One place where everything comes together
Reading Time: 6 minutes Now, true self-care definitely involves a lot more than the occasional—or even frequent—bubble bath. But, if you are lucky enough to have a good bathtub, it’s worth your while to spend some time there.
Baths have many more therapeutic benefits than simply helping you to relax. Stepping into a bath affords an opportunity for some much-needed alone time, it can be almost like a meditation and is certainly a gift to yourself.
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Reading Time: 4 minutes If you constantly pull back from the edge,
you’ll never find out what you’re capable of.
How often does this happen in life?
We feel the awkwardness of doing something different, the discomfort of a new diet/workout schedule/business commitment, and we pull back.
We find an excuse to retreat to ‘normal’.
We never find out how far we can go.
The best way to lean into your edge is first to be aware that it’s there.
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Reading Time: 6 minutes Grapefruit seeds contain a couple of important chemical compounds (polyphenols) called limonoids and naringenin. Apparently, these compounds act as antimicrobials AND antioxidants, so in addition to killing off bad microbes they protect your body’s tissues against the excessive production of reactive oxygen species which can occur when such pathogens infect the tissues.
While there have not been many scientific studies performed on humans on how grapefruit seed extract works, test tube studies have proven that it works as well as some prescription drugs for conditions such as fungal infections.
Natural health practitioners and many users (including me!) can testify to its efficacy for a number of different and persistent problems. Additionally, grapefruit grows in many areas, and peoples of various cultures throughout the world have used grapefruit seeds to cleanse the body of harmful organisms.
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Reading Time: 7 minutes Let’s be frank, if self-care could be accomplished with a bubble bath and a good G&T I’d be a whole lot healthier, because that would be a whole lot easier than doing the actual work of taking good care of myself. True self-care takes effort, awareness, and a big dose of grace and kindness.
And I get it, when things feel hard sometimes all we want is for things to feel easier – and sinking down into the couch to binge on Netflix and Cherry Garcia is pretty easy. Indulging eases the pain for a while. But then…
Then we wake up in the morning and hear the latest news. Burn baby burn. Stress at every turn. So, we need to take good care of ourselves because self-care is important when the world is on fire. And right now, it’s getting pretty hot in here.
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Reading Time: 3 minutes I’m not trying to tell every women ‘of a certain age’ that they need to completely to surrender to entropy and shrug off the ravages of time. Attention to our appearance, pampering our skin, and, yes–even dying our greying locks to our preferred color, can all be nourishing self-care rituals.
That’s totally up to the individual woman.
But, I do want to challenge you to ask yourself WHY you are engaging in these rituals. Do you love them? Is it enjoyable and fun? (Or is the result enjoyable because YOU love it—rather than because you expect someone else will love you more because of it?)
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Reading Time: 6 minutes Although they can seem to just dangle there in the background, the ironic part is, those hands are quite visible and obvious to others. Beauty experts know this of course – and if you’ve been caring for your hands diligently all this time, you may not even need to read this. (Unless you’re interested in some DIY, natural treatments for those long-suffering digits.)
It might seem vain to be focusing on a topic like beauty care for the hands, but I’ve come to understand that taking care of my body is much more than trying to look good in order to garner the approval of others. It is a profound statement of self-love.
Not just in the rote way of, ‘sure I practice self-care because I get manicures and massages’—but in a much deeper way.
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Reading Time: 6 minutes I’m definitely a fan of baby steps. If you suspect that your body might be reacting to gluten-containing foods, but you just can’t bring yourself to go completely gluten-free, start by simply cutting back. While you may not experience the full benefits, it will likely become easier to cut it out completely if you decide you want to give it a try as well.
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Reading Time: 6 minutes You’re Not Alone
I decided to write about this to get this thing more out in the open – and to spread the word about some of (relatively) easy fixes for the problem (depending, of course, on the degree of intensity.) It’s been an on and off problem in my own life for years—and got way worse during perimenopause and menopause.
And I’m just like everyone else – usually too embarrassed to discuss it, even with my friends.
That potty training shame goes deep apparently.
Urinary incontinence affects 10-35 percent of all women, with 35 billion American women throwing down cash for pads and treatments. In fact, more menstrual pads are sold for incontinence than for menstruation!
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Reading Time: 3 minutes Cleaning can be a magical act.
Every spell in history is made up of an intention + action. Many’s the wise woman who turned her floor sweeping into the sweeping away of troubles and troublesome people.
Do not discount the potency of house-magic, just because you’ve always seen housework as a chore. As with politics and opinions, perspective is everything.
You get to decide what each and every action ‘means’. If you decide that by literally taking out the trash, you’re metaphorically tossing out everything that feels like crap …. boom! You’ve cast a spell.
Reading Time: 5 minutes True confession: Sometimes I forget to take my own advice. But, I always know when I’m getting off the program when I start struggling with too much wakefulness. Granted, there are many factors at play for those of us who find ourselves wide awake in the middle of the night and/or after shutting off the light to snuggle up for sleep.
Hormones, life events, and many other things play a role. In some cases, it’s a good idea to see a medical or mental health professional to get things sorted out. However, the tips and ideas I’m sharing here and in last week’s post can really shift things, no matter what else is going on.
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