5 PATHS TO ENERGISE,

R EC UP ER ATE & OP TIM ISE

YOUR BO DY
Focusing on & implementing these 5 simple, yet life changing life-
style pathways, will help you to get more out of your body, helping
you to think better, sleep better and perform better.

LIVING To find and maintain health we have to be in tune with the
many components that make up who we are.
We need to appreciate how the environmental influences
have guided our evolution over the last 2.8 million years.
We have to understand that the way we move or don’t move
shapes our physicality. We have to appreciate that the way
we think, our outlook, how we navigate our way through life,
the level of responsibility, significantly influences our path.
The planet we live on has provided us with everything that
we need. Yet through our microscopic approach to all walks
of life, segmenting and fracturing our approach to health, to
each other and the rest of the planet, we are losing sight of
the lifeways that shaped who we are.
L LIVING
This article has been created to reiterate certain life
principles that can help retune your perspective. It is aimed
at giving you the chance to understand further the profound
effects that 5 simple lifeways like these, can have on your
life.
These tools do not require you to buy expensive equipment
or start expensive supplement regimes. Rather, these are
simple, powerful, natural principles that are based on
sound scientific evidence, easily actionable and based on
the understanding of our relationship with ourselves, each
other and with thF natural environment that we are part of.
 E EARTHING

WE ARE
E L EC T R I C A L

1
Most people talk about a sense of wellbeing when
they walk barefoot in nature. This skin to ground
contact known as ‘Earthing’ has been shown to have
a profound physiological effect on our body.

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An abundance of free, negatively charged electrons

in the Earth’s surface that are being continually
replenished by solar radiation, lightning, and heat
from its molten core, play a crucial role in the
health of our body. Whilst our ancestors may not
have known specifically about these electrons, they
knew that the ground held special healing effects by
con-necting them to nature.

Everything that lives on this planet has it’s biolog-

ical machinery kept in check by the natural energy

E A RT H I N G flowing through and emanating from the surface of

the Earth, a regular physical connection with it can
have powerful and beneficial health effects.

E A RT H I N G 1 0 1
The moment you touch the Earth, your
physiology changes. As the majority of
people today wear rubber soled shoes,
live in apartment blocks & sleep above
the ground, we are completely insulat-
ed from the Earths nurturing electri-
cal field.
Inflammation, whilst a a healthy,
protective response of the body,
can become problematic when it is
overactive over prolonged periods of
time. Chronic inflammation plays a
significant role in over 80 chronic dis-
eases such as Type 2 diabetes, cancer,
autoimmune disease, & cardiovascular
disease.
When you have an acute infection or
reaction to injury, inflammation is
crucial. It causes the release of posi-
E EARTHING
tively charged free radicals that aid in
the destruction of invading microor-
ganisms & clears up damaged tissue.
Once this process is finished, remain-
ing free radicals are stabilised by being
combined with the negatively charged
free electrons released from the
broken down pathogens and damaged
tissue.
However, prolonged inflammation
leads the immune system into over-
drive and can end up attacking healthy
tissues. By earthing, we can increase
the supply of negatively charged free
electron through skin to earth con-
tact, boosting the reservoir of these
electrons within the body to satisfy
this excess of these potentially damage
inducing free radicals.
 E
EARTHING

H OW TO E A RT H
1 2 3

Be barefoot or lie on the grass with as Swimming in the ocean or standing Check our partners Groundology.
much skin contact as possible for 30 to in the sea. Salt water is several Their Earthing products connect
40 minutes a day. hundred times more conductive than you to the Earth directly through
freshwater due to it heavy mineral the grounded port of your wall plugs,
Wet ground is more conductive content. offering a technological solution for
than dry. Wet concrete has some modern dwelling.
but minimal conductivity, whereas
asphalt or painted concrete has no
conducitivity, even when wet. The
same goes for dry sand in a desert
environment.

W H Y YO U N E E D TO E A RT H
Reduces inflammation,
1 potentially improving
the symptoms of many
inflammation-related
disorders.
Has been shown to reduces jet
4 5
lag.
Can improve sleep, heart
2 rate variability & normalises
the wake-sleep cycle, our
‘Circadian Rhythm’.
Can accelerates recovery from
intense athletic activity.
E EARTHING
Can lower stress and promote
3 calmness in the body by
cooling down the nervous
system, stress hormones & the
sympathetic nervous system.
Studies have shown that
6
Earthing can dramatically
speed up wound healing.
 S SLEEPING

2
WHY SLEEP ?
Two thirds of adults in the developed
world are not getting enough sleep.

Whilst for thousands of years we have un-

derstood the 3 basic drives for life, eating,
drinking and procreation, we still do not
fully understand the fourth basic drive,
sleeping.

Matthew Walker, an expert on sleep,

believes that sleep is profoundly complex,
offering an abundance of benefits that
service our brains and our bodies. Every
organ benefits from sleep, every cell in
the body, every process in the brain en-
hanced. Within the brain, sleep enhances

SLEEP
our ability to learn, memorize and make
logical decisions and is fundamental to
our pyschological health, recalibrating our
emotional brain circuits.

SLEEP 101
You do not know you are sleep de-
prived when you are sleep deprived. A
persons subjective sense of whether
they are sleep deprived is a very poor
indicator of how sleep deprived they
actually are.
Sleep affects our learning capacity.
Good sleep both before and after
learning, significantly increases the
brains ability to create memories
associated with learning in the hip-
pocampus.
Sleeping improves our ability to learn
and memorise physical movement
patterns and motor patterns, Sleep
prevents the build of the protein be-
ta-amyloid, a precursor of Alzheimers
disease.
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have
been shown to have a signifJcant
increase in this protein, which the
brain finds difficult to break down
once it is deposited.
Men who sleep an average of 5 to 6
hours show testosterone levels of men
10 years older than them.
Those who on average sleep less than 4
hours, have been shown to have a 70%
reduction in anti-cancer natural killer
T cells that target malignant cancer
cells.
S SLEEPING
A 14 year Japanese study of 4000 men
showed that those who slept 6 hours or
less led to a 400-500% increase chance
of suffering one or more heart attacks
than those sleeping 6 hours or more.
Athletes who sleep 6 hours perform
30% less efficiently than their compet-
itors who slept 7 to 9 hours.
Athletes with a chronic lack of sleep
significantly increase their chance of
injury. 8 hours sleep reduces chances
of injury by 50% compared to 6 hours
sleep.

H OW TO G E T B E T T E R S L E E P
Reduce blue light exposure

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Set automatic ‘night-time
2 mode’ on your phone to
follow sunset to sunrise
timings.
Exercise in the mornings
rather than in the evenings,
or minimum 3 hours before
you sleep.
Only use candlescent
3 lightbulbs in the house as
they give off less blue light
and have a different light
flickering pattern.
Eat no later than early evening, 3
7 to 4 hours before sleeping.
S SLEEPING
Turn off as many lights in
4 your home as possible after
sunset.
Avoid alcoholic drinks before
8 bed as it disturbs REM sleep.
 S SLEEPING

S L E E P B E N E F I TS
Increased mental efficiency. 7 -8 hours Increased physical performance. Increased rate of toxins &
1 sleep significantly improves mental 2 3 metabolitse removal from the brain.
aptitude.

Greater circulation of anti-cancer cells. Improved cardiovascular health. Improved function of the connective
4 5 6 tissue system.

Strengthened gut microbiome, the healthy Maintains a regulated appetite.

7 bacteria in your digestive system that are 8
crucial for health.
 E EATING

3
E AT I N G

WHY LESS IS SOMETIMES BETTER
Paleo? Ketogenic? Vegan? Mediterranean diets?
Its a minefield. A minefield often littered with poor
research, with results often shaped to suit the inter-
ests of the researchers. Recently, Dr Valter Longos
Longevity Diet and Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD),
combined with an ancestral understanding of food, is
backed most strongly by the available research.
Having experienced all the different ways of eating
described above, through our analysis of the re-
search, we have come to the conclusion that a pesce-
tarian, whole food, predominantly plant based diet is
the most effective way to maintain health.
Periods of significant reduced food intake would have
been a normal part of life for our hunter gatherer
ancestors. Today in the western world there is an
excess of poor quality, high density calories at our
disposal 24/7.
Reducing your eating window in the day, along with
two 5 day periods in a year of fasting or significant
calorie restriction has been been shown through
extensive research by Dr Valter Luongo to improve
quality and longevity of life and reduce the chances
of chronic disease.
Women who are pregnant, people who are under-
weight, over 70, those with liver or kidney disease or
other pathologies or are on medication, should seek
medical advice before undertaking any signifincant
calorie restriction.
E EATING
Here are 3 main take home points you can
implement straight away:
A way of eating that is predominantly
1 whole food plant based, using fish as the
dominant source of protein rather than
land animals.
Permanently reduce your eating time
2 window to 12 hours as standard practice,
occassionally dropping to 10 hours and
less often 8.
Twice a year, 5 days of significant calorie
3 restriction. Dr Luongo recommends: Day
1: 1,100 and Days 2-5 800 calories.
 E EATING

T H E B E N E F I TS
Research has shown that a diet that mimicks fasting can improve a number of wide
ranging condition, primarily through the control of inflammation:

Autoimmune conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, Crohns, Ulcerative Diabetes treatment and prevention: Effectively manages blood glucose
1 Colitis and Rheumatoid Arthirits. 5 levels and aids in the regeneration of damanged pancreatic cells.

Cancer prevention and treatment: The use of FMD has been shown to Weight management: Promotes the loss of abdominal fat and others areas
2 have significant effect of cancer markers and also to manage side effects 6 of fat deposition.
from conventional treatments. Tumours also have been shown to reduce
by half on the FMD diet.

Reduces the chance of developing cardiovascular disease by lowering Longevity: Has the potential to lengthen a healthy lifespan.
3 infammation marker C-Reactive Protein, lowering of triglyceridea and 7
blood pressure.

Reduces the chance of Alzheimers and Dementia.

4
 M MOVEMENT

4
M OV E M E N T
 M MOVEMENT

5he bacteria that live inside our digestive system shape our the tree in its entirFty, in its natural environment. This is

IMMUNITY immunity
5he more diverse and healthy the bacteria, the
more healthy we become. A diverse movement practice
can
BMTP provide us with immunity from physical
how at SOMA we have decided to view human movement.
Movement is not exercise but varied ways of expressing
natural movement.

T H RO U G H injury.

Trees are shaped by the wind. The position of the branches,

it’s overall shape, the shape of the trunk, the orientation of
Movement in various forms was such an integral part of
what it meant to be human, and unlike today, ‘to move or
not to move’ was not an option. Today, we may be able to

DIVERSITY the tree, are shaped and influenced by the wind. Imagine
you’re a tree and ask yourself this: how would your
environment shape your branches? The shape of your
trunk? The position of your body?
When you look at a tree, you don’t take the tree out of
nature and bring it to the laboratory to study it. You study
survive without movement (only just, as is evident by the
excess in chronic lifestyle diseases), but we are unable
to thrive. And since the urge to conserve is still a strong
physiological influence, without the life or death scenarios
that would so often require us to move, moving has
become easy to avoid.

OUR
M OV E M E N T
DNA
The human body has been hardwired with
a symbiotic relationship to movement,
It is in our DNA. The human body has
developed over millennia under the
influence of a fierce, physically intense
environment, shaping who we are today.
All this however has been turned on its
head, and whilst our environment has
dramatically changed and continues to
deny our physiology, this physiology has
not changed. Our movement environment
has been polluted and we’ve got the bodies
to match as a result.
Movement is a huge topic. It would
take an encyclopedic analysis to do it
justice. Contrary to much common belief,
movement and exercise are not the same.
Movement is the physical expression of
who we are. The majority of people we
come into contact usually need to move
M MOVEMENT
more, but nearly all of them need to move
better. There are many layers to learning
about movement, and the understanding
and utilising of just one layer is not
enough.
Movement must be perceived and
understood through many lenses. The lens
of science and performance, the lens of
culture, art and creativity, and an ancestral
and evolutionary lens.
Do this: Look at the envinronment
around you: how can you interact with it
through movement? How can you utilise
this outside playground to physically
test your body? Do you really need a gym
membership in order to move?

M OV E M E N T
T H RO U G H A
DIFFERENT LENS
This article is not a ‘movement 101’ offering specific exercises that will change
your physicality. Rather, it is aimed at teaching you how to open your perspective
on how to view movement.
Take ownership of your
1 movement
Nobody is denying you the chance
to physically understand your body.
Nobody is telling you can’t experiment
and learn how to move and shape your
body. Whilst there are people who
are more ‘qualified’ to teach you than
you might be, nobody can understand
your body better than you, it is your
responsibility to start this journey of
learning.
Taking ownership of your body and
your movement means that at times
you may become uncomfortable,
embarrassed or awkward. This is
normal. You have to revel in the
discomfort and in the realisation of
your limitations. This is a crucial
learning exercise not just in your
movement journey but in life.
Make movement
2 creative
Creative movement can start with
games using simple tools or no tools
at all. Movement is a focal point of
all cultures, some more than others.
The creative arts, martial arts, there
are many branches of this area of
movement.
Your body and mind are shaped by the
demands you put on it. If you move
your body in isolated, restricted,
monotonous patterns, this is the body
you will be left with.
Use your body
3 4
If you struggle with the creative
element of movement, looking
at movement from an ancestral
perspective may be easier.
Basic concepts of using your whole
body to perform a task, lifting
something heavy from the floor,
carrying and putting it down. Pushing,
pulling, climbing, using the floor,
crawling, twisting, bending, these are
all composite, whole body movements
that promotoe a healthy movement
vocabulary.
M MOVEMENT
Foundation in
coordination
Coordination is the foundation of all
movement concepts. Without being
able to coordinate your limbs with
your body centers, it is difficult to
create a strong movement foundation.
Footwork drills from various
martial arts, require you to build an
understanding of how to move your
feet, build strength in your feet,
develop quickness of thought. This
provides a foundation to which you
can attach more creative movement
through the use of arms, legs and the
rest of your body.
 G GRATITUDE

5
G R AT I T U D E

G R AT I T U D E 1 0 1
Gratitude is the experience of
counting our blessings. Feelings of
gratitude nurture our individual
mental health and strengthen our
bonds with other people.
Being grateful has been shown to
significantly improve happiness and
our outlook on life. With consistency,
and focus on what is positive in our
lives, gratefulness can be a powerful
tool to improving our outlook on life.
Research has shown us a number of
facts. Focusing on positive behavioural
traits compared to having a depressive,
anxious & fearful approach to life has a
positive impact on our lives.
G GRATITUDE
Two groups were asked to journal,
with one group journalling positive
emotions and the other journalling
negative emotions. After 10 weeks,
those who journalled positive
emotions exercised 1.5 x more, were
25% happier with had less visits to the
doctor.
Neuroscience has also shown us
that being grateful or performing
positive acts stimulate certain areas
of the brain that are responsible for
moral cognition, removes stressors
and provides a sense of reward and
positively reinforcing emotions.

G




GRATITUDE

H OW TO P R AC T I C E G R AT I T U D E
Keep a gratitude journal. Write a thank you note.
1 We recommend starting 2 Write one a month and give
with ‘The 5 Minute Journal’. it to them in person or leave
Journalling helps to it somewhere for them,
maintain accountability for anaonymously or not.
the practice

Thank someone mentally: Count your blessings: Make

3 Make a mental note of saying 4 a note in writing or make a
thank you to someone who mental note of things to be
deserves it. grateful for.

T H E B E N E F I TS O F H AV I N G
A G R AT I T U D E P R AC T I C E
Opens the door to new
1 relationships: Not
suprisingly, saying thank
you can win you new friends.
Acknowledging a kind act
can open new opportunities
in life.
Enhances empathy and
4 decreases aggression:
Grateful people are more
likely to behave in a more
socially acceptable way, even
when others behave less
kindly.
Improves physical health:
2 Grateful people are more
likely to take greater care of
themselves, also more likely
to experience less aches and
pains than other people.
Improves sleep: JouSnaling
5 15 minutes before bed has
been shown to improve sleep.
G GRATITUDE
Improve psychological
3 health; Reduces the number
of toxic emotions which
may lead to more negative
pyschological health.
٦ Improves self esteem: Being
6 grateful for what you have,
reducing how you compare
yourselves to others,
appreciating other peoples
success all helps to improve
your own self esteem.