Experts predict that mental health and mind-body connection will be the wellness trend in 2021. I think it’s really great that people are recognizing the importance of feeling calm and happy, and are looking for ways to improve their overall wellbeing! I believe that the healthier and happier we are, the easier it will be to create a life-affirming, happy and healthy world.  

Therefore, in this blog I will share tips for supporting ourselves in our goal to be calm, happy, and at ease. 

But first, let’s talk about stress. 

With our world becoming more complex by the moment, many people experience high levels of stress. While our bodies can comfortably handle a little bit of stress on a continuous basis, or a lot of stress for a short duration, experiencing high levels of stress on a daily basis can disrupt our lives in unwanted ways and sometimes can lead to chronic illness.  

In the good old days, when we still lived in caves and life was less complicated, we were in a state of ease most of the time and high levels of stress weren’t a frequent occurrence. As a result, our nervous system has evolved in a way where it can be highly activated for short amounts of time - like when we were chased by a tiger for example, yet it does not do well with chronic excessive stress. 

Today, we are being “chased by a tiger” (experience high levels of stress) almost every day and for many, for the majority of the day. For example, you might have tight deadlines at work or feel frequently worried about the future. You might have unwanted arguments with your spouse or not enough social support to help you get through the tough times. Or you might experience something that is unique to you. 

The good news is that there are ways to mitigate all of this! 

If you’d like to experience more calm, ease, and happiness in your life, try implementing a few of the following strategies: 

Spend time in nature 

Spending time in nature helps calm down our nervous system, which in turn helps us to feel invigorated, happy and harmonized.  

Have realistic expectations of both yourself and others 

While we wish we could accomplish more, quicker, it’s important to not push ourselves or others beyond our natural capacity. 

Commit to monitoring the quality of your thoughts 

Our body responds to our thoughts. When we think happy thoughts, our body shifts into a state of rejuvenation and restoration. When we think stressful, unhappy thoughts, our body shifts into a state of alarm and gradually begins to break down. 

Take time to relax and enjoy the moment 

Relaxation is the cornerstone of health. Therefore, the more you can relax and enjoy your life, the better off you will be.  

Spend quality time with family and friends 

We are wired for connection and it’s important to spend lots of quality time with people we love.  

Exercise in a way that feels good to you 

When we move in a way that feels good to us, we allow our bodies to get strong and resilient. And happy, healthy bodies make happy, healthy humans. 

Meditate to relax your mind and enter into a state of flow 

Being in a state of flow and relaxation supports our body, making us healthy, vibrant and resilient.  

Establish healthy boundaries with the people in your life 

Having healthy boundaries with people assures our ability to interact with them in a way that uplifts and energizes us, and makes us feel safe, loved and accepted. This in turn greatly supports our health and wellbeing.  

Collaborate with others 

While we could do everything ourselves, it is much better for our health to collaborate with others so that everyone’s workload can be reduced.  

Be a part of a supportive and caring community 

When we have a supportive and caring community arounds us, it is much easier to remain upbeat, healthy and inspired, even in the most challenging of times. 

If you want to go a step further, you can also take steps to lower stress-related anxiety. Here is how: 

Learn to self soothe and transform your emotional state 

While we don’t always have someone around us to help us feel better about certain situations, we can always learn to talk to ourselves in a way that mitigates tension and helps us know that we are safe and loved.  

Create more order and stability in your life 

When our lives are orderly and stable, it is much easier to feel relaxed and joyful. 

Connect with happy memories on a daily basis 

Remembering happy moments from our lives puts our bodies into states of ease, relaxation and rejuvenation. And it’s really uplifting too! 

Cultivate deep faith in the goodness of life 

While things might look pretty grim from time to time, it’s important to remember that better days are just around the corner. 

Reach out for support 

Reaching out for support is a sign of strength and gives you the opportunity to enjoy your life more fully. It also helps the person you reach out to feel really good about being able to help someone out.  

Stay in the present moment 

While it’s easy to get bogged down with thoughts of an uncertain future, it is best to focus on everything that is working well in our lives right now, in the present moment. As the saying goes: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is all we have, that’s why it’s a “present”.  

These are just a few examples of what you can do to bring more ease and flow to your life. While we can’t completely eliminate stress from our lives, adopting techniques to lower it helps our bodies to regenerate so we can live our lives to the fullest! 

Once upon a time, when our great-grandparents were children, there was no need for the label ‘organic’, simply because toxic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides weren’t around. Everything was organic! Nothing was genetically modified either.Once upon a time, when our great-grandparents were children, there was no need for the label ‘organic’, simply because toxic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides weren’t around. Everything was organic! Nothing was genetically modified either.Agriculture has become very different however, and many of the chemicals that are currently being used are detrimental to our health. Many of our common ailments such as hormonal imbalances and high toxicity levels can be traced back to foods laden with chemicals that ought to be deemed unfit for human consumption. 

So what can you do? If you want to improve your health, lose weight, and feel energetic and healthy overall, it’s a good idea to begin eliminating processed and chemical-laden foods from your diet. Replace them with organic, unprocessed foods  that are as close to their natural state as possible. Such high-quality food is free of additives that contribute to health issues like headaches, fatigue and weight gain.  

If you have a very busy lifestyle and convenience foods like frozen dinners and ready meals are your go-to, changing your eating habits can seem very difficult. Therefore, I recommend switching slowly, you can start by making some small steps. 

Here is a step-by-step plan to switch to a healthy diet:

1. Find a local, organic food source. This may be your local grocery store, a farmer’s market, or an organic box delivery service. Internet search engines are your friend here! So do a little research and see what is available in your area. 

2. A good way to start is by adding more vegetables to your meals, particularly green leafy vegetables and also seeds. Try alternating which vegetables you have each day to help with digestion and absorption. Some great vegetables:choices are kale, mustard greens, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, leeks, onions, chard, cucumber, celery, green beans, bok choy, brussels sprouts, and green peppers. 

3. Increasing your protein intake will also be very beneficial to your health. Some good sources of protein are: chicken, beef, lamb, pork, duck, goat, quail, venison, bison and certain types of fish. Proteins can also be found in beans and legumes, however, if you choose to eat mostly a plant-based diet, make sure that you know how to combine non-animal proteins properly so that you are well nourished.  

Sometimes your body can take a while to adapt to increased protein intake, so listen to what your body is telling you and be sure to increase your protein gradually. 

4. Fats have been seen as the enemy by many people looking to have a healthy diet, but they get a bad rap! As long as you consume good fats in appropriate correct quantities, they are actually very beneficial – indeed essential - to your health. So which fats should you be avoiding? Hydrogenated fats, trans fats, non-organic butter, canola oil, vegetable oil. Good fats include avocados, eggs, coconut oil, hazelnut oil, organic butter, olive oil and ghee (clarified butter). But remember, make sure you buy organic! It’s even more important with fats because the body stores toxins in fat tissue. 

Now let’s talk about portions. How do you know how much you need of each food group? This takes a bit of experimentation; try equal portions of proteins, fats and vegetables to begin with and see how your body feels. If you feel full of energy, clear-headed and emotionally stable, you’ve most likely got the balance right! Here’s how you will know if the balance isn’t quite right for you: 

Too much fat: you feel bloated, tired, lethargic or nauseous 

What to do: eat some carbohydrates like a bowl of berries, an apple, or some carrots. 

Too much protein: you feel heavy, tired and lethargic 

What to do: eat some carbs! Again, a few berries, an apple, or some carrots are a good choice.  

Too much carbohydrate: you feel anxious, moody, panicky, light-headed 

What to do: eat some fat or protein, something like half an avocado should do the trick! 

Finally, if you suffer from bloating, indigestion or gas, it may be that your gut needs healing. To do this, consume fermented foods, probiotics and bone broths.  

Changing to a diet of organic and whole foods is something that can dramatically improve your health and wellbeing! Why not give it a try and see the benefits yourself? 

I hope you have found this information useful! If you have any questions, I’m more than happy to help so please get in touch! 

Energy is your life-force, it’s the vital energy that flows through your body, helping to keep your body and mind in balance; in Chinese medicine this is called Qi. Your body is designed to be vibrant and full of life but modern stressful lifestyles leave us feeling depleted. There is nothing normal about this and your body is longing to be healthy again!  

If you’re looking for help in this area of your life, please read on and discover how you can restore your body’s natural vibrancy, amplify your energy and say goodbye to feeling exhausted! 

Before we look at how to cultivate energy, it makes sense to understand what it is that zaps our energy. So first, let’s take a look at what it is about our lifestyles that can bring us out of balance: 

Work - We spend a good portion of our waking hours at work. If your job isn’t something you love and feel passionate about, spending so much time there can be a real drain on your energy. Also, work environments can be pretty stressful and often require us to do things that are unnatural for our bodies - for example, sitting in front of a computer 8 hours a day.  

Stress - There can be many sources of stress in our daily lives. Worrying about money, relationships, overwhelm, work and family.  

Food - Highly processed foods are very much the norm nowadays and these do not provide our bodies with the nutrients and fuel we need. Eating processed foods can also lead to gut inflammation, unstable blood sugar levels and even autoimmune conditions. All of which can have a big impact on our energy levels.  

Pressure - Our society puts a lot of emphasis on being perfect, we are constantly confronted by images of perfect looking people, with perfect homes, jobs and families. We are expected to want to overachieve and that can put a lot of pressure on us, leading us to overwhelm and loss of confidence and motivation. 

And here is the thing: if we carry on living lives that do not align with what we want and need, if we keep feeling constant stress, exhaustion and overwhelm, eventually we can suffer from burnout.  

Signs of approaching burnout are: fatigue, irritability, exhaustion, headaches, stomach aches, reduced creativity and feeling less capable. You may not notice symptoms immediately but once it takes hold, it can affect all aspects of your life. 

Now, let’s look at how to get that energy back!  

Here are some activities that replenish energy: 

• Quality time and conversations with loved ones 
• Meditation, restorative yoga, qigong and tai chi  
• Reducing use of social media 
• Listen to music you enjoy 
• Do something that makes you happy like a hobby or a relaxing time with friends 
• Spend time in nature 
• Getting enough sleep 

Doing these as much as possible will help you recharge and bring you into an energy surplus.  

If you don’t have enough time to do these things, you can try ‘layering’ tasks; what I mean by layering is, when you are going to do something that drains your energy, counteract it by doing something at the same time that replenishes it. For example, if sitting in front of a computer drains your energy, try playing relaxing music in the background, sit on a stability ball and take 15 minute tai chi breaks from time to time.  

When we take time to make sure that we have more energy than we are using in our daily lives, we are creating the conditions that will assure our happiness, health and wellbeing.  

I hope you found this blog article useful and if you have any questions, please get in touch! 

Getting regular, restorative sleep is crucial to your health and wellbeing - and what a difference it makes to how you feel after a restful sleep! The day seems to pass more easily, tasks and problems don’t seem as difficult, you can think clearly and your mood feels lifted.  

Other benefits include : 

• Better management of stress 
• More patience 
• Better problem solving 
• Better relationships 
• Improved weight management ability  
• Getting unwell less often 
• Lower your risk of heart disease and diabetes 
• Reduced inflammation 
• Faster healing 
• Improved performance 
• Better reaction times and decision making  

Here is what happens while we are asleep that makes these wonderful things happen: 

Between 10pm-2am our bodies regenerate on a physical level; they secrete high levels of growth hormones and our organs are cleansed. Anything that needs healing will kick-off during this time; that’s why if we skip this stage we can wake up with all kinds of aches and pains or old injuries can feel aggravated.  

Between 2am-6am our psyche goes through a regeneration process; the best way to describe this is having a load of paperwork accumulated in the day that we didn’t have time to get to - these are the thoughts or feelings we haven’t had a chance to process but our minds are subconsciously aware of. During the night this paperwork gets filed away into the correct places. If we miss this stage of sleep we may wake up feeling stressed and in a bad mood. 

These days sleep issues are a common problem, in fact 1 in 3 Canadians are thought to not be getting enough sleep for optimum mental and physical health. Now don’t get me wrong, being busy and productive is valuable but we need to make sure we’re getting enough of that down time to recharge our batteries. 

So here is how you can get better sleep: 

Start winding down from 6pm, dim the lights, maybe play some calm music in the background and make sure you have finished any work at least 4 hours before you go to bed. This will help your brain to slow down. Avoid sugary foods or too much water before bed or they may wake you up at night. 

Get into bed before 10pm and lay down with your eyes closed; you probably won’t be able to fall asleep straight away, which is fine. Being in bed and laying down at this time will help your body’s rhythm to adjust and after a few days, you will find it much easier to get to sleep and stay asleep. The aim is to eventually be asleep by 10.30pm. 

Some other things you can do to improve your sleep are: 

• Make sure your room is peaceful and promotes relaxation 
• Eat a healthily diet 
• Have a healthy exercise routine during the day 
• Limit caffeine and alcohol intake later in the day 
• Avoid bright screens before bed 
• Practice relaxation in whatever way works best for you; this could be reading or meditation 

Now, I have a question for you: 

What is the next best step you can take to make sure that you get restful sleep tonight? 

Give the tips I outlined in this blog a try and let me know how it goes! 

Much love, 

Julia