Wellness
Your Holiday Survival Guide: Fitness + Wellness Edition
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The holidays are upon us! It’s such an exciting season - more family time, more social occasions, but ultimately more on your plate.
With so much going on, life can get overwhelming. The holidays can be stressful! Before we enter full holiday mode, here is a quick 1, 2, 3 on how to survive the holidays and maintain balance and harmony in your life.
Keep moving.
The natural inclination when we get busy is that there’s no time to move. We have to use up every minute to conquer that to-do list. However, mindful movement is so important when practicing self-care. It’s a dedicated time for you to prioritize your physical, mental, and emotional health, before you use your energy to take care of others.
Movement can also help to keep sickness at bay. It is cold and flu season, so it’s time to strengthen our immune system. The more we move, the better it is for our cardiovascular health too!
Depending on your movement of choice, here are some great studios that offer low impact and effective options for you!
Lit Method: I love the resistance bands. Surprisingly, I feel that not many boutique studios offer this as a part of their regular programming. The bands, mixed with the rower, is the right combination to help you both break a sweat and tone your muscles. After each workout, the instructors always lead you through recovery with a foam roller too. Recovery after a workout essential, and I love that this studio recognizes the importance of it!
Coreology: There is Pilates, and then there’s Pilates on a Megaformer. The Megaformer at Coreology helps you not just lengthen and tone your body, but you also hold the positions longer with more resistance. I am always surprised at how much I sweat!
Y7 Studio: Speaking of sweat, Y7 is the ultimate yoga studio to help you do just that. Their classes are set up in an infrared studio, so even by just staying in Child’s pose, you’ll get centered and sweat out those toxins in no time.
1
Keep moving.
The natural inclination when we get busy is that there’s no time to move. We have to use up every minute to conquer that to-do list. However, mindful movement is so important when practicing self-care. It’s a dedicated time for you to prioritize your physical, mental, and emotional health, before you use your energy to take care of others.
Movement can also help to keep sickness at bay. It is cold and flu season, so it’s time to strengthen our immune system. The more we move, the better it is for our cardiovascular health too!
Depending on your movement of choice, here are some great studios that offer low impact and effective options for you!
Lit Method: I love the resistance bands. Surprisingly, I feel that not many boutique studios offer this as a part of their regular programming. The bands, mixed with the rower, is the right combination to help you both break a sweat and tone your muscles. After each workout, the instructors always lead you through recovery with a foam roller too. Recovery after a workout essential, and I love that this studio recognizes the importance of it!
Coreology: There is Pilates, and then there’s Pilates on a Megaformer. The Megaformer at Coreology helps you not just lengthen and tone your body, but you also hold the positions longer with more resistance. I am always surprised at how much I sweat!
Y7 Studio: Speaking of sweat, Y7 is the ultimate yoga studio to help you do just that. Their classes are set up in an infrared studio, so even by just staying in Child’s pose, you’ll get centered and sweat out those toxins in no time.
Get more sleep.
Living in a society of constant “to-do’s,” I don’t think we emphasize the importance of rest and sleep enough. We are so often defined by how much we get accomplished. However, none of the things on our list will get done if we don’t take care of our health first. Sleep is crucial to replenish our bodies. It’s a time for us to repair and recover from the stress we put ourselves through during the day. Getting as close to eight hours of sleep a night should always be the goal.
2
Get more sleep.
Living in a society of constant “to-do’s,” I don’t think we emphasize the importance of rest and sleep enough. We are so often defined by how much we get accomplished. However, none of the things on our list will get done if we don’t take care of our health first. Sleep is crucial to replenish our bodies. It’s a time for us to repair and recover from the stress we put ourselves through during the day. Getting as close to eight hours of sleep a night should always be the goal.
Change your scenery.
Plants aren’t just an Instagrammable moment; it’s so replenishing and nourishing for my soul. No matter how stressed I feel, being with greenery always helps alleviate any heavy energy I may be carrying. If you don’t have greenery nearby, even taking a moment to step away from your office or work area to go for a walk outside can help you! Transitioning from a potentially stressful environment to calmer surroundings can help you move through the rest of the day with more ease.
3
Change your scenery.
Plants aren’t just an Instagrammable moment; it’s so replenishing and nourishing for my soul. No matter how stressed I feel, being with greenery always helps alleviate any heavy energy I may be carrying. If you don’t have greenery nearby, even taking a moment to step away from your office or work area to go for a walk outside can help you! Transitioning from a potentially stressful environment to calmer surroundings can help you move through the rest of the day with more ease.
Write it down.
Journaling and writing down thoughts is so important for my emotional well-being. It helps to clear out a lot of negative thoughts that might be throwing me off balance. Once it’s out on paper, it soothes my mind and provides more space for me to create and be productive.
If you’re not the journaling type, the following quick exercise might help you if you are struggling with stressors this season.
Step 1: Split a piece of paper into three columns: In the first column, write down all of the stressors you have in your life. Perhaps it’s a relationship struggle, a problem at work, a health issue, anything!
Step 2: In the middle column, write down how you want to feel. If you have a problem at work because you aren’t getting the validation you need, your middle column would be that you want to feel recognized.
Step 3: In the last column, jot down a list of solutions. If you want to feel recognized at work, a few solutions could be setting up one-on-one time with your manager, talking to your peers, and letting them know of your needs, praise others more so it allows coworkers to return the compliment, etc.
By being mindful of our approach to dealing with stressors, we can hopefully alleviate stress and find a sense of calm this holiday season!
4
Write it down.
Journaling and writing down thoughts is so important for my emotional well-being. It helps to clear out a lot of negative thoughts that might be throwing me off balance. Once it’s out on paper, it soothes my mind and provides more space for me to create and be productive.
If you’re not the journaling type, the following quick exercise might help you if you are struggling with stressors this season.
Step 1: Split a piece of paper into three columns: In the first column, write down all of the stressors you have in your life. Perhaps it’s a relationship struggle, a problem at work, a health issue, anything!
Step 2: In the middle column, write down how you want to feel. If you have a problem at work because you aren’t getting the validation you need, your middle column would be that you want to feel recognized.
Step 3: In the last column, jot down a list of solutions. If you want to feel recognized at work, a few solutions could be setting up one-on-one time with your manager, talking to your peers, and letting them know of your needs, praise others more so it allows coworkers to return the compliment, etc.
By being mindful of our approach to dealing with stressors, we can hopefully alleviate stress and find a sense of calm this holiday season!
Wellness
Foundational Steps to Cultivating a Daily Self-love Practice
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When you think of self-love what do you think of? Bubble baths, walks on the beach, facemasks, or what? Self-love can mean so many different things but when we think about self-love, we have to acknowledge loving ourselves both on the outside and on the inside. The way that we show ourselves love is one of the most important things we will ever do.
How do we treat ourselves? How do we talk to ourselves? What foods are we putting into our bodies? How are we thinking about our overall well-being when practicing self-love?
As self-love defines and redefined itself for you over the years, here are a few foundational tips to think about when easing into your self-love journey.
Step 1: Learn to set boundaries
Don’t we love this one? Loving ourselves has a lot to do with the boundaries that we have for ourselves, with others, and for others. Take time to think about your own emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual needs when setting boundaries that reflect your personal needs. Boundaries don’t have to be big and scary; they are here to remind us that you get to have your lived experience and still have expectations about how you’d like to be treated and what you’d like to feel.
When thinking about your boundaries, ask yourself:
- How do I feel without having boundaries?
- What would I like to have boundaries around?
- Are my boundaries actual boundaries or am I creating walls in my life?
- How do I plan to uphold my boundaries?
Step 2: Cultivate self-compassion
In a world where perfectionism and curated existences have been rewarded, begin to cultivate compassion for yourself. You are a soul having a human experience and it’s totally okay if things are not perfect.
Mindfulness exercises such as Breathwork, self-care activities, and self-compassion, all help train the mind, emotions, and even the body’s stress chemicals to be able to deal with undesired situations. Self-compassion means, can you be nice to yourself? Can you find empathy and kindness for yourself in the middle of what feels chaotic, stressful, or unwanted? Self-compassion means that we get to make mistakes, have our plans not work out the way that we wanted, and we still get to celebrate that we are doing the best that we can and it is enough.
When thinking about self-compassion, ask yourself:
- How do I respond to stressful situations?
- How hard am I on myself?
- How do I celebrate myself?
- How do I show myself kindness?
Step 3: Nourish yourself
In every sense of the word “nourishment”, begin to learn what nourishes you and what depletes you. Nourishment doesn’t just mean food for yourself; it means that whatever you are consuming whether it be media, podcasts, people, energy, information, etc. all impact the way that we think, feel, and experience life.
Nourishing yourself definitely goes right along the lines of having your boundaries intact and practicing self-compassion.
When thinking about nourishment, ask yourself:
- How do I nourish my emotional well-being?
- How do I nourish my mental well-being?
- How do I nourish my physical well-being?
- How do I nourish my spiritual well-being?
- How do I nourish my social well-being?
- How do I nourish my financial well-being?
That’s it. Those are the foundational steps to cultivating a self-love practice that you can ease into your daily routine. Come back to these questions often, because like anything else, self-love is a practice and it takes effort, time, and intention to maintain.
If you’d like to try breathwork, mindfulness, or play classes with me, check out these workshops and training sessions that work with your schedule. For other breathwork classes, browse Mindbody.
