Winter has shed her mantel and given way to the rebirth and rejuvenation of spring! Learn how to tap into the energy of this season by participating in this FREE online course. You’ll learn simple ways to use diet and lifestyle to…
Enhance your energy
Boost productivity
Clear brain fog
Rejuvenate your skin
During this 60-minute self-directed course, I’ll answer these questions and more:
What special role do B vitamins play in energy production and what foods contain them?
Why does time in the sun matter and how to do you safely get your daily dose?
How can you use naps and other sleep strategies to bolster your energy throughout the day?
What special needs does skin have as the season transitions from winter into spring?
The first five (5) people to register for this online course will receive a $125 gift card from Enhanced Health Solutions redeemable for coaching services and online classes.
Sign up to take this course at your own pace by registering at Teachable.com. Attendance is free and you’re welcome to invite guests (simply share the link to this event).
Many of us start a new year with a commitment to self-growth and self-improvement. I admire this habit and take this action myself.
I take a slightly different approach than the traditional goal and resolution setting most people equate with the New Year. I shared my approach, RISQ Take, on the radio show Transformation Cafe in December 2018.
Recently, I began writing a new post and realized the 2018 post did a thorough job covering the topic. So, rather than rewrite, I’m reposting the radio links and the support materials.
It’s National Relaxation Day, a holiday initiated on August 15, 1985, at the prompting of nine-year-old Sean Moelle of Clio, Michigan (Levine, 2017). This young person noticed that constant work without any down time could make us ill. Science supports his conclusion: too much work and no play can lead to chronic stress which contributes to the development of such diseases as insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. In fact, the cardiovascular effects of stress increase your all-cause mortality risk by two to three times and decrease life expectancy by several years (Guilliams & Edwards, 2010, p. 7).
Last year, I observed the holiday by chilling out with an afternoon tea break. This year, I’m taking time to get outside and play for at least 15 minutes. Why play outdoors? Research has shown that humans experience reduced stress levels and increase overall health when engaging in activities in nature. A study conducted in Japan performed on the physiological effects of forest bathing showed that forest-like environments could lower concentrations of cortisol, reduce pulse rate, decrease blood pressure, increase parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity compared with city settings (Park, Tsunetsugu, Kasetani, Kagawa, & Miyazaki, 2010, p. 25).
Here are a few ideas of outdoor group activities you can enjoy:
Shooting hoops
Tossing a Frisbee
Playing corn hole / bean bag toss
Bocce ball
Badminton and tennis
Group games such as Simon Says, Red Rover, and tag.
No one to join you in play? Solo play also has a positive impact on health and stress management. Try skipping, doing a few somersaults and cartwheels in the grass, rolling down a slope of the lawn, or swing on the monkey bars at your local park.
What will you do for yourself today to observe National Relaxation Day? Please share your ideas in the comments section.
Bibliography
Guilliams, T. G., & Edwards, L. (2010). Chronic stress and the HPA axis: Clinical assessment and therapeutic considerations. The Standard, 9(2), 1–12.
Park, B. J., Tsunetsugu, Y., Kasetani,
T., Kagawa, T., & Miyazaki, Y. (2010). The physiological effects of
Shinrin-yoku (taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing): Evidence from
field experiments in 24 forests across Japan. Environmental Health and
Preventive Medicine, 15(1), 18–26.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12199-009-0086-9
While having a nice chat with my friend Amy Frost this Sunday, we realized that we had allowed some of our daily self-care rituals to fall by the wayside. One of our favorite rituals involves us simultaneously preparing and enjoying a cup of tea at 3:00 pm each week day from our respective offices (mine in Mountain View, CA and hers in Las Vegas, NV).
We decided that this week we would re-institute this meditative tradition. We committed to do this ritual every day for the next 5 days. No big, long-term commitment. Just one small step towards enhancing our health through a simple meditative exercise that takes all of 5 minutes to perform. This hands-on experience provides both our body and our mind with a respite from the hectic work day.
As we chatted about self-care in general, we came back to a topic for which we both have a great passion: making self-care easy and practical. We all face a variety of constraints that can get in the way of self-care, including bandwidth, motivation, and financial pressures.
So, we pressed our “Easy” buttons and came up with the idea of a Weekly Health Quest to share health-enhancing actions that anyone can do in the real-world of deadlines and packed calendars.
How the Weekly Health Quest Works
Each Monday we’ll share on our Facebook pages (Catie’s Page and Amy’s Page) a Health Quest, an action we commit to take daily that will promote our personal well-being. We invite you to join us on the Health Quest and share your experiences via comments on the post. Amy and I will do likewise.
Together, we can support each other in practicing self-care on a practical level. Will you join us?
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