Fill Your Cup
Holistic Approaches to Self-Care in Fast-Paced, Stressful Times
In today's fast-paced world filled with constant demands and pressures, it's easy to neglect our own well-being. However, taking care of yourself is essential for maintaining balance, resilience, and overall happiness. In this blog post, we will explore the importance of self-care and share holistic approaches to help you fill your cup and nurture your mind, body, and spirit in the midst of a hectic lifestyle.
Mindful Self-Care Practices
I don’t know a more important time other than now to start a mindful self-care practice. We are more often than not, our own worst enemies. I know I can definitely beat myself up more than anybody.
I'm going to share my first mindful self-care practice with you to try. The best time to do this practice is in the morning before you start your day and in the evening before bed. This IS A “PRACTICE” and you will get better at it each time you do your practice. Even 5 minutes of mindfulness is enough to make a difference in your everyday life.
Practice 1: Mindful Meditation
Most practices involve sitting in an upright position on the floor or on a cushion. I find that laying in bed, palms up, feet spread apart in a relaxed position works for me before getting out of bed as you can set your intentions before your feet hit the floor. Most of the time I have to get up first and hit the porcelain throne as I'm 46 and have a bladder the size of a pea.
Oh the luxuries of aging.
So when you're ready, eyes closed, start by taking 3 deep, cleansing breaths. Imagine as you take your first deep breath in, that you are breathing in peace. Exhale negativity. Next breathe in love. Appreciate yourself. If we can't love ourselves it makes it hard for us to show others love, show compassion and set boundaries. Exhale negativity. Make sure you push that negativity out HARD! We all have some form of it built up in there. It might be self negativity or outward negativity toward something or a situation happening in our lives.
Get…rid…of.. it!
Lastly breathe in light. Just imagine filling your lungs up with healing light that consumes every cell in your body. Imagine it healing you from head to toe. Exhale…yes, that's right…negativity!
That's it! Repeat it a few times until you feel and believe it. It may be hard at first but I promise, you will feel it more and more each time you do this practice.
There's a ton of scientifically proven benefits to meditation which I will get into at a later date. It's pretty damn amazing what it can do for you!
I'll leave you with this amazing FACT—Meditation increases the gray matter density in your hippocampus and other frontal regions of the brain. This leads to increased learning ability, cognition and memory. It has been measured by using MRI and VBM imaging showing an increase after multiple studies on humans who went from zero meditation practices to just 5-10 minutes a day for 8 weeks.
That wasn't the only difference but let's start there!
I'm going to end here with my first blog post! Short and sweet. I'm going to leave a fun recipe down below. I picked this one because my youngest son Maxx informed me that the “Grimace Shake” is back at McDonald's, which I can't bring myself to go get him.
God knows what kind of garbage goes into that.
The Grimace Shake is a purple, berry flavored milk-shake with vanilla soft serve and berry “flavoring”, sweeteners and other ahemmm “healthy ingredients. We started making this last year after the first Grimace craze. Both he and his little buddies loved the healthy version!
So here's my healthier version of the purple shake that all the kids are going wild over:
Serving size:
3 medium shakes
Ingredients:
3 scoops Stonyfield Farm frozen vanilla yogurt
1 cup frozen organic blueberries
½ teaspoon blue spirulina
½ cup almond milk, oatmilk or milk of choice
Directions:
Blend up in the blender and poof! You got yourself a fun, healthy shake! Sprinkle some fun sprinkles on top if you want to add a little more flare.
Food fact:
Spirulina is packed with nutrients and vitamins, fights inflammation, reduces oxidative stress and muscle damage and protects against heart disease…food for thought!
Organic Blue Spirulina Powder
In the hustle and bustle of modern life, it's crucial to prioritize self-care and make time to fill your cup with practices and foods that nourish and rejuvenate your mind, body, and spirit.
Remember, self-care is not selfish, it's essential. Take the time to honor and nurture yourself, for when your cup is full, you'll have more to give to others and to the world around you.
