NYC: 5 Ways to Get Well in the City
This week I was walloped with a flu. The kind where your skin hurts so badly pajamas feel like spandex and it seems like your internal organs are having their own mini sweat lodge.
Some say that sickness like this is a "cleanse"--the body burning off extra emotional and/or physical toxins. So here are some ways to heal and take advantage of the pending flu/cleansing season, locally. (Disclaimer: Listen to your doctor, not me.)
1) Get Juiced
I generally buy the alkaline/acid theory of illness--that the body should be more alkaline than neutral to fight disease. You can get a Ph level pee tester at High Vibe, a great little raw supply shop in the East Village. But more immediately, start slamming the green juice--it's alkalizing and has the minerals you need. There's a sweet health food store on Flatbush & St. Marks, New York Naturals, that makes a lovely organic all-green. And in Manhattan there's the pricey but manna-like pressed green juice at Liquiteria. A good green is hard to find.
2) Supplement
Someone recommended Source Naturals Wellness Formula, and I like to think that those gigantic, smelly horse pills did accelerate the healing. You could also go to the amazing Kamwo Chinese herb emporium in Chinatown--for acupuncture in their clinic and advice on what might help the snot party.
3) Read
You're open and releasing the old. It's the perfect moment to digest that tome of spiritual wisdom you may have picked up at the newishly renovated East West Books or Quest in Midtown. My fave is Pema Chodron--right now I'm digging on a little pocket book of hers on lovingkindness. She is the perfect partner in sickness or distress of all kinds.
4) Stretch
Now that you're a smidge better, you can go to yoga class without infecting your fellow yogis--but best to bring your own mat or one of those grippy towel mats everyone's toting around. Integral's Gentle Hatha class is super-mellow. All that is expected is your presence.
5) Notice
It's amazing how when I'm feeling craptastic I become screechingly sensitive and aware of things that whack my immune system. Sugar, the way I handle a long-delayed subway (keep staring into the dark tunnel or pull out Pocket Pema?), over-riding my intuition, etc. So take advantage of this hyper-attenuated moment to see how your surroundings and mindset give you energy or take it away. Then leave this mad town. Kidding. Mostly.
What do you do--or avoid--when you're sick in the city?
yogajournal.com
vegetariantimes.com
backpacker.com
optimumwellness.com
wholefoodsmarket.com
betternutrition.com
