While the winter months are often cold, dark and rainy, don’t let that deter you from keeping an active lifestyle. If you prepare properly, you can get the most out of your winter workouts and enjoy it. Read more
Are you ready for another year? I think it’s safe to say we are all ready for a different year, right? I’m sure you have your health and fitness goals already pegged. I’m wondering … have you given any thought to resolutions that inspire life?
Let’s change things up by breaking out of our resolution rut and putting things on our list that inspire fun, pleasure, and growth! Read more
We are fully in the holiday season and I’m sure you are working to maintain what holiday traditions we can. Some of our treasured traditions must be set aside, while others can be enjoyed with modifications. What are you still scrambling to keep track of, to grasp, to process? When the pressure builds inside, before your kettle starts to whistle, you can use CPR.
No, I’m not referring to the chest compressions that are used when the heart is in cardiac arrest. I want to offer a different meaning for the acronym – confess, press, relax. Read more
We have just come through a holiday which is focused on gratitude, on giving thanks. Have you discovered the power of words on your life? Gratitude and praise lift the spirit. And do you remember the effect of hurtful words when you were a child … or even recently? Did they crush your spirit?
In his book, Love as a Way of Life, Gary Chapman uses an effective metaphor for words as being either bullets or seeds. When we speak with condemnation, our words act as bullets, tearing down relationships. Yet when we use our words as seeds, spoken in a supportive manner with good will for our audience, we are building relationship in positive, affirming ways. Read more
The Thanksgiving holiday was established to commemorate our gratitude for overcoming challenges as people settled America. With Thanksgiving approaching in this very challenging year, isn’t it even more appropriate to be grateful? After all, an attitude of gratitude is healthful.
In fact, gratitude may be one of the most overlooked tools for wellness that anyone can access. Cultivating gratitude doesn’t cost any money and it certainly doesn’t take much time, but the benefits are enormous. Read more
I’m sure that you’ve heard that your skin is your body’s largest organ. What many women and men don’t realize is that what we put on our skin is absorbed. Yes, it’s more than just skin deep!
Why is this important? Because of the ingredients that may be hiding in your personal hygiene and makeup products. There are many that are troublesome to your body. Read more
With the approach of fall, we can look forward to cooler temperatures, the holidays, and sadly, a potential increase in viral threats, such as flu and it’s cousin, Covid-19. I don’t address this to depress you, but rather to encourage you to take steps to prepare yourself.
I’m not encouraging you to seek out a vaccine either. Rather, I am encouraging you to focus on strengthening your inner army – your immune system. It has far more influendce on your overall health than you likely realize. You have the power to strengthen it with your daily choices, and I’d like to outline the primary areas for you. Read more
What changes have you noticed about your health in these past months of sheltering in? Many are finding themselves more relaxed about it as time passes. And how about your sleep – are you waking refreshed or groggy? Do you fight to make yourself get out of bed in the morning?
Cortisol and melatonin are key players in our sleep patterns. Cortisol rises to wake you and its levels are changing throughout the day. Your cortisol levels normally peak in late morning and then falling through the rest of the day. As cortisol falls in the evening, melatonin rises to prepare your body for sleep. Read more
We like certainty. We are hard-wired to want to know what is happening and notice threats, and when things feel uncertain, it is normal to feel stressed. And while this reaction is there to protect us, it can cause havoc when there is a sense of uncertainty and conflicting information around us. What are you thinking?
Are you feeling some anxiety? Right now, many of us are worried about COVID-19. We may feel helpless about what will happen and uncomfortable with our apparent loss of control, and this uncertainty can remind us of times when we didn’t feel safe and the future was uncertain. Read more
Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanza, the holidays can be a great time of joy for many. But for others, they are filled with anxiety and stress. You can set yourself on a more positive path – and bust the holiday stress cycle – when you understand the how to best support your body for joy.
When stress hits at this time of year, it’s easy to turn to that tray of cookies for moral support. After all, cookies won’t criticize you about your choices the way your family will. What we don’t realize is that we are self-medicating with sweets – the quick spike of sugar in our system can bring an increase in serotonin, a neurotransmitter that promotes feelings of well-being and happiness. Sadly, the benefit is fleeting, and we find ourselves reaching for another fix. Read more
