At the core of natural medicine is one fundamental belief — our bodies are powerful, and if given the proper support they usually know how to heal themselves.
Your body is so wise, in fact, that at the first indication that anything is wrong it calls in the cavalry! The first hero on the scene is your immune system — which is made up of white blood cells, beneficial microbes, and antibodies that can correct any imbalance that may be occurring.
But sometimes the body’s natural protective response creates inflammation and swelling that can push on your nerves… This can cause pain — which nobody wants.
Fortunately, there are a number of safe and natural ways to eliminate this discomfort while your body continues to do its vital work!
Here are 3 rituals that you can easily implement into your everyday life to alleviate inflammation and pain:
Ritual #1 – The Body Scan Meditation
Meditation has been all the rage in recent news — not just with yogis, but with businessmen, athletes and entrepreneurs alike. One thing’s for sure – it’s extremely helpful when it comes to inflammation and pain.
In 1999, doctors declared pain to be the 5th vital sign, along with: temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and breath rate.
This embodiment ritual will help you gain awareness of the location and intensity of pain throughout your body.
Here’s how to do it:
Start by laying flat on the ground or sitting in a cross legged position. The goal of this practice is to quiet your mind and focus on the sensations of the body. You may find it helpful to grab pillows to support your tailbone, lower back, or head.
Once you are situated in a desired position, take at least 5 deep breaths and begin to focus on your body.
Allow the trunk and branches of your body to grow heavy.
Relax any immediate tension you feel.
Now, start by noticing your face and head. Are you clenching? Do your eyes hurt from staring at your phone all day? Is there aching anywhere? Throbbing?
If any sensations present themselves, take deep breaths and focus on understanding the specific discomfort in that area. Sometimes simply acknowledging a feeling that we’re experiencing can dissolve it.
Once you feel that area is relaxed, move on to your neck. Then to your shoulders and arms. To your torso. To your legs. And finally to your feet and toes.
I find it helpful to practice this ritual right before bed, and before I start work in the morning. Starting and ending with bodily awareness helps you stay in tune with yourself throughout the day.
Ritual #2 – Epsom Salt Bath Soak
Self care is another term that has been trendy lately, but for good reason! Living in modern times means constant exposure to news, heightened expectations due to the comparative nature of social media, and a greater amount of overall mental strain. To counter this, we as a people are prioritizing balance.
The pinnacle of self-care is an epsom salt bath soak.
Long practiced by the sports industry, an epsom bath relaxes your muscles, calms inflammation and helps you sleep more readily — which gives your body more time to recover.
If you incorporate herbal remedies, like essential oils or dried petals, you also gain their healing properties through the pores of the skin.
How to Draw a Self Care Bath:
- Run hot water into a plugged bathtub.
- Choose your bath soak blend: usually this is 1 cup of salts and any desired herbs. I suggest the following herbs for maximum analgesic and relaxing actions: lavender, chamomile, clove.
- Pour mixture into the tub and shut off the water when it’s full.
- Wait 5 minutes: allow the salts to dissolve and herbs to release their medicine.
- Ease in and relax!
Ritual #3 – Anti-inflammatory Foods
Food is medicine.
When you’re in acute or chronic pain, it might be time to make bigger changes and focus on eating nutrient dense and anti-inflammatory foods.
Sticking to a mindful, anti-inflammatory diet is a great first defense here and can sometimes be the best medicine.
Try to plan your meals to include:
- leafy greens
- grain-free carb substitutes, like potatoes and quinoa (which is a seed!)
- snacks like berries and nuts
- olive oil, instead of butter
- garlic, ginger and turmeric
Incorporating even one of the 3 rituals above can ease aches and pains with immediate results. Remember, our bodies are what keep us going every day – and we owe it to ourselves to take care of them!
Stay curious,
Nick Polizzi
Host of Proven: Healing Breakthroughs Backed By Science
& Founder of The Sacred Science
Great info, definitely sharing. Thanks!
All this info is very helpful. It is something that we all need in this day and age because each of us really do need to take care of ourselves. I am still looking forward to the day doctors will incorporate these things into their practice.
Hey Nick, thanks for the simple, sacred info. I will surely incorporate these daily rituals. My body, and my mind thank you.
Is it ok to take an Epsom bath every night before bed? I find it greatly decreases the hip and leg cramps I have in bed.
Hey Nick,
i love the help you are trying to offer the world. But I disagree with the salmon and the butter.
I’m guessing the idea is the omegas in salmon are anti-inflammatory. But if you read Lynn Recitas book about anti-inflammatory diets called “the Plan” she has discovered almost %80 of people have an inflammatory reaction to salmon. Each person must test to discover what works with their own chemistry.
If you look at the Root Cause Protocol by Morely Robbins (website), grass fed butter is a source of retinol, which helps with a whole cascade of anti-inflammatory responses in the body when it’s part of an overall protocol to balance Mag/Iron/Copper/ceruloplasm.
Like the photo with the Bamboo (Phylostachys henon?)
All three points are good, although in my case fully implementing the last one has negated the need for the other two. While I endorse including the foods listed in number three, I would suggest that for many there are some foods that need to be reduced or removed altogether. For me, sugar – including fruit (fructose is highly problematic for many) – or excessive carbs (which the body turns into glucose, a form of sugar) are the primary culprits. Vegetable oils are another big no-no. I had long included the foods in number 3, but it wasn’t until I removed sugars and vegetable oils that my arthritis and many other issues faded away. This is why I adopted the ketogenic diet about 5 years ago. At 65 I can work hard all day on the farm here and get out of bed the next morning without any aches or pains – and I can still put my hands on the floor with my knees straight.
Nice to educate about inflammation. Thank you. Please keep in touch.
Thank you for all your valuable information and recommendations, most grateful!
I do love a warm soak in the tub with herbal oils, however, be careful using epsom salt! I wound up once going to the Emergency Room due to magnesium overdose. One afternoon after a workout with my personal trainer, I soaked for 30 minutes in a tub of hot water and 1 cup of epsom salt to soothe my sore muscles. I had taken my daily vitamins and supplements, including a magnesium supplement with my smoothie that morning. I did not eat much that afternoon, went to happy hour with a friend and had one margarita but not much food. When I arrived home, I suddenly felt quite ill and thought I might have food poisoning. I felt nauseated but did not vomit nor had severe diarrhea like one would with food poisoning. However, my husband had to carry me to the Emergency Room due to severe muscle weakness, fatigue, and lack of mental clarity. I did recover after being administered IV fluids.
Thank you so much for real, important and usable information instead of a 30 minute video that leads to asking one to buy a product.
Awesome ideas for the melenium……Younger generations! Should kn ow this …..Suicides are more now than cancer victims!
Thank you for sharing these insights. You provided such comforting information
I love this so much and I am really looking forward to doing it! Thank you 🙏
For your posts in their comments very helpful to me you can also light up a Malaysian lamp thanks for your light at the end of the tunnel about circulation that’s so important to all of us
For your posts in their comments very helpful to me you can also light up a Malaysian lamp thanks for your light at the end of the tunnel about circulation that’s so important to all of us
Just a suggestion about Epsom salt baths…. don’t make the water real hot. If your bath water is too hot, you’ll sweat (even though you might not realize in the moment) and your body won’t absorb that lovely magnesium. Also, I really load up on the Epsom salts… I use 2 pounds per bath (about 1/2 of the standard 4 pound package). Note: I am NOT taking magnesium orally and only take a magnesium bath about once a week. Not good to overdose on anything! For extra special treat, use Ancient Minerals Magnesium Bath Flakes, a different form of magnesium. And stay in the bath! For 20 minutes at the least… my husband (who only takes baths when he’s totally gimped up) wants to jump out after 5! lol
My experience is that every body has a unique dietary requirement. Part of our experiences here on Earth is to figure that your best diet for YOUR body. As for me, the keto diet just about killed me! lol / groan I started eating a vegan diet 2 years ago and I’m thriving at 61.
Why olive oil and NOT butter?
I practice all the other anti-inflammatory foods, but use butter.
Curious
I like your straightforward, to-the-point advice. Love my weekly epsom salt baths with lavender. I was disappointed however in a couple of ways particular words used in the blog promote implicit bias. The first is in the comparison of our immune system to the “calvary”. History teaches us that the calvary in this country were soldiers who slaughtered thousands of indigenous people in the pursuit of stealing their ancestral land. Please stop using that word to describe how my body heals. Secondly, as a woman, I am left out when you chose to describe people as “businessmen”. Yogis, athletes and entrepreneurs are not ascribed a gender, so why people in business? Thank you for carefully considering your use of language in future blogs. I doubt that you were intentionally discriminating against anyone in this post. Unfortunately, it comes across that way. Words really do matter.
You will end up with clogged drains if you put handfuls of Loose herbs in your bath. You can wrap them in a cloth or get giant-sized teabags or tea balls.
Another great bath soak for topical inflammation is oatmeal.
Thanks Mr P!……GOOD ONES!
Bt the way.. CALVARY Is where JESUS was crucified and not the same as Cavalry. My mom taught the the difference
Thank you so much for these suggestions. I’ve tried all of them and they do help.
Good ideas Nick! Thanks!
This is a turning point for me. I have been often embarrassed by the prayer ritual before meals by my family. I felt an energetic shift recently towards appreciating it and now my brain has accepted it is wisdom!
There is too much data against eating large carnivorous ocean fish due to their levels of heavy metals, especially mercury- a known neurotoxin. Pair that with the overharvesting of our planets’ aquatic communities and that equals a very uncomfortable food recommendation. Omega 3s + 6s are important I realize and fish long ago were safer but this is no longer true or ethical in my books.
My best,
RR
Thanks Trudi Dido for the clarification between Calvary and cavalry. I wrote about my comment in my writing group (via Zoom) and was then able to make the same clarification for the others. In my mind, I also confuse the word with Calgary, a city in Canada. Once again I am reminded that English is a difficult and confusing language because of the similarities in spelling and pronunciation of words with different meaning.
I’m a healer and body therapist your info is very helpful.Thankyou blessings
Thank you so much for these amazing natural alternatives. I do all but the baths as I prefer showers but will now give them a try. I have heart problems so have trouble with water retention and inflammation so appreciate your dedication to natural alternatives..
It has always been my mantra that the body was made to heal it self. This is supporting my views with more structure and activities. I will be conducting these rituals as needed and share with others.
CBD Treatment
Noble Nick,
Good that you are pursuing sacred science for the welfare of the humanity. These remedies you have suggested are very much in practice in India. However you may need to understand some principles of Ayurveda as body structure of individuals differ from person to person. Ayurveda practiced in India clearly mention this.
Thank you Nick I am learning from you .Be blessed for sharing your knowledge , todays three tips
have brought them back to remembrance , at 83 I need that .
Thank you so much for that information, I will probably do those things to heal my body pains & part of my care for my body. I will also share these learnings to others
Love to read almost if not all with Nick Polizzi’s name on it.Very informative and life/health changing well researched information.You are a gift to the humankind.Long Live!
Earthing is a sure way to heal the body. If you don’t like walking bear foot, try sitting with your bear feet on some damp grass if you have the privilege of of that. Or soil . Damp also it helps make a better contact. Sit for as long as you can and thing good thoughts.