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Seasonal Self Care

Written by nutritiousthoughtsblog on . Posted in Articles, Self Care.

Autumn is transitional.  The light reflects a bit differently on the trees at dusk, some schedules speed up while others slow down, and we prepare for the holiday season ahead.  Seasonal shifts can be a challenging time to maintain self care. In fact, for many of us, the ways in which we care for ourselves shift with the season.  Nights are longer, temperatures drop, the air becomes filled with family-focused activities, and so on.  Do you struggle with maintaining self care regimens as summer transitions to fall?  Read on for some key points to taking the seasonal shift head on and taking the pressure off of yourself when it comes to self care!

Sometimes Simple Works Best

Self care doesn’t have to be “all or nothing”.  Setting realistic expectations for yourself during more chaotic times is essential to prevent self care from feeling like a chore.  Simple self care this season might look like going to bed 30 minutes earlier, just like daylight does!  It could also be remembering to turn the crock pot on before leaving the house.  These things can (and should) matter just as much as carving out time on a sunny morning to run or booking that weekend getaway. 

Set and Keep Boundaries

Repeat after us, “You do not have to accept every invite you receive.”  Autumn is filled with fun activities and gatherings of all kinds!  While this time of year typically has something for everyone, this doesn’t mean that you have to do all the somethings at the expense of your own peace. If going to that bonfire on Friday night feels like too much, trust your gut…it’s probably too much…AND, you are empowered to say “no” to attending!

Look After Your Body

Yay, fall!  Not so “yay”  is cold and flu season.  Practice taking care of your physical body this season.  Get that flu shot, put lotion on that dry skin, stay hydrated.

Mind Your Mental Health

It’s SAD (seasonal affective disorder) season. If you feel you struggle more with your mental health this time of year, ramping up your mental health care game might need to be in the cards for you. “What more could I do?”, you ask? Here are some ideas:

  • Reach out for support – friends, family, clinicians
  • Begin a daily mindfulness practice – journaling, breathing, coloring, etc.
  • Self help – don’t knock the self help section of the book store…it’s a goldmine.

 

Wishing you all a wonderful fall season! Happy October!

 

Is Laughter Really The Best Medicine?

Written by nutritiousthoughtsblog on . Posted in Articles, Self Care.

This past month, the Nutritious Thoughts team participated in Laughter Yoga.  Yep, you read that correctly!  Never having heard of this form of self-care, we were greatly intrigued and wanted to learn more about the potential benefits of this practice.  Happiness Coach Jennifer Parr (make sure to check out her services here!) gave us an incredible introduction to Laughter Yoga and how giggling can promote overall well-being!

Laughter Life Hack – written by Jennifer Parr

Laughing for just 15 minutes can literally save your life. 1 in 2 Americans struggle to stay happy and the majority of us are seeking solutions to escape the overwhelming stress so many of us face on a daily basis that can be felt in the form of anxiety, irritability, fatigue, digestive problems, and headaches.

One of the fastest and most immediate ways to reduce stress and rewire neural pathways in the brain to get immediate and noticeable change is laughter. Laughter is now recognized as a legitimate, scientifically validated form of preventative medicine.

Physiologically, stress and laughter are complete opposites. If you are laughing, it is physically impossible to also experience stress in that moment. When you experience stress, it negatively effects the functioning and health of your body including an increased heartbeat, rise in blood pressure, and constriction of blood vessels. However, when laughing, your heartbeat slows, blood pressure naturally decreases, and blood vessels are no longer constricted.

The health benefits of laughter are endless.

Laughter Benefits:

Decreases Stress Hormones.
Counteracts Symptoms of Depression.
Relaxes Muscles, and Simulates Circulation.
Improves Memory, Creativity and Problem Solving Skills.
Increases Energy Levels.
Strengthens Immune System.
Improves Digestive System.
Elevates Self Esteem.
Reduce or Prevent Symptoms of Allergies, Asthma, Arthritis, and Cancer.
Quiets the Mind.
Better Sleep.
Release of Feel Good Endorphins.
Emotional Balance and Joy.
Improves Overall Health.l

How can you get MORE laughter in your life? You are 30 times more likely to laugh in the company of others (vs. laughing on your own). One of the most fun and effective ways to guarantee regular laughter while in the company of a supportive community is to take a Laughter Yoga class. It is necessary to laugh for at least 15 minutes to receive the full health benefits of laughter. Laughter Yoga will guarantee that you get at least 15 minutes of Laughter (and in most cases much more) so you can experience immediate and noticeable health benefits.

WHAT IS LAUGHTER YOGA?

Laughter yoga combines yogic breathing techniques, guided laughter exercises and a unique form of meditation. No mat or yoga experience is needed or required.

Class Includes:

·       Light Stretching

·       Yogic Breathing Techniques.

·       Laughter Exercises and Movement.

·       Low impact cardiovascular workout for any fitness level.

·       Laughter Meditation.

What To Expect In A Laughter Yoga Session?

Play and joy are basic human needs, even for adults, and necessary for living a happy and balanced life. This class supports participants in meeting such essential needs and can bring lasting joy when practiced regularly through a variety of guided group and partner exercises. Learn how to laugh without having to rely on humor, jokes or comedy!

What Will You Experience After Laughter Yoga?

Immediately following a laughter yoga session, you will understand the value of laughter as a form of low impact cardiovascular exercise. Many participants have reported decreased anxiety, stress, tension, and worry immediately after the first class as well as increased energy and relaxation.

You will learn how to change your mood within minutes through the exercises. Practicing regularly will help create a more positive attitude and positive coping mechanisms for difficult life situations. Participants will also learn techniques for releasing built up negative emotions. Many participants also report that they feel more connected and comfortable with other participants in class and it can often help in forming friendships.

If you are interested in experiencing a Laughter Yoga class, we will be offering regular classes at Nutritious Thoughts led by Jennifer Parr. Her website is www.jennparr.com.

“Always laugh when you can, it is cheap medicine.” – Lord Byron

 

The grittiness of growth.

Written by nutritiousthoughtsblog on . Posted in Self Care.

 

It’s summertime, and the living is…well, a mixed bag of emotions.

Growth is hard. Healing is raw. This month, we chose to feature the blog of a local Asheville clinician – Elizabeth Gillette, LCSW of Heirloom Counseling – to celebrate the “realness” of getting in touch with our true selves. See her recent blog post below about being gentle with yourself as you walk your own path of growth and healing.

Being Gentle with Yourself as You Grow

Hi!
There is something many of my clients realize once we start really digging into relationship and self-work: it doesn’t feel very good.
On one hand, I don’t enjoy seeing people experiencing discomfort or big emotions (I have had to learn to hold space for this and allow it instead of rescuing or fixing). But on the other hand, I have realized that the place where emotions are flowing and discomfort is welcomed and old hurts are received instead of pushed away is where the healing happens. Healing is feeling it all and changing your relationship with your feelings. When the emotions are unearthed, I take that as a good sign. You are a living, breathing, deeply feeling person and I want you to know I respect that—so I let you feel it. We feel it together.
Whether you’re actively shifting your attachment style toward security or it seems like your life as you know it is crumbling all around you or you are growing so quickly that it’s hard to keep up with yourself, please know you are still loved and worthy and whole. None of this work is easy. I’ve come to believe that if you are awake and aware and showing up in any conscious way in this world then you are exposed to the pain of all of it. So many of us are hurting. I know that.
But here’s what I want you to remember. The work you do reverberates out into the collective. Your healing is my healing, and mine is yours. We all deserve to heal. Every one of us. We can help each other do that—by offering support, by being in relationship in a conscious way, and by being accountable for our own stuff. Healing is unlearning just as much as it is acquiring new skills and practicing new responses. We must take inventory of our values and beliefs, gain an understanding of how we came to those beliefs (and whether they still make sense), and move into alignment with who we are now.
Your personal work is incredibly powerful because we are all part of something much bigger than ourselves.
Healing doesn’t happen overnight. And attachment and relationship work? We are in it for the long-game. This work takes practice, time, energy, dedication, and awareness. We must be gentle with ourselves to maintain our commitment. Humans don’t learn well when they are shamed or afraid or experience harshness. How can you create compassion for the parts of you that are learning right now? The fact that you are engaged with the work on a daily basis and healing at your own pace is good enough. Let it be good enough for this moment. Rushing this type of healing doesn’t allow us to dive deep, to fully embrace our experiences, to feel everything we need to feel to move forward.
We all have our own stories and experiences of healing and I believe it’s very important for us to hold space to hear those experiences and learn from one another. I am so thrilled to launch the here to heal podcast on June 11! It’s coming up soon and I’ve done some amazing interviews with incredible folks in my community as well as solo shows where I share more about my own experiences with healing. I’m looking for folks who would be willing to be part of my Podcast Launch Team—people who will listen to a few episodes and then rate and review them on iTunes and get the word out to others who might be interested. If that’s you, will you hit reply to this email and let me know? I will send you instructions and a reminder when the podcast launches! THANK YOU!
I also want to share an opportunity for an in-person healing experience that I am offering on June 22, 2019, with Liz Gunn and Monica Leblanc in the mountains of Western North Carolina. We are hosting an afternoon gathering to support your relationship to yourself utilizing attachment theory, astrology, and the Enneagram (a combination that I have found to be extremely powerful in my own healing work). This experience will provide grounded and practical tools for increasing consciousness and self-awareness with a healthy dose of fun, pleasure, and play. This gathering will be nourishing on many levels and is the perfect way to celebrate the summer solstice! Space is limited so the gathering feels intimate—please register as soon as you can to secure your spot!
Thank you so much, always.
Warmly,
Elizabeth

 

FYI! Elizabeth is launching a podcast THIS MONTH that we are seriously stoked for. Check out the details here: here to heal Podcast

Happy [and sad and frustrated and whatever else you may feel] Growing!

Resolutions…or Revolution?

Written by nutritiousthoughtsblog on . Posted in Self Care.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

…And welcome to “resolution” season.  As we turn the page to a new chapter – 2019 – it is likely we will all have some exposure to the concept of changing something (or things) about oneself “for the better”.

Traditionally, resolution setting tends to revolve around our bodies and our behavior.  Commercials for diet and weight loss programs become more pervasive, the local gym puts up a shiny new billboard offering $20 off membership, we are encouraged to pick apart the pieces of ourselves that we find unsatisfactory, and we ride off into the sunset on the new trendy wellness bandwagon.

While there is nothing wrong with desiring change and embracing a collective opportunity to kick-start it all, we invite you to challenge the typical narrative this time of year and consider the idea of a revolution rather than a resolution.  What would it be like to look at goal setting from a place that wasn’t appearance-focused?  What other aspects of life are there to look at when considering working on oneself?  What if the resolution was that you are enough…let’s repeat that…You. Are. Enough. as you are without making a single change whatsoever?

We chose a few of our favorite perspective-shifting articles and blog posts to share with you this month that are centered around self-acceptance, body respect, and revolutionizing what it means to resolve to take better care of ourselves.  Enjoy!

Julie Dillon’s two-part take on why it makes sense to want to lose weight…and how to navigate these feelings from a place of self-respect:

it’s not body love or acceptance that’s first, it’s respect.

weight loss is a seductive fantasy…here’s why.

Ragen Chastain’s (Dances With Fat) notes on sustainable personal goal setting:

Non-Diet New Year’s Resolutions

Eating Disorder Therapy LA’s suggestions for alternatives to typical resolutions:

Don’t Diet! 10 Alternative New Year’s Resolutions

 

 

Don’t Give It All Away

Written by nutritiousthoughtsblog on . Posted in Self Care.

Hello, Everyone!

This month we are breaking up the holiday chatter (but also…Happy Holidays!) to share with you all a candid, quite raw rendition of one’s experience of navigating relationships in recovery and traversing the journey of healing from co-dependency.  We love this timeless reminder that no matter what type of relationships we are fostering at the moment, we must always hold space for ourselves, nurture ourselves, and remain present with ourselves.

This piece was gifted by an Anonymous Recovery Warrior.

To my sister-

There will be someone that promises you the life you’ve always imagined having.  Constant, unwavering assurances of safety, security, and happiness will dance from their lips, forming the most entrancing, tempting ballet.  They will do it all right, and I mean everything.  From flowers, love notes, and elegant dinners to warm embraces and kisses as soft as the clouds.  These are all beautiful things to treasure, but love, don’t give it all away.

There will be someone that snatches your attention so violently and abruptly that they send you spinning into a whirlpool of your own thoughts.  For a while you’ll think you’re drowning in that perfect something.  You’ll immerse yourself in their cool, refreshing pool in an attempt to cleanse yourself, but please promise to stay where your feet can touch the bottom.  The deep end is colder, darker than you’d expect it to be- every time.   Darling, try to keep that beautiful head above the water.  Don’t give it all away.

There will be someone that you love to hate.  They will be your flame, you will be their gasoline.  You will pour your body over them like hot, melted wax just begging for a shape to take.  You will sugar yourself until they deem you the sweetest candy they have ever tasted.  You’ll surrender to the fire.  Passion is part of the game, but sissy, don’t give it all away.

There will be someone that changes your life.  You’ll think, speak, act, and do things differently than ever before.  You’ll set this new you into motion with a force so strong you’ll convince everyone you’ve had a revelation.  Your mind will shift, your attitudes will be altered, your dispositions will transform. Old habits will die, new ones will be born.  Perspective is powerful and changes are good, but look before you leap, baby.  Don’t give it all away.

There will be someone that makes themselves your project.  They will latch on, and you will mother their insecurities.  You’ll stroke their fragile ego.  You will find yourself cleaning up the foul waste of their childlike outbursts, uncontrolled and unpredictable.  You’ll wipe the floor of their mess and your tears of exhaustion, sanitize with affection, and you’ll wait for the next explosion.  You’ll hope that these nightmarish times will pass and that like the flu, it will get worse before it gets better.  My sister, I am here to tell you that there will always be another explosion, always another mess that will keep you on your knees.  Don’t give it all away.

There will be someone you love.  You’ll know it when you know it.  Your head will turn to them, and you’ll meet each other on an even playing field.  You’ll overlook things that are slightly inconvenient to preserve the pleasure of being a pair.  You’ll share yourself with them and they will reciprocate.  You’ll want them feverishly and vehemently.  You’ll experience compromise.  You’ll sacrifice genuinely but my god- don’t ever give it all away.

You see, there will always be someone.  There will always be high highs and low lows but whatever you do, don’t give it all away.  Don’t give all of yourself.  Don’t drain yourself dry.  Don’t burn yourself until the wick disappears.  Not ever.  If you ever take a piece of my advice, please let it be this one.  Leave some of you for you, no matter what.

Holiday Survival Guide: ED Recovery

Written by nutritiousthoughtsblog on . Posted in Eating Disorder Recovery, Self Care.

Here we are again. It’s holiday time.

Regardless of what, when, where, or how you celebrate, the hustle and bustle of the season has the potential to be overwhelming and sometimes, downright scary. So how do we navigate nourishment of our bodies and our minds in the midst of the chaos?

Check out these ideas below:

  • Make a plan. Seriously. Do it. Even if you don’t think you need to. 
    • Events involving food will likely be unavoidable over the next few months. Food is a normal part of human connection and gathering and for those in recovery from an eating disorder or disordered eating, this fact may feel quite anxiety-provoking. To say it simply, this is not the time to “wing it” or “see what will happen” or “talk about it later”. Taking the time to discuss these events, the food, and the fears around it all may be the ticket to maintaining recovery efforts.
  • Give support, get support.
    • Stay in touch with your support systems, people! It is very easy to skip your usual weekly support group or neglect to call back an accountability partner when we are feeling inundated with the many pressures of the holidays (family, travel, food, celebration, obligations, and the list goes on…). The heart of the matter is that because of these very pressures, you may need more support now than you’re able to realize…and we are thinking that may also ring true for the accountability partner from which you missed a call!
  • Make space for emotion. 
    • Everyone’s relationship to this season is different, yet we are all more stressed than usual in one way or another. Recognizing the nuances of your needs and waving ‘hello’ to whatever emotions or feelings you may be experiencing is a great first step to being able to cultivate a holiday-specific self-care regimen. See our August Blog Post on more ideas for gentle self-care during high-stress times!
  • Cope effectively. 

Do you have any tried and true methods for surviving the holiday season? Share your tips and tricks in the comments below!

 

 

 

 

It’s okay to not get the massage.

Written by nutritiousthoughtsblog on . Posted in Self Care. 1 Comment on It’s okay to not get the massage.

Self care. Self care. Self care.

While reserving space and time to care for ourselves in a chaotic, pressurized world is essential, the concept of “self care” has also become idealized and even exploited in recent years. Certain forms of self care (ex. “spa days”, exercise, etc.) have been pedestalized in mainstream media, which narrows the vision of self care considerably and reduces accessibility and inclusiveness for, well…the majority of people.

There are many reasons why people may avoid caring for themselves, and we believe that feeling pressure to create a luxurious experience for oneself every time we engage in self care only adds to the mix. The purpose of this post is to let you know that it is perfectly alright to choose boring, less “shiny” forms of self care when they meet your needs more efficiently and that it is important to pay attention to what those needs actually are in the first place.

“But I have no clue what I need!”

We hear you – totally and completely.

Start here:

Taking a moment to consider how you are feeling can help you choose self care activities that will be most appropriate for bringing you back to a more balanced place. We know, we know, getting in touch with feelings is everyone’s faaavorite activity (haha, not), but doing so can tell us more about what we are truly needing.

Below are a few examples of how to tie it all together!

Example 1:

Feeling/affect: Bored, isolated, lonely

Potential need: Connection

Possible self care activities: Reach out to a friend or support person, engage with recovery-positive social media, try a group movement class, etc.

Example 2:

Feeling/affect:  Overwhelmed, over-extended, “burnt out”

Potential need: Rest

Possible self care activities: Rest (nap, go to bed early, sleep in), massage or spa treatment, cancel plans, etc.

Example 3:

Feeling/affect: Anxious, restless, unsettled

Potential need: Calm, comfort

Possible self care activities: Guided meditation, grounding/breathing technique, nature walk, etc.

For more self-care inspiration, check out the link below about “boring self care” and one of our favorite Instagram profiles: @makedaisychains 

‘Boring Self-Care’ Drawings Celebrate Everyday Mental Health Victories

*Disclaimer* Choose what feels right to you. These suggestions are in no way absolute and are not meant to replace your current self care regimen, only to enhance your mindfulness around it. You don’t have to fit any mold ever, and we want you to choose self care activities that help you feel like your best self, no matter how trendy, luxurious, involved, simple, or boring they are or are not.