a body-mind approach to chronic illness
cleanse your home to improve your health
People with chronic illnesses tend to have high levels of toxic overload in their bodies. But, before deciding to do a cleanse consider that the average home is filled with hundreds of harmful chemicals. It makes sense to first do a home cleanse and declutter.
Did you know that the symptoms of toxicity in the body are almost identical to those of fibromyalgia? A few examples are pain, stiffness, painful joints, headaches, digestive issues, allergies, skin problems, weight gain, fatigue, insomnia, depression, anxiety, and brain fog.
Knowing this you might conclude that toxins are causing your symptoms, and so it’s time for a cleanse. But before you do, consider that the average home contains well over 500 toxins, most of them you can’t see, smell, or taste.
So, what’s the point of doing a cleanse if you are going to be reabsorbing all the gunk your home is throwing at you? It makes much more sense to first clean up your home.
Now, I know that most people are not at all excited about cleaning. That’s why I came up with a simple strategy that will help you remove the most toxins for the least amount of work.
The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, states that roughly 80% of results come from roughly 20% of causes. Here are a few examples:
20% of factories cause 80% of pollution
20% of employees do 80% of the work
20% of athletes score 80% of the points
So, thanks to Alfredo Pareto you only need to tidy 20% of your house. Simply replace those items that are most likely to be making you ill with healthier and more natural alternatives. To find out if your body is perhaps toxic with this quick toxicity quiz.
In The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up Marie Kondo explains that when you put your house in order you put your body in order too.
You might have heard of Marie Kondo. She’s that petite Japanese lady who loves decluttering people’s houses. Well, it turns out that her method of decluttering is ideal for fibromyalgia sufferers because it's centered on bringing more joy into your life. And if there’s one thing that fibromyalgia people need, it’s more joy.
Actually, you are not going to be tidying up, rather you are going to be practicing mindfulness through the art of tidying. You see, when you put your house in order you put your body in order too.
In The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up Marie Kondo lays out her method: pick one category of items such as clothes or books. Find all those items in your entire house and then put them in one big pile. And here comes the important part: take one item at a time and hold it in your hands. Look at the item and ask it, “Do you bring me joy?” If the answer is “no” take a few moments to remember the happiness it brought you, and let it go with grace. Next, find a proper place for each of the remaining items. To maintain order in the future always return an item to its designated place after you have used it.
The secret to Marie’s method is that she starts with the easiest category first and then tackles progressively more difficult categories each time. Her order is clothes, books, papers, miscellaneous items, and then lastly sentimental items. If you want a beautiful home you are welcome to follow this sequence, however our focus is not on tidying, but rather on creating a healthy home, so we will be following a slightly different sequence:
1. create a vision. I found that clients who began treatment by forming a clear picture of their goals were not only more likely to declutter their homes, but we’re more likely to go on and make other healthy lifestyle changes.
2. simple stuff. Actual decluttering starts with a few common sense ideas that are mostly free and don't require much energy or any precious spoons.
3. reduce plastics. Plastic is an incredibly versatile material, but as it decays it release micro plastics and all sorts of chemicals, and this could be making your fibromyalgia worse. Lets replace them with natural materials.
4. safe kitchenware. To convert your kitchen from a place that aggravates your fibromyalgia symptoms to one that generates health all you need to do is replace a few disagreeable kitchenware items with fibromyalgia friendly options.
5. cleaning products. Household cleaning products make our homes look sparkly clean, but ironically, they contain a long list of nasty ingredients that increase our pain, deplete our energy, and ruin our health. How about making your own?
6. bodycare products. Those luxurious bodycare products you like to use certainly make you look good, but the price you pay is feeling like hell on the inside. Thankfully, there are alternatives that will make you feel good and look gorgeous too.
