7 Simple Secrets to Maintain Vibrant Health

75 Year Old Ex-Dentist Reveals Effective No Cost Methods of Improving Health Naturally

Following are 7 simple tips to maintain vibrant health, as given by this guy. And unless you’re brand new here, I bet you recognize our fearless leader!

maintain vibrant health
Eat whole food to maintain vibrant health

Udgar Parsons, the creator of the Growing Dome® and co-owner of Growing Spaces®. You’ve probably seen him in action. He’s consistently front and center of our mission. He lives for connecting people with the Growing Dome, appropriate technology, and the power of growing your own food.

But here’s something about him you might not know. He used to be a dentist; and a chronically sick one too. As a young adult he lived and practiced dentistry in the UK and all the while, he suffered from chronic illness. To his own admission, he was “an unhealthy slob.” 

He was overweight, sedentary, and stressed. Chronic sinus infections were constantly chasing him, and he consumed the typical poor diet of the times. He tried everything orthodox medicine had to offer. Nothing helped. 

With encouragement from a family member, and being a rational left-brained scientist, he conducted an experiment…on himself. An experiment on his diet, health, and lifestyle that has followed him to this day.

To see him now, you can tell the experiment worked. He is vibrant, energetic, and engaged in the world.  That was over 40 years ago. And even now, at age 75, there’s a pep in his step with no signs of slowing down. 

The lifestyle tips he attributes to his health are simple, practical, and effective. If you want to maintain vibrant health, these 7 tips are worth considering. They cost nothing but your time, intention, and follow through.

If you can navigate the harried world, strategically slow down from time to time, and implement these 7 simple steps, they will do wonders for your health and well-being.

7 Tips to Maintain Vibrant Health

#1 Eat Whole Food

“The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.” ― Ann Wigmore

The first thing you can do to maintain vibrant health is eat fresh healthy food and a whole food diet. We are what we ate, so eat good food. If it comes in a box, a bag, or with a list strange names on an ingredients list, be cautious.

Go for fresh food, and when it comes to grains, eat unrefined whole grains. Refining takes away the outer parts of the grain and uses only the middle of the grain because it’s nice and white. People like white flour and white rice. However, by removing the outer part of the grain, they remove most of the essentials too. That’s where you get all that good fiber. Also, the outer part is where you find most of the enzymes and minerals.

So, when you’re buying grains, go for whole grains. Eat whole wheat bread and brown rice. Whole grains are much more healthy for your body than the refined white flour and white bread we eat.

maintain vibrant health
Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables

Next, choosing a whole food diet consists of eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables contain a synergistic slew of nutrients and enzymes. It is better for your body to get vitamins, nutrients, and enzymes from whole food. 

Your body is able to metabolize whole foods better than synthetic vitamins. For example, eating an apple delivers 15 times more vitamin C than a vitamin C supplement. So, round out your whole food diet with plenty fresh fruits and vegetables.

Buy locally and seasonally when you can, and eat them fresh. A fresh raw food diet contains the greatest quantities of life giving enzymes.

And while we’re on the topic of food, here is one of our favorite soup recipes from another well-known doctor, renowned cardiologist, Dr. Stephen Sinatra.

#2 Get Your Body Moving: Exercise

Exercise doesn’t have to be overly rigorous or time consuming. It’s not only about going to the gym and pumping iron and working out. You can keep it simple; a good walk every day can be a perfect form of exercise.

We’re naturally meant to move. It’s important to get up, move, stretch, and use your body. Find some form of exercise  you can commit to doing at least 3 or 4 times a week.

#3 SHH: Take a Little Quiet Time

Take quiet time every day to maintain vibrant health. An easy meditation practice works wonders on health and well-being.

Try an experiment for yourself. Simply sit quiet for 20 minutes every morning and see what happens. Many find they are able to drop down to a place of peace and silence. This simple practice helps you navigate the world with less stress.

maintain vibrant health
Quiet now

Experiencing meditative quiet helps you maintain a more calm mode throughout your day. 

Some people like to combine exercise and meditation. For example, going for a run or dancing. In fact, dancing is a wonderful form of meditation and exercise rolled into one. Put on some music that moves you. Let go of inhibitions and shake your tail feathers to the beat. Once you have danced, and I mean really danced, you will slip into a quiet meditative state without effort.

However you go about it, make it a practice to engage in something that brings you into the present moment. A practice that allows you to be with yourself, to be with your body, and to be with your felt sense. All those things are tremendously beneficial.

#4 Spend Time In Nature

Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” – John Muir

maintain vibrant health
Drop into the rhythms of nature

Take time to be in nature. Nature is a wonderful healer. Somehow being with plants, trees, bushes, and being in the open sky are cleansing to our minds and emotions. 

There is a large body of current research that reveals how children who don’t get to be in nature don’t do as well at all. They’re more tense and more stressed. As adults, we’re no different. I encourage you to be in nature whenever you can.

#5 Don’t Hold Your Breath for This One

So, number 5 is so so simple and yet so powerful.

Breathe deep. 

Remember to breathe and take full deep abdominal breaths. Our bodies need oxygen for energy and optimal functioning. The more we encourage our breath to be deep and slow, the better we are. Body contraction and constriction go hand in hand with shallow breathing. But deep breathing allows the body to expand and become more vibrant.

And even though it’s simple, or because it is so simple, we often forget. Relaxing through breathing does make a difference.

maintain vibrant health
When in doubt: breathe.

Take a big breath in, and let it out and just notice; do you feel better? Do you feel different? Have you come home to yourself a little bit more? 

Breathing can be the key to relaxation and emptying out excess stress.

#6 Tune Into Your Emotional State

maintain vibrant health
Smile Its good for you

The next gift you can give yourself is to be aware of your emotional state. Check in with how you are feeling.

Make it a habit to consistently monitor your emotional state and don’t let your emotions rule you. Instead, harness the power of your positive emotions to guide you to better health.

Positive emotions create wonderful endorphins that course through the body. Pleasure, happiness, excitement, and enthusiasm send these feel good endorphins on their way. Not only do you feel good, but they actually boost immunity and help the body heal.

However, the opposite is also true. When we dwell in negative emotions, they take a toll on the body. Anger, sadness, and irritability all send the other types of endorphins. The not so good ones. You feel bad, and if you stay in a state of anger or stress for a long time, it will lead to illness.
 
We all move through the full spectrum of emotional states. That’s normal. The key word is move. The trick is to not get stuck. Cultivate positivity. Tune into positive vibrations, move through the negative ones, and don’t get hung up on the crud of life.

#7 Build Meaningful Connections

The 7th and last tip to maintain vibrant health is connection. Build meaningful connections to family, to friends, and to your work.

maintain vibrant health
Homeless shelter greenhouse
maintain vibrant health
Connections to family friends and meaningful work

We are social creatures. Building meaningful connections with friends, family, and loved ones is paramount. It helps us keep a positive outlook on life and have a sense of belonging.

Maintaining positive social connections helps our bodies produce positive emotions. At the same time, they help mitigate those nasty negative ones too.

Also, we all want to belong to a cause greater than ourselves, to be in service to humanity and a greater good. Energy comes back to us tenfold when we give energy to meaningful work. It cultivates feelings of fulfillment and purpose. Meaningful work energizes and recharges you even when it’s exhausting. That’s how you know you’re on a good path.

Heed Udgar’s Advice to Maintain Vibrant Health

Our modern lives have the uncanny ability to suck us into health destroying habits. Modern systems aren’t built with our health in mind. We’re given convenient, but non-nourishing food. They force us into sedentary lifestyles. They dole out stressed schedules and feelings of loneliness and isolation. When you follow that path, you suffer.

Don’t let time, aging, and a harried life take undue toll. You don’t need to sacrifice your well being or compromise your dance on this planet.

Time will march on. We will age, but you are not helpless in maintaining vibrant health. Your lifestyle choices do make a difference. It’s never too late to take small steps in the direction of health.

So, heed Udgar’s sound advice:

  • Eat good food.
  • Move your body.
  • Take time to be quiet.
  • Spend time in nature.
  • Breathe.
  • Cultivate positive emotions.
  • And build meaningful connections.

Put these 7 simple steps in place to transform your life and maintain vibrant health. 

author avatar
Jason Stuck
For three days in March 2008 Jason Stuck shoveled gravel into a Growing Spaces’ 33’ Growing Dome. That was Jason's first “project” working for Growing Spaces. Jason easily fell in love with the product, the people, and the philosophy of helping the earth by helping others grow their own food. Jason wore many hats at Growing Spaces over the years. Shovel slinger, metal fabricator, shopkeeper and author. Jason wrote many articles for our website and newsletter.

2 Comments

  • Thank you, Udgar. I was happy to see that my attempts at a healthy life track with yours. In each respect. I would add an eighth — music. I am always inspired by music whether it is Mozart, Dylan, Benny Goodman, Bonnie Raitt, Miles Davis, Max Richter, John Hiatt, R. Carlos Nakai, Bruce Cockburn, or on and on. Smile, dance, sing and laugh!

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