Optimum Health Jigsaw
Your keys to recovery, in your hands
My Story… and the creation of The Optimum Health Jigsaw…
In 2002, working as a Junior Doctor, in a busy district general hospital, I became severely ill after a brief flu-like illness. Over the months that followed, with numerous ‘negative’ tests and a range of diagnoses given (ME / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Fibromyalgia / Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome / POTS), I discovered that my beloved NHS had very little to offer me.
During the 2000’s, mostly house-bound or bed-bound, in constant pain and with a multitude of incapacitating symptoms, my family and I gradually learnt more about real healthcare and, after many unhelpful interventions and a lot of money spent, we finally came across Activated Oxygen Therapy.
This proved life-changing for me – and at long last, I began to rebuild my energy levels, lose the constant pain and start to recover my brain power sufficiently to explore, research and develop a comprehensive management plan to further improve my health.
Little by little, I started to piece together information from others’ research and my own intuition and experience that led me to develop a ‘model’ of the cause and development of ME / CFS – and subsequently a model for recovery – through addressing the relevant causative aspects in an accessible, comprehensive way.
It’s important to note that even once I felt I’d worked out all the pieces of my ‘jigsaw’, that it wasn’t a smooth and sudden return to health for me – I still had ups and downs and quite often it did feel like ‘two steps forward, one step back’ (NB the more I work with others, the more I observe this same pattern – so don’t be discouraged if you feel you’re not recovering as ‘fast’ or as smoothly as you’d like. It’s taken a very long time for your body to get into the state it’s come to, so it will take a long time to get everything in place for a sustainable return to health!)
Eventually though, I reached a point where I really felt I was ‘free’ of the M.E. / CFS / Fibromyalgia – and a couple of life tests that proved that to me were a throat infection in 2013 (previously would have wiped me out for weeks or months) which was quite nasty and made me feel really rough for a few days – but then I got better!! No longer term effects or relapse!
The other big test to me was conceiving our daughter and giving birth, without any pharmaceutical pain relief (despite 63 hours of contractions and 24 hours of back labour). Even this did not trigger me back into M.E. / CFS / Fibromyalgia symptoms – and I am so grateful!
Claire Bowen
BM BS, B. Med. Sci.
Since that time, I’ve been working with other individuals dealing with chronic illness; aiming to share my experience and knowledge gleaned during my personal quest for optimum health. The Optimum Health Jigsaw is the evolving culmination of this research and personal testing. It’s not a ‘one size fits all’ protocol, but a self-management tool, describing the eight areas of life to be focused on, for someone to recover from chronic illness and move towards optimum health.
Click on the links below to discover the Optimum Health Jigsaw Pieces. Then, if it feels good, contact me for a no-obligation 15 minute call, to explore how working with us might help put some of your pieces more securely in place.
We can survive weeks without food, days without water, yet only minutes without oxygen – yet this abundant molecule is often overlooked when it comes to health and sickness. Time to change all that! Click here to find out more about how your cells may be crying out for more oxygen – and a whole range of ways you can help them with that!
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Overall, more than half of our bodyweight is water – signifying the importance of hydration in maintaining our life functions. Water is needed to absorb nutrients, produce energy in cells, control body temperature and eliminate toxins and waste products – amongst many other vital processes within the body. Without sufficient water, any or all of these processes may suffer and become less efficient. Click below to see how this often-overlooked aspect of health and illness can be addressed!
‘Detoxification’ has become quite a buzzword these days. There are many detoxing diets around, as well as various pieces of equipment and therapies, which claim to detoxify the body. In the world we live in today, full of environmental pollution, food additives and strong medications, it seems like a good idea for everyone to attempt effective detox, but for individuals with a chronic illness it is essential, since overwhelm of the body’s detoxification system is often a key component of the condition. However, it is equally essential that any detoxification process is carried out appropriately for the individual; when dealing with a system as fragile as in those with chronic illness such as M.E. / CFS, MS, heart or lung problems, it may be possible to detox too rapidly or powerfully, placing too much strain on the body – click below to learn more!
You’ve heard the expression, ‘you are what you eat’! Well, although you may not actually be a huge sausage roll or giant banana smoothie, it is true that the food we consume is broken down inside our body to form the building blocks which make up our new and regenerating cells. So, of course, what we eat really does have a significant impact on who and what we are! In addition to the kind of food, how much we eat, when we eat it – and even how we feel as we eat it can have a huge impact on the effects of our diet on our health and wellbeing. ‘Nutrition’ is a huge area of potential experience (indeed, one a whole industry is now built on!) and so it’s a really important aspect of everyone’s life experience! When dealing with a chronic health issue such as fatigue, it’s likely that the nutritional requirements of the body are even greater than an average ‘healthy’ individual, whilst there may be bodily processes going on that mean some foods won’t be tolerated well – so careful, personalised nutrition becomes even more important!
Everybody needs ‘down time’; a break from the daily stresses and strains of life and time to regroup and build strength. Your cells are no exception. In today’s world, with so much stimulating entertainment right at our fingertips, even when we’re in bed – in the form of smartphones and tablets, many people are forgoing sleep (i.e. true restorative body-down-time) in favour of Social Media, watching films or surfing the internet. However, although this practice may be considered a sign of a enjoyable, social living, it may also be having a negative effect on the individual’s physical health and wellbeing by delaying the onset of restorative sleep and disrupting sleep cycles. Click below to read more about why this is a key piece of the Optimum Health Jigsaw…
The MOBILISATION Jigsaw Piece is all about movement! Our bodies were designed to move. As children are growing up, regular movement helps them grow and develop balance and coordination. As adults, adequate movement of our bodies helps us maintain that co-ordination and balance, improves our metabolic rate, maintains our cardiovascular system, encourages detoxification via stimulation of the lymphatic system and maintains flexibiliuty and function of muscles and joints (amongst other important functions…)
Increasing scientific research is demonstrating that the impact of healthy social relationships is highly significant to our physical, mental and emotional health. Studies have shown that in terms of mortality, good social connections as opposed to isolation and loneliness can have as much of an impact on life expectancy as smoking or not smoking! Positive interactions with others can have highly significant effects on our immune system, nervous system and overall health (not just by diminishing stress hormone release, though that is part of it). That’s why the CONNECTION Jigsaw Piece is so important in providing the nurturing environment for your cells’ health. Since it’s also true that negative interactions and ‘toxic’ relationships with others can have such a detrimental effect on our health, the initial focus must be on the relationship with the self, to both ensure optimal meeting of needs for the cells yet also to make sure that relationships with others embarked upon will be initiated from a healthy and self-loving starting point.
‘Our experience of life is much more related to how we react and respond to circumstances than to the actual events of our life.’ Whether or not you currently believe this to be true, if we can create a more positive attitude towards life, ‘taking things in our stride’, easily ‘letting go’ of negative experiences and enjoying humour on a daily basis, most individuals would agree that the experience of ‘life’ is likely to be improved, whatever level of health or illness or energy one is dealing with. These are some of the aims of the EXPANSION Jigsaw Piece.
Call today for your FREE no-obligation discovery call, to find out if
Optimum Health Jigsaw Coaching
could change your health – and life for the better!