7 Foundations of Living
7 Foundations of Living
Terrain medicine emphasizes maintaining the body's internal environment—its terrain—for optimal health, sleep, and circadian harmony. By aligning daily habits with natural rhythms and ensuring a clean, balanced internal terrain, you can improve sleep quality, hormone balance and overall well-being
1. Light & Dark Exposure
- Morning Light: Get natural sunlight exposure early in the day (ideally ½ hour after awakening) to set your circadian clock. If possible, walk outside around sunset. Getting light exposures without glasses or contacts will reset your hormonal balance. Monitor blood sugar because it will improve.
- Evening Darkness: Minimize artificial light at night, especially blue light from screens, to promote melatonin production and restful sleep. After sunset use red incandescent bulbs in most common used areas of your home and use blue blockers https://truedark.com?ref=n2qxogz), after sunset if you require being on screens. Aim to be off all screens and TVs at least one hour prior to bedtime.
- Sleep Environment: Keep your bedroom dark ( room darkening shades) and cool (60-65 degrees) I love using a cooling mat (https://checkout.sleep.me/CATHY54463) to support circadian rhythms. Use eye mask and ear plugs while sleeping to sleep more soundly if a light sleeper.
2. Minimize EMF & Blue Light
- Reduce Electromagnetic Fields: Limit exposure to Wi-Fi, cordless phones, and other EMF sources, especially one hour before bedtime. Keep your cellphone at least 6-8 feet away from your sleeping space at night. Use protective EMF case while using phone. Unplug WiFi router at night or simply set up WiFi router to xmas tree timer to automatically turn off at night. https://defendershield.com/?ref=cathymoore) and redemption shield (https://www.redemptionshield.com/?ref=CATHYMOORE), EMF clothing
EMF Clothing is an option. (https://havnwear.com/)
- Blue Light Avoidance: Use blue light blocking glasses and use blue blocking apps on your phone in the evening; be off all including TV screens at least an hour before bed.
- Dirty Electricity: Unplug everything from your walls and consider using battery operated alarm clocks. Use GreenWave Filters during the day to minimize dirty electricity. (https://greenwavefilters.com )
- For further information check out (https://jackkruse.com/ and https://youtu.be/vAZR0tmhMqY
3. Nutrient-Dense, Whole Foods & Food Timing
- Eat Clean & Whole: Focus on organic, nutrient-dense foods—vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, high-quality proteins (grass fed, grass finished), pasture raised eggs, and healthy fats (no seed oils).
- Food Timing: eating 30 min after awakening letting your breakfast or lunch be your largest meal, will help you time your food with your cortisol pattern.
- Eat two-three balanced meals per day, aligned with daylight hours. Eat with sun and fast with the dark.
- Avoid late-night eating to support circadian health and insulin sensitvity. Stop eating prior to sunset and at least three hours prior to sleep to support optimal sleep.
- Relax Before Eating: Start all meals by taking 2 deep diaphragmatic breaths and share out loud gratitude prior to meals to activate the parasympathetic nervous system.
- Chew Well: Chew food thoroughly (20-30 times prior to swallowing) to aid digestion and nutrient absorption. ( Consider digestive enzyme or bile supports if you have undigested food in stool or floating stools) See Bristol Stool Chart https://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/ppc/documents/General_Primary_Care/Bristol-stool---simple.pdf
4. Hydration & Indoor Air Quality
- Clean Water: Drink filtered, pure water throughout the day. Refrigerator filters are less than ideal and best to have a multi-system filter.
- Indoor Air: Ensure good ventilation; use high quality air filters on furnace and change regularly, use air purifiers to reduce indoor pollutants. If you have attached garage, keep the door closed and get all paints and toxic materials into a shed if possible.
5. Grounding & Earthing
- Grounding: Connect with the earth by walking barefoot outdoors or using grounding mats indoors to reduce inflammation and support sleep. The best reset to regenerate your body, and spirit is to go outdoors barefoot, in the sun and do some movement and gentle lymph jumps.
6. Drainage of Emunctories-
- Sweating: Regular physical activity, sauna, or sweating supports detoxification. If you have a difficult time sweating your lymph system is backed up and is also a sign of suppressed feelings.
- Urination & Bowel Movements:
- Maintain regularity—if you eat three meals a day then you should have at least three bowel movements daily. Drinking half your body weight in ounces of filtered water a day, 30min away from your meals. If constipated or loose stools you may be avoiding feeling or holding onto feelings you have yet to become aware of.
- Proper hydration and vegetable fiber (or additional fiber like sunfiber or MPG fiber by Orthomolecular) intake help ensure this. Using only filtered water. Fridge filters are subpar in removing toxicants. A distiller is great, you can purchase on Amazon. Molecular hydrogen water (https://fareps.com/molecular-hydrogen-generator?am_id=cmw). If you notice you are avoiding water, typically you are avoiding feeling something.
- Breathing: Practice diaphragmatic breathing daily to enhance oxygenation, relaxation, and detoxification. Your lungs are a major detox organ. Using EMST150 is a great breath re-trainer. Catch yourself if your breathing shallow and intentionally breathe, 6 count inhale through the nose while thinking of something your grateful for and 8 count exhale with audible sigh through your mouth and declare, out loud, “ Its okay for me to live my inspired life, Its okay for me to really live.”
7. Sleep & Relaxation
- Prioritize consistent sleep schedules. Your nervous system loves knowing what to expect. Avoid screens an hour prior to bedtime.
- Create a relaxing bedtime routine. Journaling about your reoccurring feelings and thoughts will allow you to see patterns and transform them. Gratitude even one or two sentences a night. Two hours prior to sleep, drink Chamomile tea, supplement Glycine and a pinch of good sea salt, like Baja Gold. This will assist you to sleep through the night without awakening to urinate.
- Avoid stimulants after 12 noon and screens 1 hour before sleep. No alcohol.
- Cool (60-68 degrees) Completely dark in the bedroom; use eye mask to cover eyes, room darkening shades. Consider cooling pad at night, super game changer for menopause symptoms and positively effects HRV, (https://sleep.me/)
- If racing thoughts, (suppressed emotions) this increases your core body temperature making it difficult to fall asleep, I encourage you to look into a cryohelmet or using a soft ice pack to wrap around your head to cool your body temp at night. Also becoming aware of your feelings and naming them will give you power over thoughts. When I name my emotions, I begin to have authorship of my life, rather than the emotions running me.
Summary
By nurturing your body's terrain—through natural light exposure, minimizing EMFs, eating nutrient-dense foods, staying hydrated, grounding, and supporting detox pathways—you support your circadian rhythms and improve sleep quality naturally. Consistency is key. Small daily habits accumulate into profound health benefits over time.
