In recent years, many research results have been published on the positive effects of fasting. Here is more info about the details and how to get started.
Breath is life force. Learning to work with our breath is the best way to influence our autonomic nervous system consciously. It's extremely effective. In only a few minutes we can calm our mind and our bodies with simple breathing techniques. This website is a phantastic ressource, with lots of practical videos how to do it https://www.mrjamesnestor.com/breathing-videos
My experience is, that sleep really is the most important piece of the health puzzle. If we don't sleep well, it's hard not to have any food cravings, especially for sweets, we cannot get ourselves to work out, or even go for a walk, we suffer from brain fog and have no energy to meditate, or we get irritable and cannot be there for our loved ones...
I've become a big fan of Patrick McKeown, Author of The Oxygen Advantage! He explains so well why and how we should breathe through the nose for greater fitness and wellbeing. Here's a great talk with concrete simple exercises https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBqGS-vEIs0 . He has lots more information and tools on his website.
By allowing ourselves to feel what we feel we practice non-resisting life as it is. As we practice non-resistance against our emotions - neither internally nor acting out externally we learn to accept ourselves as we are. As we “start where we are”, we create a space. In this space, we can start to relax our hearts rather than closing and armoring and cutting ourselves off from our environment and people around us. Read more...
I recently discovered this beautiful meditative pen and paper exercise from Chris Germer which supports you to find your own loving kindness phrases. https://www.mindful.org/find-loving-kindness-phrases/
Christin Neff has deeply influenced my practice and my teaching. In this podcast with Dan Harris she beautifully explains why self - or inner - compassion is strong and not weak and how life is not about perfection but about connection. https://www.tenpercent.com/tph-live/14-kristin-neff