About

Welcome to Season 3 of the Body Wisdom Podcast with Dr. Michele. This season the podcast will be focusing on healthy habits. As your host, I’ll be recording solo episodes which will answer some of the most common questions I’m asked as a physician such as “how do I build a new habit?” "which habits are essential to get healthy again?" "what can I do to lose weight?" "how can I look and feel younger again?" "how can I start exercising again if I haven't done it in years?" and more. I will also be coaching patients and clients live on-air, and conducting interviews with other health & wellness experts. Of course, I am always open to new topic ideas, so if there is a topic you would like me to address or if there is a question you would like answered, please reach out. Email me directly at dr.michele.colon@gmail.com. Today Dr. Michele explains "Why Taking Care of Your Five Senses is Vital to Feeling Young." I hope you enjoy the show! About Dr. Michele: As a physician & surgeon, certified Ayurvedic and Autoimmune health coach, yin yoga teacher, anatomy & physiology professor, and overall health & wellness expert, Dr. Michele Summers Colon is an Advocate for Women's Health. Her passion is helping women help themselves to heal their body. She is the author of Body Wisdom: 10 Weeks to Transformation, the creator and host of the Body Wisdom with Dr. Michele Podcast, and the leader of the Body Wisdom Membership Program. She has been interviewed and quoted in many prominent publications including USA Today, US News & World Reports, Health Magazine, Yahoo! Makers, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. One of Dr. Michele’s greatest strengths is her ability to help women create balanced, healthy lives by looking at the whole picture. She combines the best of Eastern and Western medicine to create individualized health & wellness plans for her patients and clients. For 25 years, Dr. Michele has dedicated herself to maintaining a private medical practice and providing exceptional care to her patients while at the same time studying holisitic and integrative medicine. Dr. Michele believes that food is medicine and that yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation are the keys to perfect health. Dr. Michele has a Bachelor’s degree in Physiology from UCBerkeley, a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences and a Doctorate degree in Podiatry from Barry University, and graduated from a Foot & Ankle Surgical Residency in Los Angeles. Dr. Michele is also certified in Ayurvedic as well as Autoimmune Health Coaching, Yoga, Reiki, Reflexology, and Laser Therapy. Dr. Michele specializes in Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, and Therapeutic Yoga to provide the most healing, relaxation, and rejuvenation to her patients and clients. Dr. Michele has studied Ayurvedic Medicine extensively and has worked with some of the best practitioners throughout the United States to bring Ayurveda to the forefront of medicine. Combining yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation is one of Dr. Michele’s passions so that she can spread the word to as many people as possible that this is the path to perfect health. Show Notes: Last week we talked about the mouth and the nose.  Now for part 2 of "Why Taking Care of Your Senses is Vital to Feeling Young" let’s move on to eyes. Our eyes can get really tired in today’s world. So let’s talk about some Eye Care Practices. Let’s do it together, unless youre driving. 1. The first one is called Figure 8’s: Roll your eyes in figure 8’s for 10 slow easy breaths. This simple therapy increases the flexibility of your extra-ocular muscles. Smile and relax while you do your eye exercises which releases tension in your eyes. Don’t over do it. If you feel strain in your eyes at all, back off. 2. The next one is called Palming: Rub your hands together to generate heat. Place your right fingers on top of your left fingers. Gently place your hands over your eyes, applying no pressure. Relax for 10-15 breaths to release unnecessary tension from your body. Notice the darkness and the light pressure. You are giving your eyes a little break. You are now pulsating between lightness and darkness. Notice if your body starts to relax. You might yawn and feel a deeper relaxation. Now let go of your hands and simply notice if your body is more relaxed. 3. Next, we are going to Zoom Out: This exercise is recommended especially for individuals who suffer from computer vision syndrome, but it can also help relax the eyes after any other strenuous activity. Choose an object that is located six to ten meters away from you, and focus on it for about twenty seconds, without moving your head. Doing so provides rest to the ciliary muscles that we tend to put a lot of stress on when we focus intensely on the computer screen. 4. Now we are going to Zoom in: This simple (and somewhat hilarious) exercise can be performed by holding a pencil in front of you at arm’s length, then slowly moving the arm closer to the nose, while focusing your eyes on the tip of the pencil. The goal is to bring the tip of pencil as close to the nose as possible, until your eyes can’t keep focus. Doing this exercise ten times in a row helps improve eye movement control and strengthens the eye muscles. 5. Next is Repeated blinking: This simple action, that we often take for granted, plays a vital role in eye health and vision — it replenishes the tear film that covers the surface of the eye (the cornea), lubricating it and protecting it against dryness, dust particles and other irritants. Some research shows that when we watch TV or use the computer, we tend to blink less, which dries and irritates the eyes, potentially causing headaches and other types of discomfort. Blinking every three or four seconds for about a minute is thought to help reduce eye strain by clearing the cornea and allowing the eyes to rest. 6. Finally we are going to Look At The Horizon: We are going to look outside, so if you are inside you may want to stand by a window. You are going to look as far as your eyes can see. What do you see on the horizon? You may be able to see the mountains miles away or you may only be able to see the building across the street and the sky. If that’s the case, look at where the building meets the sky. You may be able to look up and see the clouds which are also miles and miles away. Allow your eyes to zone out or space out. It’s really important to look at nature like mountains, the sky, clouds. We want to take in elements straight from the elements. As you do this, release your eyeball into the back of the eye socket, just as you did with Palming. It should feel relaxed, not strained or bugged out. So we just did a few minutes of eye practices, we did not spend a huge amount of time on them. If you’re someone who uses the computer a lot, pulsate your work on the computer with spacing out and looking at the horizon. Set a buzzer for an hour when you’re working or every 20 minutes and just stand up from your desk, walk to a window, and look at the horizon. There is another eye therapy that you can do at home using eye goggles and organic ghee. Melt the ghee to body temperature, fill your goggles with the ghee, lay down with your head on a towel, and open your eyes. This is a great therapy that lets your eyes relax backward, it’s great for anyone with dry eyes, it’s very nourishing and amazing to experience. You can do it as often as you want. Don’t do it if you’ve had eye surgery. You can also do this practice at an Ayurvedic clinic or spa using a dough dam called Netra Basti therapy. It’s placed over the eye and ghee is poured into it. It is usually done after another therapy like a massage or a full body steam. The goggles version is like a home version of this. Let’s move on to the ears now. There is a simple therapy of putting warm sesame oil into the ears. Put an old towel under the head. It’s an amazing therapy at the seasonal junctures. The ears are ether. They are extremely light. This is a very deeply nourishing therapy for the ears. It’s more of a water earth therapy, so it’s very grounding; it decreases sensitivity throughout the entire NS. It is a very subtle and sublime therapy. You can also do it by putting a few drops of oil on your fingertips as you do your self-massage. Then put your fingertips into the ears and do a few little circles with your fingers. It opens up the cervical lymphatics. You’ll be able to oil your ears in a faster way. If you have kids, do this practice every month. Have them lay there for 3 minutes, then flip over and do the other side. Make sure you have an old towel under their head. We already covered Skin, or touch, in the habit of self-massage in Episode #83 because it’s such a big habit. Doing each of the other sense organ care practices doesn’t take you much time at all, except in the very beginning when you are learning how to do them. Doing tongue scraping is only going to take you 10 seconds, neti pot is only going to take a minute, putting a few drops of oil in your ears is only going to take you a few seconds, eye care practices is only going to take a minute or two. Pick out what you want to do now. Which one can you do now easiest? Which one can you start incorporating into your day now? Remember that your little habits are always triggered by something else like brushing your teeth or sitting down at your computer. So write down right now which one of these microhabits of sense organ care are the most important to you and which ones you can start doing right now this month. Click here for: Your 5 Senses Tip Sheet. Namaste, Dr. Michele ****************************** If there is a topic you would like me to address or if there is a question you would like answered, please reach out. Email me directly at dr.michele.colon@gmail.com or schedule a coaching call with me so we can dive deeper to find out what is going on and come up with a plan of action for you: drmichele.com/schedule Today’s show was brought to you by the Body Wisdom Membership Program. For more information, head on over to my website drmichele.com and click on the JOIN NOW or WORK WITH ME tab. All of the information is there about my group programs as well as 1:1 coaching. If you have questions about your health that you would like me to answer on air, you can email them to me or go to my website drmichele.com/get in touch to contact my team. If you have questions you’d like to discuss with me directly, sign up for a coaching call at drmichele.com/schedule.