Our interviewee today is Erin McCann a professional Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist and Reiki practitioner. She gives an overview on naturopathy, its benefits, tips for general wellness and she gives her own views on power yoga and wellbeing.
Naturopathy is a natural approach to health care; it is the belief that a state of health in the body is a state of balance or homeostasis.
Naturopathy is a natural approach to health care
In health, a disease is a moment of imbalance in the body. Naturopathy is the application of the principles of treating each person as a unique individual by looking at diet, lifestyle, emotional states, relationship environment as well as medical history. It is treating the root cause of a disease as well as alleviating symptoms and also, educating clients to take ownership of their own health. All these principles are applied into the nutritional therapy I provide.
How do people benefit by undergoing naturopathic therapy?
Naturopath not only looks at what symptoms are presenting, it looks at what the root causes of the condition may be. It does look at short term: helping the person to feel better and also looks at long term: really addressing what their causes and how people can make sustainable changes into their life to maintain long-term wellness. Also, it focuses on prevention and not just curing disease. It is really a long term sustainable health care program.
Would you like to share a few tips for general wellness?
1. Broad spectrum of fruits and vegetables, 2. Healthy and good quality fats 3.Lifestyle: yoga, meditation, time with family, taking a bath
- Having a broad spectrum of fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet, fruits and vegetables of all different colours, greenvegetables especially. They provide you with fibre, essential minerals and vitamins and also antioxidants which are reallyimportant, especially when living in the city.
- Incorporating healthy and good quality fats and oils helps to maintain cell health, hormone production, and metabolism and also reduce inflammation in the body. These includes: avocados, nuts, seeds, good quality olive oils. Make sure you have an adequate amount of these throughout the day in your food preparation and with snacks and meals.
- Lifestyle : Incorporate some type of down time and personal time. You can be doing Yoga, meditation, walking through nature, spending time with family, reading, taking a bath. All of these can be restorative on a daily basis. These activities allow you to recover and then fully engage with loved ones and work more efficiently and energetically.
How does yoga compliment your general wellbeing
I have been practising yoga consistently over the past 3 years. I find that it is beneficial at a number of levels. It helps to build physical strength and flexibility. Also it is a good opportunity to really get out of your head and get more into your body. Also I look at it as an analogy of how I move through life. When I come into a pose that I find really challenging, I try to acknowledge if I’m being judgemental or being gentle with myself. I try to adjust physically and mentally so that I recognise areas in which I need to work in order to progress. I find that learning these different skills, how to take on challenges on the mat and develop my practice, help me translate that into taking challenges in my life. It also helps me to be more grounded and more centred in that space on the mat but also take that out in everyday life. For me it does transcend my yoga practice into my everyday life.
Do you believe that Naturopathy compliments yoga practice?
I definitely do. Your diet, the way you eat, can determine whether you have energy through your practice or the mood and mental state that goes into your practice. It can also assist with recovery. Power yoga can be very physical sometimes.; your muscles might be sore and your diet can really help your muscles with that recovery process. Herbs are also great; they can affect your mental clarity as well as facilitate a meditation state. Herbs also can be used to help with physical stamina but also balance that out with relaxation. They are very nice tools to facilitate and support the practice. Bach flowers are useful as well. They clear emotional and energetically blockages. For example, if you are a person who gets discouraged very easily or you shy away of different poses because of lack of confidence in yourself or in your practice; these can help to support you to kind of get over that hump and be more present and then maybe tackle these with a new emotional perspective on it.
Yoga helps with body’s detoxification so if you are using food and herbs along with yoga, it can really help to support your natural detoxification pathways. Any kind of natural therapeutic body work can help you in your yoga practice. If you are suffering from a physical injury, body work can really support you in recovery and in reaching a healthy state.