Minimalism For Your Mental Health, Anxiety, Stress, and Mood Management

March 8, 2021 Taylor Hornbeck

Today’s blog post is all about minimalism and how it relates to mental health, anxiety, stress and mood management. I’ll be sharing some tips as well as my own personal experiences to help you best navigate the subject.

WHAT IS MINIMALISM?

At the heart of it minimalism is a tool to look at what you have versus what you actively need and remove anything that is non essential or does not bring value to your life. In my experience minimalism has been the process of removing things that are taking up unnecessary space in my life. This can be behaviours, habits or physical items. There are varying types and degrees of minimalism ranging from more extreme like only owning 2 shirts to less extreme. The experiences are unique to the individual. How you practice minimalism could be different from someone else but it isn’t a competition in who owns the least amount of things. We can celebrate other people’s practices without it affecting our own journey.

HOW MINIMALISM AFFECTS STRESS AND ANXIETY

Stress and anxiety are things that can and likely will happen to almost everyone. Different points in our lives may have more triggers for these as we continue our life journey. We should regularly be assessing how we can manage our stress and anxiety. Determine what are the factors that could be increasing our stress and anxiety and what we want to do about it.

MINIMALISM BEHAVIOURS

This story is a way to demonstrate how minimalism can also be applied to behaviours such a meal planning to help streamline your life and reduce stress and anxiety. I’ve recently had an experience where practicing minimalistic behaviours have helped to reduce my stress and anxiety. As a child I would eat what was provided to me during meal times and I would eat all of it, now that I am a parent and through my work as a holistic nutritionist I have a different philosophy around eating. I have two amazing little boys however they don’t like the same foods. Of course I want to make sure my children eat but I was getting drained by creating individual meal plans for my kids or trying to get them to work together to decide what they want to eat. Instead of giving everyone what they want to eat individually I decided I would pick one thing that I will be making for breakfast. For lunch and dinner I chose to make things that would appease everyone by allowing them to add or leave out things that they did or didn’t want. This has especially helped streamline our morning routine since we only have to get one item prepared.

EXAMINE YOUR LIFE
Take time time to evaluate your current circumstances and environment scanning for potential things that are contributing to your stress and anxiety. What things are causing you distress in your life and what is it that you can do to control those factors. For me I chose to design a minimalistic meal plan. Figure out what things are causing you the most stress in your life and ask yourself questions like; what are the controllable factors? What would make this easier?

INVOLVE OTHERS
When you are trying to make lifestyle changes it’s valuable to talk to others about it especially if it’s a habit that affects other people. They may agree, pushback or disagree but the more clarity they have on what you’re doing then the more you can create space to move forward collectively. Similar to other areas in life if you set clear boundaries then others know what to expect.

Since adding minimalism and seeing the benefit of how streamlining my mornings I’m going to continue to look at areas of my life with a minimalist approach to keep removing tension. Ultimately we are all here to live a life of unnecessary tension so we can be more present and enjoy our lives further. Minimalism is a great tool but it isn’t the only tool you can use to manage your stress and anxiety. Explore ideas to find out what works best for you in your life.

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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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How To Reduce & Avoid Burnout As An Entrepreneur Or At Your 9-5: Holistic Therapy Self-Care Tips

March 8, 2021 Taylor Hornbeck

This blog post is about a topic I get asked about frequently, it’s something that a lot of us experience and that is burnout. If you are feeling exhausted, completely checked out and don’t want to continue feeling that way then I have provided tips to help you navigate this.

GET CLEAR

The first thing I would recommend to avoid and prevent burnout is to assess your current situation. Get clear on what the factors are for you to feel burnt out. Most of us have experienced burnout before so we can typically recognize why we are feeling burnt out. Your burnout could come from a variety of factors such as work or parenting. What areas are currently causing you stress and anxiety. Drill down and get to the heart of why you feel the way you feel. Is it external or internal factors? What actions played a role in your burnout? Whatever it is, journal about it so you know where you stand. The last time I was feeling burnt out was during my time as a resident therapist in a medical clinic. I was adjusting to working via phone versus in person due to the new pandemic measures. The team I work with also wasn’t given the proper support. I also had limited time for breaks in between sessions so I could decompress and prepare for my next sessions. I didn’t feel like I could give my clients my best since I was not at my best.

DETERMINE YOUR NEEDS

Once you have evaluated situations where you have experienced burnout you can determine what it is that you need to avoid it in the future. If you notice that you feel burnt out as an entrepreneur then it’s valuable to ask yourself what you need more of. For example, when I’m working with my clients I know that I need more support such as having someone take over the admin aspects and I can focus on my client. A strong support system is essential when avoiding burnout because you know you have individuals that you can lean on when you need them. From my previous example I also recognized in myself that I needed to take breaks in between my client sessions so I could show up as my best self for each session.

GIVE YOURSELF WHAT YOU NEED

We have the mentality to push through what we’re doing no matter what and we often neglect to give ourselves what we need even though we know we need it. Although you may be able to get through it doesn’t mean you have to. You can give yourself permission to take things that you need. I encourage you to find out what you absolutely need to do and what you don’t so you can build your schedule around that. My mantra for achieving this has been “I am removing tension in order to gain more peace and presence”. It’s essential for us to give ourselves what we need so we can avoid increasing stress and anxiety in our lives.

I plan to do a four week intensive course called Big Energy Magic; Mindset Cultivation. It will be a live online course. If you are interested in learning how to override habits that have you feeling stuck or you’re interested in making 2021 the year you open your mind to bring in more but you don’t know how to move forward. If you are working on a goal and want your mindset to support that then this course could be for you.

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How To Set Healthy Goals For The Month Ahead To Get Real Results!

November 30, 2020 Brandi Jackson

How to Practice Goal Setting For The Month Ahead

It’s almost a new year, if we’re lucky we’ll be back next year with the same thought, process, and hope. On some level most of us will be planning or considering what we’d like to see improve, where we’d like to make new accomplishments and what we are going to do about it all as far as helping the process. There’s no right or wrong way for planning goals that will be consistent for everyone but there are still a few tools that can help and will be worth trying for progress, stamina, and order.

In the paragraphs below, I’m going to share 3 tips that have made a big impact on how to organize your approach to goal setting, methods to build your stamina when your motivation decreases, and how to maintain an eye for incremental progress.

Get Your Overarching Goals First

The first tool that has made a big difference for me is to identify the overarching big umbrella goals first. These are usually goals that sound like “eat healthier”, “get more movement/ fitness”, or “take better care of myself”. Once you have your overarching goal, take a moment to think about why this goal is valuable to you. Why do you want to make more time for improvement in this area of your life? Write your why down on paper. Next, ask yourself “why now?” why is this important right now? Write that down also. Once you have some clarity of why now and why in general, you can start to think of your how. Usually how will and can include many different ways to focus on creating progress and practice for your goals. Grab a sheet of paper and jot down any ideas that come up for your practice.

Break your Goals Down Into smaller Steps Each Week

As you brainstorm different methods to practice to reach your goals consider which feels like the best match and most realistic for your lifestyle. If your goal is to eat healthier consider what are the small steps to do so. Do you need to go grocery shopping more often? Do you need to meal prep more often? Do you need to stop buying certain foods that you often eat in place of veggies? Do you need to talk with your partner or roommates about meal planning? Maybe it’s ideal to get prepared meals or something that will save time but give an advantage. Maybe a healthy eating app is ideal. Maybe it’s time to work with a nutritionist. Think about what works best for your goal. Think about what ideas feel the most sustainable. Write down which ideas also include accountability and support.

Add the steps that align best into your weekly schedule for the weeks of the month ahead. Make the steps very simple and easy to execute. Aim for low traffic days and times. For many this will be on the weekends and during the early morning hours.

Create a Recovery Plan

Sometime you won’t be successful. Sometimes you won’t have motivation or energy. On those days it’s good to create an incremental efforts list. Ask yourself what you can do on these days and times. Maybe instead of being able to eat all the healthy veggies, you can choose to eat a small salad or take your vitamins, or just drink water to hydrate a little bit more. It’s healthy and reasonable to have other ways of working on your goals that feel simple, incremental, and achievable even on your worst days. Prepare a list of possible actions you can take on low motivation/ low energy days. Hold yourself accountable to do those easy actions for your tough days. Also note you can take a day if needed but return to your goals if you want to see progress. Remember life happens to us all but we can also steer our way back to what we value.

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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What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy & How You Can Use It Starting Today

November 23, 2020 Brandi Jackson

What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy & How You Can Use It Starting Today

We are all thinking thoughts throughout any given day. Some of those thoughts will be positive or neutral and others thoughts will feel negative and intrusive. Some of our thoughts may even be harmful or immobilizing. It’s the negative thoughts that keep us stuck or reactive. Negative thought may also be known as cognitive distortions. What if there was a practice you could access to train your mind to override negative reactive or immobilizing thoughts. Well, there’s a therapeutic tool that is meant to help you retrain your thought process. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is essentially the practice of isolating harmful and immobilizing unhealthy thoughts in order to redirect from harmful thought patterns into neutral thought pattern that can help to reorganize thoughts, emotions, and actions.

Maybe you’d like to feel more control over your thoughts, emotions, and actions. You can use cognitive behavioral therapy in order to gain emotional freedom and engagement in your life in a new way. In the paragraphs below, I’m going to share tools and approach for practicing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) work independently. You most definitely can opt to work with a therapist for support but a therapist is not necessarily a requirement to start rewiring your thought process.

Why Use CBT

CBT can be a great and meaningful way to sort out complex distortions or negative thoughts. With CBT you essentially neutralize difficult and harmful thoughts. Once your create an alternative thought that is neutral to your harmful thought you can gain a different experience with your emotional response also becoming neutral. Turning harmful or immobilizing thoughts to neutral thoughts changes your emotional reaction to neutral as well. With neutral emotional reactivity you gain more space for progress to do things differently. Having a neutral or positive emotional reaction can allow you to take actions in ways that maybe you wouldn’t be able to tolerate well in the past.

CBT creates room to change behavior patterns by starting with a neutral or positive reframe for your thoughts. This style of coping practice can give you more emotional flexibility and increases the likelihood of change in your life.

How To Use CBT

CBT may be ideal to be supported via therapy with a clinician but in some cases it’s completely possible to practice CBT independently. Some methods that may help individual practice include journaling and creating more clarity on one negative cognitive distortion at a time. Once you isolate the relating thoughts, aim to create one overarching thought to rework. You may initially have several overlapping thoughts; try to use the information from your thoughts to create one main thought so you can prepare to be focused on one thought being corrected versus trying to correct several thoughts simultaneously.

Once you have your key thought confirmed, you can look for different ways to neutralize the thought. Think of other ways of looking at the thought where you don’t feel reactive or threatened. Think of ways of seeing the thought where it becomes manageable for you emotionally. Think of the thought as something that offers you information without judgment or reaction. Once you locate your neutral thought take it for a spin and see how you feel using your new thought patterns. If the thought process still feels triggering you may need to alter the specific word choice until it works or to reach out to work with a therapist for collaboration. If you feel a little unsteady that’s normal in the beginning but over time it may be easier to trust your neutral thoughts over your emotional thoughts with intention 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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How To Thrive Mentally, Emotionally, And Spiritually

November 19, 2020 Brandi Jackson

How To Thrive Mentally, Emotionally, And Spiritually

Life can feel so hectic, heavy, and overwhelming and at times. Our natural fast paced energy current of work or school, sleep, and then starting over the next day can make us feel like something is missing or that our ability to be present has been compromised. In those moments of realizing we feel emotional disconnection we have the opportunity to choose to thrive mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.

It’s like taking an aspirin when you have a headache. When we feel emotionally stuck it’s important that we work on our needs sooner than later to reduce the imprint of pain, sadness, anxiety, or coping in harmful ways. In the paragraphs below, expect to learn some tools and perspectives you can use to feel more alignment with actionable ways to create more emotional peace and emotional engagement to thrive more as you go through each day.

Start Bringing In Intentional Coping Practices

One of the fastest ways you can start to feel more mental, emotional, and spiritual energy in the “thriving” department is to start bringing in intentional coping practices that align with your spiritual self. This is where you can start to look at your spiritual wellness routine to check for 2 things specifically. 1. How often do you practice your spiritual routine? And 2. How fulfilling is your practice? If you’re feeling disconnected or as though you might need to freshen up your practice, it may be helpful to redesign your spiritual hygiene routine to feel true to who you are and what you need currently. This could be daily prayer, this could be meditation, this could be church or spiritual gathering, this could be learning or devotional time to connect or nurture your spiritual self.

Your connection to your spiritual beliefs and or faith can help you to feel more self-connection in the process of your personal practice for spiritual/ emotional health. Spiritual connection fuels our emotional wellness as well. When we have a spiritual or faith practice we are nurturing our inner-self, which helps us to feel more, centered, safe, and less reactive because we’re coping emotionally through the spiritual practice.

Spend More Time Without Distractions

It’s also very tricky to feel inner-self connection and peace within ourselves when we focus more on external factors, external entertainment via social media overconsumption, and external experiences that will continue to be beyond our control. We want to increase down time where we can focus on internal factors, internal entertainment via hobbies, and internal experiences like being clear of our own primary needs. It’s going to be easier to thrive with awareness of what you need, giving yourself what you need mindfully, and also accepting the journey of self can look different everyday.

The more time we make to avoid distractions to increase efforts to thrive, the better your outcomes and patience will become.

Create a Self-Care Routine

There’s a lot of value in practicing self-care and I’m referring to the inner-self focused self-care variety. This isn’t where getting massages, painted your nails, or taking a bubble bath will have the same level of impact as journaling, walking meditation, or talking about feelings with a safe support. Try to create a realistic approach to self-care that focuses on fueling your inner self. I recommend a daily journaling practice to clarify your emotions, thoughts, fears, and successes to start.

Quick Sidebar, I’ve worked with my share of amazing clients that tell me “I know I should” when it comes to journaling more. When we think of things in a “should” based way, we’re keeping the distance in place. Decide if this is something that can help you to stop thinking about “the shoulds” and other areas where you’re technically judging yourself. Please know it’s actually easier to get up and start your journal practice by grabbing a pen and paper and writing than getting tangled in a ”pass/fail” thought pattern. Try to not worry about what you should do. Instead, refocus as quickly as possible to turn off the pass/ fail thought system happening to get up, get a pen and write down your thoughts without focusing on the 100% best version of your progress. Let’s choose the authentic imperfect but true version instead.

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 Celebrate Yourself More Often

November 16, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tips: How To Celebrate Yourself More Often

When you work hard to get things done it can be exciting just to think, “Yay, I’m glad it worked out and I got it done” and next pivot our attention and start looking at the next task to be done. In society there’s a not so subtle push to rush, run, and sprint to get things done, and then take on even more things to work on. The pace of following a moving target of goals also creates a feeling of being on a continued hamster wheel with little to down time or time to reflect in-between. When we feel as though we’re on a revolving hamster wheel in our lives, it can also make us feel a sensation of emptiness emotionally. Without making space to feel more connection to our wins, obstacles, and growth opportunities we can miss out on the beauty of feeling more present and presence in our day to day lives.

In the paragraphs below, I’m going to walk you through 2 methods to increasingly celebrate yourself more often. This will help you stay anchored in self-connection, which ultimately makes us feel more centered and confident.

Stop and Savor The Small Victories

When you decide to work on your goals it’s worthy to also celebrate your small victories on your way to task or goal completion. It may seem odd to stop and celebrate completing another day of effort placed towards your goal but, trust me it’s a great way to nurture your practice.

Imagine if we celebrated all of the small efforts that create the end results of growth, increased knowledge, or success and accomplishment. It’s like enjoying a long beautiful scenic car ride without having to wait until you get to the final destination on your road trip. You’ll naturally get more from your experience and efforts. Remember to stop and enjoy the view on your journey to success, not just when you get to the top of the mountain as they say.

Create A Celebration Ritual

If you don’t normally practice celebrating your small victories you may not have a celebration ritual worked out just yet. That’s okay, let’s start thinking of different ways you can celebrate, smile, and savor your small wins. Sometimes we attach a large celebration to the completion of a goal like going out to a nice dinner, getting a new outfit, inviting all of our besties over to have wine and dish about the job well done. This is fine to celebrate the whole experience but you can decide how to celebrate based on what feels right and best.

Sometimes we don’t go big-party mode at the end of the goal, we might just opt to rest or have a drink, or shift in to downtime mode so we can rest a while post goal completion.

But if we focus on the journey instead of the end result you get a bunch of milestones that will be within your view for celebration. Some simple ways to celebrate the journey while on the journey may be to smile and verbally commend your own progress. You can say “great job on x, y, z” as though you are talking to a friend (you’re the friend). You can break into a mini- journal session to process and savor your win, aim for a single paragraph or go for a whole page just to feel more present and celebratory. You can also talk with a friend or support about your recent win and of course please be open to remember that our loved one’s may not be as engaged or happy (as we would be) about our play by plays so they may be supportive in their own ways but your happiness is not reliant on how much your loved one demonstrates enthusiasm for your updates and successes. That’s our job for our goals, we are the one’s who need/ will be excited at 100%+ percent.

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 Silence Your Inner Critic

November 12, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tips: How to Silence Your Inner Critic

So you’ve decided to make some brave moves and get out of your comfort zone. You’re excited to learn something new or to do something new. Your new opportunity might be a new job; or it could be taking a class where you’ll learn something as beginner. You might feel excited and nervous at the beginning of your experience. Then, you may even be lucky to make it a few days before feeling self-doubt creeping in causing you to feel unsure if your new adventure “is going to even work”. Negative thoughts may slowly begin to circle in your mind as you embark on your new experience.

When we learn new things it can feel overwhelming and pressure packed. We approach with expectations to learn quickly, to remember everything, to avoid asking any perceived “stupid” questions, and to make absolutely zero mistakes. New experiences tug on our sense of imposter syndrome and self-doubt. If we listen to our inner critic too often or too long, the negative thoughts can take over our actions and cause us to stay stuck in life with limited growth or change because our negative and critical thoughts work to keep us safe from pain and fear. Growing pain is essential to our development and fear doesn’t always mean you need to stop what your doing. Sometimes fear is meant to remind you to proceed with care.

In the paragraphs below, I’m going to share some of my favorite Holistic Therapy tools to silence your inner critic so you can continue to evolve and grow.

Catch and Release The Negative Thoughts

We as humans have negative and critical thoughts as a normal part of our thought process as we go through any given day or experience. Healthy behavior and response to critical and negative thought loops are what’s more important than having the thoughts occur. Something you can do to decrease the power of negative thoughts is to aim to be aware and to catch your negative critical thoughts as they arrive in your mind.

If you can catch your negative thoughts you can also dismiss your negative thoughts. You can affirm when you’re having a critical thought, review if there’s any proof that the thought is true and if the thought is productive for your task or goal and then; mentally dismiss the negative thought with a “no thank you”. You’ll want to ready yourself with an action or distraction to avoid letting the critical thought sit with you for too long. The more time the thought lingers, the more space and power it can take from you.

Assign An Action To Override Negativity

Once you become aware of the negative your thoughts and have finished dismissing it, you’ll be primed for an action or distraction to reorient your attention back on positivity or productivity. Consider finding an action that aligns with your goal that you can use to buffer negative thoughts and to create more distance. Think of actions that will support your goal. For example if you’re taking a new dance class and your feeling self-critical, consider the action of practicing your dance routine 10x before your next class. You can also choose to think 5 positive thoughts for every negative thought. I recommend you write your affirmations and positive self –talk down to have more subconscious staying power. Ultimately, you want to steal your positive narrative and hope back with actions and overriding your negative critical thoughts.

Celebrate Your Progress Every Chance You Get

Another great method to override your inner critic is to celebrate every little ounce of your progress on the journey. It could be as simple as you made it to another day of practice, it could be that you figured out something that was difficult, it could be that you dismissed a few critical thoughts while you kept at your goal. It could also be you celebrating that you haven’t opted to quit even with all of the negative thoughts trying to sway you. Your celebrations don’t have to be big milestones. Your celebrations can be for the smallest sign of progress or commitment. If you can see more opportunities to celebrate, you can have more “data” for staying committed. Make sure you celebrate every day.

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 Practice Courage And Growth

November 10, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tips: How To Practice Courage And Growth

I get it, courage is something that we all aspire to practice on some level. We as humans naturally want to be successful and able to do things that can feel emotionally difficult with grace and intention. Most humans are usually busy with their many responsibilities and trying to nurture themselves with enough sleep, food, and down time in between all of the other responsibilities they have going on. Opportunities to practice courage will show up in our busy schedule most often as moments “we need to put our foot down” and correct some interaction that we find simply unacceptable. As a parent, my own courage is often called on when supporting my children in their school setting. Courage for some may show up in the work place when your co-worker attempts to hand you their workload. It takes courage to say no, “wait just a minute” and then correct the interaction for long term change.

There’s also a secondary style of courage. Courage can also happen when we self assess personal opportunities for growth and to then step up to close the gap. This can be a personal goal that is important for long-term health or wellness like finally starting a weekly budget. Another version of self assessed courage is to do something you’ve dreamed of doing because it will bring happiness or fruition like learning to dance, learning to box, or finally starting that Podcast.

In the paragraphs below, I’m going to share some of my favorite Holistic Therapy tips to help you practice courage and personal growth with more ease and enjoyment.

Do Something That Makes You A Beginner Again

It may be difficult to silence perfectionist thoughts and self-doubt on the road to practicing more courage but if your mindful that the elements of fear will be present, you are more likely to be able to manage any negative thoughts coming in. Please see perfectionist thoughts and self-doubt as possible and a natural part of having a new experience. Starting as a beginner again will help to keep our perspective in balance vs. being in a continued mind state of expert which can cause limits to how creatively we’ll be able to think and work.

When we learn or experience something new, it’s important to cancel out the automatic thoughts of fear or potential doom by remembering that you can take on the challenge and be successful. Remember your reasons of “why” attached to creating change in your life. A simple tool that may help is to complete a post-courage journal session about what went well from your practice, what made you feel good in practice, and one thing that you want to keep practicing to improve. You are the person who can make your courage-based action and process stick. It’s important that your mindset supports progress long term instead of immediately. Try to self-coach patience and small wins in order to feel more present in your efforts.

Share Your Journey With Supportive Friends

It’s a big value upgrade to your personal growth to share your goals and active journey with friends and loved one’s who can support you and help you maintain some accountability. Tell a few friends about what your working on and ask them to check back with you along the way so you can feel supported with positivity even when the going gets rough. Your friends will help you hold the vision when you feel low motivation. Just make sure to keep communicating as you go.

Show Up Present For The Learning Journey

Here’s the secret sauce that makes all the difference in your growth and courage practice. Show up as present as you can possibly be. It might be hard as you work on change to stay present, observant, positive, and enthusiastic with high energy but you will need to try. Being present helps immerse you into your experience at a deeper level, you will be more apt to infuse what your learning into your life with more dynamic approach when you are present. Presence is a tool that helps you use more of your experience to your benefit because you have a greater view of how your efforts can be applied to your lifestyle.

Consider actions to increase presence such as paying attention to your/ in your experience, putting your phone on airplane mode, stepping away from loved ones and children to have time to focus on your task and making the intention to show up with positivity and openness. Having clarity in how you show up gives you a path to be present to truly absorb all the courage and growth that’s located inside your change making and courage based actions.

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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.

MY #1 HOPE:

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Holistic Therapy Tips For Depression & Seasonal Affective Disorder

November 6, 2020 Taylor Hornbeck

Tips for Depression & Sesonal Affective Disorder.jpg

Holistic Therapy Tips For Depression & Seasonal Affective Disorder

As we near the time of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and depression I wanted to have a conversation around holistic tips to combat these subjects. Both of those subjects can overlap so ideally we need to keep working on our depression plans and also have a plan in place for when things feel extra overwhelming. It’s important that we know what to look for when it comes to Seasonal Affective Disorder. If you’re feeling symptoms such as low mood, isolated behaviours, difficulty sleeping or getting out of bed, irritability, or generally just feeling down you may be experiencing SAD.

Intentional Care

If you are experiencing the above symptoms then I encourage you to have a plan in place to deal with your symptoms. By no means does the plan need to be perfect because oftentimes people who experience SAD will struggle to manage. In an effort to not overwhelm you with all of the things you can do to manage your depression, I’m going to keep these tips short and sweet. Starting with a small plan will allow you to do what you can. You intentionally do something for yourself in an attempt to lift yourself up. Even when we are at our lowest energy point I believe that there are still small things that can help us. I’m not implying that we need to do everything however I believe it can be harmful when we tell ourselves that we can do nothing. An example of this is, if you are struggling to get out of bed everyday then I would encourage you not to give in to the temptation of staying in bed because it feeds the negative behaviours. Instead, I would encourage you to set a small goal of getting out of bed even if that means just moving to the couch. Small actions can go a long way overtime.

Optimize Your Energy

Having low energy is a major factor in both Seasonal Affective Disorder and depression. When you are experiencing low energy I would encourage you to spend the energy you do have on things that have a higher return for you. For example, if you in a period where your energy is low and making it to the couch was a lot for you and you can’t think about making food for yourself then try to reach for quick foods that will provide you with energy such as fruits, veggies, nuts, etc instead of foods that may be highly processed, high in sugar or have a lot of carbs. The highly processed foods will make you feel more depressed in the end. Reach for healthy and whole foods as much as you can to optimize the energy you possess at the time.

Give Yourself Permission to Rest

During the times where you feel low energy or low mood then give yourself the grace of allowing yourself to rest. It’s completely acceptable to rest when you feel like you need it. If you are feeling like you need downtime then give yourself permission to do that. It’s important that you don’t beat yourself up over this because rest is such a vital part of recovery in any aspect of life. Appreciate yourself and your body for trying to get you through an episode of Seasonal Affective Disorder or depression. It’s perfectly okay that your best in the moment may not be what you would choose as your best if you were having an ideal day. The more we talk down to ourselves the less progress we make to get ahead.

Seasonal Affective Disorder and depression are things that affect numerous individuals. There is nothing to be ashamed of while you are dealing with it. Accept how you are in the moment and know that you will get better but it doesn’t all need to happen in the moment. Take some pressure off yourself and allow yourself the grace of recovering in whatever way works for you. By following these tips you can help yourself feel better faster.

WATCH THIS VIDEO TO LEARN MORE:

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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.

MY #1 HOPE:

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Holistic Therapy: How To Create At-Home Routine When It Feels Impossible

November 3, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy: How To Create At-Home Routine When It Feels Impossible

The current times are packed with tasks that need to get done. Most people are working from home or working in-person during COVID. There’s also a large group of work at home and work in-person parents trying to manage a second and important task of home schooling their children with different ages and different schedules. There’s there’s the laundry, housework, breakfast, lunch and dinner to prepare. There are additionally bills to pay and phone calls to make as well. With everything being in somewhat of a transition it can feel difficult to create any routine from all the moving pieces of the day.

You may feel like your day is beyond control and as though it would be easier to step back and do nothing until everything returns to “normal” and you can finally get back more control of your time again. The news that’s worth remembering is that you can have more control over your time right now. Don’t give up, I have three holistic therapy tools you can use to create more routine in your schedule when it feel absolutely impossible.

Decide To Commit To The Task

There’s often a phase for most life transitions that include adjusting to make room and to practice an altered schedule. When we decide to take on new tasks, it’s great to keep an open mind and to give the new plan a try. However, we often realize as the new task or schedule is introduced and rolling out; that we have some gaps in success or feeling that the plan isn’t going smoothly. It’s important that we continue to look for ways to close the gaps we observe from our practice efforts and one of the first tools is to look at your commitment to the task and next your commitment to the practice required for making things work.

Committing to the task itself is about asking yourself, if the task is important to you in some real and necessary way. For the homeschool example mentioned before there’s a twist. Homeschool may not be easy or your choice but ultimately you want the best for your children and homeschool (at least during COVID) is the best you can provide to your children as they grow and continue to learn. It’s a big picture effect to commit here. Your Children are important and school is necessary. This train of thought may also reflect for working remotely, attending Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting, and any other lifestyle basic day to day responsibilities that will require your ongoing support.

Stay In Strategy Mindset For The Win

Once you commit to the task, you may find that you have mental space freed up to start looking into your plan/strategy to be successful and to make things work better if not smoothly. This is where all the magic happens because you can build your plan with consideration to organize timelines, the flow of the house (housework), the family schedule/ partner schedule and your personal schedule. Committing to your practice and strategy is the part where most people will feel growing pains. It may sound a bit silly but there’s a great opportunity to writing down your schedule with a pen and paper. You may find that you’ll be able to see everything that needs to get done with better clarity. If you can see it, truth be told, you can organize it. Once you have an organized flow to your schedule you can get into the practice of making the schedule routine.

Don’t worry about getting things perfect or having the prefect plan for wild card and unexpected events. In those moments, it’s okay to give yourself grace, take a pat on the back for how hard your working and then keep up your routine. Change can be hard but if you need a bit of a milestone try to aim for 21-66 days of practice and then see how you’re feeling in your practice. Time and space to practice will make things flow much better. Be sure to commit mentally and to show up in practice, from there things can only get better.

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 For Anxiety Treatment: Negative Thought Loops + Ruminating Thoughts

November 2, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy For Anxiety Treatment: Negative Thought Loops + Ruminating Thoughts

Have you ever felt anxious about something going unexpectedly wrong in your life where you did not feel like the situation was in your control? Did the negative thoughts and emotions keep circling around in your head for hours? Sometimes negative thoughts will loop in our minds because we are interested to naturally problem solve. But sometimes we have an issue that will need time to resolve which means the negative thought loop or ruminating thoughts will potentially do more harm than good.

In the paragraphs below, I would like to share some of my favorite anxiety management treatments for negative thought loops also known clinically as ruminating thoughts.

Meditation Can Help Your Anxiety

It may seem difficult to believe that meditation would even be possible when you experience ruminating thoughts. The truth is you can practice focusing your mind on your breathing and focusing on bringing your energy into a calmer space by trying and being intentionally single focused. If you struggle with thinking clearly when anxious like most, consider meditations that are meant for body awareness like completing a relaxation body scan or sending peaceful energy throughout your body for increased sensation of relaxing more deeply.

You can also follow a guided meditation to help channel focused thoughts and needed relaxation when you feel overwhelmed by ruminating negative thoughts. I have several guided meditations that are free and available on my YouTube Channel. You can also opt to follow a mantra-based meditation where you will verbally or mentally repeat a healing or calming phrase for the duration of your meditation session. Ideally after even a 5-10 minute meditation session you are likely to feel more relaxed than before making time to focus on energy shifting and reducing stimulus. You may not feel like you won the lotto after a meditation but 99% of people who genuinely practice will feel better.

Use Internal Narration To Stay Present

When your struggling with ruminating anxious thoughts something that may help you focus your thoughts, attention, and memory is to single task where you complete literally just one thing at a time without moving on to do anything else until you complete the task you are working on.

The other part of what makes this tool/ practice so amazing for anxiety is the internal narration component. As you single task your work try to also repeat/ narrate your task in your mind. For example if you are washing the dishes consider narrating the process for washing the dishes in your mind as you wash the dishes. This helps block out ruminating thoughts because you are intentionally using all of your awareness to complete your single task. This practice works! You can also use this practice of narration to be a more present parent or partner; you’ll notice your ability to engage in time together feeling increasingly happier.

Slow Down/ Rest Your Anxious Mind

When you are feeling anxious it can be hard to think clearly. Something that can help is to intentionally slow down. You may notice your productivity decreases when your anxious anyway so slowing down will likely give your new energy to complete your goals better. Be sure to take a break for rest and relaxation. Sometimes just choosing to sit down and rest for 20 minutes can make all the difference. Usually when you allow yourself some room to sit down you might realize how tired you feel. Rest for a moment, hydrate, and take intentional deep breaths.

You might find that coloring is a great way to shift your anxious mind when you take a rest break, you can also break out the play dough, or knitting supplies. It’s ideal if you need a break to reach for relaxing thought free activities if you need to buffer rumination or anxious thoughts.

The goal is really to create a space for calm and relaxation and to buffer negative thought loops where you will need time to resolve and problem solve. Try these tips and see how they can work to treat and reduce anxiety and negative thought loops. Remember the more you genuinely practice the better your tools become. When your tools for mental wellness gain strength so does your ability to feel more in control on your mood management.

MY #1 HOPE:

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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: Anxiety Treatment For The Busy Holiday Schedule

October 28, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tips: Anxiety Treatment For The Busy Holiday Schedule

Every year right around October we all start to realize "Christmas is pretty much here" which, visually shows up by October 1st in most of our public community spaces. Any grocery store or drug store you pop into will most likely start advertising for several holiday's at one time month's well in advance. This can bring on anxiety and panic for most of us as we try to plan for doing all of the holiday things. This year is even more compacted with COVID precautions and most families or friend groups not being able to physically gather. In the paragraphs below I'm going to offer my top 3 Holistic Therapy Tips for Anxiety Treatment to help you have a positive and low-stress holiday schedule.

You Can Design Your Own Traditions

One practice that can really help your mindset stay in a grounded place is to remember, in adulthood you can actively and intentionally design your own holiday traditions. We all grew up being taught our family's way of embracing the holidays. Some families go big with trees, heavy décor, and feasting. Others of us grew up eating a simple meal with moderate to mild acknowledgement of the holiday even being a focal point of the day. Some of our families opted out of celebrating the holiday's completely. There's no right or wrong here. We're all having our own experiences when in comes to how we approach the holidays and that's fine.

Something that can help you now is to remember that you can design your own traditions in adulthood. Even when you aren't necessarily able to gather with your friends or family you can still make the holiday's what you'd like them to be in other ways. Consider still wearing your ugly sweaters, making spiced cider bevy's, and getting your Secret Santa on by mail. I love the idea of throwing virtual Halloween parties and costume contests. You can ring in the New Year at home or virtual Church if you want to. It's your world and you are the designer. Just remember it's your holiday, embrace the day and feel more present in it by adding your own traditions to the mix.

Enjoy + Relive Great Memories Past

When we grow up we don't necessarily get to share every holiday with the same cast of friends and family from our childhood and adolescent years. Sometimes it can be stressful or anxiety provoking to think about how to spend time with everyone you cherish via making the rounds during the holidays by phone, video, or in person. Let's be real, there's only so many hours available in any given holiday honestly.

Please know you can always return to your favorite past memories of shared holidays. It's simpler than you may think but if you just close your eyes, allow time and quiet, and think of your favorite holiday memories, the visualizations should just roll right in. If you need a hand, consider these questions to guide your visualization and holiday memory recall practice:

What are your favorite holiday memories as a child?
What are your favorite holiday memories as a teenager?
What are your favorite holiday memories as a young adult?
What are your favorite holiday sounds and music from your past?
What are your favorite holiday smells, scents and aroma's from your family / friend gatherings?

Yes, with practice and intention you'll be able to see the family and friends, smell the holiday foods, and hear the holiday music playing with the help of a little visualization. You'll also likely notice a warm safe happy sensation of closeness (to loved ones past and present) from combing through some of your favorite past memories.

You Can Opt-In or Out As Needed

In order to keep holiday anxiety in check please remember it's completely okay and reasonable to opt-in or opt-out of plans as needed. If you find yourself being overbooked or over-planning for the holiday spectacular it's okay to sit down with yourself and to remind yourself it's okay to do less. Vote to spend less time doing the holiday schedule when you feel it's veering on being harmful or not useful for your personal wellness needs. We often show up holding onto the pressures and expectations from friends and family for the holidays and sometimes we're driving the action. Aim to find your happy medium to be present, connect with loved ones, and to honor what you need to feel good over the holiday season.

Now that we've covered some great holistic tools to keep your anxiety and stress managed for the upcoming holiday, I'm hoping you feel more prepared with tools to have a happier holiday schedule. With practice of making your own traditions, reliving your favorite holiday memories, and opting in or out as needed; you can feel more "holiday schedule" cheer. Having a holiday schedule that includes some downtime, you'll gain the option to be more present however you choose to approach the holiday season this year. Season's greetings to you!

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 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 Tips To Get Up And Exercise Even When You Feel Tired Or Unmotivated

October 23, 2020 Brandi Jackson

Holistic Therapy Tips To Get Up And Exercise Even When You Feel Tired Or Unmotivated

It can be hard to find the mental power and commitment it takes to get up and exercise when you feel tired or unmotivated after a long day of working and taking care of others with a packed schedule no less. You might want to get up and go walking, biking, or to do anything that resembles cardio after your busy action packed workday or life day. Then you have the weekend to recover where working may feel like a chore while your goal is to rest, relax, and recover.

I get it, it’s tough to be in action mode when you’re tired. Maybe you’re not getting enough sleep. Maybe you’re feeling over stressed from work or your responsibilities. Ultimately there will be enough good reasons to not workout when you feel tired or unmotivated but there’s also likelihood that you won’t feel as energetic, productive or resilient with your stress when you remove at least moderate fitness from your weekly practice.

In the paragraphs below, I will be sharing 3 tips that make a helpful difference for your holistic practice of bringing physical movement into play more often for your health and wellness efforts.

Start with a Small Approachable Goal

The goal of having more movement or exercise can feel like a big undertaking first thing in the morning and at the close of your day. With a busy schedule and down time being rare it’s not always easy to find the will power or motivation to commit. It may be difficult to get yourself to commit to an hour workout. Honestly, it may be difficult to commit to a 20-minute workout just the same. In these moments where you’d like to workout but find it difficult to commit consider the 5-minute or even the one-minute rule. Instead of committing to a workout that feels long-winded of 10-minutes or more, aim to complete a 5-minute or 1-minute workout instead.

When you commit to just a one minute walk around your home or jogging in place, it counts. You can also consider walking outside for fresh air and sunlight. Once you start your one minute or 5 minute workout you’ll likely naturally add more time to your practice. Even if you don’t add time you still did something for the day and any effort is always going to be better than no effort at all when it comes to fitness.

Make it A Concert: Use Your 5 Senses

Using your 5 senses for your exercise practice makes your efforts feel like an experience similar to going to a concert (remember when that was something to go and do pre-COVID). You want to bring in your 5 senses of taste, smell, sight, feel, and hear when you choose to work on getting more movement.

For Example: Walking Using 5 Senses Approach

Taste: Chewing spearmint gum or mints for refreshment/ bringing delicious tea to drink on the go

Smell: Wearing aromatherapy spray, essential oils, or aromatherapy jewelry

Hear: Listening to your favorite music or podcast

Sight: Walking where you can see nature, plants, water, or flowers

Touch: Wearing comfortable clothes, bundling up if you want to feel cozy, and wearing a comfy walking shoe.

When you use your 5 senses to create an experience where fitness isn’t a chore but a unique custom relaxation or happiness experience, you’ll definitely be able to convince yourself to create time and flexibility to participate more often. Who knows you might even look forward to working out and getting more movement.

Create An Accountability Partnership or Accountability Carrot

Consider inviting a friend or loved one to support or encourage your practice. Maybe they can offer to check in with you a few days a week and encourage/ remind you that you are starting a practice that’s for your self care and wellness. They can ask how your practice is going, if you did your practice today, or if you need any support to get your practice done for the day. It may help to pick an accountability buddy that can be consistent to check in with you which will help you to keep the conversation going until your routine begins to stick.

If you can’t locate a good accountability buddy, consider an accountability carrot where you can work on self-motivation with small rewards when you complete your weekly practice. Maybe at the end of a good week of meeting your practice goals you can treat yourself to a Starbucks run, a home mani-pedi, or a new book or magazine that you want to read.

The idea is to celebrate your progress in a tangible way. You could also enjoy a rest day and feel proud of showing up for yourself even when you didn’t always feel motivated or well rested. With practice your practice can keep getting better so don’t give up, just try your best to work with what you can do.

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!

DID YOU LOVE IT?

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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 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!

DID YOU LOVE IT?

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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!

DID YOU LOVE IT?

SHARE THE LOVE!

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!

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

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