With everything that’s happening in the world today, it’s more important now than ever to take care of our health.

Do you know how to take care of your body?
Do you feel confident that you know what it needs in order to thrive?
And if you did, are you actually giving those things to yourself?

I ask these questions because learning to truly honor yourself begins with learning to truly care for and honor your body.

It might seem like a straight forward thing – as grown women we should know how to take care of ourselves like this. But it’s not as simple as that.

When it comes to honoring our physical bodies, most women have been taught (from a very early age) that their bodies are not their own. Instead, they are meant for someone else’s enjoyment and entertainment. And that their bodies need to look a certain way in order to be seen as good, beautiful and worthy.

As a result, for most women, the caring for their bodies means to:

Go on a diet
Exercise to change or improve their appearance in some way
Override their hunger
Punish themselves into a state of well-being
Disregard the needs and wisdom of their bodies
Abandon themselves in some (or every) way

But this isn’t caring for the body. And it’s definitely not honoring yourself. That’s not what I’m about. That’s not how I live. And that’s not what I’m writing about today.

There are simple, powerful ways that you can live into your vitality, beauty and power while connecting even more deeply with yourself.

These are things that feel good to do.
They are things you will want to keep on doing.
They’re enjoyable, which means they are sustainable.
They become a way of life, not just a fad, a phase, or a diet.

Here are 7 ways that you can honor yourself, your physical body, your vitality, immunity and life force – all while deepening your relationship to your amazing body and your true self.

1. Nourish – What we feed and fuel our bodies with is incredibly important. The food we eat literally creates our bodies, from the cellular level on up. So, choosing a colorful diet of fruits, vegetables, and unprocessed foods (organic whenever possible), is the most amazing way to bolster your overall immunity and vitality. Quality is queen.

To truly honor ourselves we have to think of mealtimes not just as a way to chase away hunger with whatever is on hand, but to actually, truly, deeply nourish ourselves every time we put food into our mouths. Doing a gentle cleanse of some kind can help you clean out your body and make space for the goodness you’re going to start feeding it instead.

Simply swapping out the things in your pantry and fridge for higher quality versions of the same thing can be an amazing place to begin. You can also set the goal for yourself to try to eat every color of the rainbow each day. This way you’ll get a plethora of amazing nutrition into your body, your plate will forever look beautiful, and you’ll be amazed by how good eating this way makes you feel. And did I mention it’s delicious, too?

Additionally, nourishing your body with hydration and appropriate supplementation can deeply support you in being the vibrant, powerful, beautiful woman you’re meant to be. Remember all of this is meant to create and sustain the most powerful, beautiful, inspired and resilient you. You’re worth the effort. You’re worth the time. You’re worth nourishing.

2. Alkalize – Disease cannot exist in an alkaline environment. The best way to create an alkaline environment in your body and your cells is to make sure you’re eating a variety of leafy greens every day.

There are many delicious ways to get more greens into your diet – smoothies, salads, cooked greens, juices, blended soups, kale chips, green powders, superfoods like spirulina and chlorella – all are excellent and delicious ways to alkalize your body and create a solid immune system.

You’ll also receive the added benefit of getting a lot more magnesium, Vitamin K, and fiber into your diet, which means happier moods, better blood sugar regulation, stronger digestion, assimilation and elimination, happier hormone balance and a trimmer waistline, too.

3. Awareness – How present are you when you’re eating? Are you multi-tasking? Watching TV? Reading? Or are you paying attention to your meal – the sight, smell, taste and texture of everything you’re consuming?

How much more would you enjoy and feel satisfied by your meals if you actually were present for them? And how much sooner would you feel full because you were there to receive each morsel and bite?

Try to eat one meal today with more awareness and see how different you feel.

Another way to bring more awareness into your life is to begin listening to how your body responds to the foods you currently feed it. Are you digesting that meal well? Or are you feeling pain, bloating, acid reflux, a build-up of mucus or deep fatigue? What feels good to your body? What gives you energy? What helps you digest and eliminate your foods well? What sustains you, helps your blood sugar stay steady, and elevates your mood?

Bring yourself to the table when you eat and watch how quickly this one tip can transform mealtime, your body and your health. Honor what your body is telling you. Feed yourself foods that your body enjoys in every way.

4. Move – Many women have given up all forms of exercise because they’ve coupled movement with pain. As a result, they consistently live a short distance away from their physical bodies.

Your body is meant to be a source of pleasure for you. It’s how you’re wired! But if you’re not living in your body, you’re not only avoiding pain, you’re missing out on pleasure, too.

What if moving your body wasn’t just about burning calories or trying to change the way your body looks? What if instead it became a way to come home to yourself? What if it gave you access to the deep wisdom and joy that your body naturally possesses?

In addition, regular movement enhances the feedback loops in your body. These are the channels of information that flow between all of your body’s cells, organs and systems. Illness and aging are all a product of the breakdown in the calibration of the feedback loops in the body.

So, a little movement and exercise – for the sake of your body’s overall vitality, immunity and resilience – will go a long way to support your health and your sense of ground, safety, pleasure and home.

5. “Vitamin T” – Touch is a vastly underestimated and underappreciated nutrient that has far reaching effects on our overall vitality and immunity. We often focus on the impact of negative touch, and how those instances can become lodged in our body’s memory banks, triggering trauma or stress responses for years, even decades, beyond the event itself.

Positive touch is just as, if not more powerful. It’s so powerful that I consider it an essential nutrient that everyone needs. It feels good, it helps you get present, come back into your body and reconnect to yourself, your sensual experience of life, and all that this sweet, human experience has to offer.

So many of us are not actually living in our bodies, and a lot of us are doing everything we can – sometimes consciously so, but more often quite unconsciously – to get back in! If you’re not receiving regular therapeutic massage, there are other ways you can get Vitamin T into your life.

Self-massage, applying body lotion on a daily basis, a nice body scrub in the bath or shower, placing your hands on one body part and breathing into that place for a few full breaths, exchanging shoulder or foot massages with a friend, family member or partner – these are all great ways to get more touch, pleasure and connection into your life.

6. Breathe – Oxygen is the one thing we can’t live without for more than a minute or so. It’s an absolutely essential thing in our lives, and yet so few of us know how to breathe properly!

The body breathes on its own accord – a steady cycle of inhale and exhale permeates our daily lives. And, most of us aren’t fully breathing into our abdomens, and are therefore using a host of neck and shoulder muscles to do this work for us. This leads to a shallower breath, a lower intake of oxygen, and tired and sore neck and shoulder muscles at the end of the day.

Even if all you do is pause periodically throughout your day to take 3-5 intentional, deep belly breaths, you will flood your system with oxygen, bring yourself into a greater state of relaxation and awareness, and feel better instantly as a result.

There are many other ways to work and play with the breath to create different physical, mental, emotional and spiritual states. The yogic tradition has a lot to share about this, as does a man who has grown in recent popularity named Wim Hof (Google him to learn more!).

Whatever you choose to do with your breath, I invite you to recognize that your breath is literally inviting life force into your body. It nourishes and sustains you on a most basic and powerful level. Your breath can be harnessed for focus, stress relief, strength, resiliency, immunity, embodiment, and deeper states of bliss and love. Pay attention to how this often overlooked element can truly and powerfully support your energy and vitality.

(PS: Bringing more awareness and intention to your breath is especially powerful if you live with a chronic lung condition.)

7. Restore – When was the last time you got 7, 8, or even 9 hours of sleep? Or were asleep – as in under the covers and eyes shut – by 10pm, or even earlier? Most women are chronically sleep deprived and have been that way for years. Your requirements for good restorative sleep may be different, but in general, women do best with 7-9 hours of good, deep, uninterrupted sleep on a regular basis.

But good sleep is difficult to find these days. Whether you have a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep, sleep issues are rampant around the globe.

Instead of resting more and doing whatever we need to do to get more sleep, we reach for that go-to stimulant – coffee, energy drink, sugar, chocolate, tea, mate, etc. – to just keep us going. This is the American way – and it’s leaving us all exhausted, depleted, and on the verge of burnout.

Doing what you know to do to consciously unwind at the end of your day, to prepare your body for rest and sleep, and to let your body and mind get a much needed break is paramount to your vitality. Reducing or eliminating screen time before bed, relaxing your nervous system, cutting out caffeine or other stimulants at least 4 hours before bedtime, and eating your final meal of the day before 8pm are all keys to getting the restoration your body needs.

And remember, restoring your body can happen in ways other than sleep. Taking a break during the day to read, or sit outside in nature; fasting from screens of any kind of a set period of time; reducing or eliminating your exposure to adrenaline pumping sounds or images; surrounding yourself with peace-inducing, feel-good people, places and things – all of these will restore you on multiple levels. And when we restore ourselves, we’re much more ready and able to meet and greet the next wonderful thing in life.

Which of these 7 areas stood out or called to you most?

Here is my invitation to you – choose one healthy habit from above and stick with it for 7 days. Give it a try and see how you feel.

Do you feel more connected to yourself? Has your vitality increased? Do you feel stronger? More resilient?

There’s only one way to find out!

Stay tuned for Part 2, coming soon!