Naturalpath

As we are increasingly exposed to pollutants in the air that we breathe and the water that we bathe in, it makes sense that respiratory and skin problems are on the rise. These health issues take the form of asthma, no seasonal allergies, breathing difficulties, skin rashes, and countless other modern maladies.

At last week’s Sustainable Business Council event here in LA, the topic was health and wellness. As a cool bonus at the event, the organization brought in Green Bliss, a mobile eco-spa, to provide free treatments. It was then that I realized just how much is going on in this industry.

“Wellness for me is being able to be healed completely – be balanced, myself, so that I can be more compassionate. I can be a vehicle of the work that I do.

“If a person is completely healed, they will become better humans, better leaders, better individuals – it’s very simple.

“Healing is feeling in rhythm - not what is happening in the world, but how am I of equal in this world? How am I doing spirit’s work? How am I making an impact in this world?

“Wellness is being able to take care of myself so I can give to others and be there for my loved ones.“

There is no denying the benefits of exercise. And with the growing trend in wellness comes a popularity in "mind-body" exercise including yoga, tai chi, and pilates amongst a few. Pilates is one of the fastest growing forms of exercise in the world. In the U.S., Pilates participants have grown in number from 1.7 million in 2000 to 10.5 million in 2004 – more than 500% growth in just four years! Pilates is a form of exercise combining the best of Western and Eastern traditions, blending the mind and body and viewing them as a unity working in complete harmony with one another. The Eastern approach to exercise is a path to calmness, being centered and whole, with an emphasis on stretching and limberness. The Western approach emphasizes motion, muscle tone and strength.

Joseph Pilates believed that in order to achieve happiness it is imperative to gain mastery of your body. Pilates' development of his method evolved into a vision of an ideal lifestyle, attained only through balance of the physical, mental, and spiritual. The Pilates method was born out of Joseph Pilates personal experiences with yoga, martial arts, weight lifting, and chinese acrobatics. Through visualization, physical strengthening and stretching of the body, he belived mental vigor and improved blood flow returns to inactive brain cells. This renewed spirit of thought and movement is the first step toward stress reduction, grace of movement, alacrity, and a greater enjoyment of life.

“Three tips that I would give you to really enhance the health and well-being of your entire family are to eat whole foods, eat organically, and most importantly spend the time to share with your families - over meals, over weekends, taking walks together – that is one of the best ways for your family to stay healthy together.”

“Wellness for children means that they are functioning as optimally as they can. That does not mean that all kids are going to have the same health. It means that with what they are born with (their constitution) they’re going to be functioning as well as and as happily as they can be.

“That’s different for every child, and the goals for every child are going to be different. And that means really working with parents to identify what the goals of wellness are for each individual child.

“Staying focused on your own health and well-being is as easy as wanting to be healthy.

“If you think about yourself every day, how much better you feel, how much better your day goes when you feel better, and you reflect on that in terms of the choices that you make throughout your day, I think very quickly the habit of staying healthy will become the easy choice in your life.”

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