5 Morning Habits to Start Your Day

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Have you ever hit snooze on your alarm one too many times, only to wake up and rush yourself out the door for work? From the stress to the missed breakfasts, it is not our preferred way to start the day. How you start your morning can set the tone for the rest of your day, which is why it’s so important to have some good morning habits.

Morning movement will provide you with clarity and focus for the day aheadBefore Anything, Drink Some Water: Make a habit of drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning. After a good night’s sleep, your body needs to be hydrated. Keep a glass of water on your nightstand before bed for a visual reminder when you wake up. If you prefer fresh, cold water, put your water bottle beside the coffee machine or something else you use first thing in the morning. Warm lemon water is also a great way to hydrate in the morning because it feels energizing and gets your digestive system moving. These visual reminders are helpful when trying to establish a habit.

Move Your Body: Moving your body increases your energy and releases endorphins so you start your day feeling good and motivated. It also provides you with more clarity and focus. Not everyone enjoys working out in the morning, and not everyone has the time. However, you can still dedicate a few minutes in the morning to moving your body. Whether it’s a stretching routine in your room or walking your dog around the neighborhood. If you need to, wake up a few minutes earlier to make that time for yourself. If you can, take your exercise outside to get some fresh air.

Journaling: Mental wellbeing is just as crucial for a healthy lifestyle as physical wellbeing.Take a few minutes each morning to write in a journal. Find your journaling style. Start with one sentence a day or write down some affirmations, things you are grateful for, or some morning thoughts. This helps clear your mind and sets a positive tone for the morning. Journaling and other mindfulness practices, such as meditation, also help lower stress.

Eat A Healthy Breakfast: We need energy to function at our best, so the first meal of the day is the most important. Having complex carbohydrates, such as a slice of whole-grain toast, with a source of protein and healthy fats, will keep you satisfied for much longer while also giving you all the nutrients you need. I have to admit that breakfast is the hardest meal for me. On days I don’t have time, I always make sure to at least have a protien drink to get a good portion of the nutrients needed.

Keep Up with Your Hygiene: Your morning routine should included a hygiene routine. Just the basics are needed, whether that’s just brushing your teeth, showering or following all the steps in your skincare. Taking care of your hygiene not only ensures that you’re clean and fresh for the day, but helps decrease stress and starts your day on a more positive note.

Healthy Habits to Start the New Year Right

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The new year is the perfect time to to start building healthy habits. We all tend to think well of what our resolutions may be, but in reality, only about 9% of the population succeed. Pretty low number. In fact, it feels like a fresh start is needed right after the busy holiday season. We all want to (hopefully) feel rested, re-energized and ready to get back on track. Whether you want to eat healthier or improve your mental well-being, here are some healthy habits that you can focus on in the new year.

Limit Screen Time: If the first and last thing you do every day is browsing your phone and checking work emails, try to make a habit of limiting your screen time. When you wake up in the morning, try not to check your phone or laptop for the first half-hour. Instead, use that time for yourself. Set your goals and intentions for the day, make a healthy breakfast, or do your morning workout routine. Before bed, set your phone aside and take time to unwind and relax. This will increase productivity, decrease stress, help you sleep better, and improve your mood.

Cook More Meals at Home: The holidays are full of good company and good food, but the new year is the perfect time to start using your kitchen again. Not only will cooking your meals save you money, but it will also help you get back on track with a regular routine. You can choose your ingredients, understand what you’re eating (and how much), and eat a balanced diet full of all the nutrients you need. If you struggle to cook, start by making one meal or preparing your snacks at home, and stick to easy recipes until you feel more comfortable.

Move Your Body: This is one of the most common healthy habits we attempt to start in the new year. Try to incorporate some movement into your day, even if it’s just pacing around the house while talking on the phone. If you have a lunch break, use that time to take a walk or do some stretches. If you can, take your exercise outdoors to get some fresh air and clear your mind. I highly recommend a step tracker! I personally have a Fitbit and love the fact that I can compete with friends in step contests. It makes movement fun!

Practice Self-Care and Hygiene: Sometimes, it can be challenging to find the motivation or energy to take care of yourself. Small steps can tremendously help your mental and physical well-being. Whether it’s getting a manicure or cooking a healthy dinner for yourself, try to practice more self-care this year. If this is difficult for you, start with building small but important habits, such as a nightly skin routine. Meditate in the morning. It can give you peace, calm and balance, and it can benefit your overall health. Pick just one thing and focus on it for 30 days, then add another. You deserve it!

Establish a Sleep Schedule: Sleep is such an essential part of health and well-being, but many of us tend to ignore our body’s need for rest. Try to stick to a sleep schedule that gives you 7-8 hours of sleep each night. You should be going to sleep and waking up around the same times each day, regardless of if it’s a weekday or weekend. This helps yourbody establish a natural sleep-wake cycle, so you get good quality sleep. If you have trouble falling asleep, try to cut down on the caffeine and put your screensaway at least an hour before bed. There are great apps out there that can also help. Calm, Insight Timer and Headspace are a few that I use often.

Always remember that engaging in a self-care routine has been clinically proven to reduce or eliminate anxiety and depression, reduce stress, improve concentration, minimize frustration and anger, increase happiness, improve energy, and more. (April 2020,SNHU.com)

Hydration Tips for the Holidays

We all know how important it is to drink water, but it’s not always easy to get our daily intake. For me it is even worse during the holidays! One long month full of sugary and salty snacks, with the hustle and bustle (or should I say chaotic) craziness.

I use a few tips and tricks I have been given over the years to make sure I’m drinking half of my bodyweight in ounces each day, and you can try them, too. Here are some tips to help you drink more water so you can stay hydrated and healthy. Make a few different flavors to store so you have a variety.

1. Flavored Water! Try flavoring your water with tea bags or fresh herbs and fruits. Fresh mint makes your water taste refreshing without adding any sugars or unhealthy additives. You can also add berries, watermelon, cucumber, lemon, and whatever other fruits you prefer. Many tea companies sell cold tea infusers that are made specifically for cold water. These flavors will make drinking water much more exciting and delicious.

Pomegranate Apple Infused Water

4-6 C Water (filtered)~ 2 organic apples (cored and sliced)~1 organic pomegranate (white pith discarded, arils removed)~ 2-3 cinnamon sticks.

2. Buy a New Water Bottle! As silly as it may sound, having a nice water bottle can motivate you to use it more. Just as new workout clothes motivate us to go to the gym, a shiny new water bottle can motivate us to drink more water. There are a variety of water bottles out there, even some high-tech ones that connect to your phone with reminders to drink water. Many water bottles also contain marked measurements on the side, which is very helpful if you want to keep track of your water drinking progress throughout the day. Find something you love and use it.

3. Download a Water-Tracking App! These days, there really is an app for everything, including drinking water. These apps will help you track how much water you drink and how much is left, to meet your daily intake goal. Most of these apps also send reminders throughout the day to drink more water. We check our phones constantly, so having notifications is a sure way to remind us to drink more.

4. Bring Your Water Bottle with You Everywhere! It’s difficult to remember to drink water, especially if it’s not nearby. Visual reminders, such as your water bottle, help tremendously. Take your water bottle everywhere with you (yes for all of that shopping you will be doing) and make sure to refill it as soon as it’s empty. Even if you’re just walking around th house, bring a water bottle, or have more than one throughout your house. If you can make this a habit, then the practice of drinking water will come more easily.

5. Drink Sparkling Water! When you need a pick me up and regular water just isn’t cutting it, try drinking some sparkling water instead. There are many flavorsof sparkling water, which taste similar to soda(without the sweetness). You can try endless flavor combinations, and the carbonation is refreshing and exciting. Just be cautious of sugar substitutes that some companies add.

Just remember you will have good days and bad days with your intake. Have a full glass of water when you first wake up, and again before all meals. When something tastes good, like infused water, you will look forward to drinking it instead of avoiding it.

Essential Oils for Mindfulness

es·sen·tial oil

əˈsen(t)SHəl oil/

noun

1. a natural oil typically obtained by distillation and having the characteristic fragrance of the plant or other source from which it is extracted.

Essential oils are found in many sources of plants, stems, roots, flowers and bark on trees.  The nature of an essential oil varies from plant to plant, within botanical families, and from species to species. Each oil has it’s own components that are used in many things from cosmetics, lotions, bath salts and in healthcare.  The oils can be used with a single aroma or with multiples combined.

I am going to talk about a couple of oils that have many uses, but work well with mindfulness and meditation.  These are a few of my favorites and the benefits they can offer to help you relax.

Frankincense:  This oil has many uses but the aromatic influence is to help focus energy, minimize distraction, and improve concentration.  It also helps to ease hyperactivity, impatience, irritability, restlessness and enhance spiritual awareness and meditation.  It’s scent is a rich, deep, warm, balsamic, sweet with incense like overtones.

Lavender:  This oil promotes consciousness, health, love, peace, and a general sense of well being.  It also nurtures creativity. Lavender is a universal oil that has traditionally been known to balance the body and to work wherever there is a need.  It may help anxiety, nervous tension, mental clarity, and emotional balance.  It’s scent is floral, sweet, herbaceous, balsamic with woody overtones.

White Fir:  This oil promotes grounding, anchoring, and empowerment.  It can stimulate the mind while allowing the body to relax.  Fir creates the symbolic effect of an umbrella protecting the earth and bringing energy in from the universe.  It’s scent is fresh, woody, earthy and sweet.

For more information and other oils https://www.doterra.com/US/en/site/mandygaskill

Mindful Breathing

We do it all the time. Breath that is.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Here is a simple exercise to help you focus on being more mindful.

1. Sit comfortably with your eyes closed.  Inhale slowly and deeply through your nostrils and hold up to 5 seconds then exhale slowly through your mouth.
2. Tune into your body and try to relax any tense areas.  Keep practicing your breathing.
3. Feel your chest rising and falling, the air passing through your body.
4. Notice your mind if it wanders.  It is normal to be distracted for those stray thoughts, but when you notice them, gently return your focus back to your breathing
5. Breathe mindfully for a few minutes and gently return your focus back to your whole body, relaxing even deeper.  When you are ready, open your eyes  and take a moment to appreciate yourself for the quiet time.

Adding Mindfulness Into Your Routine

To practice mindfulness you have to work on re-framing your thoughts.  For example, when you are trying to work on meditation or breathing techniques, you may find that your mind wanders.  So instead of thinking ” Whenever I mediate my mind wanders” think, “It’s OK that my mind wanders.  I will just acknowledge those stray thoughts and bring my mind back to now.”

You can’t ignore the thoughts, but instead, revise them.  Usually we find that when we are stressed or have anxiety, our bodies reflect that negativity.  So revising will allow not only your mind to relax, but also your body. Think about what is going well right now and focus on the good. Tomorrow we will walk through one of many ways to add mindful breathing.  Through mindful breathing and re-framing your thoughts, you will have a great start to adding mindfulness into your daily routine.

Stuffed Eggplants

Stuffed Eggplants

Serves 6

Olive oil
3 Italian eggplants, halved lengthwise
1 medium red onion, diced finely
2 twigs of thyme
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 tomatoes, cored and diced
1 bay leaf
1 cup cooked basmati brown rice
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped tarragon
1 tbsp chopped basil
¼ cup chopped walnut kernels
¾ cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
3 tbsp fine breadcrumbs
½ cup feta cheese, crumbled

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper brushed with olive oil; set aside.

Score the cut sides of the eggplants in a crosshatch pattern. Place the eggplants, cut sides down, on the sheet. Bake them for 10 minutes or until slightly tender and browned. Remove from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 375°F. Scoop the flesh of the eggplants out carefully, leaving a ½-inch shell. Dice the flesh; set aside.

In a frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. When warm, add the onion and thyme, and cook for 2 minutes, without browning. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for another minute or two. Add the tomatoes and bay leaf and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft and the sauce is slightly reduced. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Transfer to a bowl. Discard the thyme and bay leaf, and stir in the rice, herbs, walnuts, and Parmesan cheese. Stuff the eggplants with this mixture. Top with the breadcrumbs and feta cheese and place on the baking sheet again. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Serve with a side mixed salad.

This recipe also appeared in the October 2014 issue of Mindful magazine.

Recipes and photograph by Béatrice Peltre

Mindfulness

What is mindfulness?  The easiest way to describe it, is that it is being aware in the here and now.  It is awareness with no judgement.  No good or bad.  It suggests that the mind is fully attending to what’s happening, to what you’re doing, to the space you’re moving through.  Mindfulness helps you to be more aware of your choices and progress towards your goals.

While mindfulness is instinctive, it can be accomplished while seated, walking, standing, lying down and short breaks we take in our daily activities.  Combined with meditation, mindfulness can help you to manage stress, anxiety, sadness and more.   Photo by Lina Trochez on Unsplash

It’s Actually This Simple

Counting calories, low-fat, low-carb, eating six meals a day, drinking

protein shakes –you’ve been bombarded with thousands of conflicting

and overwhelming ideas telling you how you should feed yourself.

Unfortunately, there’s no magic equation —no set of rules you can find on Pinterest to

make your health dreams come true. There is good news though; it’s so much more

straight forward than you think.  Instead of focusing on all of the restrictions, rules and

cheat sheets–concentrate on one thing only. Eating whole foods as much as possible, and

getting rid of any of the processed foods you currently consume.  That’s it. You’ll see

results quickly, and you’ll find it much easier than diets you have to learn the swing of.

Isn’t that great news?

Be Adventurous!

At times, monotony can seep into our everyday lives if we let it. Our schedule is on repeat, week after week, and as we go through the motions, we see our days and weeks slip right through our fingers unknowingly. One of the main reasons for this is we mindlessly go through the motions. We go on autopilot when we’re so used to our schedule, our work, our commute home.

Give something new a try. Go about your days this week as if you are a stranger in your hometown, a visitor on vacation. See how you seek out new experiences, soak up the surroundings differently, and see how different it makes you feel. Adventures are in our everyday details if we let them be.

#trysomethingnew   #divinereflectionswellness   #makeitanadventure