Kim Davey: Seven principles for a happy, healthy life

Kim Davey

To lead a happy and healthy life you do not need tonnes of money, to live somewhere exotic, or to keep up with the Jones's. All you do need is to live by seven basic principles and incorporate them into your everyday life. These principles are so simple some of you may scoff. But the truth is:
Life is simple. People are complicated.
I discovered these principles when working with my friend and mentor Don Tolman (the wholefood cowboy from Salt Lake City, Utah). Don shares his message on the seven principles of health worldwide and has changed and saved many, many lives from death and disease.
Principle 1: Walking . Every day get out of the house and into the world on a 45-minute fast-paced walk.
Getting the body moving is the best thing you can do for it. Keeping joints active, muscles moving and your heart rate pumping is a surefire way to keep yourself fit and healthy.
Add in a hill or two for a fat burning workout. Notice I didn't say "drive to the gym and walk on the treadmill" - it's crazy business! You need to get out in the fresh air come rain or shine!
Principle 2: Fresh Air - oxygen = life and fresh air clears the head and moves the blood around our bodies. Please note - air conditioning is the devil! Ever noticed how stuffy, stagnant air in the workplace always makes you drowsy and gives you a headache? How when one person gets sick everyone else does too? Yuck! No more air con - open the windows! If you are cold, man up and put a jersey on. Fresh, moving air is the key to a healthy mind and body.
Principle 3: Clean water - There has been a lot of debate recently regarding adding fluoride to our waters. OMG really? Talk about controlling the masses! If you want fluoride (a toxic chemical) in your water, you add it, but stay away from mine! Clean, fresh, filtered water is what our bodies need. Nothing added to it.
The cleaner the water the better it is for us. The body does not recognise toxins and poisons that councils decide to add to it. So make sure you are drinking pure filtered water and lots of it.
If you get headaches it's generally because of two things - not enough water or not enough fresh air. Don't take a panadol (more drugs for the body to filter out) drink water and go for a walk outside. I guarantee you it will be gone when you get back.
Principle 4: Sunshine - Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in! - The sun is the biggest healer on our planet. Vitamin D from the sun is the purest and most fabulous thing we can give to our bodies. It helps every cell prosper and grow and makes you feel happy! What can be better than that? There is so much marketing and fear mongrel around sunburn and skin cancer - stay away from the sun, the sun is evil - this is a huge money making ploy and keeps us fearful of one of the true gifts of living on this planet.
Yes, you can get sunburnt and that hurts and is not good for you. But instead of putting toxic sunscreens on your beautiful skin every time you go out, get in the sun every day for 20 minutes with no sunscreen and feel the effects.
After 20 minutes cover up with hat and T-shirt etc so you don't get burnt. Building up a slow and natural tan is wonderful for the mind and body. Getting burnt is not.
Principle 5: Wholefoods - Last week I spoke about how the world has gone crazy with foodless foods and lifeless drinks. Organic (no sprays and pesticides) fresh wholefoods - fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and legumes - are the No1 way to keep your body in perfect working order. Eating these foods allows your body to create the fuel you require to get through the day.
Eat a fat, greasy pie and you will look and feel like a fat, greasy pie! Eat a delicious, nutritious, wholefood meal and you will look and feel like a delicious, nutritious wholefood meal - and that's sexy! Foodless foods become stored as plaque in the body. Over time plaque builds up and is stored in the body as what we call tumours. Don't eat crap!
Principle 6: Positive Relationships - Loving, supportive friends, family and partners are crucial to our overall health and mindset. Often overlooked as a cause of health and mental issues, the relationships in your life can dictate how you feel about yourself and your place in the word.
Choosing to associate with only positive and uplifting people will see your life skyrocket in the direction of your dreams. Associating and living with negative, grumpy, controlling people will kick your confidence and keep you in a depressive state.
So be sure to choose your friends and most importantly your lovers wisely.
Principle 7: Passion - What do you love? What brings you joy? Having passion for something - whether it is sport, dance, theatre, design, camping, horseback riding - and pursuing it as a hobby or full-time career will bring you the greatest joy. It connects you with other human beings who also share in your joy, creating friendships, self worth, confidence and purpose.
Find what you love and do it as often as possible.
Living by these seven simple principles will bring your life to an entirely new level. You will be satisfied, healthy, excited, energised and full of joy.
None of them require a lot of money, contacts or effort.
They do, however, require discipline and it is that which will determine your success. Enjoy!
Be Real. Be True, Be You!
#Kim Davey is an international speaker, author and entrepreneur who lives between Hawke's Bay and LA and runs www.nzdancenetwork.co.nz and www.kimdaveylive.com