having adequate sleep (generally 7-8 hours per night), spending time out in nature and exercising without overdoing it all support your body and immune system Keep a positive mindset. With all the news (and often negative) swirling around, don’t let yourself sucked into a bad mood. Our immune system needs endorphins (happy hormones) to function optimally. So, be elective with what you pay attention to. Make time to find positive things in your life. Practice gratitude, it makes a huge difference to your state of mind. What can I do if I get COVID? Rest. Give your body time and space to heal. Be gentle with yourself. If you feel sleepy, sleep. Even if you work from home, it’s best to take a couple of days off if you can, just to give your body a break so it can heal itself With regards to your nutrition, it is pretty much the same approach as outlined above, lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. Make sure that you drink plenty of fluids. Avoid alcohol, refined foods and high sugar foods. They all put a strain on the body Watch a comedy. It’s once more all about your endorphins. When you laugh, you produce a lot of them and they boost your immune function, helping your body to overcome the virus. What happens after I had  COVID? I’m not sure if there is a sure way to avoid long COVID. However after every viral infection it is important to allow the body to slowly return to its normal equilibrium. Even though you are no longer infectious you still might experience fatigue for another couple of weeks. Return to your normal day to day life, but be gentle with yourself. Have more rest periods than you usually have Slowly get back into exercise, don’t overdo it. Gentle exercise like walking is great. You can find some great tips on the Vida Lifestyle Blog Post about COVID If you experience any leftover body aches and pains, have a chat to your Chiropractor and have a look at Vida’s Blog Post Continue with a diet full of fresh fruit and vegetables.  

Tips to Beat Lockdown Fatigue Let’s face it, it’s been a hard few months. We had to realise that the latest short and sharp lockdown in Melbourne hasn’t been so short and sharp after all. We all are starting to feel kind of exhausted, welcome to the Lockdown Fatigue or maybe you want to call it Lockdown Blues. It’s a well know aspect of spending time in lockdown. The end to it will still take a little while. My respect for all those parents home schooling and a special shout out to all the single mothers (and some fathers) who bear the brunt of it themselves. You all have done an amazing job. Thank you to the teachers who have bent over backwards to make it all happen and thank you to all the staff in health care, making sure that we are looked after and can get vaccinated. Strategies that can help Over the past few months I’ve learnt by trial and error a few strategies that were very helpful to me coping with what is going on. They allowed me to show up every day and still feel that I’m actually enjoying life. I’m sharing them here, hoping they will help you as well over the next few weeks: Limit the time you follow the news. I find this hard myself as I like to keep informed, but I have limited my time, as I found if I get too involved I get anxious. Limit the time spent on social media. Whilst its great to connect to people, it can also open a can of worms regarding discussions – choose what you follow based on what makes you feel good! Meditate every day. Because it can be still quite cold in the mornings, I’ve given up on the “proper” practice of sitting down to mediate for the time being. I just do it while I’m still cosy in bed. By the time I get up, I feel awake and ready for the day Go for a walk every day and enjoy the nature around you. It does lift the mood. Listen to great music and dance for yourself. I find that this always makes me feel better. Have a structure for your day – the more structure you have the easier it is to get through the day. Every day list 3 things that you are grateful for. It reminds you that there are always some positive things in life Contact a friend every day. It helps you to stay connected to people. Kindness With Yourself And Others Be kind to yourself and others. We live in unprecedented times. The last pandemic was last century, so there are not many people around who remember it at all. Life is different and will be for a little while. It’s important to accept that and make the best out of it. Nobody has the perfect script how to deal with it and we all are trying our best. The good news is, that we as humans are incredibly adaptable, quite often more than we give ourselves credit for. 

Hypnotherapy Can Control IBS Do you or someone you know live with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)? IBS is a condition that up to 15% of the worldwide population are struggling with but often it takes a while to be diagnosed, or it’s misdiagnosed. This is because many people struggle with digestive symptoms but never mention them to a doctor.  It’s common to try many IBS treatments and remedies on your own — probiotics, avoiding spicy foods, or going gluten-free. In the meantime you walk around wondering what is going on with your gut.  When you have IBS — life can be rather debilitating for the people who live with it, with symptoms like altered bowel habits, discomfort, bloating and/or pain. A restricted diet is not a long term solution IBS sufferers commonly have had tests to check for intolerances, maybe even having a colonoscopy and then often end up on a very restricted FODMAP diet. (FODMAP stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols).  The problem is that the FODMAP diet was only ever considered a short term solution. But very often people end up having a very restricted eating plant for the rest of their lives.  And to make matters worse I have often found that clients who come to see me have restricted their diets even further and thereby having a very limited number of foods. But what if the problem wasn’t so much about the food that you are eating but about the communication within your body? What if there was a way to address IBS by addressing this communication within your body? What if there was an IBS treatment that is approx. 70% effective? See this Monash University Article for further information. There needed to be a new approach to IBS. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could send your digestive tract soothing messages? The people that come to my clinic, are often seeking a new option to treat their IBS. They just want to return to “normalcy.” They want to be able to live their life and plan ahead without worrying that they won’t be well.  We have learnt over the past few years that there is a strong connection between the Mind and the Gut. This connection goes in both directions. A disturbed connection between the gut and the brain can trigger the many possible symptoms of IBS — and play a role in other problems. The microbes in our gut are in close proximity to the nervous system of our body. They can pick up information coming down from the nervous system about us being stressed or anxious. In turn those microbes send signals back to the mind, and in the process often re-enforcing the message and even altering our mood. Introducing, Gut-directed hypnotherapy Gut-directed hypnotherapy is an IBS treatment that uses hypnosis and directly addresses the impact the mind has on the gut.  During gut directed hypnotherapy the hypnotherapist works with the client on changing the symptoms. The therapist uses different techniques such as guided visualisations or direct suggestions.  How it works Patients meet me in person or by video-conference. And I guide them step by step into a relaxed state. Once patients enter the hypnotic state, they are taken through visualisation exercises and hear suggestions designed to calm their digestive tract and wean them away from focusing on gut sensations. Stress has a very strong influence on IBS symptoms. Another part of the therapy addresses the body’s response to stress and how to calm down the nervous system. (If you would like find out easy ways to reduce your stress, go to our Relaxation Toolbox). And finally hypnotherapy also addresses underlying subconscious beliefs that feed the dysfunction of the gut. In addition client gets a take home recording to listen to. This recording helps them to really strengthen the suggestions given to them during therapy sessions Ideally when working with this approach over time, the person is able to re-introduce more foods into the diet. At this stage an analysis of the gut microbiome can provide very useful information. It tells us what foods to increase in the diet and which foods to avoid in order to support healthy gut microbes that leave you in control of your IBS.  

Have you ever wanted to change something about yourself? Perhaps you want to relieve anxiety or depression? Or maybe you want to change your eating habits or improve your sleep patterns. More often than not, when we attempt to change certain behaviours ourselves, we’re blocked by ingrained beliefs and thought patterns. Instead of welcoming our determination to change, we reject anything that goes against what we believe about ourselves. The problem is, the walls we build up around ourselves, or the guards we establish to reinforce our sense of self, are subconscious barriers. This means they’re hard to penetrate on a conscious level, often leaving us feeling helpless when we attempt to change negative behaviours or self-perceptions. It’s possible to shift our underlying beliefs, but this can be a slow, hard process, which is why hypnotherapy is a powerful tool for reprogramming our brains because it allows direct access to the subconscious mind. In the same way we breathe automatically, hypnotherapy naturally allows us to change the way we perceive ourselves. Think of it like upgrading your computer: Hypnotherapy allows us to function smoothly, remove vulnerabilities to malicious software and improve performance. In other words, hypnotherapy allows us to reprogram the subconscious. So, what exactly is the subconscious mind, and what’s stopping us from changing it? The subconscious controls our habits and emotions. It stores everything we’ve ever thought, imagined, believed, heard, learned, said, seen, felt and smelled. It also determines our sense of safety and pleasure. Unlike the conscious mind, which allows us to make voluntary and calculated decisions, the unconscious mind has an enduring presence. This is why it’s so difficult to change habits or ingrained beliefs. Protecting the subconscious is what’s known as the “critical filter”, which is the gatekeeper between your conscious and subconscious mind, and having the power to accept or reject fresh information or ideas. Hypnotherapy allows us to relax the critical factor and send positive messages directly to the subconscious. Instead of slowly convincing the subconscious otherwise, hypnotherapy rapidly reprograms the mind. How can hypnotherapy benefit me? Hypnotherapy can benefit you in many ways, including: Smoking addiction Overeating, weight loss and sugar addiction IBS management Insomnia and sleep improvement Pain and bereavement Anxiety and depression Whatever your circumstances, hypnotherapy will help you absorb positive messages and clear out negative ones that prevent you from living your best life. How do I know if hypnotherapy is right for me? Hypnotherapy works best when you are receptive to change and open to the treatment. Infinite Health Concepts offers a free exploration session to provide more information about hypnotherapy and determine your needs, which if you’re new to hypnotherapy is a great way to learn more and decide if the treatment is right for you. Contact us today for your free, no-obligation consultation.