Giving Thanks: The Power of Gratitude

Here in the U.S. it is Thanksgiving Day. This is a Day where you may celebrate with loved ones and take time to share with one another around the holiday table what you are grateful for. While this can be a wonderful expression of gratitude, when practiced every single day, it can change your entire perspective on life. A gratitude practice can improve your relationships and your attitude in general as it causes your brain to release feel-good hormones like endorphins. Having a regular gratitude practice is powerful and life-enhancing. 

Try incorporating the following practices daily and notice the impact on your mood, your energy, your relationships, your perspective of abundance and on your life as a whole. Practicing gratitude daily has been rigorously studied and proven to increase happiness as well as improve relationships.

The first practice to implement is using a daily gratitude journal. Writing down two things you are grateful for every single day will have a powerful impact on your perspective of abundance in your life. When you take time to recognize all that you do have right now rather than all you wish you had, you create a positive experience of the present moment.

Whether you are recognizing that you are grateful for what you may always have—like waking up in a warm bed or having a dishwasher creating some ease in your day—or for a kind gesture received from a friend or maybe someone held the elevator door for you when you were running late. Taking time to acknowledge the ordinary and the unusual creates positive, enriching feelings. 

When you write down what you are grateful for, take a moment to reflect on it. This creates an experience of savoring the memory, you are allowing that positivity to literally sink into your being and shift your internal experience. You are increasing the “feel-good” hormones in your brain and body.

Keeping a gratitude journal is a powerful tool to maintain a record of all of the good that exists in your life. Reflecting on what you have written in the past when you are feeling a sense of lack or feeling down can serve as a way to shift from a deprivation and down space emotionally and lift you back to a space of contentment. Try keeping a gratitude journal and notice the powerful impact on your life.

The second gratitude practice is telling your partner, child, loved one or friend something you appreciate about them each and every day. Harvel Hendrix, a long-time couples therapist said that couples that tell each other two things they appreciate about each other at the end of the day—every day—have more satisfying and long lasting relationships. This is similar to keeping a gratitude journal, it is just a verbal experience where you get to feel the positive feelings of “reliving” a positive element you noticed in your day.

Even if you are not currently in a relationship, you can have this shared experience with someone you care about, be it a friend, coworker, family member or child. Tell someone you care about what you appreciate about them and why. See how it feels for you to uplift someone. 

When something you did for a person you care about is reflected back to you, it creates a positive internal experience of feeling appreciated. Having that happen in a shared moment allows you to feel close as you end the day with a positive shared experience. Try this practice as well and notice the impact on yourself as well as your relationships.

The last gratitude practice I encourage you to try in order to build happiness and contentment in your life, is writing a gratitude letter. It has been shown that the experience of writing a gratitude letter and sharing it with the person you are grateful for can lift a mild depression for two weeks. That is incredibly powerful. Giving back, being kind and lifting up someone else naturally creates a positive internal experience. Ideally you can deliver and share the letter in person, but if you can’t that’s ok! Mail it, and see how it feels.

Shifting from a sense of lack to a sense of abundance, from a space of wanting to a space of being grateful for and content with exactly what you have right now is freeing. Moving from fear of loss to awareness of and gratitude for the present moment can have a profound impact on your mind, body and spirit. Creating a space for these gratitude practices and consistently engaging with them will create the most powerful results. When you try these practices, notice the impact on your life and let me know how they work for you.

5 Natural Ways to Stay Healthy Through Cold and Flu Season

Cold and flu season has arrived. With every sneeze, cough and sniffle I hear, I hold my breath, cringe a little, and hope I didn’t breathe in any germs. Then I remind myself that I work hard to remain healthy with several natural health remedies. There are many ways help maintain good health and wellness throughout this season and I thought I’d share my favorites with you here.

Adding these natural elements to stay healthy are best alongside general wellness practices that keep your body and mind in a state of good health and balance. These wellness practices include getting enough rest, exercising, self-care, balanced nutrition and relaxation. Of course, it’s ideal to wash your hands regularly throughout this season too!

When you offer yourself these wellness practices in conjunction with added natural health elements, you can increase your chances of remaining healthy all season long. Keeping your immune system in top notch condition and getting rid of viruses and bacteria that cause the illnesses in the first place will surely help you survive this season! These are all suggestions, listen to your own body and you may choose to talk with your healthcare provider before implementing any of these options.

1. Garlic

Garlic is simple to integrate, inexpensive and can be a game-changer when it comes to staying healthy. It has both antiviral and antibacterial properties along with a host of nutrients to help keep you vital and healthy. Add fresh chopped garlic to soups, stir frys, salsas and guacamoles. You can also add fresh garlic to salad dressings and marinades. It tastes delicious raw and cooked!

If you feel like you may be catching a cold or if you have been exposed to someone who has a cold, you can crush and finely chop a clove of garlic, mix it with a dash of lemon or lime juice and some filtered warm water and drink it down! This will help rid your body of the illness more quickly and fight off any other germy contenders.

2. Amp Up Your Intake of Colorful Fruits and Vegetables

The colors in fruits and vegetables contain amazing nutrients that help keep your body and your mind functioning in optimal condition. If you increase your current vegetable and fruit intake by one to three servings per day, you can increase the likelihood of staying healthy throughout this season. Adding fruits and veggies also helps to increase your energy and improve your digestion.

The next time you go grocery shopping, start in the produce section and aim to get a full load of colorful fruits and veggies in your basket—try to represent the entire rainbow! Be sure to have a plan for how you will use them—you don’t want to waste any! 

3. Zinc Lozenges

I love zinc lozenges. If I have even a slight twinge of a sore throat or sniffle, or if I have been around someone who does, I immediately start pounding the zinc. (My favorites are Quantum Health Zinc Elderberry Lozenges). Studies have shown that taking zinc lozenges at the start of a cold can reduce the duration and lessen the severity of the symptoms. Keep them stocked in your at home farmacy all throughout this season.

4. Essential oils

I love my aromatherapy diffuser. Not only does it help keep my living space all zen and fresh smelling, the essential oils have amazing therapeutic properties. During this season, choose oils that have antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial properties to help reduce the spread of germs in your home while enjoying the pleasant aromas. It’s best to use an aromatherapy diffuser that you use with water and add a few drops of a blend of oils to freshen and cleanse your air.  

The list of essential oils that are known to help keep germs at bay is quite long. Here is a short list: oregano, thyme, frankincense, sweet orange, eucalyptus, rosemary, tea tree, clove, sandalwood and lemongrass—just to name a few! You can create your own blend of those that smell pleasant to you.  

Two of my favorite blends that I think smell amazing and help to keep my air clean and healthy are: 1. rosemary, sandalwood and frankincense and 2. lemongrass, tea tree and clove. Try diffusing essential oils this season for your health and also for your overall wellbeing! You might also enjoy adding essential oils to a bath or steam them and directly breathe them in! Ahhhh….

5. Apple Cider Vinegar

Oh apple cider vinegar, what would I do without you? The list of possible uses for apple cider vinegar is super long—from aiding digestion to reducing nasal congestion—it is an absolute staple in my home farmacy! One of the benefits specific to cold and flu season is that it has powerful healing properties and it can kill off pathogens like bacteria.

You can make an apple cider vinegar drink by diluting 2 tablespoons with about 6 ounces filtered water and about a ½ teaspoon of raw honey. Drink it down to help ease a sore throat or to help prevent catching a bug and to help you stay healthy!  

Another use is a homemade disinfectant made with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with 4 ounces water and a drop or two of an essential oil. Use this mixture to disinfect shared surfaces like countertops and doorknobs if someone else in your home is ill. There are many other beneficial uses for apple cider vinegar, I highly recommend it!

Try these five natural ways to help keep yourself healthy this cold and flu season or to help shorten the duration of an illness if you end up catching one. Even if you choose just one to try along with your general wellness practices, you can impact your health for the better today!

Yoga Beyond the Postures: Healing Through the 8-Limbed Path

Yoga is often portrayed as a physical, body focused practice, but it is SO much more. Yoga is a practice. It is an 8-limbed path that allows you to connect deeply with the present moment, your highest self, with the divine. Yoga offers the opportunity to peel back the layers of mental, emotional, environmental, and social conditioning. Yoga is an opportunity to tune into your limiting, self-defeating thought patterns that cause discomfort, pain, and unnecessary suffering while at the same time offering growth and healing on the very deepest levels.

When I incorporate yoga therapy into the work I do as an integrative therapist, it typically has very little to do with the physical postures. The focus on the yogic elements is a process of creating a connection with your own internal guidance, inner knowing, inner wisdom and inner truth. The mind/body are intimately interconnected, really—they are just one thing—so addressing the physical body is absolutely a necessary part of the process, however, it is just one limb along the 8-limbed path to freedom.

When engaging with the 8-limbs of yoga there is time to set an intention, contemplate, and integrate the five Yamas and five Niyamas; which together create the first two limbs of yoga. These simple yet powerful concepts (such as the first Yama, Ahimsa: non-harming or kindness) allows a connection and renewed intention with how to approach your internal interaction, your external and environmental interactions with more kindness and love. Ultimately contemplating and integrating these ten concepts leads to emotional balance, internal balance and well-being.

The third limb, Asana, or the physical postures, address the physical body. The postures create freedom and comfort in the physical body by reducing tension, increasing flexibility and developing strength. When engaging with and practicing an Asana it is useful to abandon all attachment to any particular outcome (what the posture looks like). This can be a challenge as your ego may have its own agenda. Practicing a posture offers an opportunity to once again return to contemplating the Yamas and Niyamas. The physical postures, or the Asanas, are meant to combine steadiness and ease in your physical body, promoting and offering steadiness and ease in the mind.

The fourth limb of yoga is Pranayama. This limb offers a dedicated time to breathe and connect with the present moment. When you breathe you draw in prana which is our healing life force and life enhancing energy. Pranayama offers a time to release what does not serve you, mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Breath work creates a sense of grounding, preparation and training for the nervous system to be calm and quiet.

As your body becomes steady and at ease, the breathing practices create a calm and serene internal experience, the body/mind is then ready to move into the fifth limb of yoga, or Pratyahara. This is an experience of true relaxation by withdrawing your senses. This limb is all about deep relaxation. The process of surrendering to true deep relaxation is tremendously powerful and allows the possibility to feel, to experience, to open to the expansiveness of your being. The process of deep relaxation is the bridge to the inner limbs of yoga.

The inner limbs begin with the sixth limb, or Dharana, where you create a concentrated point of focus. To create this focus you might use a mantra (word or phrase), your breath, an image, a chant, a candle flame, or anything that is useful for you and assists in the process of creating a one-pointed focus of your mind. Concentration requires effort. The mind will wander, there may be physical sensations that distract you, noises in your environment, emotions that arise and impact the mind/body. The practice is all about returning to your point of focus and maintaining effort to concentrate on your single point of focus.

This practice of concentration can directly lead you into the seventh limb, Dhyana, or meditation. This limb offers the opportunity and ability to completely absorb with the present moment: the only moment. Dhyana offers the opportunity to dive into the space between the fluctuations of your mind. Meditation offers precious moments of complete stillness, complete connection to your point of focus without effort, complete peace. Essentially, yoga IS complete absorption with the present moment. Yoga IS the present moment.

When you experience this deep, timeless connection with the present moment through concentration and meditation you may experience the eighth limb, or Samadhi. Samadhi is sustaining the complete absorption and allowing a connection with your highest self, the divine.

As you embark on your yoga journey, know that yoga is always available. When you set an intention, reflect inward, take a breath, calm your mind/body, you are engaged in the practice of yoga. Samadhi is an opportunity, not a goal. It may be an outcome but not the driving purpose of the practice. When you practice without attachment to outcome, without expectation, you create a deeper freedom and complete surrender. There is no quick path to reach it. In life, you get good at what you practice. With yoga, that is all that is needed: practicing with dedication, consistency and effort. Practice being present, and you are practicing yoga. Practice yoga and can come home to yourself and find true peace, the divine, and a deep connection to all beings.