Positive Health Online

Gina Lazenby's personal crusade to find answers to her own health and lifestyle problems has culminated in The Healthy Home. This is a fascinating and thought-provoking book that investigates the link between our home and the state of our health, and makes suggestions on how to ensure our home environment is supportive and not harmful to our health.

There have long been links made between illness and the buildings people live in; modern building methods and energy saving have resulted in buildings that do not breathe, leading to a build up of toxic substances that cannot escape. "A study in the early nineties showed pollution inside the average home is ten times greater than outside, even in areas that suffer from industrial smog" says the author. "Toxic gases from cookers and heating appliances, detergents and toxic paint, all add to the stress suffered by the body."

The author introduces the main principles and skills for creating a home and lifestyle that supports well-being. The most helpful aspect is the use of the Water Barrel concept as a metaphor for how environmental stress builds up and rises like the water in a barrel – when it gets to the top we get ill. She looks at how toxins from different sources can affect our home and suggests how you can start to make changes. The Seven Stressors (represented by inlet pipes filling up the water barrel of stress), looks at seven aspects of life and environment that cause stress – clutter and disorder, electromagnetic radiation, chemical pollution, environmental stress, geopathic stress, lifestyle stress and diet. "Each of them has a significant impact on our health and well being and although a single stressor may be handled individually without unbalancing the body too much, the cumulative effect of a few can be extremely detrimental." The book provides practical suggestions on how to overcome these stressors, together with positive step-by-step exercises, such as dowsing for geopathic stress and checking electromagnetic fields.

The section on Stress Relieving Measures considers other approaches to increasing energy in the home. Following the metaphor of the water barrel these are the life enhancements, which turn on the tap at the bottom of the barrel and lower the water level and of course reduce the stress. They include how to ensure you have deep, healing sleep, the need for relaxation and regular exercise, the role of diet; the power of colour within interior schemes, as well as the importance of including natural and organic elements in your home to boost energy levels. The final section on Healthy Rooms elaborates on all the knowledge and skills covered previously by applying them to each room in the house.

Much of what the author describes in the book she has experienced herself and the material results from the creation of her own healthy home in Yorkshire. She says, "Most of what can have a significant impact on our energy and health is unfamiliar to us because it is invisible and silent. I want to introduce people to new ways of looking at their health and understanding that challenges in our home environments can be overcome if we recognise them first and then pay attention to them".

By providing practical guidelines based on her study of feng shui and years of research on natural living and personal empowerment, Gina Lazenby shows how to rethink and plan your home to ensure that it is recharging and energy giving, and a positive influence on everyone who spends time there. She has developed a website www.thehealthyhome.com, to support readers of The Healthy Home. It is here that you will find practical tips and resources, and where you will be able to keep up to date with new research by using the links to many other useful sites.