5 Ways To Reduce Depression + Anxiety Symptoms: Holistic Therapy Tips

November 17, 2020 Brandi Jackson

5 Ways To Reduce Depression + Anxiety Symptoms: Holistic Therapy Tips

There’s so many ways to cope and manage depression and anxiety symptoms. This of course is great, but there are also benefits to trying coping methods that have been specifically documented as result-based (consistently effective and studied via scientific research). It’s always a good idea to have some basic tools in your tool kit where you can feel equipped with increased odds of taking care of yourself when you need relief.

It’s tricky because each of the coping recommendations will work in different ways to support and maintain health mental health but for some of the recommendations, timing and preventative practice (practice when symptoms are low) will help support mental health stability and maintenance outcomes best. Below, I’m going to share 5 coping methods that can help you reduce, maintain, or prevent anxiety or depression symptoms.

1. Journaling Can Reduce Depression & Anxiety Symptoms

Let’s begin by looking into journaling as a mental wellness practice that has big payoff. The action of journaling about your thoughts and emotions helps to create distance between yourself and your thoughts. This method helps your mental health in a couple of different ways. One, you gain physical distance from your emotional thoughts by physically writing them down on paper. You also secondarily get the benefit of seeing your thoughts outside of the emotional experience that happens (inside our heads) when we think emotionally. There’s something about writing your feelings or irrational emotional thoughts down that can trigger logical thought to come in and stabilize you emotionally when you write or journal.

2. Talking With Supports Can Help Your Symptoms

There’s great power in talking with supports about your depression or anxiety symptoms. It’s worthy to determine an approach to managing your mental health by

Speaking about your feelings, which in turn will increase emotional validation and self-connection. When you are able to speak about your feelings in a safe space you can additionally create distance from your emotions and decide how you want to make meaning of your feelings. Talking about your emotions will also at times increase your decision-making response where you decide what you want to do about how you feel. Talking about your feelings can increase empowerment to change in small ways that eventually or immediately add up to symptom reversal.

3. Eating More Veggies Can Reduce Symptoms

There’s a popular saying “you are what you eat” and there’s actually a grain of truth to the old saying. Our mental health is impacted by what we eat. Nutritional deficiency is a cause that can trigger symptoms. Just think of not having enough water, eating processed sugars and starchy simple carbs. Your mind and body will not be able to do it’s daily functions of digestion, metabolism, circulation, and so on if your body is running to problem solve how your energy resources need to be allotted based on your internal health needs or delays. For example if you don’t eat enough veggies and drink enough water you may find that constipation is more likely. When constipated our body has a response of energy drain from stool being held to long in our bodies that you simply won’t have the same energy as someone who is “regular”. Our body is smart enough to focus on taking care of us and figuring out how to keep us going but will also conserve our resources if we are under supported nutritionally.

4. Routine Exercise Gives You Energy + Mood Management

Routine exercise is wonderful for your health and wellness. When you spend time getting your heart rate up your heart and circulatory system is strengthened. Exercise also helps our brains receive more oxygen, which triggers chemical endorphin release, which is similar to taking medication to reduce symptoms for depression, anxiety, ADHD, Stress, and confidence. Consider working out at least 4x per week with moderate exertion for dependable symptom relief.

5. Connecting With Your Interests Helps You Heal

The power of having a hobby is more real than many people realize. When we have personal interests that place us in a state of learning we also gain deeper sensations of self-connection and joy. It’s important that when picking up hobbies or returning to hobbies for increasing happiness that you focus on habits that feel possible without years of practice to enjoy. Utilizing hobbies also allows for focused practice on tasks, which increase feelings of being in a state of flow where you may even feel calm, peace, and engagement similar to mediation. Hobbies are great for disconnecting with consumption via social media or seeing what others are doing but instead to focus on your craft and feel increased enjoyment and down time.

MY #1 HOPE:

I hope you enjoyed learning about some of my tips to improve your wellness and health journey. Be sure to share your real life wellness questions below!

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Holistic Therapy Tips: How To Relax More

November 9, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tips: How To Relax More

In most cases it’s common to experience moments of stress throughout the average weekday. You wake up, prepare for work or school, and then you transition or travel to start your day. You may feel stress based on what needs to be taken care of for the day like the work/ school work, the timeline of the day, traffic, lunch or dinner prep, cleaning, support and time with family or your partner. It can be difficult to spot time that will “great for just relaxing only” without having an additional goal of multitasking.

In the paragraphs below, I’m going to share some of my favorite holistic therapy tools that can help support you to relax more during the day.

Reduce And Boundary Social Media Time

There’s something special about not being tied to our screens that helps us to feel calmer and more engaged in our life as we go through the day. If you want to feel calmer throughout the day and to feel ease of more time relaxing, consider spending less time on your phone/ screens. This may feel difficult to imagine but if you comb through your social media or screen time use patterns and ask yourself if every minute you spent was useful or needed you may find the answer to be a no. The difficult part of social media is the addictive behavior to have our phones in our hands or close by at any given time for multipurpose use. Our phones have games, social media access to friends and celebrities, can answer questions for us in seconds, and in some cases will support us to do our work or check our work emails just so we feel “in the know” even if we’re not on the clock.

Our phones are in some ways quite magical and delightful based on our own personal whims for x,y, and z. However we can as a result become more impulsive and addicted to using our screens and phones to do one quick social scroll, checking the news, or emails to feel validation then falling down the rabbit hole from there.

Consider creating boundaries around your time on social media and on your screens. This will increase your experience of relaxation where you can feel more in control of your attention, sensations of impulse, and memory. If your have a greater sensation of awareness it will naturally be easier to feel more relaxed and in tune with your needs to give yourself more support.

Make The Intentional Decision Throughout Your Day

Another possible tool you can use to increase your relaxation is to make the intention to feel more relaxation during the day. Write down your intention and brainstorm different actions you will take during the day to experience more relaxation. Write all of your brainstorm ideas down. Maybe your actions listed will include going for a walk, taking short meditation breaks, stretching, listening to music while you work etc. Get a clear idea of your relaxation options and next, set up a reminder system to do 3-4 ideas from your relaxation list. You can use your phone, email, a post-it note system, ask a friend/ partner support accountability. From there practice your new system of relaxation breaks. Assess how you feel. Then, keep practicing.

Intentionally Use Your Days Off To Relax

Last but not least treat your days off like a literal vacation to catch up on rest and to restore your energy reserves. Consider if you need more down time and if so, avoid filling your weekend with excess errands, socializing, and other commitments. Sometimes it makes sense to reverse the tradition of social gathering on the weekends to social gathering on a weekday in order to keep your weekend schedule light and relaxing. Ultimately you have the option to decide how you spend your time. You may also enjoy looking more deeply into your strategies around time to increase time and space for relaxing more often.

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Holistic Therapy Tips: How To Wake Up Earlier

November 5, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tips: How To Wake Up Earlier

For some it’s just going to be easier to wake up early. For others getting up early may not happen with any ease at all. Of course, there’s some choice benefits that are attached to waking up early for most in our daily American social and professional structures. If you wake up even 15-20 minutes earlier, you are gaining a free bonus 15-20 minutes to do something that you want to do; this is where new habit shifts can be made. Imagine waking up to have 20 minutes to walk each day, finally starting your hydration practice, getting in a brief meditation, or simply having more time in the morning before starting your workday. You’d be able to get things started or create more time in your day. You’re also more likely to sleep better when you wake up earlier vs. when you sleep in.

In the paragraphs below, I’m going to share a few holistic therapy tools that can help you to wake up earlier. And we’ll review additional ways to spot opportunities from waking up even just a little bit earlier. Essentially the most powerful opportunity is to have more time and space to practice your most useful/ effective mood management coping skills and practices. What if you woke up 15-20 minutes earlier and as a result you were able to have time and practice for your mood management symptom improvement. What if your symptoms could be reduced by intentionally dedicating 15-20 minutes to your daily self care routine? It’s completely possible!

Go To Bed Earlier To Wake Up Earlier

It seems pretty simple to suggest that we all go to bed earlier in order to wake up earlier. You may be thinking, but what about those of us that have kids, partners, or insomnia? I think your children and partner may be supportive of the early bedtime plan or adapt if you share the importance and your “why” attached to your plan to get up earlier. Your children and partner are prone to want you to be healthy and happy so if they understand going to bed early is a part of getting to be healthier and happier, they may be easy to convince. Your children or partner might begin to go to bed earlier too. Remember, there is more than one way to spend quality time and it doesn’t have to overlap with when you would benefit from more time to rest to wake up happier and healthier.

Avoid Situational Insomnia

In regards to insomnia, I want to support you to first look at your daily habits that actively increase your likelihood of insomnia symptoms. Consider if you practice the behaviors below, you may not have long term insomnia but instead situational insomnia where the behaviors themselves are effecting your circadian rhythm success for restful sleep.

Spending long or consecutive time periods on screens/ social media/ or playing video games or games on your phone.

Watching TV late or before bed (blue light glasses can help but it’s better not to have screen time at least a few hours before bed).

Sleeping in warm clothing. Wear clothing that breathes well to allow your body to keep cool as your temperature changes while you sleep.

Avoid your phone and TV if you wake up in the middle of the night. Reach for your journal or a book instead.

Consider Melatonin, Tryptophan, Acupressure Mat Therapy, or Sleepy Time Tea before bed.

Write A List Of Good Reasons To Get Up Earlier

If you take even just 10 minutes to think about how you want to use your extra time in the mornings when you wake up earlier you may find yourself day dreaming about crossing off items from your bucket list. A great way to increase your inspiration to get up early will be to take some time to write down all of the potential benefits of what you want to get done and how you expect it to help you feel more in control of your time, mind, and mood.

This helps because when your alarm clock goes off the next morning you can remind yourself of your list of reasons that waking up earlier can include more happiness and health for your day ahead. When you start combing through your list of why it’s a better idea to get up earlier your more likely to get up even when you’re tired or unmotivated. Think of this “why” system as a tool to get up and create your own mini Christmas each day.

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Holistic Therapy Tips: How To Fend Off Anxiety With A Daily Routine

October 30, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tips: How To Fend Off Anxiety With A Daily Routine

Managing anxiety can feel like a real challenge in general but, what if I told you anxiety can become more manageable with a daily routine that allows for increased prevention and recovery. When we feel anxious it can be difficult to be consistent in practice but please be assured that every little bit of effort and coping practice can help. Consider working on different anxiety management tools in order to determine which methods will work best for you and from there you can work to maintain 3-5 practices daily that will help you feel more in control of your anxiety instead of feeling like your anxiety is in control of you throughout the day.

In the paragraphs below I’m going to share 3 tools and coping practices that can be effective for fending off anxiety as a part of your daily routine. Try the suggestions below and assess for yourself how you feel, and if you notice a reduction of anxiety symptoms. You can always select your own favorites as well.

Deep Breathing Throughout The Day

The power of deep breathing and breathing exercises has been documented and backed by science for decades. Deep breathing is naturally a great tool for daily anxiety management practice. It’s often common for small children to be taught to take 10 deep breaths when they become angry to manage their emotions. This is a great idea in some ways. In other ways I think the better advice would be to practice continually taking conscious and mindful deep breaths throughout your day as a normal breathing practice. This allows for us to be in prevention mode by ensuring that we are conscious and mindful about out breathing and oxygen intake within a regular routine. This feels more helpful to avoid shallow breathing patterns that tend to be more consistent with having busy schedules and an overwhelming amount of distractions happening in daily life by way of social media, ringing phones, text messages, Netflix, TV, YouTube, and so on.

Make time to breath deeply allowing for the air you breath to be slowly inhaled through your nose, allow that air to slowly travel through your chest and down to the base of your stomach. Pause for a beat and then release that air back up through the base of your stomach, through your chest, and back out through your nose or mouth slowly. From there repeat this breathing exercise regularly throughout your day as often as you can be mindfully aware. This is one of my favorite anxiety busters!

Drink Plenty Of Water/ Eat Clean

The value of drinking enough water counts when it comes to anxiety. If your body is not properly hydrated, you are technically experiencing some variation of mild to moderate dehydration. You might not have all of the severe symptoms of dehydration like a racing heart, fainting spells, or difficulty regulating your body temperature but that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to manage mental clarity and balanced memory and recall. When you get enough daily hydration your anxiety symptoms will naturally decrease because you will have the advantage of improved thought process with proper hydration.

Using your current body weight and then dividing that number by 2 gives you a custom daily hydration goal in ounces. From there if you’d like you can divide that number by 8 to determine how many cups of water you need to drink for your daily hydration. Try to meet your daily hydration goal for even just a few days and you will notice results more immediately with daily consistency.

Move Your Body Reduce Your Overwhelm

Something that really knocks anxiety off its feet is when you spend time for regular and routine exercise. I recommend having a daily exercise routine for 6-7 days a week. Try adding in daily low impact exercise like walking or yoga at least 2-3 days of your week. Also aim to have 3-4 days of higher intensity exercise like High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Working out helps boost your happy and calm endorphins that allow for your day to naturally feel more manageable and less overwhelming. Imagine after you work out that you have difficulties that you can observe without feeling reactive. That’s what exercise is able to do for our body and our stress and anxiety resilience.

While fitness may not be something that everyone wants to do 6 days a week, I encourage you to start a practice, even 10-15 minutes a day can be useful. You may find that your commitment to exercise increases even more when your anxiety symptoms reduce via preventative stabilization. That’s what having a consistent daily anxiety management routine can offer.

I hope you enjoyed learning about some of my tips to improve your wellness and health journey. Be sure to share your real life wellness questions below!

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Holistic Therapy Tips: How To Feel More Joy + Happiness (Right Now & Today)

October 27, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tips: How To Feel More Joy + Happiness (Right Now & Today)

Being authentically happier is possible even right now and today. It’s useful to first make the mental note “I could go for more happy vibes” and from there you can start to seek out more moments of joy. Sometimes you may find that others are kind enough to gift these moments of joy to you. But it’s a great idea to create your own moments of joy and happiness so that way you don’t have to wait for anyone. There’s a popular saying that I find to be completely true, “happiness is an inside job”. This means that we can always count on looking within instead of looking outside of ourselves for the things we need most emotionally. In the next few paragraphs, I’m going to share some of my favorite Holistic Therapy tools to feel more joy and happiness.

Choose to Laugh Everyday

Laughter is a medicine of sorts when we authentically laugh we feel happier and in a greater state of emotional ease. Laughter works by connecting us with something to focus on that not only makes us smile but also makes us verbalize our joy via laughing. When you laugh you also get the benefit of reduced stress. Your body physically reduces tension, you get more oxygen, your immunity is increased and you can even burn calories from daily laughter.

When we laugh we feel happier, it’s something we know in the moment as good but it’s also something we may not necessarily seek out on a regular basis. Try taking time at least 1-3x per day to create laughter with friends of alone to boost your personal sense of joy and happiness.

Locate Daily Awe-Worthy Inspiration

Life feels so very different when we cultivate and create a daily experience of accessing awe worth inspiration. I know every day can’t be equally awe inspired but if you reach for the stars as they say, you’ll land in the clouds. Creating a daily inspiration practice is great for making brain connections and cognition development. Imagine looking and finding inspiration daily so much so that you automatically look for it. This method create a great approach to seeking joy via inspiration of the good in the world, the beauty of a blooming rose, a smiling baby, a contagious laugh, a delicious meal, a amazing conversation with a loved one, or time tending your urban indoor garden.

No matter the items or experience you choose as a part of your daily inspiration routine, it should feel re-energizing and like a pleasant treat for you to enjoy. But you also get the bonus ripple effect of your mood likely being brighter which can extend into your important relationships and with the general public as well.

Connect/ Create With Your Hobbies Often

When we take time to connect or cultivate our hobbies we get to access a very unique and special experience called “Flow State”. Flow State is described as becoming completely immersed in the task where you achieve an “optimal state of consciousness” where you feel your best and can access best productivity and performance. When we connect and attend our hobbies we feel more happiness, more creative mindset, we’re learning to evolve from beginner, intermediate, and over to expert every time we engage. There’s a relationship happening that brings joy to us. I won’t lie, sometimes our hobbies can drive us up the wall when we experience set back but it’s a necessary part of the growth process and if we continue to hold space for hobbies, we gain an advantage of increased joy and happiness.

It may go without saying but just in case, it’s useful for your hobby to be something that can be done independently. When your hobby can be done independently you have more access and freedom to enjoy your developing relationship. You can also share hobbies with others but it’s great to save something that’s just for you as well.

MY #1 HOPE:

I hope you enjoyed learning about some of my tips to improve your wellness and health journey. Be sure to share your real life wellness questions below!

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Holistic Therapy Tips For Increasing Your Energy Naturally & Fast

October 26, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tips For Increasing Your Energy Naturally & Fast

It can be a tough time trying to have enough energy while also working with a busy daily schedule. When time flexibility decreases you may find you naturally also feel a lull or decrease of natural energy. When you have several responsibilities it can be difficult to maintain the energy and stamina that will be necessary to get “everything” done. Sometimes having a full schedule will intensify emotions of stress, which also can increase the likelihood of eating comfort food, carbs, or sweets. You may feel more mood swings, brain fog, difficulty with recall and memory. Not to worry I have some great Holistic Therapy Tips to help you increase your energy naturally and fast.

Drinking Nutritious Water

I admit the holistic tip for moderate- complete hydration is not necessarily a new concept for energy recovery or energy management but it’s still important. I recommend you drink half your body weight in ounces in order to get enough hydration daily. This water intake ratio does work best for people weighing less than 200 lbs. and if you are over 200 pounds consider speaking with your Primary Care provider to ensure that you receive medical guidance on proper water intake to match your bodyweight. For people weighing over 200 pounds there may be potential to over hydrate where drinking too much water can be considered harmful.

I also think it depends on the person as there are individuals who weigh less than 200 pounds who drink a gallon of water daily. Ultimately, it’s helpful to consider what works for your body and to assess with practice what will work for your unique mind and body energy response.

But wait, there’s more; it’s also great to consider adding a quarter teaspoon of sea salt to your water to increase your hydration absorption when drinking water. You can also consider drinking herbal teas to get an increase of Polyphenols, which can support cell oxidation and energy recovery.

Eat Energy Foods

Another opportunity for increasing your energy naturally and fast is to fuel up with healthy food options that can nourish your body and help you to feel robust energy. I recommend having green smoothies, salad, sweet potatoes, eggs, apples, coffee, green tea, almonds, oatmeal, and spinach. Also it helps to avoid foods that are processed, fried, simple carbohydrates, and foods with more than 5 grams of sugar per serving.

Walking Outside To Boost Mind Clarity

Getting fresh air and being in a state of moderate movement is a really great way to increase energy recovery. Your circulation increases from walking which extends to your ability to think more clearly and to improve recall and memory. In addition a change of scenery is a great to refocus energy. Try to give yourself at least 10 minutes of walking outside preferably in order to access a change of visual scenery and space for moving your body to increase your clarity of mind, reducing stress, and feeling physically more alert with energy recovery.

Deep Breathing Or Meditation Breaks

This one is my favorite, deep breathing and meditation breaks are a great way to recover your energy when you feel stressed or overwhelmed. Just try to slow your breathing to a count of 4 seconds for both when you inhale and exhale. Also consider pausing for a count of 4 seconds between your inhale or exhale. You will notice your racing thoughts slowing down with deep breathing or meditation practice. When you are able to slow your thoughts down you’ll naturally feel increased energy and refreshment.

You can consider doing small breaks of meditation throughout your day for a bigger advantage even an episode of just 2 minutes can help create big energy recovery results.

MY #1 HOPE:

I hope you enjoyed learning about some of my tips to improve your wellness and health journey. Be sure to share your real life wellness questions below!

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Holistic Therapy Tip: How To Reconcile After A Disagreement Or Fight

October 22, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tip: How To Reconcile After A Disagreement Or Fight

It’s tough always sharing space with others and this can also resonate for your partner or children. Sometimes within sharing a life it can difficult to navigate COVID precautions of being at home and also knowing that a majority of the outdoor and community options are currently closed with no ETA for reopening. You’ve at most got the beach, the park, and the grocery store. Spending so much time together as a result of COVID precautions can definitely have some beautiful quality time silver linings. Spending so much time with loved one’s can also cause frustration or impatience from limited space, lack of time alone, or different personality needs for communication.

In the next paragraphs we’ll look at some Holistic Therapy tools that you can use to reconcile after having a disagreement with any loved ones at home or when you are in close quarters.

Stop The Conversation Respectfully When You Feel it’s Getting Unproductive

The conversation started out normal with no signs of tension and slowly turned into a disagreement with misunderstandings and emotions flying all over the place. When you realize the interaction or conversation is turning into an unproductive disagreement consider that it may be time and best to stop the conversation gracefully and let your partner or loved one know that you would like to stop the conversation for a short break for both you and the other party to be more calm and collaborative in the conversation.

You can offer a timeline on when you will feel ready to revisit the conversation or consider making a timeline with your partner that there will be an established about of time attached with when you or they opt to have communication breaks so there is collaboration even when disagreement occurs. For children it may be best to consider 30 minutes or an hour if your children are older. For adults you can consider 24 hours or a few days depending on the disagreement intensity level.

It’s also important that both you and your partner return with the goal of collaboration after having a communication break so if you or your partner still feels angry, frustrated, or closed for collaboration it’s important that you and your partner check in about that before trying to revisit the disagreement.

Take Space After The Disagreement

After you and your partner or loved one have talked about taking a communication break it’s important that you take space from the disagreement by not communicating with the other party about the disagreement until the communication break closes. This does not mean you need to avoid your partner or loved one, you can still talk with them about other things if you’d like. You can still share meals or join them for activities as well. You ultimately are creating space from the disagreement, nit necessarily the person. You’ll need to determine what you need and what your loved one will need while holding space for a communication break.

Come Together to Have A Collaborative Resolution Conversation With Tangible Actions

Once the communication break closes you ideally now have space and opportunity to work on having a collaborative resolution conversation for the disagreement. This is where you can use the data from your disagreement to create potential solutions to the disagreement. Ideally while your having your communication break, you’ll also consider solutions for the disagreement to be resolved.

It’s important if you and your partner to look into tangible solutions although there’s likely a dual conversation focused on the resulting feelings and impact from the disagreement. Look at opportunities for you or your partner to discuss solutions that can heal the frustrations of the disagreement to increase the likelihood that the disagreement doesn’t resurface over and over again. Sometime this may be therapy, this may be creating a chore list, this may mean revamping a shared schedule, this may mean creating downtime independently or other tangible resolutions may surface as well.

The goal of disagreement is to be clear on your own expectations and to collaborate with loved ones when appropriate to create shared expectations. Sometimes there’s going to be more compromise than you might have imagined and sometimes there will be none, the context will change as the disagreements change too.

MY #1 HOPE:

I hope you enjoyed learning about some of my tips to improve your wellness and health journey. Be sure to share your real life wellness questions below!

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Holistic Therapy Tip: How To Make Time For Yourself If You’re A People Pleaser

October 21, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tip: How To Make Time For Yourself If You’re A People Pleaser

It can be pretty tough trying to carve out time for yourself especially when you have a pretty busy schedule. Ultimately, I think it’s going to feel even tougher if you are someone who struggles to say no when asked to give your time to the needs of others. If you have a tendency to help other before you help yourself you’ll notice a sensation of exhaustion at some point. Maybe you actively try to work on self care and time to yourself but there often seems to be someone needing your time even when you make the effort to set aside some time. It can feel frustrating and impossible to have any time that feels like it’s there just for your needs.

When you’re in a practice of not having time that is continually reserved just for your own needs, it’s likelier that you may begin to feel disconnection with yourself and who you understand yourself to be as a person. Making time for you requires commitment to prioritize your needs as equally important as the needs of others.

In the next few paragraphs we’ll look at different holistic tools that will support your journey to feel more comfortable and confident in your practice of making time for yourself.

Make Your Time A Consistent Day Every Week

It will be easier to make time for yourself by choosing a consistent plan of weekly self-care and down time at least one day per week to start. You may find you benefit from having time set aside mid week where you intentionally carve out time just to attend your need for down time and relaxation alone. If your at work consider if you can make time before the work day or after. Also consider weaving downtime directly into your workday as well. You may find it simple to weave downtime into your workday by planning to take all of your scheduled breaks, drinking water, going for a wellness walk, only taking afternoon meetings or making your work space more relaxing by closing your office door (if you have one), or wearing aromatherapy jewelry, listening to calming music, watering your plants, or eating a special healthy lunch on your self care day at home or at work.

The idea is to make your time feel like a mini holiday that’s just for you to recover and feel increased relaxation.

Don’t Put Others First When You’re Spending Time On Yourself

Great, so now you have a specific day or specific time set-aside for yourself one day a week to start your practice of making time for yourself. The next step is to create a practice of honoring your time. To honor your time means to use your time. A best way to ensure you can honor your time is to be clear on what barriers may come with your plan to step away from being as available to others. If you can remember that you have chosen to honor time for self and that everyone else can manage to be okay until you return you will feel better. Even children understand that downtime is needed and important if you teach them.

Communicate In Advance, Remind, And Reiterate

In order to remove interruptions, distractions and cancellations for your time alone, be prepared to communicate, remind, and reiterate your time away plan with anyone who will need to know that you will not be readily available.

It’s important to communicate in advance so your peeps will understand and anticipate in advance that they will need to reach out to you before or after your self care time alone window.

You’ll also need to remind your need to know peeps ideally prior to your self care break that you’ll be stepping away and unavailable. You can also let them know when they can expect you back if it feels helpful and important.

Reiterating your availability will be ideal after your self-care time alone break. You may notice your need to know peeps will forget that you are taking time alone and they may ask you for attention, information, or “need you”. Realize that unless there is an emergency that feels life and death (work deadlines don’t count unless they’re yours) you can trust everyone can wait until you finish your time alone break. You can also reiterate when your need to know peeps can expect you to be available.

I hope that you enjoyed the initial tips for self-care and creating time alone. If you feel motivated to create time alone for self care, please know that you can feel greater self connection and learning who you are with time and practice.

MY #1 HOPE:

I hope you enjoyed learning about some of my tips to improve your wellness and health journey. Be sure to share your real life wellness questions below!

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Holistic Therapy Tips For “Bouncing Back” After Disappointment

October 20, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tips For “Bouncing Back” After Disappointment

So the day turned and morphed before your very eyes, everything was going okay but then disappointment showed up. You were doing great things, you had everything moving and grooving and then things just stopped going as expected.

It can be tough to recover from unexpected disappointments. Even when you expect things to be hard or surprising, you still may find yourself feeling disappointed when things don’t have the best outcome.

There are different ways you can help yourself recover when you experience a debilitating disappointment that causes you to stop in your tracks, question your own decisions, and makes you feel unsure about how to respond. Check out some of my Holistic Therapy tips below to learn how to improve disappointment navigation and recovery.

Take Some Space From Your Disappointment

It can be so difficult to think about what to do in response of a disappointment when you don’t create any space to step back and look at the bigger picture. Everything looks more complex when you’re getting the microscopic view. Consider stepping back to see things from a distance. Consider when you feel disappointment about an outcome, to slowly and gently step back from it however possible. This may mean turning off your phone, not checking email, or going for a walk to allow your mind to create healthy distance while your feeling the initial shock from the disappointment. Take space responsibly, if you have people counting on you please be sure to ask someone to cover for you while you step back. And if you don’t have support that can cover for you, consider letting the people attached to your responsibilities know you are going to take a brief break of sorts. Stepping back with a coverage plan or communicating in advance can work well with exception to children who may require your supervision; in this case consider low activity days like renting a movie and ordering pizza to keep your children occupied while you take a short break to recover.

Refocus Your Attention To Other Areas Of Your Life That Have Value

When you take some space from your disappointment, it’s a great practice to evaluate other areas of your life that have value. Refocus on the other elements of your life that feel important. Maybe this is where you can focus on your fitness and exercise practice, your nutrition plan for the week, or your self-care routine. Consider if there’s something more that you can add or practice that would help you better recover from your disappointment and feel more balance, more energy, or more happiness in the process. Sometimes it’s nice to make a stronger short term commitment in a different area of your life for example to do a 5 day meditation practice, a 7 day mile a day challenge, or a 5 day meal plan to actively focus on your immediate well being in a tangible and engaging way as you create space between you and your disappointment experience.

Find Your Why And Be Gentle

Whatever’s caused the feeling of disappointment may also have the possibility of redemption. Maybe it’s something you can revisit when you created some space to heal and refocus. Consider reconnection if it’s safe and appropriate. One tool that works well is to consider your why as you focus on gentle reconnection. Think about why the disappointment was important to you, why you wanted the experience to be successful. It’s important to consider what your disappointment means in a positive context for your larger goals. Why did you want things to go well on a deeper level? Why is this task important to you, what happens when it goes right? How will your life be more aligned with your purpose? We want to build a habit of thinking deeply and to see the bigger impact of your why in relationship to the disappointment recalibrating into future success.

Don’t Miss The Opportunity To Outsmart Your Disappointments

Be gentle in your practice and know that if your why is significant, you will find that you can return to your goal having learned from and overcoming your disappointments. Use what you’ve learned from each disappointment you experience to keep the practice of using the data with strategy from your past efforts to create success for your future efforts.

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5 Ways To Know If You’re Really Ready For Holistic Therapy

October 19, 2020 Brandi Jackson

5 Ways To Know If You’re Really Ready For Holistic Therapy

In 2020 everyone is talking about going to therapy. Therapy is definitely becoming more normalized socially now than before in Communities Of Color. I’m sure you know people like your friends or family who have “a Therapist” at this point. Maybe your friend so and so has a Therapist and she’s doing better than before. Maybe this friend has been raving about how therapy helps and has been encouraging that you should go and see a Therapist as well. But how do you know if you’re emotionally ready?

Sure, maybe you could use some life improvement or emotional progress but is therapy what you want or need to achieve success to change your life? To be frank not everyone who goes to therapy is ready for therapy. It’s easy to be seduced by the idea of working with a therapist in order to heal current or past pain and trauma but ultimately there’s a lot more happening in a Client-Therapist relationship beyond just having a simple conversation about your current feelings. Consider the 5 signs of readiness below as a self-assessment that can help you know if you’re ready for Holistic Therapy.

Commitment to Be Open And Explore

A part of being ready for therapy is to feel comfortable to be open and explore your emotions. This means that you can actively talk about how you feel. This means you are able to talk about what’s bothering you. This means you are open to self reflect what would help you feel better. This mean you are open to explore behavioral patterns and determine with support if alternative coping methods could be more supportive of your needs.

This means you will attempt to answer questions from your therapy sessions without saying, “I don’t know” as a final answer. It’s important that you move beyond the feeling of not knowing an answer to find an answer in session. It’s important also that if you don’t feel comfortable talking with a Therapist about everything that comes up in session that you be able to share this with your therapist by pinpointing your own comfort level and readiness.

Being open and explorative is a big part of how talk therapy will help you to know where you have opportunities to heal and improve. If you are closed and not feeling comfortable exploring there’s likelihood that you aren’t ready for therapy just yet.

Your Willing to Commit Your Time Consistently and To Commit Financially

Therapy is often deemed as affordable, moderate, or expensive depending on the different methods of payment and reimbursement that are available. Some individuals who receive therapy will use their insurance and pay a co-payment. Some people will use their employment benefits for reimbursement and receive Super Bills for their therapy sessions to gain reimbursement. Some people pay out of pocket for their therapy sessions.

Therapy isn’t just a financial commitment. Therapy also requires a time commitment. You will benefit from therapy by going to your initial session and follow up sessions. If you don’t attend sessions consistently or play any part of investing financially in your sessions you may feel less connected to the therapy work that is being provided to you. The relationship, connection, and rapport with your therapist are also established with consistency in attendance for your sessions. Going to therapy 1x per month or every other month is ideal as the most distance to keep between sessions with some consistency. If you wish to work a therapist less than every other month, consider that you probably don’t require therapy support.

Commitment to Share How You Feel

In therapy it’s important for you to have space to share how you feel. You may find that you have not shared enough about your feelings overall in life and this may be a key goal you’d like to work on in therapy. I encourage you to bring your feelings to your therapy sessions. Be prepared and comfortable sharing when you don’t feel comfortable or upset. It’s also a great opportunity while working with a therapist to verbalize (not text, thank you) when or if you ever feel frustrated, unheard, disrespected, disregarded or misunderstood in session by your therapist. Your feelings are always valid and it’s best to make sure you and the therapist your working with stay on the same page about your emotions and feelings for best therapy outcomes. Therapy is a key space to talk about emotions including difficult emotions.

You Aren’t Sure What Makes You Feel Stuck

You are ready to move forward in your life but you’re not sure what to do to get some progress going. You might want to feel better emotionally but your not sure what could help you feel differently. If your experiencing discomfort or symptoms for your mental health you may not be clear on what behaviors or coping tools to try. If you already know what makes you feel stuck, then you can work with your therapist to look at different ways to get progress where you would like to experience change.

When you work with a therapist, you can work jointly to look at which coping tools will possibly be most impactful for resolving and reducing your symptoms or emotional discomfort.

You Are Willing to Work On Your Coping Practice With Some Consistency

In therapy a term that is often used for symptom management and behavioral change is the term coping tools. In your therapy session you will be able to jointly work with the therapist to create a coping plan for improving and reducing symptoms. It’s important that you practice your coping outside of the session. It’s completely okay and expected that you may not be perfect but if you are not practicing any coping from session or designing healthy alternative coping practices independently you will not feel the change you want is likely happening. Emotional change is most connected to change in behavior and changing your thinking process to help you feel healthier and comfortable.

When considering therapy, please consider the 5 signs of readiness first. I hope this holistic therapy post feels informative. I’m encouraging you to reach out for therapy if you feel ready and if you find that you aren’t ready, consider the alternatives that you feel more comfortable with.

MY #1 HOPE:

I hope you enjoyed learning about some of my tips to improve your wellness and health journey. Be sure to share your real life wellness questions below!

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Holistic Therapy Tips: What To Eat To Reduce Anxiety Symptoms

October 18, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tips: What To Eat To Reduce Anxiety Symptoms

There’s a lot of conversation going on about how what “you are what you eat”; we’ve all heard that saying before. So yeah, we can understand; what we eat will play a role in how we feel on some level but what does this really mean?

If we eat healthy nutritious foods then we should feel healthy with more energy, have more strength, feel more stamina, and an overall sense of wellness. The other part of the story that doesn’t get as much conversation is the benefits of healthy nutrition implementation for your mental emotional health. It’s so important to consider what you eat as a potential tool to support mood management and emotional wellness as well.

In today’s article were going to look at how holistic nutrition can apply to mental emotional health and wellness in 3 key ways. First we’ll look at your basic rules for increasing general mental emotional health and wellness, then we’ll look more closely at supplements that support and help manage anxiety, then we’ll look at the behavioral support options that are also useful for creating a well-rounded holistic approach to anxiety management and anxiety reduction.

Eat Your Plants, Sprouts, Fruit, Fats, And Seeds

There’s definitely a standard blueprint or set of actions to take to reduce mood overwhelm or symptoms for depression, anxiety, and other mental health diagnosis and mood disorders. Let’s look at the basic rules of food and mood management.

Eat More Veggies: Aim to eat leafy green veggies daily. 4-5 cups is a great start. You can add spinach to smoothies, make sure to eat one salad per day or make soups with veggies as well.
Eat Less Fruit: Consider eating fruit daily as well with moderation of 1-2 servings (or pieces). Consider eating fruit with lower natural sugar content like pears, apples, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, lemon, lime, and avocado.
Eat Healthy Fats: Try coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, and fish oils. Try to eliminate use of vegetable oil and also eating foods with vegetable oil (canola oil, vegetable oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil, safflower oil, linseed oil, and rice bran oil) in the ingredient list.
Eat Sprouted Grains: Look for sprouted grains in the form of cereal, English muffins, bread, and tortillas. There’s also plenty of options for almond, oat, and coconut flour options. Avoid traditional bread and grain options as most have higher levels of sugars, gluten, carbs that ultimately cause higher patterns of glucose spiking, general sugar/ carb addiction.
Eat Spices: Adding spices to your foods have great medicinal value for your mood and emotional health. Eating spices like cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, onion powder, garlic powder, sea salt, black pepper, rosemary, oregano, and the list goes on all play a role in providing nutritional value for your health where your body also gains increased antioxidants.
Eat Nuts And Seeds: Reach for your nut butters over peanut butter to access lower sugar content. You’ll also feel increased satiation via having access to nut butters and seeds like hemp seed, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, sprouted seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, and sesame seeds.

What to Avoid Eating

Please reduce your simple carbohydrates (like white bread, white potatoes, chips etc.) and sugar intake (sweet foods made with high amounts of sugar over 5 grams per serving) because both sugars and carbohydrates cause a glucose spike in your body, which equates to your body feeling increased deregulation. This bodily deregulation also occurs for our mental emotional wellness.

Supplements That Help Reduce Anxiety

All right let’s look at anxiety supplements more specifically. Although anxiety is a disorder that has a great response to behavioral efforts for increased mindfulness, there are supplements that can help as well. All of the listed suggestions below are natural herbs or Adaptogens that have proven to be beneficial for anxiety maintenance.

Holy Basil Tea
Hemp Oil
CBD Oil
Lemon Balm Herb
Ashwagandha Herb
Kava Kava

It’s Your Mindfulness That Matters

I know this answer is not a favorite for clients experiencing anxiety but mindfulness and stimulus reduction does matter when it comes to anxiety. I want to encourage you to reduce screen time before bed and first thing in the morning. Carve out time for self-care and meditation if you want to see reduction of your anxiety symptoms. There are tons of free guided-meditations that are available if you feel like independent meditation is difficult or distractible.

Ultimately all of the suggestions combined will work best with implemented together but even starting with just one small effort can be just as useful for your holistic therapy approach to anxiety management through your nutrition practice.

MY #1 HOPE:

I hope you enjoyed learning about some of my tips to improve your wellness and health journey. Be sure to share your real life wellness questions below!

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Holistic Therapy Tips: How to Feel Less Emotionally Sensitive Or Reactive

October 17, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tips: How to Feel Less Emotionally Sensitive Or Reactive

Feeling emotionally sensitive or reactive is not much fun. One minute your mood is good and then the smallest of unexpected events can change the rest of your entire day. For example you go to Starbucks and the Barista doesn’t greet you or get your name spelled right. You may feel slighted and “in your head” for hours thinking of different reasons why the interaction went the way it did. You might even decide to not go back to Starbucks for a while because the anxiety of having to deal with the Barista makes you feel like you’ll have to bat away potentially more negative energy. Maybe this example reminds you of an interaction with a co-worker, or a partner, or maybe this example reminds you of a friend.

The feeling however is the same. The feeling is one where you feel your emotional resilience being swept from under your feet by an unexpected interaction, conversation, or behavior. The person on the other end could be someone you care about or love, or it could also be an interaction with a complete stranger and it still feels just as painful. When you feel emotionally sensitive or reactive consider the tips I will be sharing below in order to feel more grounded and steady.

Connect More With Your Needs

Did you know you are more likely to have emotional reactivity if you are not taking time and space for your own personal needs consistently? One of the superpowers of self-care and feeling grounded is that when we spend time and attention connected to our own needs we feel emotionally nurtured and cared for. If we aren’t spending time connecting with our personal needs you may begin to feel emotional overwhelm more quickly as your needs begin to pile up and compete which makes it easier to become emotionally reactive and focused on external experiences, behaviors, and conversations.

It’s important that we carve of space and time daily to take care of our personal needs to do basic acts of self-care consistently. Some basic self care practices that help you include eating meals regularly, hydrating, showering daily, getting dressed daily, seeking out daily inspiration, laughing, and practicing affirmation daily all matters in how you will feel emotionally and how you will react to others.

Think About Why You Feel Emotionally Sensitive Or Reactive

What is it about the interaction that causes you to feel reactive? What makes you feel triggered emotionally? In repeat interactions or experiences where you find yourself feeling more and more triggered consider what it is about the interaction that makes you feel upset. Consider using a curious and neutral process where you can look at the interaction that happened without blame or reaction to look deeper at what about the interaction makes you feel your personal expectations were not considered or respected. In the case of the Starbucks Barista, maybe your expectation is that they would be kind and say good morning as a standard pattern. When store clerks don’t greet you it triggers old feelings of being ignored or mistreated from other areas of your personal past.

Once you can pinpoint your link to the emotional reactivity, you can also dismantle the impact by asking yourself an alternative question of:

“What if this has nothing to do with any of those experiences”
“What if I isolate this experience from my past or similar experiences”

These questions are meant to help our logical brain connect with the present and to separate our emotional reactivity into one experience rather than grouping our experience with all of our similar past emotional experiences that causes the emotional overload aka emotional pile up. Ideally separating and isolating your interactions to make them singular vs. collective also helps your emotional mind rest and you step away from being “in your head” for hours and days at a time.

Recover With Independent Creative Learning And Expression

Your emotional recovery can speed up when you make time to recover by taking time where you focus on doing actions that make you feel happy and recharged. Consider your favorite past times or hobbies. Consider learning a new hobby as well. Spending your time learning a new skill takes time and attention where your brain actively engages in the process, which makes it easier to stop thinking about your emotions, interactions, and relationships. Consider activities like painting, coloring, doodling, reading, Listening to upbeat positive music and cleaning, cooking, organizing your home or office, or going for a long walk to change your environment.

Applying the practice of increased self-care daily and doing personal reflection of why you feel emotionally reactive can help you feel more grounded and emotionally strong. Also consider writing down the 2 emotional organization questions listed above and seeking space for independent creative learning or expression. You’ll notice your reactivity decreasing and a feeling of being more in control of your emotions.

MY #1 HOPE:

I hope you enjoyed learning about some of my tips to improve your wellness and health journey. Be sure to share your real life wellness questions below!

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Holistic Therapy Tools: How To Stop Being So Pessimistic Or Negative

October 16, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tools: How To Stop Being So Pessimistic or Negative

I recently posted a video and blog post sharing tools about how to feel less alone and how to connect with others. I enjoyed offering holistic therapy tips and support in hopes that even 1 person could walk away from the video blog info and consider additional tools for their personal success.

The next day 3-4 comments left on the video post were variations of “this doesn’t work, I tried that before”. I thought about what I would want to say to support people who feel stuck being lonely or being stuck at all. Sometimes feeling stuck can look like pessimism about moving forward. Sometimes feeling stuck can look like making excuses as to why you can’t move forward. Sometimes pessimism can look like creating validation to why you are stuck. If you’ve thought of your looks, finances, religion, or other identity factors as a rule of thumb to why being stuck is your destiny. I encourage you to consider some of the holistic therapy tools I will be sharing below.

Mindset And Readiness Matters For Pessimism

So if you find yourself unmotivated or pessimistic to do the things that are being offered to you like going after a promotion, making new friends, going on a date or changing in any way that makes you feel vulnerable it’s reasonable to stop and ask yourself if you feel ready to change. If you don’t feel ready to change, it will be easy to listen to negative and pessimistic thoughts that are ultimately useful in staying where you are without change or progress.

Mindset is also a very important part of being able to release pessimism and negative thoughts. Your mindset is a form of being ready and open to change. This is where you are building out your expectations for experiencing change and to expect to do something different. Building mindset may look like choosing to make new friends and then having an expectation that some attempts will probably go great, some will go okay and others will not go well at all. Mindset means your considering the climate of your change experience including the variables (like rejection) and still choosing to proceed because the overall benefit of change is worth the risk and moments of discomfort.

Go Slow To Get A Rolling Start For Change

As much as we could minimize the moments of discomfort that often accompany change, it’s worth stating that it does suck to feel rejected, passed over, dismissed and so it’s reasonable to have a reflex of avoidance. The best tool you have in your defense arsenal is to go slowly to work on continuing to work on changing your life with bravery. To change is to be brave enough to tolerate the moments of discomfort and growing pains.

Choose to do one small effort at a time. Maybe not daily change work but what about weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly and so on. Aim to continue working on changing your life if you wish to have a new experience. As you practice making small changes and giving yourself some down time in between you may notice it get easier and easier to see things going well in the way you’d like them to and the pessimism and negativity also decreasing.

Limit Exposure to Negative Reinforcements Daily

Lastly, if you want to stop being pessimistic and having negative thoughts, it’s important that you reduce your exposure to negative environments, negative media, negative relationships, and negative self talk. Ultimately how much negative energy you allow in your life will start with you. If you need to support to work on negative self-talk seek out therapy if you feel ready to do the emotional work to change negative self-talk behaviors. Also consider if what you watch, who you interact, with and where you spend time. Ask yourself if these places, people, and environment encourage your pessimism or if they help reduce it. If it’s encouraging pessimism, consider reducing or limiting your personal involvement.

I hope your enjoyed learning more about Holistic Therapy Tools to stop being so pessimistic. I’m hoping you are feeling more ready to create change and to feel empowered for the work ahead.

MY #1 HOPE:

I hope you enjoyed learning about some of my tips to improve your wellness and health journey. Be sure to share your real life wellness questions below!

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Holistic Therapy Anxiety Treatment: How to Use CBD And Hemp Oil For Anxiety and Stress Management

October 15, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Anxiety Treatment: How to Use CBD And Hemp Oil For Anxiety and Stress Management

Hemp oil and CBD both have a long-standing record of effective outcomes for anti-anxiety management and anxiety reduction. Hemp Oil and CBD closely related as hemp oil and CBD oil is harvested from the same flower; Hemp flowers. Neither use of CBD or Hemp Oil will cause you to feel high or mentally altered. CBD and Hemp Oil are both known to increase relaxation, increase pain relief, and reducing inflammation.

We’re in a collective season at this time where stress and anxiety are more consistent and daily occurrences. We feel anxious about getting “it all done” managing our personal lives, personal responsibilities, the larger state of the world and the unknown.

It’s reasonable and important to look for different ways to create healthy coping practices and to consider functional supplementation for mood and mind support. Yes we are capable of treating anxiety and stress without hemp oil or supplementation potentially, but sometime dynamic approach will get the job done much faster. Dynamic approach is using coping tools to change behaviors that may increase anxiety or stress reaction while also considering healthy functional supplementation with food and movement to help support your mind and body to heal and recover at a faster or increased impact.

What is Hemp Oil/ CBD Oil?

Both Hemp Oil and CBD Oils are derived from the Hemp Plant/ Hemp Flower. The hemp Flower or Hemp Plant also seems to be referred to as the Cannabis Plant. Hemp is used in many ways; natural medicine, lotions, soaps, salves, food, clothing, building materials. The extraction method for Hemp Oil and CBD Oil Phytocannabinoids do not allow for THC (psychoactive) properties to be harvested collectively. CBD Oil is also harvested from the Hemp Plant and has similar benefits of hemp as it is used as medicine, infused into lotions, soaps, salves, and foods. CBD oils may also be combined with THC in order to support therapeutic relaxation, pain relief, and appetite stimulus for cancer patients and recreational use in states where THC use is legal.

How Does Hemp Oil Supplementation Work

Taking CBD or Hemp Oil is very easy and similar in method. Both CBD and Hemp Oil come in tincture form where you can take a serving of the oil after sharing the contents of the bottle. Place the CBD Oil or Hemp Oil under your tongue and hold or swish the oil under your tongue for 60-90 seconds. You can take more than 1 dose per day if you’d like however it’s ideal that you begin with the recommended dosage. If you feel minimal results after at least 14 days of consistent use consider increasing your dose to a higher amount.

Hemp Oil is also notable for it’s nutritional content of omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin e, protein, carotene, Vitamin A, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulfur, phosphorus, chlorophyll, Sulfur, and small amounts of zinc and iron.

Hemp Oil Extended Benefits List

Not only does Hemp Oil and CBD Oil aid in anxiety support and pain management and reducing muscle tension and stress. Hemp Oil and CBD Oil also have extended benefits beyond anxiety and stress. Check out the list below to see the full range of what hemp supplementation can help with.

Reduce Inflammation
Lower Blood Cholesterol Levels
Lower Blood Pressure
Improve cardiovascular function
Improve organ function
Treat and Reduce Dry Skin and Hair Conditions
Reduce PMS Symptoms and Pain
Improved muscle recovery post workout recovery
Increase energy levels

I hope you enjoyed learning more about Holistic Therapy Anxiety Treatment via Hemp and CBD Oils for anxiety and stress management.

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Holistic Therapy Anxiety Treatment: How To Use Aromatherapy For Anxiety and Stress Management

October 14, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Anxiety Treatment: How To Use Aromatherapy For Anxiety and Stress Management

Aromatherapy is an amazing tool to treat anxiety, restlessness, and stress. The art of aromatherapy has been acknowledged to go back to times of ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. The benefits of aromatherapy are also present in today’s time. Over the years aromatherapy has come to be included in some medical settings as a treatment and recovery method for substance addiction recovery, post surgery recovery, and patient rehabilitation. Aromatherapy is now being integrated into more hospital settings as a treatment to support patient health.

The benefits extend in your personal use at home or while traveling as well. There’s now essential oil based car fresheners and diffusers, essential oil travel blends that can be work as perfume/ cologne. Now you can find aromatherapy necklaces, watches, and bracelets for essential oil diffusing that can be worn as multi functional jewelry. My favorite way to diffuse aromatherapy essential oils is to use a traditional diffuser with essential oils that are meant to target and treat stress and anxiety relief.

What is Aromatherapy?

In the simplest of terms aromatherapy is described as the practice of using scents to alter and or improve mood and emotional wellness. What is important to remember when it comes to aromatherapy it’s very important to utilize therapeutic grade essential oils instead of chemically enhanced fragrance oils. When you utilize essential oils that are clean and free of synthetic fragrance and chemicals you are ensuring your wellness outcomes to be increased and more effective without side effects that may present from synthetic fragrances, which can be harmful. It’s worth noting that essential oils also require attention to detail for use, there is potential to have too much of a good thing if you don’t consider the appropriate amount of aromatherapy. An example would be to use 10 drops of your essential oil with 1 cup of water vs. using 50 drops of essential oil with ½ cup of water. How you measure your aromatherapy treatment is important for your health and mood treatment.

How Does Aromatherapy Work

Aromatherapy is a simple process where you diffuse therapeutic essential oils through a carrier mechanism. I have mentioned aromatherapy necklaces, bracelets, car diffusers, and home and office diffusers. You can also add essential oils to your shower routine or when taking a relaxing bath. There are additional methods for aromatherapy for linen sprays, candles, body lotions, and hair products, even deodorants.

When you apply your aromatherapy ideally you are using a therapeutic ratio for the method you select. From there the essential oil should be within range of your sense of smell for better effect. The essential oil fragrance then activates your smell receptors, which send information to your limbic system. Your limbic system is responsible for mood, emotional awareness, physical and mental emotional reactivity. Within 20 minutes you may find the benefits of the essential oils to increase with noticeable improvement of your mood.

Best Aromatherapy Methods When You Feel Anxious

When you feel anxious it’s helpful and quite valuable to work with essential oils that are specifically beneficial for stress and anxiety to encourage direct symptom relief. The list of essential oils vary but consistent result for anxiety and stress have been confirmed for:

Lavender Essential Oil

Chamomile Essential Oil

Valerian Essential Oil

Jasmine Essential Oil

Holy Basil Essential Oil

Ylang Ylang Essential Oil

Frankincense Essential Oil

Lemon Balm Essential Oil

I hope you enjoyed learning more about Holistic Therapy Anxiety Treatment via aromatherapy for anxiety and stress management.

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Holistic Therapy Anxiety Treatment: How To Use An Acupressure Mat And Pillow + More Benefits

October 12, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Anxiety Treatment: How To Use An Acupressure Mat And Pillow + More Benefits

Anxiety can be immobilizing and distracting so much that it’s hard to think with clarity or any sense of direction. When we feel anxious, it’s a great reminder that we need to be able to access different tools to slow our racing mind down to return to a healthy state. Acupressure therapy is a great tool to treat anxiety holistically. It’s a simple and self governed process of simply getting your acupressure mat and pillow, then spending time lying on your mat and pillow to receive the therapeutic benefits, then storing your mat and pillow to returning to your day with improved refreshment.

What is Acupressure?

Acupressure is an ancient form of massage practiced in Chinese Medicine. The goal of acupressure massage has been to increase and encourage balanced flow of Qi (energy) through the meridian channels of the body.

In current history acupressure mats and pillows have also been created and utilized for the same purpose and practice. Now acupressure therapy can be achieved by lying on an acupressure mat and pillow minus the masseuse, which is helpful with everyone currently spending more time at home to prevent and reduce COVID risks.

Acupressure mats can be found online at holistic health stores and amazon.com. Some people will simply buy the acupressure mat without the pillow. I personally find the pillow and the mat combined to be most beneficial for therapeutic response for anxiety and stress management.

How Does Using An Acupressure Mat Feel?

Using an acupressure mat does take a little time to acclimate to as the pillow and the mat is covered in small plastic “needle like” points. When you lay on the mat it’s ideal to move slowly and gently while wearing as little layers between your skin and the mat for maximum application.

Once you find a comfortable position on the mat it’s ideal to stay in a resting position on the acupressure mat and pillow for 10-20 minutes for best anxiety and stress relief. Usually within the first 5 minutes of your acupressure session, you will feel an endorphin release of calm and soothing energy. This feeling is often maintained throughout the remaining time in your acupressure session.

How to Use Acupressure When Anxious Or Stressed

When you’re feeling anxious or stressed, using an acupressure mat can be helpful to calm yourself effectively. It may be harder to think clearly when anxious but planning ahead helps. Anxiety is an emotional experience that happens more than once and ideally you may even know the times and locations that your anxiety or stress may peak.

If you find yourself anxious at home, consider keeping your mat in a space where you can practice for example your bedroom may be ideal or near the living room couch. If you are working in an office space, consider keeping your acupressure mat at your desk or in your car to be used during your break. If you happen to have an office with a quiet room, consider using your acupressure mat while in the quiet room space.

Additional Benefits of Acupressure

We talked about the benefits of using an acupressure mat and pillow for anxiety and stress management and there’s a extended list of additional benefits you will gain from using acupressure therapy. Some additional benefits from using acupressure therapy include increased pain management, reduced neck and pack pain, reduced insomnia symptoms, fibromyalgia pain, and headache reduction.

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Holistic Therapy Tools For Stressful AF Days At Work

October 9, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tools For Stressful AF Days At Work

Work can be a busy place. Even now while most people report working from home, there’s still other responsibilities that need to get done. While you work you may also be considering the housework, laundry, and home school. You are home after all and that means that you may find distractions and stress surfacing more easily at the home office than the work office. What about your partner, children, or roommates if you have them? What about your parents if you’ve returned home? What about your pets?

Then, you have the zoom meetings that you need to attend and then the other parts of your work commitments that are important as well. Stress at work could also primarily be coming from the pace of your work and the type of work you do. It varies person to person. The first and best thing you can do when your feeling stressed at work is to stop and acknowledge that you are feeling stressed in that moment. I have some tips to help you deescalate your stress while at work.

Holistic Mindful Breathing

Let remember the power of your breath. You can take a simple and intentional inhale, pause briefly and then exhale slowly to allow you body and mind to reduce stress symptoms like racing mind, speeding heart rate, high blood pressure, tight muscles, and feelings of emotional overwhelm. When you practice mindful deep breathing you want to aim for breathing in through your nose, down through your chest and allowing your inhales and exhales to reach the base of your stomach. Deep breathing in this way is also known as belly breathing. When your breathing is deep and able to access the base of your stomach you can trigger the full oxygen exchange in your body. When you practice diaphragmatic breathing you can also reduce symptoms for depression, anxiety, PTSD symptoms, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Change Your Environment: Go Outside

When you are feeling stress during the workday it’s important to consider your environment and how long you have been working. Have you had your break today? It’s a great practice to spend time away from your desk when you take breaks instead of surfing the net and staying in your seat. Your mind and body recognize the benefits of change of environment and this creates recovery and increased productivity for the workday. Think of it as going on a small vacation daily when you step away from your desk. When you return to your work after stepping away you will likely notice a feeling of improved energy and stronger concentration.

Meditate For Re-Centering

Meditation is a great tool when your feeling stressed, even when you’re at work. You can take a moment while seated at your desk, dim your screen, and complete a brief meditation when you feel stress coming in. You can put on ear buds if you’d like and if you share a work space just put up your “do not disturb -available in 5 minutes” sign so people can see it and take some time to just close your eyes, breathe deeply and think of relaxing the muscles throughout your body starting with your scalp and going all the way down to the tips of your toes. When you return from your meditation break you will likely feel much calmer and have improved clarity in your efforts.

Listen to Positive Uplifting Music While You Work

Something that always seems to work and work quickly no less is to listen to upbeat and encouraging music while you are working. There are many great productivity music stations that you can listen to on YouTube while you work which help you to keep a productive pace while you work. You can also consider listening to productive binaural beats, Lo-fi Chill Hop or Gospel music to keep your mind and actions feeling upbeat and relaxing at the same time.

Take Water And Walk Breaks

It’s important to stay hydrated and get a little walking done during the workday. You may even enjoy going for 1-3 walks throughout your workday. Consider going for a walk and water break before you begin your work shift, even if it’s just around the home office or your work office. Next, try to complete a midday walk and water break as well. Your midday walk and water break is the most important chance you’ll have to rest your energy for the second half of the workday. Also if possible, try to conclude the workday with a brief walk and water break to transition from work mindset to home and relaxation mindset. The walks can be as little as a couple minutes. Every little bit of stress management practice counts for your stress reduction process and over time you may notice your tools become more efficient because your mind and body is more accustomed to the tools you’re using. It’s a win-win for healthy stress management recovery.

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Holistic Therapy For Black Women: How Holistic Therapy Can Help Women Of Color

October 8, 2020 Brandi Jackson

What is Holistic Therapy for Black Women and how is it different or the same as holistic therapy for any other gender and race experience?

As a Holistic Therapist, I see Holistic Therapy as a best practice and concept to create harm-free, dynamic, and intuitive approach to mind body and spiritual healing that is, well; holistic. This is a valuable conversation to have regarding the black woman experience to achieve wellness with mental emotional health.

If this article interests you, chances may be higher that you are a Black Woman interested in Holistic Therapy, or perhaps someone interested in supporting a Black Woman to achieve mental emotional health.

How Holistic Therapy Can Help Black Women

Holistic Therapy is a great mental health and wellness support for Black Women, historically speaking Black Women are more likely to go without support for emotional needs, space for emotional safety, non-biased medical care, and non-biased mental health support. There’s been a breech of trust in the field of medical care and limited support in therapy services historically in the Black community. Please look up the Tuskegee Study or ask the family of Henrietta Lacks. Let’s not even get into the historical past where Black Women were sterilized without consent in order to reduce personal rights for family planning due to racism. I’m sharing these historical traumas to demonstrate the lack of trust when working with helping professionals as Black Women. This is an undercurrent of what feels safe or not safe when working with a health professional. Considering the social unrest of current day America, this energy has not dissipated for many, but to be fair; I can’t speak for all Black Women.

The Diversity Factor Is Important

There is more diversity in the mental health field than ever before and there’s still more experiences of unmet emotional needs for Black Women. Most Black Women have personal experiences where their expectation to have mindful and present support for medical and therapeutic services were underwhelmed. The good news is there are more positive experiences than in the past. That doesn’t mean everything in the system of health and wellness support for Black Women is in perfect order just yet.

Changes Are Happening: Let’s Keep It Going

As a Black Woman Holistic Health Therapy Provider, I’m excited to see and personally work with Black Women for Holistic Therapy support services. I see a great increase of Black Female Therapy Provider’s existing, which is helpful for Women of Color to feel safe in therapy to explore their feelings with a certain familiarity of the lived experience of being a Black Woman without having to stop and explain that when you’d much rather stay focused on your emotional needs. Some women don’t mind at all, and some find this to be helpful as a feature of emotional safety.

Is it Different At All? Is it The Same?

I would say that Holistic Therapy can be provided by a whoever you ultimately feel most comfortable with and it’s worthy to think about what factors of your support team feel useful to have when choosing your holistic support team. Each Holistic Therapy Provider will likely have a varying background of expertise. Find what feels right for your emotional wellness needs.

I’m personally trained in Fitness and nutrition as supplemental support for emotional wellness. But there are other Holistic Therapists trained in Reiki therapy, yoga, acupuncture, massage, and so on. All of it’s useful but you’ll get to decide what is most useful to you.

You essentially will get to work a provider you feel comfortable and safe with who is also qualified to support you holistically in the areas of your life that will be an asset to your emotional health and wellness journey. I hope this post inspires you and feels like good food for thought.

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Sleep Hygiene: How to Stop Stress and Anxiety Insomnia

October 5, 2020 Taylor Hornbeck

Your sleep affects so many aspects of your life so it’s essential to ensure you’re always getting the best sleep possible. If you aren’t getting good sleep you may be experiencing low moods, your stress levels may increase and you may be eating more for comfort than substance. Lack of sleep can also increase your risk of health concerns like diabetes, stroke and heart disease. Stress and anxiety can cause insomnia. This type of insomnia can usually be helped without the need for medication by focusing on proper sleep hygiene.

Holistic Bedtime Routine

A great place to start is to assess what you are doing before bed that could be causing anxiety and stress and preventing you from getting good sleep. You’ll want to take a look at the four hours before you get into bed and determine if those activities are activating or deactivating you. You may want to implement a decompression plan that you can do everyday before going to sleep. Some of the things that will help you decompress would be no screen time, light eating, maybe making a tea, listening to something calming or reading.

Holistic + Mindful Insomnia Hygiene

If you are someone who wakes up and has trouble falling asleep you will want to have a before bed routine and an insomnia hygiene routine. The first thing you will want to check in your insomnia routine is if you have any stimulating things like a tv on, the lights on, your phone next to you, etc. If you don’t think you will be able to go back to sleep quickly I encourage you to get up, go to a quiet place in your home, keep the lights dim and stay away from any screen time. A great practice at this time would be to get out your journal and jot down anything that’s on your mind. Sometimes when you have had an emotionally draining day or you are working through a challenging time, getting these thoughts and emotions out on paper can be a great release and it allows our minds to relax. Once you’ve gotten your thoughts out it's a great time to relax by meditating. One of my personal tried and true favorites is using an acupressure pillow. On nights that I have too much on my mind and wake up I use my pillow for about ten to twenty minutes and I’m good after that.

Supporting Holistic Supplements

You may want to consider supplements at bedtime as well. Melatonin is a great option for sleep. It’s an all natural product that helps the body produce sleep inducing hormones. Tryptophan is another supplement that you could try. It’s a naturally occurring chemical that makes our body chemistry tired.

The Consistency Factor: Stick With It

It typically takes two to four weeks for your sleep cycle to shift but you need to determine if you want to be consistent with your sleep routine and what is going to work best for your lifestyle. For those hot summer months when you’re having trouble falling asleep try my summer sleep tips and tricks. This article was a brief introduction on what I cover in my Fit Mind & Body Program. If you want to dive deeper into your health and wellness then click the link below and let's get started!

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Natural Methods To Consider Before Seeing A Psychiatrist: Holistic Mental Health

September 2, 2020 Taylor Hornbeck

Why should you consider natural methods before medication? There are many factors that can affect our bodies and moods and they should be evaluated before you seek out medication to manage symptoms. Prescribed medication certainly has its place however it may not be helpful for every diagnosis. There can be side effects from medication as well as issues with not being able to access your full range of emotion. In my experience a lot of my clients have stated that they would prefer not to use medication and explore natural methods. Read on to find out what things to rule out when establishing if you have a mental health diagnosis that requires medication management.

Visit your primary care provider

This should be your first step to ensure that there are no physical health issues that could be affecting your mental health. When you visit your health care provider you can state that you would like to test numerous things in order to rule out any potential health problems. The first test that you can request would be a thyroid function test. An improper functioning thyroid is likely to produce symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. Another area of testing that should be considered is your vitamin and protein deficiency. If your body is not able to properly absorb necessary nutrients then you will display symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, moodiness etc. You should explore what foods you are consuming as well and make sure you are eating a healthy and balanced diet. The final area of testing that you should inquire about is adrenal fatigue. There is a specific blood test that enables doctors to test your adrenal fatigue levels which would help narrow down a treatment plan.

Sleep

If you aren’t getting enough sleep your brain is not able to recover or respond well to day to day activities. Pay attention to your body and honor your unique sleeping patterns. Lack of sleep can cause the body to mimic symptoms of a mental health diagnosis. Explore sleep hygiene options that work best with your schedule and body type. Strive to be consistent with your sleep schedule as this will help you better determine if you have health concerns or if you just need to prioritize your sleep more.

Situational Anxiety/Depression

Before establishing if you have a mental health diagnosis you should first take a look at your current life situation and see if there is anything that could be provoking symptoms. Are you currently stressed out because you’re moving, changing jobs, homeschooling your kids, adjusting to quarantine etc? Then you can decide to bring in support either from family and friends or an outside source to help you manage your current situation. That may look like delegating tasks to them to relieve some pressure off of yourself or asking for help in a way that would be beneficial to you.

Active Coping

In my experience when my clients practice routine coping they are better able to manage their symptoms. My recommendation would be to use a three a day approach. Choose whatever coping mechanism works best for you that may be walking, doing yoga, meditating or another tool and do that three times per day for at least ten minutes each.

To wrap this up, you shouldn’t feel a stigma around taking medications to manage your mental health there are times where medications are needed and necessary however going through everything I have outlined above will allow you to determine if medications are something you need in your current state.

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5 Ways To Reduce Depression + Anxiety Symptoms: Holistic Therapy Tips

1. Journaling Can Reduce Depression & Anxiety Symptoms

2. Talking With Supports Can Help Your Symptoms

3. Eating More Veggies Can Reduce Symptoms

4. Routine Exercise Gives You Energy + Mood Management

5. Connecting With Your Interests Helps You Heal

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Holistic Therapy Tips: How To Wake Up Earlier

Go To Bed Earlier To Wake Up Earlier

Avoid Situational Insomnia

Write A List Of Good Reasons To Get Up Earlier

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Holistic Therapy Tips: How To Fend Off Anxiety With A Daily Routine

Deep Breathing Throughout The Day

Drink Plenty Of Water/ Eat Clean

Move Your Body Reduce Your Overwhelm

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Holistic Therapy Tips: How To Feel More Joy + Happiness (Right Now & Today)

Choose to Laugh Everyday

Locate Daily Awe-Worthy Inspiration

Connect/ Create With Your Hobbies Often

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Holistic Therapy Tips For Increasing Your Energy Naturally & Fast

Drinking Nutritious Water

Eat Energy Foods

Walking Outside To Boost Mind Clarity

Deep Breathing Or Meditation Breaks

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Holistic Therapy Tip: How To Reconcile After A Disagreement Or Fight

Stop The Conversation Respectfully When You Feel it’s Getting Unproductive

Take Space After The Disagreement

Come Together to Have A Collaborative Resolution Conversation With Tangible Actions

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Holistic Therapy Tip: How To Make Time For Yourself If You’re A People Pleaser

Make Your Time A Consistent Day Every Week

Don’t Put Others First When You’re Spending Time On Yourself

Communicate In Advance, Remind, And Reiterate

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Holistic Therapy Tips For “Bouncing Back” After Disappointment

Take Some Space From Your Disappointment

Refocus Your Attention To Other Areas Of Your Life That Have Value

Find Your Why And Be Gentle

Don’t Miss The Opportunity To Outsmart Your Disappointments

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5 Ways To Know If You’re Really Ready For Holistic Therapy

Commitment to Be Open And Explore

Your Willing to Commit Your Time Consistently and To Commit Financially

Commitment to Share How You Feel

You Aren’t Sure What Makes You Feel Stuck

You Are Willing to Work On Your Coping Practice With Some Consistency

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Holistic Therapy Tips: What To Eat To Reduce Anxiety Symptoms

Eat Your Plants, Sprouts, Fruit, Fats, And Seeds

What to Avoid Eating

Supplements That Help Reduce Anxiety

It’s Your Mindfulness That Matters

JOIN THE FIT LIFE NEWSLETTER AND GET CONSISTENT HOLISTIC INSPO, TIPS, TOOLS, RESOURCES, AND INFORMATION TO HELP YOU INCREASE ENERGY AND REDUCE STRESS FOR BOTH AT-WORK AT HOME!

SCHEDULE YOUR FREE 10-30 MINUTE WELLNESS CONSULTATION FOR ONLINE HOLISTIC MENTAL HEALTH THERAPY OR WELLNESS COACHING SERVICES

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Holistic Therapy Tips: How to Feel Less Emotionally Sensitive Or Reactive

Connect More With Your Needs

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