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Corinna Freitag

Do You Also Have This Voice in Your Head?

by Corinna Freitag

The first time I noticed consciously this voice in my head was about 5 years ago as I started to meditate. I was stunned as it was talking to me unstoppable. And most of the time it was not very nice to me – not to say that very often it was very rude and hurtful. I would not speak like this even to my worst enemy. Why did I do this to myself? And why does this inner voice exist? Where does it come from?

I like Petra Bock’s explanation about this inner voice. She calls it inner guard in her book “Mindfuck”. She describes that it originates from thoughts and patterns, which made sense to us as a child and to our ancestors. As a child we learn from our parents what we are allowed to do and what we are not allowed to do, which protected us. From a certain age these rules do not fit anymore. And instead of protecting us, we limit ourselves, if we still follow them. In addition, we learn as a child beliefs and ideas from former generations that were helpful and made sense to our parents, our grandparents and maybe even to our great-grandparents. On average in every generation this is outdated by minimum of 30 years. These are thought patterns of an authoritarian society. By now we live in a world that changes rapidly and in which we have almost unlimited possibilities and liberties and in which we have to create structures ourselves. This is a huge delta.

As I mentioned already, I spotted consciously my inner voice as I started to meditate. Going on with the meditation, it helped me to tidy up and to remove all the thoughts from my mind, which were obviously and absolutely not relevant to my life, anymore. This was a first great relieve. And my inner voice got a bit gentler and quieter. At this time, I called it my inner monster.

I learned that I should not ignore and suppress my inner voice. If you do so, it is like a pot in which you cook water keeping the steam in the pot and do not letting it out. Eventually, the steam will find a way to get out and in the worst case the pot will explode.

So, I started to listen and talk to my inner voice and to reflect, what it told me. It got even more gentler and quieter. At this time, I started to call it my little bastard.

Nowadays, my inner voice is my ally. I started to ask questions to understand its positive intention as protection or motivation. Sometimes, I agree with my inner voice and I follow its advice. And sometimes I disagree. When I disagree, I explain to my inner voice the why. The interaction between my inner voice and myself is respectful and gentle. It helps and supports me. Even if I disagree, it helps me to identify and eliminate old and useless thought patterns. I have to admit, that I got a bit uncreative, as since quite a while I just call it my inner voice.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

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Three Quick Hits to Improve Your Digestion

by Corinna Freitag

During the last years, I discovered how important a proper digestion is to feel good. And during the last years, research gives more and more relevance to the gastrointestinal field and looks deeper into this topic. Nowadays, the gastrointestinal tract is even called the abdominal brain. In this article I am going to share three quick hits with you how you can improve your digestion.

The abdominal brain is a highly organized nervous system. It contains around 100 to 200 million neurons. These are more neurons as in the entire spinal cord. About 90 % of nerve cords run from the gastrointestinal area to the brain. That means that more connections run from bottom to top than the other way around. What is the reason for this? Very simple – the information from bottom to top is more important than from top to bottom. The communication from the gastrointestinal area is omnipresent. We just do not recognize it consciously except for warning signals as for example pain or nausea.

There are a lot of things you can do to improve your digestion as for example intestinal cleansing, detox, and repair. Some of them are quick and simple and some of them take more effort. If you want to start with something that cost you no effort you can do the following three things:

  1. Do not drink while you are eating and do not drink anything about 10 to 20 min before and 20 to 30 min after a meal. The acid in your stomach works better if you do not dilute it with any liquids.
  2. Make sure that you chew your food properly. Depending on the texture of your food you should chew one bite about 20 to 40 times or even longer before you swallow it. Digestion starts in your mouth. In addition, the more you break your food up in your mouth the less needs to be done by the rest of your digestive system.
  3. According to Pareto 80 % is king. Do not overeat. Only eat about 75 to 80 % of your stomach size. The muscles of your stomach mix and knead the food and the gastric juice in your stomach. With this the breakup of the food in your stomach happens and finally the transport of it to your duodenum. If your stomach is too full the mixing and transportation of the food is more difficult. Just think about if you want to mix and knead the ingredients for a dough. If your bowl is completely full with the ingredients it is more difficult to mix and knead them than if the bowl is only 75 to 80 % full.

If you want to try it out please be patient with yourself and remember how difficult it can be to change your habits (Why Are Habits So Powerful? ). Do it consistently in small steps (A Playful Approach to Achieve Your Goals). For example, if so far you gulped down your food in one bite, start to chew it at the beginning 5 times and then work yourself slowly up to 20 to 30 times. Or if you overate so far reduce the amount slowly but surely bit by bit to 75 to 80 %. Give yourself time to learn these new habits and enjoy the process.

Photo by Alesia Kozik

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How You Make Yourself More Visible Even as an Introvert with Fun and Ease

by Corinna Freitag

Working Out Loud is a great tool to make yourself more visible. And it even works if you are more on the introvert side and like to stay in the background. I am introvert and I like to stay in the background. I struggle with making myself visible and to show my work, ideas, thoughts, learnings and discoveries to others.

About a year ago a colleague of mine asked me, if I like to start with her a Working Out Loud (WOL) circle. At that time, I had no clue what WOL is. I bought John Stepper’s WOL book who is the creator of WOL and started my discovery. WOL consists out of the following five elements:

Five Elements of Working Out Loud

  • Relationships: Relationships are the heart of WOL as WOL is something you do together with other and for people.
  • Generosity: This is a change in perspective. You give something to other people and you do not expect to get anything back – even not a “Thank You”. You contribute with generosity.
  • Visible Work: You make your work visible by sharing it with other persons.
  • Purposeful Discovery: You do all the above activities by having a learning goal in your mind. This orients your activities.
  • Growth Mindset: A growth mindset helps you to develop an open, curious approach to life and work. And it helps you to improve your skills.

What is a WOL circle and what happens in a WOL circle?

A WOL circle consists out of about 4 to 5 people. You meet once per week for about an hour for 12 weeks. In week 1 you start by picking your own individual goal. During the following 11 weeks each week you work on specific tasks. All tasks bring you closer and closer to achieve your goal.

As I started to read John Stepper’s book first I thought kind of “Yeah – great advice if you are extrovert. But this is nothing for an introvert person like me.” By further reading the book I realized more and more that the concept works also for introverts, not to say that it is a great approach for introverts. There are so many digital possibilities out there as Social Media and digital platforms in your private and in your work life that you can use. I feel much more comfortable to use these digital possibilities to make myself visible than being in a room full of people and have to make small talk. As soon as I realized this I started to apply the concepts of WOL in my work life. I started to share my learnings on different digital platforms that are available at my company. As I work for a big company, suddenly, I interact with colleagues from other divisions who I never would have gotten in contact with otherwise. This is fun. In addition, I created a WOL circle with my colleague who originally had asked me if I want to start a circle with her. We were 5 people and went together on the WOL journey. The great thing doing this together with other people is that there are persons who support and help you when you are stuck. Or you realize that you are not the only person who struggles with something. And for sure your accountability increases, as you meet regularly and exchange how everyone masters the weekly tasks.

Thanks to WOL I started to make myself more visible. About a year after I started my WOL journey, I even have my own blog and post on different Social Media channels. In addition, WOL helps you to change your habits and achieve your goals step by step. If you want to learn more visit www.workingoutloud.com, read John Stepper’s book or join a WOL circle and just Work Out Loud.

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How We Can Grow Through Differences

by Corinna Freitag

During one of my last coaching sessions my coach said, that usually partnerships bloom that look at the beginning a bit difficult. And a partner- or a friendship with so many great similarities, that you understand each other without saying a word and that you feel like soulmates, very often fails after a while. The reason for this is that potential to grow is only possible if differences exist. If the other person is too similar, this potential cannot arise. If a partnership has also painful moments and conflicts to a certain degree we can break out of our patterns. If another person maybe even pampers us, our patterns are supported and we do not have any reasons to escape from them and to grow.

First her statement felt not very comfortable. And this is the point. If we want to evolve, we need to get out of our comfort zone.

Reflecting her statement several examples out of my life came to my mind. One is, that I am not very flexible. I like to make plans and to control. And I am happy, if everything works according to my plan. Around me are a lot of people who drive me crazy as they are very flexible. If I ask my husband in the morning if he likes to have lunch with me at 02:00 pm his answer is usually that he does not know when he will be hungry and he wants to decide spontaneously when to have lunch. When I work together with my Indian colleagues very often they are late for a meeting or cancel it on short notice. I have several friends who are very often late to our appointments or even do not show up. Regarding my (almost) nonexistent flexibility I have a lot of learning opportunities in my private and professional life. So far, I was not very happy when such a learning opportunity presented itself and I wanted that the others change their behavior. I started to change my attitude and to embrace all the situations, where I have to be more flexible. At the beginning it felt awkward. After a while, I was able to enjoy it a little. I recognized that being flexible gives me more freedom. I am still on the learning curve. But I get better and better and enjoy my newly gained flexibility more and more.

Interestingly, very shortly after the statement of my coach I had a training about diversity & inclusion recommended by my manager. At the beginning of the workshop I learned that if I can choose the person with whom I would like to work together, I will go for the one with the most similarities, even that I know that the best teams are diverse. This was a great eye-opener. At work I started to meet and exchange more with colleagues, who are different compared to me. For example, they have a different thinking-style, age, nationality or job level. With most colleagues I have inspiring conversations and great learnings.

If we embrace the opposite and look proactively for the exchange with people, who are different to us, we can grow enormously with each other. I have great experiences applying this to my life. It takes me more and more out of my comfort zone, which feels less and less uncomfortable.

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How You Can Easily Reactivate One of Your Natural Detox Channels

How You Can Easily Reactivate One of Your Natural Detox Channels

by Corinna Freitag

In one of my recent blog articles “It Can Be So Simple to Start your Detox Journey” I had explained some background of the acid-base balance of our body. I had also mentioned that the skin is one of your natural detox channels via we can excrete acids. But that it is very often blocked caused by our modern lifestyle. The good news is that we can easily reactivate our skin as one of our natural detox channels.

The face creams and body lotions, which we usually use, are acidic. This does not motivate the acids in our body to leave our body through our skin, at all, as there is no concentration gradient. A ball will also go nowhere on a flat plain. By using basic skin care you create the needed gradient and the acids leave our body happily through our skin till the concentration level on both sides is in balance.

As basic skin care you can use natural oils and fats as for example organic coconut or olive oil or shea butter. Coconut oil is a bit lighter compared to olive oil and shea butter. Most of the time I use coconut oil for my face and my body. When it is cold and my skin of my face is very demanding I like to use shea butter. Olive oil mixed with basic bath salt is a great peeling that I like to apply, when I want to give my body a special treat.

Using natural oils and fats has another advantage. They do not contain glycerin as a lot of the face creams and body lotions do. Glycerin drags the moisture out of our skin. Our skin looks and feels smooth from the outside. But the inside of our skin dries out and it loses the ability for self-regulation. As consequence we need to apply the creams and lotions more and more. It is like a vicious cycle. If we just stop to use the creams and lotions our skin gets terribly dry and itchy. I had used face creams and body lotions for decades. I was literally addicted to them. Several months ago, I switched to natural fats and oils. My skin feels already much better. It is not itchy anymore. And I do not need to apply oil after every shower to my body anymore as I had needed to do during the decades using body lotion.

In addition, I take care to provide my body from the inside with enough organic vegetable oil.

If you want to try it out pay also attention to the shower gel or soap you are using. It also should not contain any glycerin. Usually, you can find this kind of soap in organic grocery stores.

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A Great Model to Understand Ourselves and Others Better

A Great Model to Understand Ourselves and Others Better

by Corinna Freitag

Already Hippocrates, a Greek physician, who lived around 400 BC, had developed a model that helped to understand ourselves and others better. He classified humans in 4 different temperaments – the choleric, sanguine, apathetic and melancholic person. The former two are extrovert, whereas the latter two are introvert. Hippocrates related different qualities to all of the different types as intuitive, choleric and aggressive to the choleric, inspirational, nervous and hectic to the sanguine, imaginative, afraid and indecisive to the apathetic, and intellectual, melancholic and worn out to the melancholic person.

The Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung developed the model of the psychological types, which was first published in 1921. He identified 3 sets of preferences:

  • 2 main attitude types: Introversion ↔ Extraversion
  • 2 judging or rational functions of consciousness: Thinking ↔ Feeling
  • 2 perceiving or non-rational functions of consciousness: Sensation ↔ Intuition

Jung combined these in 8 psychological types: extraverted sensation / introverted sensation; extraverted intuition / introverted intuition; extraverted thinking / introverted thinking; and extraverted feeling / introverted feeling.

The Insights Discovery model is built on the Jungian typology and classifies 4 main color energies: red, blue, yellow and green. Individuals with a preference for

Fiery Red energy
  • Have a strong determination that influences those they interact with
  • Approach others in a direct and straightforward manner
  • Are single-minded and determined in their focus on results
  • Are active and move in a positive and firm direction
  • Seek an outcome that is specific and tangible
Cold Blue energy
  • Think things through before committing to action
  • Desire to know and understand the world around them
  • Like information to be accurate and complete before proceeding
  • Maintain a detached and objective standpoint
  • Value independence and intellect
Sunshine Yellow energy
  • Radiate enthusiasm and encourage participation
  • Enjoy and seek the company of others
  • Have a desire to be involved
  • Approach others in a persuasive, engaging and inviting manner
  • Like to be noticed and appreciated for their contributions
Earth Green energy
  • Prefer democratic approaches that respect the individual
  • Ensure all individual perspectives are heard and considered in making choices or decisions
  • Seek harmony and depth in relationships
  • View the world through what they value and what is important to them
  • Defend what they value with quiet determination and persistence

In 2015 when I lived in Shanghai I did my first Insights Discovery Personal Profile thanks to the company for which I work. My blue and green energy are very high and almost at the same level, whereas my red and yellow energy are very low. The first years I was not very happy about this result as I wanted to have less of the green and far more of the red energy, especially as I struggled with going into conflicts. Luckily and thanks to my manager this perception changed beginning of 2021. With our team we did another Discovery Personal Profile. My outcome was almost the same as in 2015. What was different this time? First of all, the feedback of my manager was very important to me. She told me that I am a very important member of the team because of my green energy. In addition, I further reflected on my Insights results and started to speak about it with colleagues. I spoke with colleagues with similar energies as mine but also with colleagues with totally different energies compared to mine. A colleague who has also a lot of the earth green energy told me, that she experienced that she can speak up very well for other people. But she finds it difficult to speak up for herself. I recognized the same for me. And I wondered, why I am not able to speak up for myself. Based on the energies it is logical, as the green energy helps to stand up for others. So, I started to use my green energy for myself. And it worked. So far, I shied away from conflicts. And now I look forward to conflicts to have possibilities to practice. From further colleagues with higher green energy I learned, that they are able to apply the red energy, when needed, even that they feel more comfortable in their green energy. And very interestingly, another colleague who has a lot of the fiery red energy told me, that he envies me, because of my green energy, which he is lacking. Until that moment for some reason I thought that people who are high in the red energy think of people with green energy very poorly. He explained to me that he experienced a lot of situations, in which he trod on other’s toes due to his high red and low green energy. This made it very difficult for him to work together with others and to collaborate with them. He had to learn how to change his behavior in order not to affront other people. He learned it. But it does not come naturally to him. It is an effort for him.

Insights did not only help me to understand myself better and to improve my behavior, it also helped me to understand others better. For example, years ago I had a manager, who got very angry whenever I gave her constructive feedback. Due to my high green energy I went on giving her feedback, even though her response was not very nice. But from time to time she told me how much she appreciates my feedback and I should not stop doing it. I did not understand this. Why did she tell me, that she appreciates my feedback, when every time I give her feedback she gets very angry? Thanks to my colleague with the high red energy I was able to understand this years later. He said that the first moment he gets feedback, he also receives it not very well. But he starts to think about it and it sinks in. And after some time, he is able to accept it or maybe even to embrace it. With this explanation it made click. He had described exactly the behavior of my former manager. For future encounters with persons with high red energy I know now that it is worth to give them constructive feedback or tell them my opinion, even if their immediate reaction might not be very nice.

Some people told me that they do not like Insights as it leads to stereotyped thinking. If the concept is abused and people use it for clichés and as an apology for their bad behaviors and weaknesses, it is true. But this is true for a lot of things, especially in the technical and digital area. If they are used in the wrong way, they can cause harm. Insights is a powerful tool if you use it for self-refection and you are willing to change. And if you use it to understand others better. It helped me to get more clarity about my strength and weaknesses, to understand why I behave how I behave and to understand why some things in my life went well and some not so well. In addition, I am able to understand other people better. And the most important is, that it helped me to change myself for the better. For example, now I go into conflicts. I do not love conflicts and probably will never love them. But I do not avoid them anymore. I take them. To me this is a great improvement.

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Is Science Based on Believes & Assumptions?

Is Science Based on Believes & Assumptions?

by Corinna Freitag

I love scientific models as they explain the world and answer the why. Unfortunately, I had to learn, that they are only models. Science is made up of hypothesis and theory, of observation, experience, believe, and assumption. Based on this, models are developed, which might be the truth or not.

In school one of my majors was biology, which I originally wanted to study at University. During school I realized that biology has a lot of assumptions, which might be true or not. I missed the substantial proof. This was one of the reasons, that I decided to study chemistry instead. I believed that the models in chemistry are based on substantial proof and therefore true. I guess I was very ignorant and maybe also a bit naïve, as it took me till my PhD to grasp, that also the models in chemistry are developed based on hypothesis and theory, of observation, experience and believe and might be true or not. I remember, that my professor asked me to develop a model based on the results of all my experiments to be published in my PhD thesis and papers. And I thought, that this will be only an assumption and not the truth. This was the day I finally lost my naivety regarding scientific models.

Daniel Kahneman’s book „Thinking fast and slow” supports that scientific models are only models and not the true reality. In his book he describes how the two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive thinking, and slow, rational thinking work and how and why it leads us to wrong assumptions and decisions. The author refers to a lot of very interesting statistical examples. One of them is the law of small numbers. A study about the incidence rate of kidney cancer in the US had a remarkable result. The counties with the lowest rate of kidney cancer were mainly found in rural sparsely populated federal states. To me it was tempting to conclude, that the cancer rate is lower on the countryside due to less pollution. As it turned out, this conclusion is wrong. The fact is, that less people live on the countryside. And the statistical explanation is, that small samples tend more to extreme results than big samples. During my life, I learned a lot about statistics, and I should have known the right answer. I am not sure if it is reassuring or concerning. I am not the only person, who ignored her statistical knowledge. From the book I learned that this mistake happens to the vast majority of experienced scientists, as well. And these are the people who create scientific models.

This explains why wrong models are developed and persist. A great example is that a lot of people still believe that if you eat a lot of fish your risk for heart disease and stroke is reduced. This is based on a study from the 1970s, in which scientists investigated the data of death of Inuit people. Based on the data the cause of death due to heart attack for Inuits is significant less compared to other peoples. And they eat a lot of fish. So, the scientists assumed, that Inuit people die less of heart attack as they eat a lot of fish. The catch is that at the times of the study the Inuit people had only rarely access to health care. Thus, the cause of death could not be determined medically and the data the researchers used were lacking. In the meantime, Canadian scientists could show, that the heart disease rate of Inuits, Europeans and North Americans is similar, whereas Inuits have a higher death rate due to stroke and on average their life expectancy is about 10 years less.

In spite of this knowledge and oddly enough I still love scientific models to get the world explained and the why answered. Whereas, I got more cautious to trust in them. And maybe, this is my way of faith.

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Can Thoughts Become our Destiny?

Can Thoughts Become Our Destiny?

by Corinna Freitag

I love the quote

“Watch your thoughts, they become words;

Watch your words, they become actions;

Watch your actions, they become habits;

Watch your habits, they become character;

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

Several years ago, if I would have read this, I would have thought what an esoteric nonsense. Since quite some time I think how true and wonderful it is.

Think of the example as soon as you decide to buy a red car, you see red cars everywhere – based loosely on the motto “Energy flows, where attention goes. There are other examples you can think of. If you go into a meeting with the expectation that it will be terribly boring, the chances are very high, that it will be terribly boring. If you visit your mother-in-law and you await that she will totally annoy you, the odds are very high, that it will be totally annoying. If you go to the supermarket and you suppose, that you will select the checkout with the longest waiting time, the probability, that this will also happen, is very high, as well. Since I changed my thoughts to the meeting will be interesting, I like to visit my father-in-law, and I do not select all the time the checkout with the longest waiting time the ease in my life increased greatly. Maybe not every meeting is super interesting and fun – but they are at least not terribly boring, anymore. I guess in this case I still have room for improvement. Nowadays, I really like to visit my father-in-law. And regarding the supermarket I just do not care anymore at which checkout I end up. If I use statistics I know that my chances are well distributed with respect to short and long waiting times. And when I am in a supermarket with 5 checkouts my chances are 80 %, that I will select a checkout with a longer waiting time compared to the 1 with the shortest waiting time out of the 5.

Unfortunately, for a lot of thoughts the media are not very helpful. They like to report about exciting incidents. And humans are subject to bias according to Kahneman. If something is reported very often in the media, or if people experienced or did something themselves, persons overestimate the occurrence of those situations. This is the reason why we worry about shark attacks and getting on airplanes, when the real threats to longevity are fast food, candies and long hours lounging on the couch.

Interestingly, our body cannot distinguish between thoughts and experiences. It does not matter if we imagine or experience a fearful situation. In both cases our body releases hormones. This is the same for a joyful event. The only difference between a fear- and joyful situation is the kind of hormones, which are released. Just by thinking we create matter – the chemicals in our body.

The following examples show how our thoughts can create even more matter. A team of Harvard researchers carried out a study in which they had two different groups of people: one group that did a simple five-finger piano exercise and another group that only imagined this exercise. Both groups created new neural circuits in the respective region of their brains. Other American research teams carried out studies in which they had two different groups of people, as well: one group that imagined doing a certain muscle training exercise and another group that did nothing. The group, which imagined to do the exercise regularly for several weeks, increased their muscle strength by about 10 %.

This knowledge that with our thoughts we can create our destiny is so wonderful, as we can create our future according to our dreams.

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How to start your Detox Journey to Improve Your Performance

by Corinna Freitag

Our performance and well-being depend greatly on our physical health. As very simple example when you overeat for lunch most likely during the afternoon you will not be as productive as you could have been and do not feel so well as you would have, if you would not have eaten too much.

One way to improve your physical health and thus your performance is to detox. You want to start to detox but you are not sure how to do it or you have no time or you do not like to change your lifestyle? To begin your Detox Journey can be very simple by starting to use basic bath salt with little effort and generating already a positive impact on your acid-base balance.

Why does the acid-base balance of our body is getting out of balance?

We take up too many acidifiers with our food with for example sugar, white flour and white rice and with animal protein. In addition, our body produces acids itself when having mental or physical stress. With our modern lifestyle our body is not able to excrete all the acids naturally via for example our breathing and skin. And very often we do not drink enough water.

Why is it important to have the right acid-base balance?

The body is capable to buffer a too high acidity in your blood and to maintain the required basic pH value. This is true. But it comes with a catch. Out of the acids and out of minerals our body forms salts. If these salts cannot be excreted, our body stores them in our connective tissue. Our connective tissue has great storage capacity. But its genuine role is not to be the waste bin of our system. It is to supply our organ cells with nutrients. If your storing threshold is exceeded this can lead to health issues, overweight or reduced vitality.

What is basic salt and how does it work?

Usually, it consists out of salts as Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Chloride or Magnesium Carbonate. You solve it in water and get a basic solution with a pH of around 8.5. By applying it to your body it removes excess acidic components from your body as the different concentration levels – acidic in your body and basic in the water solution – strive to get balanced. The greater the concentration gradient, the easier the balancing will take place. You can compare it with a ball that rolls down a hill. The steeper the hill the faster the ball will roll down.

How do you use the basic bath salt?

You can use it for example to bath your whole body in it or only your feet, as mouthwash or as basic wrap.

Basic footbath: Detoxing via the sole of your feet is very effective. For a basic footbath you use a bowl with water and add about 1 tablespoon of basic bath salt. You should bath your feet for at least 20 min. After about 60 to 90 min you need to renew the water with the basic bath salt as the water is saturated with the acidic components. I love the footbath as it takes almost no effort. You can do it, while you are sitting somewhere and for example watching TV, reading, working with your laptop or even being in a virtual meeting. While I am writing this article, I am enjoying a basic footbath.

Basic body bath: For a basic body bath you add about 3 to 4 tablespoons of the salt to the water in your bathtub. It is important that the water temperature is below 38 ° Celsius as otherwise the balancing of the different concentration levels will not work properly (The temperature for your footbath is not so important. As not so much water fits into a bowl, the temperature will decrease very quickly to below 38 degree Celsius). The cooler the water the more you are able to detox. But the water should not be so cold that you start to freeze as this is counterproductive. You should take the bath at least for 40 min. Starting from 2 hours your organs might even start to detox. This bath takes for sure more effort. But I like to combine it with reading, listening to a podcast or audio book, talking with someone on the phone. You even can bring your laptop with you and put it on a chair beside your bathtub and watch a series on Netflix or an online course.

Basic mouthwash: For a basic mouthwash you add about ¼ teaspoon of the bath salt to about 2 finger width of water in a glass. Just play a bit around how much water you need to rinse your mouth properly and how much salt you need for this amount of water that the salt is solved totally in the water. If you add too much salt, the excess salt will not be solved. This is not a problem. It is just a pity as you would throw the excess salt away. You can rinse your mouth with the salt water for several minutes every morning and evening after you brushed your teeth. Just start with about 30 seconds and increase the time of rinsing little by little if you are sensitive. As I rinsed my mouth right away for several minutes my mouth felt a little sore, which I could eliminate by reducing the time and raising it again step by step. When I rinse my mouth, I use the time to do already something else as washing my face, brushing my hair or getting dressed. Thus, it almost takes no extra time. At the end of the rinsing I like to gurgle for a moment with the basic salt water before I spit it out.

Basic wrap: For a basic wrap you soak for example a small towel or a cloth with a saturated basic bath salt solution and use it for the specific area of your body that you want to detox. Choose a water temperature that feels comfortable to you. For inflammations you should use colder and for chronic diseases warmer water. Renew the wrap every 30 min. You can use it for example when you have problems with your joints or a sore throat. Recently, the joint of my right middle finger felt sore. So, I used a basic wrap for it and after a few days and wraps the soreness was gone.

I take daily either a basic salt foot or body bath and rinse my mouth with the basic bath salt water after I brushed my teeth. I use the wrap, when I feel the need for it for a special area of my body. I can feel that it helps me to detox as it frees up my nose. Usually I have a bit of a stuffy nose. So far, it only freed up when I did a complete Detox treatment.

Got curious? Try it out. Basic salt baths are a great gateway to your Detox Journey.

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How to Use Audios to Memorize with Great Ease

by Corinna Freitag

During my childhood I liked to listen to stories about a little witch called Bibi Blocksberg. I had about 20 audio tapes with Bibi having exciting adventures. I listened so often to them that I knew them all by heart and I could recite them with great ease. I never thought about using this later in my life whenever I wanted to memorize new learnings.

Recently, my coach recommended to produce my own audio recording and to listen to it regularly when I want to learn something new. First it felt a little awkward to record my own audio file. But with every smartphone having a voice recorder it is so simple to do. So, I gave it a try.

To improve my English grammar, I started to read a book in which the author untangles the knottiest problems in the English language in a lighthearted and funny way. Just in the first chapter I found already a lot of good insights about items, where I usually struggle. In order not to forget them I noted them down in an Excel File. The next time when I stumbled over the grammar when I wrote a text for a mail or a blog article I remembered that I had read about it in the book. But I did not remember the details, and could not apply it. I had to look it up in my excel file. As I did not find this very practical, and was also too lazy to memorize it by for example reading my notes every day, I remembered the recommendation from my coach. I just recorded the different items and created my first audio file recording with a length of about 6 minutes. I listen to it every morning, when I prepare my Smoothie. And it works. Just by listening to it frequently I know them by heart and can easily apply them, when I am writing. And bear with me, so far I read only the first two chapters out of 12 😉

Next, I came across my targets. Proudly, I had created a list with my targets for the next months and my vision for the next years. After the creation my targets were sitting in an excel file and doing not so much. I thought to give it a try with a self-recorded audio file with my targets, as well. It does not only work. It is also a lot of fun – to produce the recording and listen to it. Now, every morning when I prepare my Smoothie, I listen to my English grammar and to my target audio files. And listening to my target audio is so much fun that sometimes I listen to it during the day for several times.

I love this technique using self-recorded audio files to learn something by heart. And I am sure that many more will follow. Maybe, you want to give it a try, as well.

Photo by Ashutosh Sonwani

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