Self-Care Round Up
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it many times more… Self-care changed my life. Having hit a rough patch in my life a few years ago, I began getting curious about my role in my current situation. When looking closer, I discovered a lack of true self-care despite being a personal trainer and lover of exercise.
Moving the body is a form of self-care but it loses its luster when the motivation is only driven by thoughts of changing the physical self. Self-care introduces the concept of doing things for the sole intention of demonstrating that you care for the self. You care how you feel. You care what you are inputing, both physically and mentally, so that you can learn what’s healthiest for your ideal optimal output.
Self-care is an individual practice and requires experimentation. The purpose of each tool is to shift our state, even if just a little bit towards balance; towards ease; towards restoration & rejuvenation. Gather many, many tools because there will always be days where we need them all to handle the bumps and the detours that becoming a fulfilled human inevitably brings. An additional benefit of self-care is over time this care for the self grows into what’s known as self-love.
Below are some Self-Care faves:
It’s important to understand the signs that alert us that we are in need of self-care. And equally it is as important that we have a strategy or a plan to give ourselves what we need regularly. Above you can find guidance and some inspirational categories to get you started! And for more detailed information or examples of specific acts of self-care be sure to visit the Self-Care section of the resources center!
Below is a short video on Self-Care as well as a Yoga class that is a sampling of our Online Wellness Program; Foundations.
What exactly counts as self-care?
Teaser from Foundations Online Wellness Membership
Music* and Sound baths are great ways to add moments of ease throughout the day when there isn’t time for focused self-care. In times of stress and overwhelm a few stolen moments with your favorite music or sound bath can lift the spirits and help you manage the moment until you can give your routine full attention. *Music playlists — In various places of the resources center you will find some of my favorite playlists; use these as inspiration to create your own playlists that meet your every day needs — morning routines; exercise; relax/bedtime.
If you already have an integrated self-care routine than you might be ready for the next level of self-care. In the Heal Your Energy section of the FREE RESOURCE CENTER you can find practices, playlists, sound baths and more that can be implemented into your self-care routines.
Are you ready to take your self-care routine up a notch? Want to go deeper? Check out all the offerings in the Mint Condition store and guided classes at our Learn it Live platform page.
Sources:
1 Harvard.edu
What counts as Rest?
When it comes to the idea of taking a nap, snuggling up to read a book, or picking yin yoga over power yoga, I have no struggle. This acceptance of the idea of personal rest comes from years of studying the human body and sports. Rest was simply the required companion to the work athletes put into their sport. Rest was considered not only okay but important, when it was in relation to top training for athletes.
The popularity of this concept rising in athletics is the reason why athletes are competing longer and longer. We have football and basketball players performing at top levels into their 40s and Olympic level gymnasts into their late 20s — early 30s all because coaches and athletes are recognizing the value of balancing fatigue and reducing undesirable stressors. (1)
Athletes buy-in to rest so that they can be in their best physical, mental, and emotional states for the big game, but why don’t we all buy–in to rest for a chance at our best selves?
Let’s start with what counts as rest… Most think of sitting still or sleeping, but there are many ways to invite rest into your season of winter and into your everyday life. (2)
Physical Rest – Passive and Active
Passive physical rest is any act in which the body is still, such as meditation, napping, reading, acupuncture, soaking and sleeping. Sleep is a vital physiological process that allows the body and the brain to rest, recover and perform essential functions. (3) Getting adequate sleep is essential for:
Our ability to learn and concentrate
Processing memories
Restoring the bodies energy levels to prevent grogginess
Repairing muscle tissue
Triggering the release of hormones that affect growth and appetite
Relieving stress and improving moods
Relieving pain
Improving the immune system
Active physical rest is restorative such as yoga, massage, swimming, tai chi, stretching, and walking. These activities invite in gentle and relaxing movements and modalities to allow the body to maintain range of motion, reduce pain and create space for healing. Active rest is a good place to start if sitting passively is a challenge.
Social Rest – Finding Solitude
Solitude is any act that allows you to create space to be alone… not lonely. Finding moments to be quiet and with ones own thoughts. Spending time tending to your own needs. Without this intentional space, we often get lost in the world around us. This also invites in opportunities to say no to social engagements that leave you feeling drained.
Solitude can be challenging at first, especially if you are a social butterfly, but recognize if this impulse to be always with others is coming from a fear based or co-dependent place. Start with going to places where other people will be, but choose to have your own personal experience — like a park, the beach, or even a movie. The solitude becomes enjoyable and inviting once you recognize its value in keeping you connected to your inner self and to allow your nervous system to find its own equilibrium again.
Emotional Rest – Feel the Feels
Emotional rest is any act in which you allow yourself to connect to your current emotional state. This is a big task because it requires tools for processing emotions that the majority have not been taught. This is an even bigger task for people pleasers who never take time for themselves, those who never stop long enough to feel their feels, as well as those who distract themselves with “controlling” or “fixing” things other than themselves.
Exercise, journaling, sharing openly with a group/therapist/mentor/friend, practicing somatic movements and breath work for release are all ways to lean into learning about our emotions. — Check out this guided yoga practice designed to build emotional IQ.
When we allow our emotions to flow and learn how to process them, there is less energy expenditure and we move through them instead of work to resist them.
Creative Rest – Intentionally Get Lost
Get lost in a hobby. Get lost in nature. Get lost in dance. Get lost in the kitchen.
Creativity becomes rest when we get out of our problem solving mind and tap into the creative parts. These moments can be really relaxing, playfully adds joy to our everyday life and can help prevent burnout. We can even use creative rest to express our emotions.
Cognitive Rest – Positive Constructive Daydreaming
Allowing our minds to wander to creative, inspiring and healing places is another form of rest. This can happened unintentionally when we are engaged in tasks that require a lot of attention and we fatigue.
For cognitive rest we can intentionally allow space for our minds to wander into a guided fantasy, a space where meditation meets daydream. Letting your mind wander while you walk, craft, do a puzzle or sit quietly. Wander to a place where you can entertain and elaborate on a wishful visualization. (5) — Check out this guided meditation that includes this visualization/daydreaming.
Spiritual Rest – Engage with something bigger than you!
This type of rest occurs when we engage with something bigger than ourselves, connecting beyond physical and mental to a deeper sense of belonging, love and connection. This can be accessed by deep meditation, deep connection to nature, prayer/affirmations, and community engagement. These acts become rest because we surrender a bit of control; they demonstrate the trust we are not alone; we remember we are supported; and therefore we can breathe easier in these moments. (2)
Sensory Rest – Digital Detox
While this list is not exclusive, this last type of rest plays a very important role in our current relationship with technology. Bright lights and constant notifications coupled with an overflow of information is a recipe for mental and emotional overwhelm; headaches; restlessness; and exhaustion.
Keep this in mind the next time you are “resting” while you’re scrolling and distracted by your screens. Taking short digital detoxes of hours or days is a lovely way to reboot your mind and body.
Make it a micro-break!
Studies have proven that micro-breaks are an effective way to use moments to minutes to find rest. (6) This means that you can cultivate rest in three big breaths before a meeting or in a quiet solo lunch outside. Take down your hair and massage your head while at a stop light. Daydream about your perfect day as you drift off to sleep.
If you want to add micro-breaks to your daily routine a simple way, attach it to an anchor habit. Anchor habits are small, core routines that are ingrained within us like getting up each day, brushing your teeth, eating breakfast, exercise, etc. . Once you have an anchor habit, it’s pretty simple to link other wellness behaviors to it. For example, daydream or meditate while you brush your teeth.
Rest is not just a pause, it’s also a chance to refuel and prepare for the next part of the journey. It is the rest that allows us to keep showing up for the work.
Sources:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/15/17468432/jeff-bercovici-play-on-sport-health-age-fitness-science
https://ideas.ted.com/the-7-types-of-rest-that-every-person-needs/
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/sleep-deprivation
https://mhanational.org/rest-relaxation-and-exercise
https://askthescientists.com/cognitive-rest/
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272460#sec025
Why we don't meditate. And what to do about it.
Raise your hand if you or someone you know has said “I can’t mediate because my mind is too busy.”
This is a very common sentiment about meditation because most people have not been taught how to quiet the chaotic mind. A still mind is the antidote to stress and unease. In today’s world of digesting large amounts of distractions and information all day long, if we don’t intentionally build practices that calm the waters we will live in that overstimulated state that leads to stress, illness and dysfunction.
Although the practice of meditation is thousands of years old, research on its health benefits is relatively new, but promising. A research review published in JAMA Internal Medicine in January 2014 found meditation helpful for relieving anxiety, pain, and depression. For depression, meditation was about as effective as an antidepressant. Meditation is thought to work via its effects on the sympathetic nervous system, which increases heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure during times of stress. (1)
During the practice of meditation the body is healing itself and starting the repair of any damaged systems. Meditation makes us less reactive and more responsive to events in life — you learn to focus your attention and eliminate the stream of jumbled thoughts that crowd the mind and cause stress. This process results in enhanced physical and emotional well-being and teaches centeredness and inner peace. These benefits don't end when your meditation session is over. Meditation will carry you more calmly through your day, and has the potential to help you manage symptoms of certain medical conditions. As beneficial as meditation is, it isn't a replacement for lifestyle changes like eating healthier, managing your weight, and getting regular physical activity. Also it shouldn’t used in lieu of traditional medical treatment or as a reason to postpone seeing a health care provider about a medical issue. But it is a useful addition to your other treatments. (2)
Today’s world demands presence and connectedness 24/7 which leads our minds and bodies to be under extreme constant pressure. The stress and busyness that accompanies over scheduling leads to insomnia and other ailments; not giving your brain and body the chance to rest adequately leads – in some cases – to dire consequences. In addition, technology has been evolving faster than the human brain and body have learned to adapt, therefore we can not expect them to work like a machine and expect them to run in the same manner.
Before we dive into the ways to begin the practice of calming the mental chatter — let’s look at some other reasons that humans resist quieting the chaos.
Busy has been linked to importance. Therefore, stillness can feel less than – lazy, a waste of precious time… the “we can sleep when we’re dead” mentality keeps us in the busy cycles.
Busyness is distraction. Humans tend to create physical and mental activity to distract from stress, emotions, and self-reflection. This also includes passive busyness behaviors such as scrolling social media and consuming content on the internet. When this happens we are also distracting from the important stuff — from the truth and reality of our lives and circumstances. Settling down the waves in the mind creates the space for clarity and the ability to see the real issues reaching havoc in our psyche. This is often referred to as our Shadow Self or the part of the psyche that is repressed or unacknowledged. However, it is through looking at, understanding and honoring our shadow qualities that brings internal peace.
Depending on past patterns and behaviors, calm and quiet may feel foreign and/or very uncomfortable. Chaos can feel like a normal baseline if the nervous system hasn’t learned how to find calm and trust that it is safe. Therefore anything that is still is avoided.
Overuse of technology and overscheduling has a numbing affect. Which means when we step away from that chaotic cycle our emotions, traumas and triggers will start to present themselves for attention and healing. This is very uncomfortable if you aren’t practiced at processing them.
Resistance creates an illusion of control. Humans tend to resist life and other people. Resist the past and the future. Resist feelings, thoughts, and the shadow. Resist the truth of reality. And then delude themselves into thinking that resistance and control lead to freedom. This is incorrect — resistance and control create suffering.
Our culture doesn't recognize the very fundamental principle — that being rested and relaxed is the most important key to being creative and productive. We often don't give ourselves permission to take time out for meditation. And then when we do take the time, the mind and and body are in such high gear that we feel restless. Meditation requires that we experience the restlessness and let it unwind.
It is a big challenge to shift from a chaotic mind and nervous system to any sort of meditative practice, hence why humans find calming practices so frustrating – especially in the beginning. So begin by slowly adding in more daily activities and moments that gently quiet the mind. And remember a situation or circumstance will never change we resist the work.
Morning or nightly check-in (like your computer, take few moments to check in mentally before you start your day).
Move your body.
Read a few pages of a book.
Listen to relaxing music and/or specific frequencies for calm.
Deep clean or organize something.
Do a puzzle.
Create art or get crafty.
Cook.
Snuggle up with loved ones and furry friends.
Take a digital detox (minutes to days of less stimulation from technology).
Go out in nature. Take a walk. Get in the garden.
Take 10 big, deep, slow breaths.
Stream of consciousness journal session (set a timer for 5-10 minutes and write without overthinking until the timer goes off, no judgments or grammar police, just get the thoughts out of your mind and onto the page).
The more frequently we engage in slow, mindful activities the more comfortable our minds get in the slower, quiet moments. Our bodies start to recognize the stillness as rest and rejuvenation, it becomes safe to power down for a few moments. This is what opens the door to the deeper work of meditation and emotional healing.
In recent decades, researchers have been gaining insight into the benefits of practicing the ancient tradition of meditation. They’ve found that learning to pay attention to our current experiences and accept them without judgment might indeed help us to be happier. Studies to date suggest that mindfulness/meditation affects many aspects of our psychological well-being — improving our mood, increasing positive emotions, and decreasing anxiety, emotional reactivity, and job burnout. (3)
With the ultimate goal of homeostasis (a relatively stable life) the work is to add in moments to create space for the mind to settle and begin to limit dysfunctional habits, activities, substances, circumstances and environments that invoke or enhance the chaos. Then in the discomfort of the stillness, we can find more courage to self-reflect — to wander into the shadows and understand them as a part of our personal journey and lessons. Mental Health Specialists and deeper mediation practices can guide you through this process. It is the shadow of emotions, when repressed that cause the chaos and suffering to begin with. The more acknowledgement and illumination – the less chaos and control they hold.
Be willing to experiment, and you'll likely find out what types of meditation work best for you and what resonates with your path. Adapt meditation to your needs in the moment. Remember, there's no right way or wrong way to meditate. What matters is that meditation helps you reduce your stress and feel better overall. For more details on how to meditate and the benefits click here.
Resources:
The Science of Gratitude
The word gratitude is derived from the Latin word gratia, meaning grace, graciousness, or gratefulness. The feeling of gratitude encompasses all of these meanings. Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. (3)
It is a way for us to appreciate what we have, instead of reaching for something new — in the hope it will create more happiness, or thinking satisfaction won’t come until every physical and material need is met. Gratitude refocused us on what we have instead of what we lack.
What exactly is happening inside us when we are grateful?
What makes us grateful is different from person to person, yet there are some common threads. We tend to feel a sense of gratitude when:
We achieve a big goal
Someone does something kind for us
Someone makes us feel appreciated
We witness something funny or lovely or beautiful
We have a moment to truly be free/ourselves
We recognize how meaningful someone or something is to you
Helps us connect to something larger than ourselves as individuals — whether other people, nature, or a higher power.
Here is a little experiment in somatic awareness (becoming aware of the sensations in the body).
Take a moment to ponder on the above list and notice how gratitude feels in your body. Do you feel any sensations? Where does it show up? Linger in it for a few moments while perhaps listening to the song below.
How did that feel? You just created that feel-good-feel from the inside and on command. Wow!
The sensation of gratitude is occurring due to neurotransmitters in the brain being released, simply at the thought of noticing and appreciating the good things in your life. There are two brain chemicals directly connected to gratitude: Dopamine and Serotonin. They are connected to our emotions and therefore contribute to feelings of pleasure, happiness and well-being. (1)
Now, if you didn’t quite get into a state of gratitude, know that this is a practice and therefore may take a few sessions to really tap into the literal sensations of gratitude. But its effecting your brain right away and the more you do this practice, the stronger the pathway to gratitude becomes. Eventually this leads to an increased use of this I feel grateful pathway. This is called neuroplasticity which is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization.
“By consciously practicing gratitude everyday, we can help these neural pathways to strengthen themselves and ultimately create a permanent grateful and positive nature within ourselves.” (2)
Research shows that practicing gratitude — 15 minutes a day, five days a week — for at least six weeks can enhance mental wellness and possibly promote a lasting change in perspective. (4)
This experiment and the science of gratitude shows us that:
Our thoughts are directly connected to our emotions.
We have control over where our thoughts take us.
With practice we can create happiness from the inside.
Behavior changes biology — Remember that behavior changes biology. Your brain is designed to problem-solve rather than appreciate. You often must override this design to reap the benefits of gratitude. Positive gestures benefit you by releasing oxytocin, a hormone that helps connect people. Some people call it the love hormone. A regular gratitude practice can bring us into happiness whenever we are in need, not just in the “special/good/big moments”. We can conjure it anytime we need to feel better, to cultivate hope for the future and to take action in sharing this gratitude with others, creating a gratitude ripple effect. (5)
Gratitude has also been shown to:
Reduce stress levels.
Improve blood pressure.
Improve heart health and positively affects biomarkers associated with the risk for heart disease.
Improve immunity.
Improve sleep.
Improved mood.
Build and enhance our relationships.
Increase satisfaction in our work environments.
Help combat anxiety and depression.
Simple ways to practice gratitude:
Make a list in a journal/in your mind/or speak it out loud.
Share your gratitude list with someone else and create a gratitude ripple.
Listen to a song, playlist or gratitude frequency.
Express your gratitude by creating something: a meal, art, a song, a dance, a poem.
Say “Thank You” frequently: to yourself, to others, to nature.
Many of us reflexively say, “thanks” often. Next time you hear yourself say it, stop and pinpoint precisely what you are thankful for.
You may feel negative or frustrated during the day. When that happens, step back and shift your focus to a positive aspect of the situation.
Find one thing you are grateful for and fill up with the sensation of gratitude.
“Try saying thank you, aloud or in your head, every time you see, taste, feel, hear, or sense something that you are grateful for... if you’re paying attention, you could be saying Thank You all day, every day.”
Resources:
What's on the other side of fear?
What a predicament we’re in.
Fear is such a strong emotion that can lead to lashing out, running away, disassociating, avoiding… and yet because of our current lifestyles plus a lack of tools for processing our emotions, we often get stuck in the part of our nervous system responsible for fear. This really hinders our ability to get out of comfort zones and go beyond what currently is, into the unknown.
Fear is meant to be felt for a moment. To inform of danger and to awaken the senses for potential threats. It is not meant to be a constant state. In order to step closer to something bigger, scarier, the unknown it would be wise to understand and learn how to move through your fears.
What does it feel like on the other side of fear?
We all have a good idea for how it feels to be in a state of fear… breathing and heart rate increase; muscles tense; we run or duck or scream or hide. In addition, stress hormones are released throughout the body such as adrenaline and cortisol and our energy is shifted towards survival (and away from the stomach which is why we can have stomach disturbances when worried/anxious/overstressed).
But let’s go beyond that… If you’ve ever done something you never thought you would for fear of it, you know what this feels like on the other side. Take a moment and go back to the moment you realized you moved through the fear, you made it despite the discomfort.
Relief. Confidence. Euphoria. Strength. Pride. Compassion for past versions of the self. Maybe you even felt a sense of freedom!! All of these states are possible on the other side of your fears, yet how do we move through the resistance to get there? One little step at a time.
Practicing uncomfortable things is a really good way to begin this work of facing fears. If you haven’t done this in a while or ever, please find a tiny, baby, achievable but still kinda scary thing to do. You MUST flex this muscle in lots of little ways to build your bravery muscles. This way when you find yourself on the edge of something bigger, YOU HAVE BEEN PRACTICING and know how to take a big breath and a big jump.
Every small scary thing that you move through provides a little more confidence, trust in self, and understanding of the reward that is right on the other side of the discomfort. This is the art of growing.
Practice doing uncomfortable things. Start small and build.
Make eye contact with strangers
Make small talk with a stranger
Sign up for a new class
Turn the water cold at the end of the shower
Jump in cold water
Plank or wall sit holds
Move your body in a challenging way
Brake Check (Take a break from a particular food, substance, habit)
Practice that second language you kinda know IRL
Do an activity you know you’re bad at aka fail on purpose
Perform or speak in public
Karaoke (even if just in your bff’s living room)
Donate money
Tell the truth when some asks “how are you?”
Do the healthy thing that’s not as fun
Go on a solo retreat/travels
Meditate
Witness your thoughts and words
Explore your thoughts and words
Feel your thoughts and words
Process your thoughts and words
Express your emotions
Get a tattoo :)
If you can see it, you can believe it. Using visualization in this guided meditation you can practice walking down the path in which you decide to forward even though there is fear in your way.
There is power in the pause.
Practices to find more balance between work and rest.
Many of us are still operating old stories and programs around what it means to pause. The idea of taking a break and resting has been deemed lazy, unnecessary, and even a waste of quality time in which you could be doing more work. As if you may fall behind if you were to stop and pause.
For far too long we were told that the only way to succeed was to work really hard, to out work the competition. Now, don’t get me wrong, hard work is a huge part of being successful, but it doesnt have to come at the sacrifice of your physical, mental or emotional well-being. There is a reason that so many of us feel broken and overwhelmed and this reason is the lack of balance in our interpretation of what it takes to get ahead.
What happens when we neglect to pause?
The idea that taking a break is being lazy has got-to-go! Life without pauses, without rest, leaves us feeling overwhelmed and taxes our entire human system. If we don’t intentionally take breaks, we break.
The push to outwork one another leads to humans overworking and creating from an unbalanced and forced energy, where often less than ideal outcomes are produced, which can lead to the need for more work to fix mistakes and course correct.
Work is considered a masculine, yang energy. Rest is the feminine, yin energy that brings balance to the go, go, go, do, do, do energy of work. I don’t need to explain what life looks and feels like without balance as we’ve all felt it. Overwhelmed, tired, drained, frustrated by all the work. Couple this with the guilt and shame of taking time off and pausing and we are left conducting life from an unstable and wobbly place.
Lets take this idea into more than just our 9 to 5 endeavors.
Without rest our bodies will start to fail.
Without pauses in consuming decadent treats the body starts to become unbalanced.
Without breaks from exercise the results start to slow and injuries arise.
Without taking breaks from screens our nervous system never learns to return from the heightened states that constant consumption brings.
Without breaks from constant pushing our emotional body takes over and leads us to react emotionally to life, making decisions that might not align with our long term goals.
Without breaks we end up in tunnel vision which may or may not be leading you down the right tunnel.
Without taking pauses we never really integrate what we are learning, its simply on to the next, resulting in very surface level living.
Life is intentionally a long journey.
The school of earth is designed to challenge and teach us our whole life time, which for the average human is 80+ years. Imagine taking an 80 year quest through a mountain range. No one in their right mind would think that they would make it through that journey without taking breaks to fuel up, to allow the body to recover, and to pause and reflect on the previous trek of the journey. It is in the pause that we gather our thoughts and energy to keep going! Therefore, it can be concluded that there is actually momentum being cultivated in the pause and that movement does not always equal success.
Instead can you simply notice when a pause is needed. Take some time to look around at the current view on your mountain trek, acknowledging all of the hard work you've already done to get there. Taking a pause to think logically and clearly about the next phase, the next steps. Then once you have regained your strength and clarity you can once again hit the trail with extra vigor and clarity.
When to pause:
When you feel drained and fatigued.
When you are in pain.
When you feel overwhelmed.
When you notice slower gains from your hard work.
When you feel like you’ve hit a lot of resistance.
When you feel you’ve been here before, spinning in circles, or repeating mistakes.
What pauses can look like:
Short breaks from long tasks.
Taking a walk.
Sitting in nature.
Mindfulness or mediation practices.
Naps.
Vacations.
Switching tasks.
Taking time away from a really big project.
Tending to hobbies.
Taking things off your calendar.
Creating time blocks in your week for rest.
Taking time away from your current form of exercise.
Taking a digital detox - break from screens.
Spending time solo.
Granting ourselves permission to pause.
Yes, it is the old programming that has led to this imbalance. But, once we are aware of old programming it becomes our responsibility to de-program and re-program into new ways of thinking and being.
Journaling or talking out where your programming came from (parents, teachers, bosses, society, etc.) is the first step.
Next, forgive anyone involved as they too are on this journey.
Then, begin noticing when you are ready for a pause and do your best to take one, even if it is the smallest lil babiest pause.
You can use any of the following mantras to allow this new programming to feel safe and achievable.
I deserve to create and savor moments of lightness in my day.
I give myself permission to rest.
By taking breaks, I am actually being more productive.
I have the power to find clarity in my own stillness.
I have the power to protect and renew my energy.
You deserve to feel good and inviting in more pauses will only bring more balance.
Feeling Emotional? Lets get into those hips!
A tutorial + a simple practice for exploring emotions.
Our hips are ball-and-socket joints, meaning they naturally have more range-of-motion than other types of joints. However, if we don’t allow our hips to access this wide range-of-motion, they can start to feel blocked or even stuck physically. Our hips also correlate to our emotions. If we don’t tend to the wide variety of human emotions, we can feel blocked or stuck emotionally.
Try spending a few minutes in these two simple yet effective yoga poses - Easy Pose and Child’s Pose.
Watch the video tutorial on the Easy Pose and Childs Pose. Use props to alleviate any pain or extreme discomfort anywhere in your body.
Breathe big as you hold each yoga pose for up to 3-4 minutes. Your body will tell you through sensation when you’ve had enough. Feel your way through.
Allow any physical hip sensations or emotional sensations that arise to be felt. Use your breath to ride the waves of sensation that flow in such as physical hip sensations like stretch, tension, discomfort. If emotional sensations flow in, do the same and use your breath to allow the emotions to be felt. You are safe to feel your emotions, as they are simply a form of communication from your body.
If there is a lingering emotional sensation see if you can name it. Is it anxiety, shame, fear, gratitude, happiness, love? Once you’ve identified it, let it be seen, heard, acknowledged. Simply having a conversation with the emotion/sensation is enough. I know this may seem odd but it has been very helpful for me to get to know my emotions through simple yoga, breath and chit chat with my body. The more I understand each emotion, the more I can honor them, and the more easily they flow in and out.
Journal or voice memo what came in when you allowed your hips to open.
Meditation is Medicine + Meditation Practice
If I told you I had a pill that would significantly decrease your chances of suffering from all sorts of disease would you buy it and take it daily? How much money would you spend on that wonder pill? Would you share it with your family and friends to help keep them healthy too? What if I told you that you didn't need a pill to make this happen. What if I told you that you could reduce your chances of suffering all sorts of disease simply by meditating daily. Would you be as gung ho as you were about the magic pill?
What is meditation?
Meditation is the practice of training your brain to work at different frequencies. Our brain has five different categories of brain waves, each correlating to different kinds of activities. The higher frequencies are associated with active learning and an alert prefrontal cortex, where we spend most of our day. With meditation, you can train your brain to move into the lower frequencies which are associated with calm and peaceful feelings. Lower, slower, wave length frequencies allow more time between thoughts. Meditation allows you to move from highly active thinking mind to a more quiet and visual mind.
What are the benefits?
The studies on mediation are vast and the benefits are outstanding. From young to old, healthy to ill, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and Oprah Winfrey to busy moms and students, meditation can help to not only make you more focused and productive, but it can help you to stay calm and make tough decisions in crazy and hectic moments. Look at this list below. I have never seen anything with proven results that positively affect such a wide variety of human life as meditation (sleep and exercise are a close second). Benefits include but are not limited to the following:
Decreases depression
Regulates mood and anxiety disorders
Reduces stress
Reduces panic disorders
Increases concentration
Reduces alcohol and substance abuse
Improves focus and attention
Improves ability to work under stress
Improves information processing
Improves decision making
Trains mental strength, resiliency and emotional intelligence
Relieves pain more than Morphine
Improves pain tolerance
Helps manage ADHD
Improves learning, memory and self-awareness
Improves rapid memory recall
Prepares you to deal with stressful events
Fosters creativity
Reduces risk of heart disease and stroke
Increases resiliency to stress and therefore increases immune system
Reduces blood pressure
Decreases inflammatory disorders
Helps prevent asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease
Helps treat premenstrual syndrome and menopausal symptoms
Reduces risk of Alzheimer's and premature death
Helpful for those with Fibromyalgia
Helps to manage psoriasis
Improves empathy and positive relationships
Reduces social isolation
Increases compassion
Decreases worry
Decreases feelings of loneliness
Reduces emotional eating
All of these benefits have studies to back them up. Check out this post for links to all of the science.
How do you begin a meditation practice?
First, take a look at the list above and count how many of those things would benefit your life. I counted 10 for myself. Next, decide how important those benefits are to you. Are they no big deal, or are they differences that would greatly change your day to day life. Take a moment to notice the value that a mediation practice would bring to your wellbeing. For me, this is a no brainer, pun intended. Looking at my list of things that meditation can help allows me to recognize the massive need for a practice in my life. Tap into what your life would look like with a solid meditation practice and then set yourself up for success.
Just Breathe. You can start with just 2 minutes of sitting quiet and focusing on your breath. Feeling your inhales and feeling your exhales. If your mind wanders simply bring it back to your breath. Building to 20 minutes daily is ideal.
Find a video or app to help guide you through. If you want more than the two minutes you can search for all sorts of specific meditations, such as gratitude, lovingkindness, forgiveness, or increased energy and they range from 5 minutes to hours long. I love the apps Calm & Insight Timer and people rave about Headspace.
Create a special place to do your meditation. This can be as basic as a yoga mat on the floor or can incorporate pillows, candles, photos of people and places that make you happy, or any other objects that make you smile. The more enjoyable your space the more likely you'll come to it.
Connect meditation to another habit. I personally like to do my meditation early but Im not a stickler about it. I sneak lots of different kinds of meditations in all day everyday. But if you need help making it a regular part of your day, connect it to a habit you already have each morning like brushing your teeth.
Add it to your calendar or daily checklist. I go in and out of loving and benefiting from checklists, but when I’m trying to incorporate something new, having reminders is super helpful. If you’re not a checklist kinda human, maybe just place Post-it notes all around for a reminder :)
Use it throughout the day. If you missed it in the morning, find time to squeeze it in later. My practice generally looks like lots of little moments with the hopes of them all overlapping one day, lol. I use my 30 Breaths meditation (in which you sit and focus on your breath for 30 breaths) all the time. When I'm stressed and feeling frazzled, or when I'm antsy and feeling like I need something right this minute or i might snap, like sugar, junk food, buying crap, more coffee, or a nap.
Move into your body. Simply bringing your awareness into your body is enough to slow the mental chatter. There are many techniques like moving meditations - yoga, swimming, dance, etc., body scan meditations which practice somatic awareness, even massage can become a way to step out of the mind and into the body. The video below is a simple practice of entering into the body thru the hands.
One conscious breathe in and out is a meditation. – Eckhart Tolle
Change your mind to change your body.
There are millions of ways to exercise and eat healthy that exist at our finger tips. There are coaches and trainers, and teachers and experts galore and yet the struggle to do the work is real. If this struggle feels real to you at this moment I have a few questions for you. Hopefully these questions will help you peel back the layers and discover the source of some of the resistance.
What are your wellness beliefs?
When you think about exercise, eating healthy and changing your body, what are the underlying beliefs? What do you think about mental health, emotional and spiritual wellbeing? Do you believe that exercise isn’t fun? Do you believe that eating healthy is too expensive and too time consuming? Do you deep down believe your body will never change? Is what you’ve seen as Spiritual not for you?
As I have discussed before, our beliefs create our thoughts, our thoughts create our emotions, and our emotions fuel our actions. These actions repeated over days, weeks and years create our life. This is why it is so crucial to understand what we truly believe about our wellness journey and our bodies. If you struggle with finding these beliefs, start to notice your thoughts and words when think and/or talk about wellness and your body. All the answers are in the thoughts you regularly think.
Do you believe you can reprogram these beliefs?
After spending some time noticing your thoughts and perhaps uncovering some underlying, possibly not so helpful beliefs, write them down. And then one by one go through and challenge each belief. “Why do I think exercise is awful?”, “Why do I feel I can’t meditate?”, “Why do you fall away from your plans for wellness?”, “Why?, Why?, Why?”.
Keep going deeper into your reasons and perhaps excuses for why you CANNOT.
Notice all thoughts that flow up as you explore. And then ask yourself why again. There is usually a common thread that once identified we can begin to accept and then reprogram.
Common threads are… a lack of self care and/or self love, unworthiness, guilt, shame, fear, lack of trust, unable to see or even daydream about the change, the new. Get clear on your threads.
Next is often the hardest part, loving and accepting the threads of darkness and shadow that dim our ability to love ourselves whole and treat ourselves with compassion and care. There are many practices that explore shadow work but for me I try to keep it SIMPLE… In a quiet and safe space identify the thread (emotion), connect with what that emotion feels like. The more you can allow yourself to FEEL the thread, the less it pulls on you, it just becomes apart of you.
We will never rid ourselves of the dark shadows. That is impossible anytime there is also light. We need them both. The moon herself shines through the darkness with the help of the sun.
Now that you love that unworthiness thread a little bit, can you find a way to move with it. Creating mantras that support can be helpful. For example, “It is my birthright to be worthy”.
Follow the thoughts and emotions into the threads —> then love the shadow parts just a smidgen more —> then reprogram your thoughts and words to find more love and compassion.
Can you create more joy along the way?
As you start to do this work you will notice that changing rooted beliefs that you’ve been backing up with thoughts and emotions and actions for years , can result in some discomfort. This is normal. Discomfort is a normal, natural, and to-be-expected part of all growth and change. When you add on to your house, there is the discomfort of construction. When you grow or start a business there is lots of discomfort in finding customers, employees, and support. When you start a yoga practice there is the discomfort of getting out of your head and into your body. It is for this reason that you must create joy along the way. Make the discomfort more comfortable with music, friends, laughter, yummy healthy food and of course dancing!! Check out this Create Your Own Joy Resource List for more ways to add joy to your everyday wellness work. If you don’t enjoy something it will be very hard to stay consistent.