As the weather begins to warm up and the days become longer, we may feel a shift in our body and mind. It’s very normal this time of year. It’s a time when our body wants to be rid of things that may have been weighing itself down from the winter. We yearn to feel lighter and refreshed in mind, body, and spirit!
As the seasons change, a cleanse could be very beneficial. Cleansing should occur at least once or twice a year, but it is also suggested that as the seasons change, a good cleanse can better prepare us for the coming season. Just like the temperature, the foods we eat change throughout the year. Going from spring to summer, the body is preparing itself for some of the busiest months of the year.
Traditionally, cultures all around the world have practiced seasonal cleansing in different ways. Springtime is the time to give your liver some extra love too. The liver is how the body removes toxins, and that is how the liver earns the spot of one of the hardest working organs!
The liver works with many other organs in our body to detox blood, produce bile, break down hormones, and act as a storage facility for our vitamins and minerals. If the liver is not functioning properly, it affects many other areas of our body.
Some more important functions of the liver include removing old blood cells, helping the intestines process nutrients, chemical production for blood clotting, the breakdown and metabolizing of alcohol and consumed medications, and the production of necessary proteins and cholesterol. When people hear ‘liver disease’, they typically think of alcoholism, but that is not the only cause of liver disease or failure.
Some other risk factors associated with liver disease include low potassium levels, drug use, exposure to certain chemicals, obesity, processed foods, viral infections, and autoimmune diseases.
If your liver is not performing at its best, you may experience gas or bloating, constipation, heartburn, acid reflux, yellowish tint to skin and eyes, high blood pressure, difficulty losing weight, cognitive difficulties, dark urine, poor appetite, and chronic fatigue.
If you want to support your liver, there are certain foods you should focus on. These foods include beets, carrots, tomatoes, grapefruit, spinach, citrus fruits, cabbage, turmeric, walnuts, avocados, apples, Brussels sprouts, garlic, dandelion root, leafy green vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, green tea, artichoke, olive oil and alternative grains like quinoa, millet and buckwheat.
There are several food programs, supplements and other programs available to cleanse your liver. It’s important to find the one that is best for you. Consult your doctor if you have any concerns or questions.
Below are some general tips that have worked for me:
Hydrate!
Eat clean, seasonal, and organic REAL food
Exercise regularly or incorporate some type of movement
Practice calming techniques like meditation and relaxation
Take a good quality probiotic
Get the proper amount of sleep
Avoid alcohol and tobacco products
Avoid processed foods and sugar
Adopting a healthier lifestyle or cleansing into the spring season may provide much more energy, improved digestion, healthier and brighter skin, better sleep, reduced stress, and better mental clarity and cognitive functioning; along with a boost to your immune system and more balanced blood sugar levels.
The spring season isn’t just a time for spring cleaning your closet. It’s important to reflect on things that have been weighing you down or things that may be toxic. Consider different stressors in your life. They play a huge part in your health and body function.
In addition to a spring cleanse, I recommend considering products you may be using, people that are in your life, habits that may need some adjusting, and choices that may or may not be serving you well. Moving forward, listen to your “gut” and give some thought to where small changes could greatly impact your health and happiness. There is no better time to Spring into Better Health!
Today’s author: Kim Wilson is a Certified Holistic Health Coach (CHC) and owns her own business, Kim Wilson, LLC, which specializes in empowering and educating women to get to the root of what’s going on with their own unique, individual body. She works with women one-on-one and coaches through online groups and programs. Learn more about Kim at her website www.kimwilson.me, from her Facebook page, or find her on Instagram.
How do you connect with others? What are some of your most valuable connections and relationships? Coaches Carol, Laura, and Kelye explore the topic of connection in this third podcast episode. Play in your browser with the media player below or click “WWR Coaches Discuss Connection”.
One of the things I like to do before going to bed is to make sure there are no dishes in the sink. I like coming down in the morning to start my day feeling calm, peaceful and curious about what the new day will bring. What I know to be true about myself and how I operate best in the world, is that the stuff around me affects my energy…. when my space feels peaceful, I feel peaceful. A sink full of dirty dishes feels messy and chaotic to me so that is why I make a point, most nights, to clean it up before I retire for the evening. The problem is that I am almost always the first person to go to bed and sometimes more dishes accumulate. This was the case last night.
My daughter is home from college for Easter, and she and her boyfriend were up several hours after me. This morning the sink wasn’t as neat and tidy as I had left it. One of the items in the sink was my favorite mug. You know the one… it’s the one that is just the right size, that fits in your hands perfectly and that when you drink out of it, you just can’t help but feel happy. I was up early this morning to get ready for my exercise class. When I came downstairs, I saw the mug in the sink. I knew that when I returned home, after the workout, I would want to use it to enjoy a nice cup of tea, so instead of putting it in the dishwasher, I began to hand wash it. Now, mind you, it is about 4:45 am and although I am a morning person by nature, I’m not fully awake yet. I’m not sure exactly what happened but suffice it to say that the mug slipped from my hand and broke 🙁
What happened next, you might be wondering!?! Well, I picked the pieces up, put them in the trash, and headed out the door without any negative thoughts or feelings. I don’t know about you, but for me, this felt like a little miracle, because not that many years ago, what happened next would have looked a lot different.
Here’s how the Laura from a few years would have reacted…
There would have been a significant amount of criticism directed at both myself, as well as my daughter. My inner critic would have had a field day. My self-talk would have been something like, “You are so clumsy! Why aren’t you more careful?!? If you would just slow down a little bit, things like this wouldn’t happen!” Blah, blah, blah….
But it doesn’t stop there! When something goes wrong, our egos want to project any negative thoughts and feelings away from ourselves and onto someone or something else, so my daughter would have been part of my inner critics rant as well. My inner dialog around her may have sounded something like this… “If only she hadn’t left the mug in the sink, this wouldn’t have happened! She knows I don’t like leaving dishes in the sink overnight! It’s like she doesn’t even care about what matters to me!” Blah, blah, blah…
Self-Criticism and blame would have disrupted my calm, peaceful and curious start to my day. I would have been frustrated and angry! But, I didn’t go there! That was the miracle 🙂
As I reflect back on where I am today versus where I was several years ago it is easy to see how far I’ve come. So the question I’m sure at least a few of you are asking is, ‘How did you get to where you are today’. The answer is by practicing being compassionate and really paying attention to my self-talk. I’ve been using something I call ‘ace-ing compassion‘. Here is how it works…
Awareness – I believe this is alway the first step if. It’s a simple truth that you can’t change something you aren’t aware of, so listen to yourself. Pay attention to the thoughts that were present before you reacted. Learn to see your reactions as gifts that can teach you more about yourself. I believe that deeply knowing yourself is the key to your personal evolution.
You saw in my story above that before I started practicing being compassionate that my thoughts were all very critical – both of myself as well as of my daughter.
Curiosity – Once you are aware of the thoughts you are thinking, get curious about them. Curiosity and wonder are beautiful lenses to look at life through because they take out judgement. Ask empowering questions about your thoughts like, “Is that thought true?”, “Can I absolutely know that’s true?”, “Could there be another way to look at this situation?”, etc.
Once I looked at the mug situation with curiosity, what I saw was that I actually believe I am a pretty coordinated person and not overly clumsy. The mug was slippery from the soap and I really believe it was just an accident. And, the truth about my daughter is that I know she loves me deeply, and blaming her would not help the situation.
Empathy – The final step is to turn to empathy, both for the part of yourself you were criticizing as well as anyone you were blaming. For yourself, you want to practice talking to yourself like you would talk to someone you love and for anyone you might be blaming, I encourage you to look for a more generous assumption.
In my case, here is how I shifted my self-talk to be more compassionate and more in line with how I would talk to someone I love… “Don’t be so hard on yourself…It was an accident! And, it’s just a mug that can easily be replaced. Please don’t worry about it.” Then I shifted my inner dialog around my daughter. Instead of blaming or criticizing her, I chose to remind myself that I know she loves me…that sometimes I too leave dishes in the sink usually because I’m just so tired by the time I’m making my way to bed that it feels easier and, when I really think about it, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually told her that this is something that is important to me.
One of my guiding life principles is this…”Be the change you wish to see in the world”. A quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. I believe we can all agree that more compassion in the world would be a wonderful thing. So if you are like me and would like to expand compassion in your life, I hope you will consider joining me and the Wholistic Woman community on April 25th in Frederick, Maryland. I will be leading a workshop title ‘Be Compassionate’ where we will be exploring this topic. If you’d like more information, please click here.
In the meantime, I love hearing from you! If you start experimenting with the ‘ACE-ing compassion’ process, please let me know what you think. Talking to yourself like you would talk to your best friend or someone you love is such a simple concept but it doesn’t mean it’s easy. Please share your successes as well as your struggles. We all learn from one another. You just might be the teacher someone is waiting to hear from 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope you look for ways to bring more compassion in to you life today and in the days ahead. ~ Laura
Today’s author: Laura Hall, CPC, CDWF: As a certified professional coach since 2009, Laura Hall, Certified Daring Way™ Facilitator has been helping people just like you make changes in. As a mother of 2 girls, Laura has a special interest in coaching parents, so if you still have children living at home, ask Laura about her Wholehearted Parenting programs. Laura can be reached via email at [email protected] or feel free to visit her website HallCoaching.com
I am writing this blog on a very blustery day when there is still a remnant of snow on the lawn. Despite that, I can see that spring is determined to arrive. With the lingering snow, I have also spotted one of my very hardy red tulip plants starting to make its way above ground. That little plant was a gift for a Mother’s Day long ago from my awesome son, and its reappearance surprises me and makes me smile every year about this time.
As I look out the window, I also see one of the bushes in my backyard with the slightest sign of new light green leaves. All that new life makes me happy, and gives me a feeling of joy and hope. Spring is such a good reminder that no matter how hard or cold the winter has been, literally or figuratively, spring will always reappear in its full glory. Spring seems to be nature’s way of telling us “hang in there, it’s all going to be OK!”, and I love that feeling of renewal that the new season carries with it.
Spring usually has a way of getting me motivated to walk more, eat healthier, take time to enjoy the outdoors, and maybe even do some spring cleaning. What is spring telling you? If life has brought some challenges recently, what would you like the spring season to bring your way? I love the change of seasons. It always feels like we get a bit of a clean slate when the weather changes, and I take advantage of that and try to do some personal self-assessment. I ask myself, where am I right now, and what would l like to do, be, and feel in this new season that is about to start?
I’ll encourage you to take a little time to mediate on that for yourself and think about all you are grateful for from this past winter. Let the challenges teach you what they may, and then make the commitment to spring forward and visualize what could be next for you! Just imagine, like my sweet little tulip plant, spring could surprise you in the most wonderful way!
Happy Spring Visualizing, Everyone!
Today’s blog was written by WWR Partner Coach, Donna Kettell. Donna is a certified professional coach (CPC) and a master practitioner in energy leadership (ELI-MP). Her certifications were earned through The Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC), which is accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
Today’s guest blogger is Wholistic Woman Retreats member Tiffany Richardson. Tiffany is a 2018 scholarship recipient and writes about her life experiences and how she came to find our 2018 Be Creative retreat. Welcome, Tiffany! We are so happy you found our community!
Earlier this year, someone told me about Wholistic Woman Retreats and how they meet once a month during dinner time. We talked about it briefly and then the topic was never brought up again.
However, I was so interested in learning more about it that I Googled it and found the website. As I was scrolling down to look for future retreats, the words “Be Creative” caught my eye.
You see, I used to be so creative. I wrote many short stories and I shared them with family and friends who enjoyed reading them. I told hundreds of stories using sign language in front of an audience who kept asking for more. I even sang songs in ASL at my Deaf church. I was in theatre arts at my church, at my college, and once for a community theatre company in Houston, Texas. I used to draw all the time.
All of that stopped almost 25 years ago. Why?
My mind was blocked. I couldn’t get it to open up. I did attend a couple of those “Paint with Wine” events, but I wasn’t painting with my own creativity or my own ideas. I was painting by following the instructor’s steps and all of the six ladies who were there had the same image as the one I painted. It wasn’t unique as if it had come from my own creative juices. It’s like coloring a picture that has numbers to indicate which color that specific spot had to be.
So what happened 25 years ago? I went into full survival mode without realizing it or even knowing that specific term. I was in an abusive marriage with a man who was a classic narcissist. I mean, if I were to read an article about what a narcissist abuser is usually like, I would find myself nodding because the characteristics matched.
When our daughter was only eight weeks old, I called the police because my husband was threatening to kill me that night and he was so angry that his whole body shook with both hands shaking too. I knew that my baby and I weren’t safe there – we never were – but that night he couldn’t control himself. I left him without looking back.
However, he did almost everything in his power to try to destroy me and to take custody of our daughter. He harassed me to no end for ten long years after I left him.
My daughter is now 18 years old. We haven’t seen him or heard from him for eight years now. I took care of her by working two full-time jobs when I first left him. I realized I couldn’t afford to keep the roof over our heads, so I took on a third job, but it was only part time teaching ASL at a community college two nights a week. I lived paycheck to paycheck for 18 years. I struggled to keep my head above the water.
There were times when we had to live with strangers because the other option would be to go to a homeless shelter. We used to get our food from the food bank or use food stamps.
But we finally got an apartment of our own in 2012, with just the two of us. I’ve managed to stay afloat since then. I used the food bank for the first three years since moving to that apartment.
By 2015, things started to look better for us. I still am living paycheck to paycheck, I still struggle, but I do see hope because I’m still recovering and yes, it is taking a long time for me to heal.
I remember when I saw a video of a strong Deaf woman teaching self-defense to Deaf women all over the world. I asked her if she would travel to our city. In my email to her, I wrote that I wanted to learn self-defense because I was a victim of domestic violence.
Know what she said?
“Tiffany, you are not a victim anymore. You are a survivor!”
That was so empowering for me. I saw myself in a new light.
Being a victim is so dark for me, so when I was finally able to say “I am a survivor,” things began to look brighter. With that said, I don’t want to be a victim anymore. I don’t want to be in survival mode anymore. I want to thrive and live to my fullest potential, whatever that is.
This is why I was interested in Wholistic Woman Retreats and I want to go to ALL of the events!
When I saw the Be Creative event I told myself, “This is it! This is how I will start my journey of shifting from my survival mode to my new way of living by thriving!”
I was getting so excited as I read the description of the event. I searched for the “register now” button and when I did, I was dismayed to see the price. I really wanted to go, so I searched to see if there were anything like a scholarship.
Of course, when I saw that there was one, I was overjoyed and I applied right away.
I don’t really remember everything that I said in the application, but I do remember saying that I understood or thought that for a woman to be wholistic, she would need to grow and develop some kind of harmony with her heart, mind, spirit, and body, and that it is a process that will require time, patience, practice, and lots of support from other women. I wanted to do that and I also wanted to thrive!
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to attend the “Be Creative” retreat!
Since the retreat, I’ve been drawing, writing, and even dreaming again. I am so grateful for this wonderful opportunity to participate the retreat with you all!
“Some people arrive and make such a beautiful impact on your life, you can barely remember what life was like without them.” – Anna Taylor
What does friendship mean to you? When you think of connection, what comes to mind first?
We all have a yearning, on some level, to connect with others. We endeavor to build friendships and create our own circles of people we know, like, and trust. Creating these communities not only staves off loneliness and sadness, but exposes us to new ideas, builds a support network, and allows us to fulfill an inner drive to bond with others in varying degrees.
Who’s in your circle? Who supports you, and who do you connect with or support?
Take a moment and think about your own friendship circles. You likely have one group of friends with whom you are extremely close, followed by a second circle of good friends but not friends who are like family, followed by acquaintances, followed by business connections… the list could go on and on. When you pause to examine your connections, you probably have more acquaintances and casual connections than good friends or best friends, but you have more people in your network than you might initially think.
Some of my most valuable connections have been with the amazing women I’ve met over the years. My two closest friends are incredible. I’ve known both of them now for more than a decade, and over that time, our friendships have evolved to allow for us to grow individually. Michelle was my college roommate and at first, I wasn’t sure she and I would work out very well – she was loud and blunt, whereas I was quiet and shy. Yet somehow, we each rubbed off on the other, so I tempered her while some of her forthrightness seeped over to me. We grew together and changed each other for the better.
Casey and I are also very much the introvert/extrovert pair. We met in college, but despite our personality differences, we hit it off right away. I was still coming out of my shy shell at the time, whereas she was outgoing and social. She and I have seen each other through the worst life can throw at us, and we’ve come through the fire to the other side. We didn’t so much change each other over the years as we have supported and stood by each other.
I know I am not the same person I was a decade ago, but neither are these two friends – yet my friendships with them are stronger than ever, even accounting for three states being in the way with one of them.
Women supporting women goes beyond personal friendships as well. While writing this blog, I realized that all my mentors in business are women, which is more of a happy accident than an intentional occurrence. I certainly would not be where I am without their guidance and support, and over the last few years, these connections have blossomed from solely business relationships and more into the realm of friendships. I know I can go to these women when I have a problem to ask for advice, and we share our failures and successes with each other.
A strong community of women supporting women is one which inspires, supports, and transforms. Over the last weekend when I attended the Be Creative retreat, I realized my personal community had expanded again. Women who I had just met that day were welcoming and kind, and as a group we cheered successes, embraced our faults, and assisted through mistakes.
Today’s blog is written by one of our alliance partners, Kira Tregoning. Kira is the owner and founder of Maia Media Management, a local marketing business. She offers social media management, consultations, and trainings, as well as video services, proofreading, editing, and manuscript critique services. Kira is also a published author with two fantasy novels available on Amazon and more on the way. Learn more about her at www.maiasocial.com
Have you ever had one of those mornings where you felt rushed, frazzled, and frustrated?
How about the morning when the bed feels so good that you just can’t seem to get up and out of it?
I know I have.
If the morning is stressful, the day just seems to follow.
How did you wake up this morning?
How you awaken each day dramatically affects your success in every single area of your life. If you want to transform your life faster than you ever imagined possible, start by having a Miracle Morning!
What is a Miracle Morning, you ask?
It’s waking up early and going through an intentional self-care routine that provides relaxation, energy, and productivity all before the day even begins.
Hal Elrod, the author of The Miracle Morning, is an impressive man. After being declared dead for six full minutes following a car crash, he was revived in the air, and then stayed in a coma for several days. After waking up, he was told he would never walk again, but miraculously he healed. Then with even more ups and downs in his rollercoaster life, he developed the miracle morning routine.
He said, “Remember, the moment you accept total responsibility for everything in your life is the moment you claim the power to change anything in your life.”
Hal studied the best of the best in conscious self-care practices and found six to be the most powerful, especially when they were bundled together. He calls them the Life S.A.V.E.R.S. He makes it clear that to become successful you have to dedicate time to personal development each day; he also gives us the six-step routine to create and shape that time.
Whether you do 6 minutes or 60 minutes a day, do one, all six, or any combination of the practices that is right for you. It will be like pumping Wholistic Health and Wellness fuel into yourself!
Mornings are an opportunity to start anew–a new day, a new page, and you get to set the tone. Self-care practices increase your health and wellness body, mind, heart, and spirit.
And since that kind of energy is contagious, you will be spreading goodness into the world too. Not a bad way to start the day and make a difference for the better in this world of ours. Here are the six steps to the Miracle Morning:
SILENCE
The idea is to quiet the mind, block out the chatter, and start the day with calm and loving thoughts. Meditation. Prayer. Breathing.
AFFIRMATIONS
Encouraging words to tell yourself to achieve your goals, overcome fears, be healthy and happy and live out your purpose.
VISUALIZATION
Imagine yourself doing each thing step-by-step that you need to do to accomplish your goals. Then imagine what it will feel like when you succeed.
EXERCISE
It doesn’t have to be power lifting or long-distance running. Just do something for a few moments to get the blood and oxygen flowing to the brain.
READING
Fill your brain with positive thoughts and ideas toward self-improvement. Absorb the knowledge of people who have accomplished the things you want to do.
SCRIBING
Writing or journaling is a great way to process your thoughts and reflect on your life. It will help you become more self-aware and more articulate.
These daily rituals allow us to pause, contemplate, concentrate, and celebrate!
Lifesavers indeed!
If you want to learn more about the Miracle Morning, join us this Saturday, March 3, 2018, at Turf Valley for our BE CREATIVE event or read Hal Elrod’s book.
Miracle mornings are a powerful way to live the life of your dreams.
Today’s author: Kat Middleton is a professional certified coach and the founder and CEO of Wholehearted Concepts, LLC. Kat is a Professional Energy Empowerment and Self-Acceptance Coach who specializes in helping clients personally and professionally that struggle with inner doubt, perfectionism and being way too hard on themselves. She is available for private one-on-one coaching as well as group workshops, seminars, and speaking events. Learn more about her at her website: www.wholeheartedconcepts.com
Well nobody came up with it. It exists since human mankind. Remember those cave drawings? Aren’t they fascinating? Humans have always been driven to be creative. It’s part of who we are.
We are all born creative geniuses. The educational system dumbs us down, according to the results of a test developed by Dr. George Land and Beth Jarman to measure the creative potential of NASA scientists. The test was very successful but the question where creativity comes from remained. They subsequently used the test for school children. They tested 1,600 children between the ages of 4 and 5. The tests looked at the ability to come up with new and innovative ideas to problems.
The results shocked them: 98% fell into the genius category of imagination. Wow! The same kids were tested again five years later and only 30% fell into the same category. At age 15, it was only 12%, and as for adults… How much are we in touch with our creative thinking after years of schooling? Only 2%.
What happened? Years of schooling, that’s what happened. Learning how to pick A, B, or C to pass test. How creative is that? Right … not very much.
It’s safe to say that most of us adults have lost our creative touch. We don’t dance, sing, draw, paint, or sit around the campfire telling stories anymore. We are trained to follow rules and work hard. As an art instructor, I hear often from my adult students that they stopped painting when they were six years old. Around that age we start to judge and compare ourselves to others and when a teacher tells us that the kid sitting next to us made this wonderful painting and all the other classmates think so too, we look at our own painting and come to the conclusion that it’s not good. Not good enough. And that we definitely don’t fall into the category of the anointed ones oozing with talent, so the notion of being creative is abandoned.
It took the joy away. And sheer joy helps us to get into deep play, as Martha Beck calls it. It’s about losing yourself, forgetting about time and being a child again. That’s how we learn. We learn new skills. We learn how to deal with what’s in front of us and afterwards we feel accomplished. We all have seen puppies and kittens play. We love those. How many hits do those YouTube videos get when there is a puppy chasing its tail? So funny and charming.
It’s not all play for that puppy though. Being playful is preparing it for real life, for dangers, how to get food and all those things it needs to know. The same goes for us humans. We come into the world and have to learn all those complicated skills. We play, we are being silly, and we don’t care. People even encourage us with gestures, big smiles and telling us how great we are. Until …. yes until our sixth birthday or thereabout. That’s when we start to compare ourselves to others and start questioning our actions. We stop being silly—most of us, anyway. We stop wondering and if our parents tell us we ask too many questions, we stop that too.
Over the years, we lose our sense of wonder. We lose ourselves and many of us feel down and out. We have lost ourselves. Intuitive Painting will get you back in touch with your playfulness. Deep play is what we are going to do in the Intuitive Painting session.
You will get all the freedom you need to unlock your creativity using a brush, your fingers or a paper towel. Just play and have fun. It cleanses your mind like meditating. The only instruction you get is:
Get in touch with your inner child and ENJOY!!
Come experience intuitive painting with us at the Be Creative retreat at the beautiful Turf Valley Resort on March 3! Register soon – we’re getting very close to the event and we would love to see you there!
Today’s author: Elisabeth Vismans is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), an Award-Winning Artist, and founder of Quality Within, helping women in transition to find their life purpose. She developed a unique coaching program using the visual language as an extra modality. She is also an Art Instructor and conducts painting and coaching workshops. Learn more about Elisabeth at her website: www.qualitywithin.com, or from her Facebook page.
How do you incorporate creativity into your life? Coaches Carol, Laura, and Kelye explore the topic of creativity in this second podcast episode. Play in your browser with the media player below or click “WWR Coaches Discuss Creativity”.
If you were asked if you practice personal hygiene, what response would come to mind? Probably something along the lines of “Of course! I take showers. I brush my teeth. I comb my hair. I wash my clothes.”
You probably aren’t having more holistic thoughts about your hygiene and thinking things like: “Of course! I use aromatherapy shower steamers. I use a diffuser every day. I practice yoga twice a week. I soak in the tub after the gym.”
I have posed that same question to many people and once they responded, I asked if they knew the true definition of hygiene. Most responded that hygiene is being clean, when in fact it’s defined as “conditions or practices conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease, especially through cleanliness.”
Notice that the definition includes “especially through cleanliness” and not simply “through cleanliness”. Therefore, maintaining health and preventing disease by being clean is not the only method.
I share all of this with you to say that many of us do not practice emotional, mental, or spiritual hygiene. We focus only on the body because the norm is thinking that hygiene solely involves cleanliness.
When considering hygiene, it’s important to include your mind, body, and spirit. We must take care and be proactive with all three in order to truly live a healthy life. We shouldn’t wait to address intense pain until it’s time to go to the doctor. We shouldn’t have to seek a mental health professional just because we ignored our excessive stress and anxiety. Instead, we need to be proactive and practice taking actions to maintain good health and prevent conditions which impair normal functioning.
Self-care products are a fantastic and popular way we can do that. With health and wellness being on the forefront today, there are several self-care products on the market that can help us be proactive. In this blog, we’re going to focus on those that involve essential oils.
Essential oils are the concentrated essences of various fruits, herbs, flowers, and plants and have been used for centuries. They are one of the greatest untapped resources of the world because our modern world had simply forgotten about the medicinal and cleansing properties of them. Nowadays, they are becoming increasingly popular and should be part of everyone’s regimen. Here are just some of the ways they can help:
Relieve muscle pain
Relieve inflammation and joint discomfort
Reduce the amount of cortisol released
Relieve sinusitis
Rid heart palpitations
Relieve headaches
Relieve diverticulitis
Reduce anxiety
There are thousands of essential oils and each have their own benefits, but they also have benefits when used together. For example, clove has antibacterial properties but in order to relieve diverticulitis, you have to use peppermint, chamomile, rosemary, and clove together. Some oils that are commonly used in self-care products are lavender, lemon, orange, peppermint, and eucalyptus.
If you are looking to add essential oils into your daily hygiene routine, you can use them by themselves or make self-care products like bath bombs, bath teas, shower steamers, and bath salts. Bath salts are wonderful products because they can address your mind and body at the same time. For instance, if you use a lavender bath salt, the Epsom salt can relieve muscle aches and pains before it turns into arthritis, the baking soda can help soothe skin irritations before eczema occurs, and the lavender reduces stress to help avoid things like a mental breakdown. Another great benefit to bath salts is that they require you to take a bath, which means that you have the opportunity to be still and shut everything else out: no phone, no book, no music, and no one talking to you.
I encourage you to do some reflecting and see what lurking problems you may have that you don’t pay much attention to before they become something you can’t ignore. If you have physical aches and pains, I encourage you to search for an essential oil that relieves the pain and start including that in your daily regimen. I also encourage you to find an oil that targets your emotions and your mind and add that into your daily regimen. You will be amazed at the difference in how you feel overall!
Today’s author: Casey Clark is an affiliate coach with Wholistic Woman and manages a health and wellness practice, Heaven On Earth, which focuses on self-care. Having been a student and working, both full-time, Casey has a deep understanding for the importance of self-care and is committed to helping those who lead busy lives, especially young professionals, accomplish prioritizing self-care so that they can live a holistically balanced, well and fulfilled life. She uses her own experiences as a motivator to help her clients achieve lasting, self-compassionate change that is aligned with their values. Find out more about Casey at her website: www.aheavenlyyou.com
