All the noise in the media right now and can fill our minds with panic, doubt and worry. 

With updated news reports every day, it feels like it can be hard to keep a clear mind and stay in peace. Which is why, here in the FASTer Way community, we are committed to bringing you expert resources to educate, inform and offer encouragement on how to thrive in a crisis: physically, spiritually and mentally. 

Amanda recently sat down with Dr. Diva Nagula for a conversation about focusing on success through a crisis. Dr. Diva Nagula is a board-certified osteopathic physician and has extensive knowledge and training in Integrative and Functional Medicine. 

He opens up about his struggle with stage four lymphoma and how he overcame it by focusing on physical AND spiritual health. Check out the key takeaways, or listen to the message below, as Dr. Nagula offers practical tips on building resilience, building your immunity, staying healthy and optimizing the mind and spirit. You can listen by clicking the link below:

Battling Cancer

Dr. Nagula started out his career as a healthcare practitioner with a specialty in interventional pain medication. Shortly after leaving his practice, he got some unexpected news and was diagnosed with stage 4 Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma. This left him at a crossroads: “What do I do next?” He knew that it was time to figure out why he got cancer, and that he had to make some major lifestyle changes if he wanted to win this battle.

The cancer diagnosis was a wake-up call that it was time to heal his body; physically and spiritually. He figured that if he got cancer from his lifestyle choices, then he could also reverse it with lifestyle choices, as well. Up to that point, he was eating poorly, not sleeping, always stressed and often exposed to environmental toxins. To take action and heal his body, Dr. Nagula started to heavily focus on his lifestyle choices and taking care of his body. After adjusting his lifestyle, he moved forward with chemo and continued to heal his body.

CHANGING THE COURSE THROUGH HEALTH AND WELLNESS

During this period of lifestyle change, he did a lot of his own research about how implementing healthy lifestyle choices can reverse the curse of bad health. Before his diagnosis, Dr. Nagula was eating a diet full of processed, packaged, frozen and canned foods. To change the course of his health, he went back to the basics of nutrition and learned the importance of fueling his body with organic, non-gmo, whole-food nutrition. He eliminated ALL processed foods and alcohol from his diet and only ate organic, non-gmo, nutrient-dense foods. He started focusing on whole food nutrition and incorporated TONS of organic fruit and vegetables to provide his body with the phytonutrients that he hadn’t gotten before.

Dr. Nagula’s Book: From Doctor to Patient: Healing Cancer Through Mind, Body, and Spirit

In addition to healing his body with proper nutrition and lifestyle choices, Dr. Nagula started   healing his body through mind and spirit exercises. He learned HOW to optimize the mind and reduce stress and anxiety through mindfulness exercises. Mindfulness helps us live in the moment! When we live in the moment, we can eliminate ALL aspects of fear and anxiety from the mind to be truly centered and experience complete peace of mind (even in a time of crisis!)

Recommendations on Incorporating In-Mind Body Exercises

Dr. Nagula recommends practicing mindfulness with in-mind body exercises. Some of these exercises may include yoga, tai-chi and breathing patterns. However, he says that breathing exercises are the quickest and most efficient way to change our state of mind. Breathing is the one thing we can do consciously AND unconsciously to directly control our fight or flight responses.

There are two ways we breathe: Chest breathing or diaphragm breathing. Chest breathing is NOT the ideal form of breathing as these breaths are very quick and shallow; they are similar to how we would breath in a fight or flight response. On the other hand, diaphragm breathing is the ideal form of breathing as these breaths require mindfulness! To practice breathing from your diaphragm, tense up your belly, contract your navel in, and take a deep breath WHILE still holding the navel in. 

How to Practice Box Breathing:

Dr. Nagula recommends incorporating box breathing into your everyday health routine to practice mindfulness and reduce stress, fear and anxiety. To practice box breathing: 

• Inhale for a count of four

• Hold your breath for a count of four

• Exhale on a count of four

• Hold the exhale for a count of four

• Repeat

Repeat this pattern of breathing for 3-5 minutes, once a day OR however is needed to help you feel centered in the moment and reduce any stress and anxiety. When we focus on our breathing and where it goes, we can reduce the chatter in the brain and bring our minds to peace; not worrying about what tomorrow holds, but focusing on the present moment! With this practice, you can actually TEACH your mind to stay focused and not wander!

The importance of lifestyle choices and mindfulness in the current crisis: 

Amanda reminds the FASTer Way community that the three most important aspects to health and wellness are intermittent fasting, whole food nutrition and community. These aspects are so important, now more than ever, as we are in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak.

We know it can be hard to keep in community with those around us as we are in a period of quarantine and social distancing. But remember, social distancing does not mean social isolation! 

Right now, we can maintain social relationships by getting on the phone to call a friend,  organizing conference calls with members of our community or hopping on zoom calls with family members and relatives. Rather than feeling defeated and disconnected, use this time as an opportunity to connect and reconnect in a different way with your loved ones! We can also choose to focus on whole food nutrition and fuel our bodies with the nutrients it needs, to stay healthy and thrive during this time.

The Importance of Detoxing 

Dr. Nagula recommends that healthy lifestyle choices are THE MOST important aspect during this time, especially for those in cancer remission who are looking to boost resilience and immunity. He says that focusing on healthy lifestyle choices during the period of remission, as well as ridding the body of unnecessary toxins, including more organic whole foods AND not going back to old lifestyle choices, is the best course of action to take.

This upcoming April, the FASTer Way VIP community will start incorporating some of these same detox elements Dr. Nagula recommended, to heal our bodies and focus on ideal health. We will focus on eliminating toxins from our diet, incorporating organic, non-gmo food products AND practicing mindfulness exercises to mitigate stress. It is so important, now more than ever before, to focus on achieving ideal health.

We will continue to dial in on making healthy lifestyle choices and focusing on whole food, organic nutrition. Eat as if your life depended on it, and feed your children as if their lives depended on it, as well! (Because it DOES!) 

FASTer Way family, we want to empower you to GET WELL and STAY WELL in this time, to prevent future disease and fulfill your purpose with energy! Focus on establishing a healthy lifestyle and be more mindful of the choices you make. We want to see you take that first step to creating a healthy lifestyle! Join us in the FASTer Way community as we thrive through this time of crisis, together. There’s never been a more important time than NOW to take action on your health. We are here for you! 

You can find more information and resources from Dr. Nagula, as well as his book, “From Doctor to Patient: Healing Cancer Through Mind, Body, and Spirit,” online at https://fromdoctortopatient.com/.