Part 2: Ten ways to a better you

"We are all born with a reserve of vital chi, which will run out as we get older," says the nutritionist Patrick Holford. "This happens when the energy gets blocked or depleted by anti-chi habits, such as demanding jobs and a sedentary lifestyle." When chi gets blocked, he says, it can result in fatigue, illness and mood swings. However, that vital energy can also be regenerated if you choose chi-boosting activities. Whereas western-inspired gym classes traditionally focus on building muscle tone and aerobic fitness, eastern activities such as t'ai chi, qigong and psychocalisthenics - a routine of 23 moving and breathing exercises - emphasise improvements in internal strength and energy by training your body to stay centred and move efficiently.

Dozens of clinical studies have suggested that these gentle, slow-moving, chi-enhancing exercises have health benefits, relieving everything from depression and anxiety to chronic illnesses such as heart disease, arthritis and multiple sclerosis. In an online survey of 60,000 people, Holford found that more than half the respondents with the highest scores for physical and mental wellbeing regularly practised yoga, t'ai chi and meditation. But it is not only traditional eastern classes that can regenerate chi. He says that many of us are intuitively drawn to activities that boost our inner energy, but that we need to do more of them. "A lot of people spend way too much time indoors - at home, work and the gym," he says. "We are not designed to live like that, and being outdoors, next to nature, is a great way to regenerate chi." Gardening is ideal, and a study by Thrive, the therapeutic horticultural society, suggests that many people who spend time in a garden find it helps to boost their spirit. Another way to restore chi is to learn a method of deep abdominal breathing.

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Regenerate your chi with diakath breathing

Holford recommends the following deep-breathing exercise to connect what's called the kath point - the body's centre of equilibrium - with the diaphragm muscles, and generate chi. Try to do this every morning before breakfast for a few minutes. Repeat the following when you feel tired or stressed throughout the day:

1 Sit comfortably with your spine straight.

2 Focus your attention on your kath point, which is positioned three finger-widths below the navel, and 1in inside.

3 Inhale deeply, allowing your belly to expand almost effortlessly. Try to feel the diaphragm being pushed down towards the kath point, as your lungs fill with air.

4 Exhale, relaxing your belly and emptying the lungs from top to bottom.

5 Repeat at your own pace for nine breaths.

The words Diakath Breathing and Kath are respectively the service mark and trade mark of Oscar Ichazo. Both marks and the breathing exercise instructions are used in Patrick Holford's book with Mr. Ichazo's permission.

5 GET THE PAST OUT OF YOUR PRESENT

In a survey of the UK's healthiest people, Holford found that 85% of them consider their state of mind and relationships to be extremely important for their health. It makes sense; a happy person with a good support network of family and friends is likely to be physically healthy as well. But many of us neglect our mental health, anaesthetising unresolved negative emotions with work, food, drink or drugs. Yet, as the saying goes, what the mind represses, the body expresses, and distressing emotions from the past can manifest themselves as a variety of health problems.

"All of us accumulate emotional charge attached to various events that have happened to us in the past. If we don't do anything to discharge the emotions, then we develop negative patterns of behaviour, which means we react to what happens in the present on the basis of what's happened in the past," Holford explains. Brandon Bays, author of The Journey - a process she has devised for letting go of negative emotions - calls these past life experiences "silent saboteurs". "We are not aware of them," she says, "but they can shut us down just when we are about to reach our potential."

How do we work out what might be negatively affecting us, and what can we do about it? First you need to be aware of the emotions that drive you. Most negative feelings can be classified into one of three categories, according to Holford: anger, fear and sadness. "Sadness is usually about regrets and loss, anger is associated with not having our needs met, or not being listened to, and fear comes from not being able to adapt and cope with a changing circumstance. Often a person has one of these as a predominant underlying feeling. For example, if a relationship ends, how does it make you feel? Sad, annoyed, or fearful that you'll never be able to have a successful relationship?"

In his new book, The 10 Secrets of 100% Healthy People, he lists techniques to discharge these unhealthy emotions, but don't talk it through with friends, he says. "They tell us how great we are, and how stupid the other person is. It is more helpful to describe a situation that has upset you in the present tense as if you were objectively reporting it, without going into your feelings about the situation. As you describe what happened, the emotion you felt will clarify and discharge."

Part of letting go of the past is also about identifying negative patterns of behaviour. Holford suggests writing down five negative emotional patterns that have caused distress, such as being abandoned, smothered, criticised, never feeling good enough or feeling guilty. If a situation in the present triggers these emotions, you may react out of all proportion and go into emotional freefall. Awareness that an old pattern is affecting you can put things back into proportion, as can taking yourself out of the situation, knowing your feelings will pass.

Writing emotions down can also be a useful way to process them. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way, suggests keeping a journal, jotting down thoughts and feelings first thing in the morning, before the concerns of the day take over. Holford suggests making a list of people whom you haven't forgiven - then writing a letter to them expressing all your negative feelings about their behaviour, then another letter with everything you appreciate about them. Just remember, don't send the letters!

Really letting go of the past can take a lot of time and soul-searching. The residential Hoffman Process is a well-regarded, if expensive, course; counselling is another option. It is worth the effort - as Holford says: "Emotions are the basis of the subtlety of human relationships, which are as important to us as water is to fish."

Laurel Ives

6 MEASURE YOUR H SCORE

Everybody knows the importance of blood pressure and cholesterol levels. But some experts now claim that a lesser-known health marker carries more weight in predicting illness and disease. In normal situations, the body's complex chemistry is kept in check by a process called methylation, which helps to balance everything from blood sugar and adrenaline to cholesterol and bone strength. However, when methylation is disrupted, abnormally high levels of an unwelcome amino acid, called homocysteine, are produced. Some experts now believe that measuring homocysteine levels in the blood, to obtain an H score, can determine the health and efficiency of your body better than any other medical test.

Scientific studies suggest that raised homocysteine levels occur in conditions ranging from miscarriages and birth defects to strokes, Alzheimer's and osteoporosis. Stress is known to elevate homocysteine levels in the blood, which partly explains why it is linked to heart attacks. But homocysteine also wreaks havoc on blood vessels, damaging the cells that line arteries, which causes lesions that restrict blood flow to the heart. Some scientists claim it disrupts normal blood-clotting mechanisms, increasing the risk of clots that can bring on a heart attack or stroke. "A study reported in the British Medical Journal has shown homocysteine levels to be a strong predictor of death in elderly people," Holford says.

Signs that elevated homocysteine levels have thrown your body's chemistry off kilter include memory loss, depression and fatigue. But trying to determine your H score is not always straightforward. "Some GPs will perform the necessary blood test," he says, "but it is not a standard procedure, so you may need to get it done privately." A pin-prick test, available from YorkTest Laboratories (£75; yorktest.com), will reveal if you have a low H score (8.9 or below) or a high one (9 or above).

Then what? The good news is, there are easy ways to bring down homocysteine: reducing coffee and alcohol intake, eating less red meat and more leafy green (cabbage and kale) and cruciferous (broccoli and cauliflower) vegetables, pulses and foods fortified with B vitamins, such as breakfast cereals, can make a difference. Holford says you will almost certainly need supplements of folate, B6 and B12 - all required by the ­enzymes that process homocysteine - if a test reveals high levels.

A trial of more than 5,000 women at high risk of cardiovascular disease, conducted by the National Institutes of Health in America, looked at the link between H score and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of sight loss in old age. It found that a combination of folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 each day could reduce the women's chances of getting AMD by 35%-40%.

Holford says that about one quarter of people in the UK have a low intake of vitamin B12, which may put them at risk of a raised H score. "I recommend an intake of 10mcg of B12 a day, which is 10 times the daily recommended amount, but crucial for attacking homocysteine," he says. "This is something that needs to be tackled for the sake of our long-term health. It is far more worrying than cholesterol."

Warning signs that can indicate a high H score

- Problems maintaining your weight

- You are short-fused

- Concentration and memory declines

- You rarely eat beans, lentils, nuts and seeds

- You have less than one serving of leafy green vegetables a day

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7 MAKE MORE 'ME' TIME

Think for a moment: when was the last time you spent a few minutes, hours or even a day doing something completely, unadulteratedly, gratuitously for yourself and you alone? If you're stuggling to recall a single instance, you're in dire need of some "me" time.

In recent years, the term has been bandied about by countless beauty companies and advertisers to target time-poor, exhausted women, yet the underlying principle seems to have been largely forgotten from our everyday lives. So what is "me" time? It's the holy grail of the daily grind, it's those snatched pockets of time in which you are able to do everything, or nothing, as you please. Not to be confused with an afternoon spent blowing your wages on shoes, or seeing off three bottles of red with the girls, the essence of "me" time isn't consumerist, nor is it a social event: it runs much deeper than that.

"Allocating yourself some "me" time is crucial in keeping your mind creative," says Nina Grunfeld, a life coach. "When you allow yourself time to be alone, listen to music or read, you are more able to think productively and solve problems, so you can be more efficient in other areas of your life."

Collectively, we're getting better at recognising the need for down-time. According to Euromonitor, we're still spending on luxurious holidays, and, increasingly, on health and wellbeing retreats, despite our depleted budgets. We know that in order to function at our best, we need to take time out, yet splashing out on a couple of days at a five-star spa needn't be the only way to rest, reboot and recharge a tired soul. You can capture the benefits of "me" time at home or even at your desk, you simply need to decipher what works for you.

"I, literally, only need to read a paragraph of a book or newspaper and I feel sane again. Other people may need to step outside the block, walk around a bit and come back in. It depends whether you are seeking to be uplifted, lucid or soothed," Grunfeld says.

For most, a long hot bath is the ultimate "me" time treat. Mintel reports that almost half of us who take a bath do so for the prime purpose of alleviating stress. For others, the ritualistic act of applying make-up can be all that is needed to galvanise the soul.

So if "me" time is a such a basic principle, why do we find it so hard to integrate into our daily lives? "With women especially, there is an impact of guilt that follows when we take time out for ourselves," Grunfeld says. "We feel as though we should always be doing something that benefits our families. It's crucial to work through those emotions and realise we also need to take care of ourselves." If you feel the familiar feelings of guilt trickling through, repeat this mantra: self-preservation is not self-indulgent.

Joanna McGarry

? Hoffman Process: hoffmaninstitute.com. Consciousness - The New Currency, by Brandon Bays (Journey Publications £12.99); thejourney.com. The 10 Secrets of 100% Healthy People, by Patrick Holford (Piatkus £12.99); patrickholford.com