I. Right nutrition

Did you know that in some Eastern healing systems, when a patient comes to the doctor, the first thing they do is change their diet to cure or alleviate the illness?

In Tibetan medicine, for example, three basic energies are described that work in the body and must be in harmony for one to be healthy: lung, tripa and péken.

In the event of illness, the Tibetan doctor checks how these three energies behave in the body, and if he detects disharmony, he usually first tries to heal it by changing the food. Every food, as well as its temperature and preparation, influences one or more of these three energies.

If, for example, you have a disease where there is too much lung energy in the body and you then eat foods that further increase this lung energy, then this can have a negative effect on your well-being.

However, if you eat foods that reduce this lung energy, you will usually feel better. So food can have either a positive or negative effect on an imbalance in your body.

I just wanted to mention this as some interesting and perhaps helpful background knowledge on nutrition. The root of illness is originally in the mind, but diet can also contribute a lot to health, and if you eat incorrectly, it can have a negative impact on your healing process.

I have tried a lot of things in terms of nutrition over the years. For example, I was vegetarian for about 6 years, vegan for 2 years, didn't eat anything for 10 days (and didn't drink anything for 3 of those days) when doing a living on light process, experimented with nutritional supplements for a long time, and tried out a variety of diets.

My personal conclusion: There are many nutritional theories, some of which can be helpful for certain people, but what I have learned is that every person has a unique structure of the body system, and therefore nutrition can often only be determined individually. This means that what is good for one person does not necessarily mean that it is good for someone else.

I personally just observe how my physical body, my energy, and my mind feel after I eat or drink something. If I notice a negative change, then I might try that food again just to be sure. It should also be noted that the time (i.e., what time of day I eat the food), the quantity, the preparation, the quality of the food, and which other foods I eat (or drink) the food with also play a role.

What you should generally pay attention to or know when it comes to nutrition

Unfortunately, at the moment, the majority of the food you get in the supermarket is not very nutritious or beneficial to your health. The food industry has changed most of our food in such a way and added (sometimes toxic) additives and pesticides that conventional food can make you sick in the long run.

That's why I would like to give just a few tips that you can consider:

1. The food should be processed as little as possible.
2. Buy fresh, organic, and local food whenever possible.
3. Eat as little (industrial) sugar as possible.
4. If you should eat meat or other animal products, then see that it's from ethical husbandry.

Detoxify

Since poor-quality food, etc., causes substances to accumulate in our body that have a negative impact on its function, it is important to get rid of these toxins. There are different types of detoxification methods; I would just like to briefly mention a simple one:

Intermittent fasting

There are different variations of this form of fasting. Personally, I do it like this now and then: on days when I feel like it, I simply don't eat anything for between 16 and 18 hours.

The body (more precisely, the cells) begins to excrete toxins approximately 12 hours after it does not receive food. For example, if you haven't eaten anything for 16 hours, your body will excrete toxins for around 4 hours. It should be noted that you can only drink water during the 16 - 18 hours - not even tea.

Dietary supplements

Can have a supportive effect on maintaining health or the healing process. They are to be considered for vegetarian and especially vegan diets, and they may even be necessary for some people.

Medicinal herbs

Can have a positive effect on the healing process. But be aware that healing work often doesn't just have to be done on the physical (chemical) level.

I would also like to mention

Certain yogis who have achieved a very high state of consciousness and mastery over their bodies show that ultimately, the mind controls matter! These yogis can, for example, survive without physical food (as shown in the film 'Am Anfang war das Licht'), or they can eat or be given poison and not experience any negative consequences (as was proven scientifically in a clinical experiment on Wim Hof (=The Ice Man) when he was injected with a virus but didn't get sick afterwards).

Individual Positions:

1. Stand with your feet together (or slightly apart) and bring your hands to your heart in a prayer position.

2. While inhaling, bring your hands above your head and arch your spine backwards.

3. As you exhale, move your outstretched arms forward with your back straight and bring them next to your feet on the floor, with your head moving towards your knees (you can also bend your knees in case).

4. During the next inhalation, bring the right leg as far back as possible for odd rounds and the left leg for even rounds, and stretch the chest forward and upwards as good as possible.

5. Now bring your left leg back and form a straight line with your legs, spine, and head. In this position, the hands are under the shoulders, and the breath is held.

6. As you exhale, bring your knees, chest, and forehead to the floor.

7. As you breathe in again, lift your chest from the floor and look up. While lifting up, mainly use your back muscles and only use your arms as a small support.

8. Now, as you exhale, push your hips up and your heels towards the floor.

9. Now, while you breathe in, bring your right leg forward again for odd-numbered repetitions and your left leg for even-numbered repetitions, and stretch the chest forward and upward again.

10. Bring your left foot next to your right foot as you exhale, and bring your head toward your knees (you can bend your knees again in case).

11. With your upper body straight, bring your arms back over your head while inhaling, and gently bend your spine backwards again.

12. Now, while exhaling, bring your hands back in front of your chest in a prayer position.

This is one repetition of the sun salutation. With each repetition, switch the foot with which you go back and forward again in positions 4 and 9. One repetition each with the right leg and the left leg then makes one round.

When you first start practicing, you can start with 6 reps, for example, and then increase it over time to 12 or even more if you want. You can also experiment with the speed at which you do the exercise, as practicing slowly and quickly has a slightly different effect.

II. Individual Asanas

Depending on how much time you have available, you can do additional asanas. Personally, I usually do three more exercises: one in which the spine is bent forward (seated forward bend), one in which it is bent backwards (half pigeon pose), and one in which it is rotated (half spinal twist pose). I teach these additional asanas in my in-person classes as well as in the planned video course.

After you have done the sun salutation and the asanas, briefly observe how your body feels after having done these exercises!

2. Fitness training

In addition to yoga exercises, you also need physical training in order to get/stay really fit and therefore feel maximally comfortable in your body. There are numerous ways to train your body. Personally, I regularly do a cardio program, go cycling, and do a few other activities to keep my body fit.

III. Other

1. Staying in nature that is as untouched as possible (e.g., in a forest), direct sunlight, and fresh air have a very positive influence on our body system - everyone should know this, but for the sake of completeness, I would like to mention it here.

2. Since the functioning of our body system is also based on electrical energy, or electromagnetism, it is important to minimize external radiation that can penetrate our system, as it can disrupt our energy field.

Here are a few tips:

• If possible, live far away from cell phone towers.
• Never carry the smartphone completely on your body, or if you carry it on your body, then only in flight mode or switched off.
• Connect your computer to the router using a LAN cable, and then turn off WiFi.
• Turn off power to all connected devices when not in use, especially overnight.
• If possible, connect devices with cables and avoid Bluetooth, etc., as much as possible.
• Use a blue light filter on your smartphone and computer, and perhaps also blue light glasses, to minimize the harmful rays that the screen emits.