Detoxifying and cleansing the body is more than a trendy practice to help you lose weight.  Did you know that it can actually initiate the beginning of an empowering wellness journey?  Did you know that you can heal holistically – in body, heart, mind, and spirit – when doing a cleanse gently and mindfully?  

Knowing that you can much more out of a cleansing program makes a huge difference in your ability to stick with it and get results.  So if you’re interested in doing a cleanse but not ready to commit yet, this information will hopefully get you off of the fence and preparing your kitchen & body!

What’s Your Intention For Cleansing?

When starting a cleanse, a detox diet, or whatever you want to call it – I believe it’s important to go into it with the right intention. This will help you choose the program style and to stay as objective as possible as you’re moving through it.

In my opinion, the best intention is to want to HEAL. Healing means that you’re moving from a place of disconnection, imbalance, or disease to a state of joyful well-being and acceptance.

This is important to distinguish from the negative intentions that motivate many people to cleanse. Feelings of disgust, disappointment, or inadequacy can lead you to choose extreme diets under the disguise of a therapeutic cleanse. That could cause further imbalances with metabolism, gut health, and muscle loss. Going into a program with a negative attitude is definitely not going to help you experience mental and emotional benefits. It will just continue the cycle of self-criticism.

Whereas if you go into a program with the intention to heal, you’re looking for positivity. You’ll make decisions based on self-love. And even if the physical results aren’t super profound, you’ll likely experience other benefits that are well worth the time and effort.

Holistic Benefits Of A Cleanse

Here’s what you may experience on all levels if you approach a cleanse with self love and the desire to heal. This is assuming that you’re choosing an organic, whole food cleanse with balanced macrobiotics, avoiding the major inflammatory foods & oils, and if you’re actively avoiding toxins.

Physical Benefits of a Detox

• As your body releases toxins more efficiently, you’ll able able to assimilate nutrients easier, fueling and hydrating all your cells
• By decreasing inflammation, you’ll lose weight, find more ease in your muscles & joints, and reduce symptoms of most chronic diseases
• Better sleep, allowing time to restore cellular health and energy
• Balanced hormones (purging excess estrogen) – this helps with emotions too!
• Clear skin
• Smooth digestion

Mental Benefits of a Detox

• Bringing more mindfulness into preparing, eating, and digesting your meals will help you appreciate these experiences more
• Notice which foods are best for you and your constitution (especially if using a food journal)
• Helps you prioritize eating healthy meals (time to shop & prepare – less likely to pick up junk food)
• The discipline of a cleanse can help you with mindfulness meditation too, cleansing your mind of stressful thoughts that impact your body and emotions

Emotional Benefits of a Detox

• Release emotions stored in the body as you let go of toxins and tension
• Experience more pleasure during eating rituals
• See more clearly if you’re dealing with any addictions that are keeping you unwell and develop the courage to release them

Spiritual Benefits of a Detox

• Enlightenment is more possible if you’re body, heart, and mind are clear (this is why cleansing practices are so important in Yoga)
• Experience self love and the deeper spiritual connection that stems from that

Here’s A 7+ Day Cleanse You Can Try

If you resonate with this list of holistic cleansing benefits, then you’ll also enjoy the program I just created called Nourish to Heal! It’s organized as a course in Teachable that you’ll have lifetime access to. Check out the details below and sign up when you’re ready! Note that I’ll be leading us through it April 5-11 and am offering it at a discounted price until April 11 (but it will still be available for purchase afterwards).

This program is the result of my combined work over decades to heal my own autoimmune thyroid condition as well as guide my TCM clients to nourish themselves in accordance with nature.⁣

Commit for a week for a simple reset, or for longer if you want to make serious lifestyle changes! ⁣ Hope to see you in the course…
⁣

Owning and wielding your personal power is a very important part of human emotional and spiritual development.  And yet many people don’t realize that they are lacking a true connection with this inner strength which can help them traverse life’s challenges more smoothly. 

Do you need to power up in your life?  Read on to learn why it’s important to embrace your power and some tips as to how you can harness it. And watch the video below where I share some personal experiences of when I’ve had to power up.

What is personal power?

Personal power is that force inside of you that allows you live with freedom and confidence.

It is not violent, as some people equate the word “power” with. It’s not a force that you hold over other people. This power is all good, and when fully embraced, can help you with healthy boundaries and solid connections.

Even though we often say that our inner power needs to be built up or developed, it’s more precise to say that needs to be revealed and wielded. This is because personal power is within each and every person. This innate energy is connected to our spirit, our will, and to our motivation for following our dreams.

When someone has issues connecting to their personal power, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have enough of it. It means that something is preventing them from seeing that they have it and using it. In a sense, they have consciously or unconsciously given this power away.

Signs That You Are Disconnected From Your Power

Like many aspects of the self, it’s often easier to notice when you’re disconnected from your power than when you’re fully embracing it.

This negative feedback is really helpful in recognizing that there is room for you to grow! So don’t feel bad if you find yourself caught in these patterns that indicate you’re not in your power:

• Always deferring to “experts” to guide what you think, say, and do
• Being afraid to share information with people that you think will help them because you’ll be criticized or judged
• Avoiding new things because you’re afraid of looking out of place
• Dissatisfaction with how life is unfolding in the moment (life is happening to you, not for you)
• Fear from holding beliefs that are outside the accepted norm (in politics, work organizations, society in general)
• Seeking approval from others, especially if you’re pretending to act a certain way to gain it
• You allow people to talk down to you when you feel they’re smarter, have more experience than you, etc.
• Complaining about how people treat you (as a victim)
• Having a hard time accepting someone else’s success or free ways of being (crabs in a bucket mentality)
• Projecting shame and blame on other people as you judge their choices

There are certainly more examples. Anytime you are fixated on someone else’s issues, or living under the influence of ideas that are not your own, you are not fully in your power.

How do you get your personal power back?

Remember that your power is always present, just may not be valued or used fully. So there’s little work in building it up.

Instead, you need to break the bonds that are making you feel incapable of standing in your power, and find you dependent on others.

Tips for Powering Up Your Life

• Know what you value
• Focus on what you can control
• Stop hanging out with people who make you feel bad
• Hang out with powerful people
• Stand up for yourself
• Speak your truth
• Journaling and mirror work
• Mindful Yoga & meditation

I go into detail about each of these points in the video at the top or here and share some of my slightly embarrassing personal examples!

If you want to dive deeper with me on how to work within your power, consider joining me on the Full Moon January 28, 2021. We’ll be focusing on personal power through mindful movement, meditation, journaling, and ritual to help you along this transformation path. So if you’re reading this before then, please consider signing up here!

Living fully in your power is a process.

It’s not going to happen immediately as soon as you bring your mind to it, but make take some time to build courage and feel comfortable being uncomfortable.

It is well worth the effort once you realize that you are no longer under the influence of other people’s ideas. You’ll walk through life feeling confident to make your own choices, not caring what people think of you. I did it for myself, so I know it’s possible for you too.

I hope you have more insight as to how you can be living in your power. Please let me know about it in the comments below!

My health mindset is what guides me when dealing with challenging issues for myself and my clients. However, the same mindset permeates into other areas of my life too. In this post (and the video below), I share with you the five aspects of this mindset and how it can help you take charge of your health and master it by the end of the year!

Also be sure to grab this free health mastery blueprint that will help you flesh out your own health mindset!

How to Take Charge of Your Health

I do not have perfect health (few people do), but I am healthier than many. What helps me stay well is a constant movement toward health mastery. The health challenges that I’ve overcome are what make me successful as a wellness practitioner too.

The major challenges that stick out as I reflect on them are my healing journeys around Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, emergency Cesarean birth, and my son’s eczema and gut health issue as a baby.

The following are aspects of my health mindset when working toward healing , which is the goal of any health challenge. As I introduce these, I’ll share how I applied them to putting my thyroid disease into remission.

1. Holistic View

In order to heal completely, it’s important to look at your situation with a holistic view. Holistic means that you’re embracing the physical, mental, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects that may be contributing to un-wellness. It also means that you’re looking at the situation from all angles.

I knew that there was much more to my Hashimoto’s diagnosis than what my doctor was telling me. I wanted to know the underlying cause and how my lifestyle might have contributed to the outcome, not just take medication for the rest of my life while my thyroid was quickly destroyed.

Branching out from this narrow Western view is what led me to approach healing from many different angles: whole food organic diet, detoxing, energetic clearing with acupuncture & essential oils, and meditation to manage my stress. Without this broach approach, healing may not have been possible.

2. Natural Approach and Support

I’ve come to realize over time that much of the health issues we deal with in this country are due to us being far removed from nature. We have unnatural sleep/work habits, and unnatural diet of franken-foods, we dope up on medications that are highly purified that the body has a hard time recognizing and processing.

Whenever I’ve taken a natural approach to health, things have fallen in place. I’m not just talking about using natural therapeutics, though they are also key. But even beyond that, I feel like I’ve always been offered the best wisdom from nature and practitioners who are aligned with it.

Of course this is what we learn in Traditional Chinese Medicine, that we’re microcosms of nature. So when I started this thyroid healing journey quickly after I starting TCM school, I was set up with both a natural approach, but also teachers who saw me as a whole person. All aspects of me were embraced as a patient. That, on top of the self love I was already experiencing, was deeply healing.

3. Take Responsibility as You Take Charge of Your Health

I know this is a tough one for people.

When you are unwell, or especially if you’re a parent of an unwell child, it is upsetting to think that something you did or did not do is contributing to the situation. But it is important to take responsibility for where you are now because that means that you also have the power to get yourself out of most health challenges.

When I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, I knew I had been burning the candle at both ends. I was extremely stressed out, my sleep was messed up, I lived on coffee, I was getting lots of sinus infections with rounds of antibiotics, my diet was not the best, and I worked around toxic chemicals in my lab.

There was no way I could just turn a blind eye to this disease and continue living as I had. I took responsibility and changed what I could. Those simple actions, built over time, are what helped me heal.

4. Adjust Expectations and Take Action

Quite often people delay their self healing work because it doesn’t seem like the right time, or they feel they don’t have enough money or resources. Truly, there is no perfect time and if you really want to heal, you shouldn’t delay. Our time here on this planet is uncertain, so everyday is precious! Embrace life and work toward wellness now!

It’s really important that you have realistic expectations. Be open to stalled progress. Be open to pleasant surprises like the perfect blood work I eventually received after years of lifestyle changes. Just keep moving forward.

Trust that your body is constantly working toward balance and want you to survive and works in it’s own timing.

5. Prioritize and Focus on Your Health and Healing

If it’s really important for you to manage your health issue, you will prioritize the work needed to do so. You’ll also

I started working to heal my thyroid immediately. It was so important to me, that I didn’t care how long it would take or if it would even work at all. I just had to do whatever I could, not just for myself, but as a wellness practitioner I wanted to understand this disease for others too.

This drive for health mastery is what has made me stick to a gluten free diet for 6 years, to put filters on our water supply, and to remove our home of toxic products. So prioritizing and focusing on your health also means to remove the things that are distracting you or keeping you from healing completely.

I hope my health mindset is giving you something to think about if you’re wanting to commit to mastering your health. It has worked for me and my clients time and time again, so I know it can help you too.

If you need more help, get my Health Mastery Blueprint below which has prompts that can help you flesh out what needs to be done to promote self-healing. Please let me know how it works out for you and if there’s anything you’d change. You can share in the comments below.

Well wishes!

If you like this blueprint, then you’ll love my new 6 week course I’m offering: Yoga and Self Healing Practices for Holistic Health. I’ll teach you traditional healing practices that are both practical and deep.

Are you stressed out and want to do something about it that greatly improves you life? If yes, then you’ll want to keep reading because, not all stress relieving methods are the same. Here’s 5 aspects to stress management techniques that I’ll share with you to keep the negative effects of stress at bay.

Everyone experiences stress. Yet since stress is a response to what is happening from someone’s individual perspective, the experience of stress is difference for everyone!

It’s known that as stress accumulates over time, your health can really suffer. So it’s a very good idea to try to relieve it every day. Some ways to relieve it are worlds better than others though, so it’s really important to talk about these five aspects to look for.

Before we get into this list, take a moment to think about or write down your favorite ways to relieve stress. When you’ve had a bad day, what do you do to relieve the stress that results?

After you go through this list, you can decide if your stress relieving method makes the cut or if you think you need to make some adjustments

5 Aspects of the Best Stress Relieving Methods

1. Is It Holistic?

When you’re doing something to relieve stress, does it benefit your physical, mental, and emotional health?

It’s common for people to just prioritize their body, relieving stress that shows up as physical tension. So in the case of a tension headache, they might just take medication to remove the pain, the symptom. But this ignores the fact that there’s likely emotional or mental stress that is manifesting as the physical headache! So to completely let go of stress, the work needs to be on an emotional and mental level too.

Spirituality comes into play as well. When one is not feeling supported in life, like they have no purpose, that is a spiritual issue. So stress might have a root that is even deeper than the heart and mind.

It would be best for you to choose stress relieving activities that are holistic, which means that you give equal attention to body, heart, mind, and spirit.

Yoga is an excellent example of a holistic activity that has a potential to relieve stress on every level. Just be careful here, that you’re not making assumptions about a certain class. The depth of your experience is dependent on the teacher, if you’re doing a led-class, but also on your approach.

You may want to check out Yogic Approach to Stress Relief to make sure that you’re making the most of your stress-relieving practice.

2. Are You Checking Out Or Checking In?

Choose an activity where you’re constantly checking in with ourself. 

Watching TV is an activity that many people like to do because they no longer experience the stress of the day while they’re doing it. But this is because they’re completely focused on something else. They are “checked out”. 

The stress will still be there when the show is over though. Nothing has changed or shifted!

It’s best to choose an activity like journaling with which you can check in with yourself and actively process what’s going on.  In fact, just writing down how you feel can shine a light on how stress is showing up in your life and it will be easier to see how you can avoid or release it.  Typically, once our feelings are acknowledged, they shift into something less intense and the physical tension shifts too.

I hope you’ll try it! Here’s more information on how journaling can help you.

3. Does It Support Your Health?

Some people reach for alcohol, drugs, or engage in addictive habits when they’re stressed out. This is a way of checking out and unconsciously disconnecting from the source of stress.

This is important to talk about, especially right now when we’ve had continuous stress from the Coronavirus pandemic for six straight months. Obviously, it’s not the best idea to rely on a stress relieving method that harms your health when done multiple times, every single day.

So sorry moms, I’m not laughing at your memes anymore about how much wine you’re needing to deal with your kids who are learning at home. Yes, believe me, I know it’s stressful. But there are much better ways to handle it that actually improve your health.

You can try this breathing practice, for a relaxing start to your day.

4. Does It Offer Short-term Or Long Term Effects?

Yes, sometimes we need to do something to take the edge off quickly.  But typically these are not the things that will lead to long-lasting effects. 

Engaging in stress management practices like deep breathing, mindfulness, aromatherapy, journaling and yoga can actually develop you to a degree that you can avoid stress or you’re just less affected by possible stressful events.  This cannot be said for quick pampering activities like getting a massage or your nails done.

Believe me, I LOVE to pamper myself.  I am not at all knocking these activities and recommend you keep doing them. But I would be clear that it’s for self-love, not as much for stress relief. The reason I don’t like that association is because, again, stress needs to be managed daily, so the way to relieve it needs to be simple and accessible, daily. It also needs to be something you can do for yourself.  

5. Does It Strengthen Your Connection To Others? 

Whatever you choose to do to manage your stress will be even more impactful if the effects are noticed and felt by other people in your life in a positive way.  It is very clear that when I’m meditating regularly, my home life and my relationships are more harmonious. 

What about meeting with friends – going on hikes, going out to dinner, or meeting for drinks? Those meeting can be extremely positive and supportive!  Or they can be detrimental and useless. It really depends on whether you’re having deep conversations that help you grow or if you’re just drinking wine and complaining about how life sucks! See, it’s what you do with the time that matters.

Conclusion

I hope this information is helpful and that is doesn’t trigger you!  I’m only going to recommend the stress management techniques that work effectively and consistently.

If you want to learn more about self-healing stress relieving practices, join my free 5-day Stress Less Holistic Health Challenge that is beginning on Sept. 28, 2020. 

This challenge will also help you with consistency and accountability if it’s just hard for you to make the time for these stress relieving activities.  We have a Facebook group that you can join, so we all support each other. 

What is your favorite way to relieve stress? Are you still thinking this is the best way to manage it now that you’ve reviewed this list? Please let me know in the comments!

Are you looking for natural, impactful ways to tame stress?  Is it becoming more challenging to manage it since we’ve been bombarded with one event after another this year?  Want to stay ahead of stress and learn how to release it quickly?  (Remember, there’s still U.S. elections to come!)  If so, then you’ll want to join my free 5-day Stress Less Holistic Health Challenge starting September 28!

You see, mini vacations and beauty treatments will only do so much in helping you deal with the challenges of our times. And dropping back several glasses of alcohol, taking drugs that relax you, and loading up on sugar can provide temporary relief, but damage your health in the long term (which creates another huge layer of stress).

The most calm, composed, resilient people right now are those who are fully awake and aware of what’s happening in them and around them. And they manage stress daily by natural means, constantly trying to improve their holistic health.

Who Will Benefit From This Challenge?

This challenge is perfect for you if you want to:

• Relax your body with natural, nourishing self-care practices
• Clear your mind in order to focus on what’s really important
• Open your heart to experience more love, patience, and understanding (with yourself and others!)
• Learn how to take life in stride regardless of what is coming at you (thanks 2020 for the opportunity to practice this 😅)

You can’t control what’s happening around you, but you can control how you respond! I can teach you!

How Does The Free Health Challenge For Stress Work?

The challenge begins on Monday Sept. 28. Each morning (7:00am PDT) of the challenge, I’ll give you a practice that you can work on throughout the day to help you approach it in a more easy-going manner. Then in the evening (7:00pm PDT), I’ll be coming on LIVE in our community Facebook group to do a self-healing practice with you to help you release any stress that may have accumulated throughout the day.

If you’re not on Facebook, that’s fine. I’ll be emailing out these practices too. (The evening one will just be a little delayed since I’ll need to process the video replay to share with you).

I’ll be pulling from my expertise, sharing practices including yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, qigong, acupressure massage, aromatherapy, journaling, and more!

We’ll take some time to compare how your stress level has shifted throughout the week. You’ll then take what worked well for you and integrate it into your daily & weekly routine.

I know you will see a significant change! Your friends and family will probably notice too!

I look forward to working with you!

I know this free health challenge is going to help many people manage their stress and find more joy in their lives! If you have any friends or family members who could use help releasing stress, who are open to natural healing practices and willing to do the work, please share this post with them and encourage them to join!

The world needs this shift in perspective, how we see and manage the challenges before us in a positive way. I’d love for you to join me in modeling what that change looks like!

Do germs terrify you? Do you try to sterilize your home and body to prevent infections from viruses, bacteria, and fungi? What you may not realize is that our immune health depends on microbes and that your cleaning routine may actually be harming your health and contributing to chronic disease for the entire community. Germs are good for you!  

As, I’m writing this, we’re in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic so what I’m saying may seem strange.  Even with this crisis, I believe (and many scientists concur) that killing everything in the environment that has the potential to harm us through our sanitizing regimens, and sterilizing our bodies with pharmaceuticals, is not a good idea!

Unfortunately this is the message many of us hear from the medical community, from politicians, and commercials for popular cleaning products. We’ve been led to believe that if we can’t control nature, we’re at it’s mercy, and there’s nothing else we can do about it.

I’m hoping you’ll hear me out! I believe our health problems are much, much bigger than Covid-19. Our aim of sterility and fear of infectious disease is contributing to these other problems – especially with our children. 

With this information, it’s my wish you’ll become less fearful of the beautiful microbial world. You’ll see that it’s necessary for us to interact with in order for our immune systems to function well. Here’s 4 reasons why you should stop obsessively disinfecting today.

Why We Need to Stop Sanitizing Everything

1) Over 97% of Microbes Are Benign or Beneficial

Our microbiome, the population of beneficial bacteria in our gut and on our skin, are needed to protect against possible pathogens.  We can think of them as generals of the immune system to direct it’s weapons against invaders. 

Our bodies are inoculated with these microbes as we exit the birth canal. This is one of the many reasons we need promote natural birth when possible. It’s why we shouldn’t bathe our babies so much. If we promote extended breastfeeding, babies and toddlers will continue to populate their guts with beneficial bacteria in mother’s milk.  These practices give children a head start with good health and wellness.

But that’s still not enough! We need these beneficial microorganisms throughout our lifetime through exposure in our soil, from pets and farm animals, in fermented foods that we should all be eating, and from human interaction. Hugging, kissing, and shaking hands are all necessary for our physical and emotional health!

2) Lack of Microbial Exposure Can Cause Chronic Disease

This Hygiene Hypothesis says that conditions like allergies, asthma, autoimmune disorders, and obesity are caused by lack of exposure to microbes. 

An interesting 2016 study looked at children in two traditional Christian farming groups: the Amish and the Hutterites. The Amish practice traditional farming, using hand-held tools. Hutterites, on the other hand, use modern farm equipment and have less interaction with the soil.

Researchers found that far less Amish children had asthma compared to the Hutterites. After testing their blood, they also discovered that the Amish kids had significantly more white blood cells. We know that white blood cells are necessary for fighting infections. One could guess this was because of their direct exposure to microbes, which boosted their immune system.

We have a major issue with chronic disease in this country, and it’s growing at an alarming rate with children. Many people with chronic disease have poor gut health and it directly affects immune system function.

3) Bleach & Other Disinfectants Can Damage Your Body and Increase Infections

When we use harsh cleaning chemicals indoors, they are killing ALL microorganisms – the possible pathogens as well as the beneficial ones. These products also strip our skin and gut of it’s protective microbiome. Remember that when gut health is diminished, so is our immunity, and we’re more prone to infections.

A 2015 study in the Occupational & Environmental Medicine journal looked at the effects of bleach use in the homes of more than 9,000 kids ages 6 to 12 in Spain, the Netherlands and Finland. In homes where bleach was used, there was a much greater incidence of the flu, tonsillitis, sinusitis, bronchitis and pneumonia.

In addition to killing our beneficial microbiome, we also know that many cleaning products contain chemicals that are known or suspected carcinogens, endocrine disruptors (meaning they affect hormone balance and regulation), and increase the risk of chronic respiratory disease. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), 53% of cleaning products harm the lungs and “about 22% contain chemicals reported to cause asthma to develop in otherwise healthy individuals”.

4) Sanitizing Our Bodies and Environment is Pressuring Microbes to Mutate

Anti-microbial soaps, hand sanitizers, disinfectants, and ALL pharmaceutical drugs that are meant to protect us from and treat infections actually threaten the existence of microbes. 

The problem: Microbes want to live as passionately as we do! And nature is smart. Remember these words from Jeff Goldblum’s character Ian Malcom in Jurassic park?

via GIFER

Microbes will evolve and mutate in order to live. We are pressuring them to change in order to infect us better! This is a response to our interaction with them.

Antibiotics and antibacterial products are not fooling them at all. Chemicals like triclosan are so purified that it’s easy for the microbes to recognize and form resistance against them which creates superbugs that cannot be managed with standard antibiotics.

Triclosan typically ends up in nose secretions of people who use triclosan-containing products.  Methicillan Resistant Staphlococcus Aureus (MRSA) then binds to collagen and keratin proteins there since tricolosan poses zero threat to them. This creates harmful infections that don’t respond to standard medicines.

Although it was banned from handsoaps by the FDA, triclosan is still present in popular toothpastes, dish soaps, personal care products and other items on your store shelves to this day.

How Do You Stay Healthy During An Outbreak?

Let’s get back to the elephant in the room, that we’re dealing with a global pandemic. What do I hope you’ll glean from this information that will help you and your family stay healthy & well?

I’m hoping this information relaxes you to the point where you can focus on what truly matters right now. Instead of killing everything in the environment and hiding from each other, we should instead focus on wellness. How do you do that during a pandemic?

1. Hand washing – gentle soap and water will remove potential pathogens from your hands without depleting the microbiome on your skin or in your gut. 
2. Building your immunity – you can read more on how to do this in How to Boost Immunity Naturally with 5 Key Tips.

If you were to let go of your sanitizing efforts and instead focus on boosting your health, then you’ll continue to live your life with greater confidence, trusting your body and nature. 

We also want to think about future consequences of our actions right now. 

If we keep obsessively cleaning our environment and sanitizing our bodies, then we will no doubt see a greater increase of infections in the future. This will not be due to a lack of social distancing with fellow humans, but because pathogens are getting stronger and smarter, and we are becoming more weak.

I hope you found this information interesting. If so, please let me know if you have any questions in the comments below!

In this last month we’ve been exploring the different anchors of awareness in mindfulness meditation. Today we’ll be doing the 4th guided meditation in this 5-part series, this time focused on mindfulness of thoughts. 

The goal of meditation is always to live in the present moment, regardless of the circumstances in your life. It is an extremely helpful tool when we’re challenged physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

I want to clarify this upfront because many people incorrectly believe that meditation is about emptying the mind. They know that their mind never stops and doesn’t see that this is possible. As a result, they don’t even try, or they give up to soon.

With mindfulness of thoughts, we’ll be watching our ideas, thoughts, and fantasies as they enter the mind but then stay unattached as we watch them leave. It is a more advanced practice, so you may want to start with with one of our previous meditations if you are a beginner meditator: Mindfulness of Breath, Body Awareness, or Emotions.

Guided Meditation: Mindfulness of Thoughts Instruction

Meditation Instruction: Using Your Thoughts as an Anchor

Prepare your meditation space so it’s quiet and comfortable. In the video I used the doTERRA InTune essential oil blend on the back of my neck and soles of my feet to help me feel grounded and focus the mind. You can use essential oils or any other tools that will help support your practice.

Come into a seated position on the floor or in a chair. If you’re on the floor, sitting on a cushion will elevate your hips and help your legs relax in the hip joints. Let your hands rest on your knees or thighs. Set a timer for at least 10 minutes and close your eyes.

Take several slow deeps breaths. You may want to make each part of the breath 4-5 seconds in length, making sure the inhalation and exhalation are equal. This is called “sama vrtti”, or equal fluctuation, which slows the mind down, slowing the transitions from thought to thought.

Now let the breath move naturally. Let the mind shift from watching the breath to watching and feeling the body breathing. You can then notice any emotions related to the body and breath. Finally, let your mind rest on thoughts.

This is a profound experience where the mind watches the mind. We are tapping into a higher state of consciousness and awareness.

Notice where the mind is and what thought is in the foreground of your experience. As you notice it, you can name it “thinking”, or “planning”, or “remembering”, or whatever the mind is doing.

While you don’t want to get caught up in the thought, it is interesting to notice if your mind consistently moves in the same direction, caught in the past or in the future.

After the thought is acknowledged, let it go. You may wish to visualize the mind as a wide open sky and you can place the thought in a cloud to let it float on by.

It is inevitable that you’ll find yourself caught up in your thoughts. When this happens, simply focus your mind on the breath, then the body, then on your feelings, and back to the mind watching the mind.

Eventually, you’ll experience less time managing your thoughts and more time in the sweet spaces in between.

When you’re ready to end your meditation, do so gradually by opening up all the senses except for your sight. Find a balance of internal and external awareness. Then open your eyes.

How did it feel to focus on thoughts during your meditation? Did you notice a pattern in your mental habits? How are you feeling now? Please let me know in the comments!

Committing to meditation for just 10 minutes a day is such a simple, yet huge endeavor that can bring more peace into your life.

Please share this meditation with a friend, since there are many who can use this support now! Thank you & well wishes to you…

The Coronavirus Pandemic and the social distancing required to slow the spread, forced schools to close, leaving parents to care for their kids at home for an uncertain amount of time whether they want to or not.  Are you one of these moms?  I know that you’re probably feeling fear from both the viral threat and for homeschooling your child for the first time.  Trust me though, as a homeschooling parent of fours years, I know you can do this!  Here’s my 5 tips on how to stay sane homeschooling amid the Coronavirus Pandemic.  This homeschooling mom encouragement will boost both your immunity and self confidence! 

Before you read my tips or watch me talk about them in the video below, you may want to get my free stress-relieving acupressure guide which will help both you and your child with this transition!  These six acupressure points not only relieve tension and stress, but will help you all sleep better at night which in turn will keep your immunity strong!

5 Tips for Dealing With Your Fears – Homeschooling Mom Encouragement Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic

Focus On Self-care and Wellness as a New Homeschool Mom

You’re going to have more time, so it’s best to place your energy where it counts the most! Self-care should be your main focus and will help you better serve your family, as well as bolster your body from infection.

This virus, as is the case with other viruses, is opportunistic. It can only infect you if you are weak. Support your health and your family’s by:

• Prioritizing better sleep – It’s still a good idea to have an early bedtime. But now that you’re homeschooling, let the family sleep in!
• Establishing a relaxed schedule – There’s no need to rush your transitions, which can create stress and diminish immunity.
• Creating alone time – Being home with your kids can be intense. Make sure you still have some alone time, even if it means giving your child a screen to entertain them. Your emotional health is very important right now.
• Adopting a home yoga practice – Yoga can support your health on all levels. Try this yoga class video that will help you relieve tension as you wake in the morning and help you start the day with ease!
• Supplementing vitamins and minerals – You should be getting healthy doses of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Vitamin D in your diet (and ideally Vitamin D from the sun), but chances are you won’t be getting enough from your food, even if you’re eating whole, organic foods. Find some supplements you like, or try my recommendations here.
• Feeding your gut beneficial bacteria – Gut health is the basis of your immunity. Read about it’s importance, how it’s damaged and how it’s supported here. Basically, you’ll want to be eating more fermented foods and supplementing with probiotics, but it’s also important to avoid stress, sugar, and pharmaceutical drugs which all diminish your gut health!

This wellness kit comes with the vitamins I use as well as digestive enzymes, probiotics, tension-relieving lotion, and mood enhancing essential oils that will support everyone’s body, mood, and mental focus!

Tend To Your Home and Family as you Homeschool

I know it’s hard to stay home, especially this time of year! It was easy in Winter when the energy was low and was a natural time to rest and reflect. But in Spring, it’s natural to be more active and energetic. You will simply have to channel that energy into tending your family and your home.

Here’s some ideas:

• Make all of your meals – Avoid processed food and start making healthy meals with whole foods, if you’re not doing so already. Ask your kids to help you so you get support and they can learn important life skills. Not sure how to get your kids to eat whole foods? Check out my article Practical Dietary Advice for Happy and Healthy Kids.
• Establish a green cleaning routine – Switch out your toxic household products and clean with natural, essential oil based cleansers instead. Have complete control over the ingredients by using DIY recipes. (We’ll focus on Green Cleaning in April – in the meantime ask me if you need any suggestions or recipes).
• Organize your pantries
• Clean out your refrigerators
• Wash your walls & windows
• Clean your oven
• Work in your garden or establish one
• Hike in open, outside places with your family since fresh air and sunshine are important for general health

Notice that most of these suggestions circle back to self-care?

Educate Yourself As You Educate Your Child

If you’ve never homeschooled your child, it’s the perfect time to learn how! Believe me, you can do this. Just remember not to get caught in a common new homeschool mom trap of trying to re-create the school environment at home.

Your relationship is much different than the one your kids had with their teacher. They have your love. Be lighthearted in your approach, relax and trust that they are learning, even when you’re doing fun stuff like cooking and cleaning together!

There are tons of homeschool resources that you can Google. For online courses, I suggest looking into Outschool.com. For math, we love Prodigygame.com and also use Singapore Math workbooks. We do science kits from melscience.com. The rest is very personal for my family. My son reads alone for a portion of the day, but we also read to him classical child history books and fun fiction. For writing, he does copy work from the novels he’s reading or he journals.

You will need to figure out what works for your family. This is part of the learning process and it can be a really fun discovery! Or see if you can just follow the same curriculum your school was using if your child does well with it.

This can also be a great time for YOU to learn new skills that you can be refining while your kids are doing their studies. Take online classes yourself. Maybe you can explore ways to earn income online. I love working from home! I can still explore my passion of connecting families with natural health resources and helping them be healers in their own home. It’s possible for me to do this while staying home with my son and contributing to my family’s income. If you want to learn more about my business and becoming one of my partners, read on here.

Change Your Mindset – Embrace Being a Homeschool Mom!

Again, you can do this! Homeschool moms need more encouragement in the beginning. Much of your confidence is going to come with time as you see your family thrive with more relaxed learning and lifestyle habits. But it’s also extremely important that you change your attitude and mindset too.

Remember what you’re trying to create for your family. If you remain reluctant to homeschool and complain all the time to your friends, then this will be a miserable experience for you. One of the many positive aspects of social distancing with the Coronavirus pandemic is that you can heal your relationship with your family as you spend time together.

My son was in public school until halfway through Kindergarten when he begged to be pulled out. I was already aware that he was having emotional problems and would do anything to protect him. The dynamic was completely different when we started hanging out with homeschool families vs. when I would hang out with the public school moms.

The biggest difference I’ve noticed in our homeschool groups: we, parents, love hanging out with our kids. We don’t complain about our kids. We understand that this is a privilege to teach them and shape their lives based on family love & values. My love for my son is what fuels my confidence. Each day he grows I feel validated that we’re making the right choice for him. It’s that positive mindset shift that makes our homeschool journey a success.

Adopt A Gratitude Practice – Everything Has a Silver Lining

Adopting a gratitude practice with also help you with the mindset shift I suggest above. Everyday upon waking, I recommend sitting up in bed and thinking about the things you’re grateful for in your life. Be grateful for everything and everyone who supports you. You can do this meditation too anytime you’re feeling that you’re caught in negativity or fear.

Try not to get caught up in the fear of the Coronavirus pandemic. If you’re taking necessary distancing precautions and boosting your health with the guidelines I shared above, chances are you will remain healthy or will recover quickly. I also hope that this confidence in taking care of yourself and family spills over into your role as a homeschooling mom. Wellness practices and homeschooling are complementary skills!

If you enjoyed this post, share this homeschooling mom encouragement with your friends! And let me know if you have any questions in the comments below. Stay well!

Asthma is on the rise in this country for many reasons.  Chances are, you or a close family member is suffering from this chronic disease right now or will be soon.  I’m sharing with you today, 10 acupressure points for asthma which can be used as a long-term, natural approach to managing asthma attacks and help support your respiratory health.

An alternative approach to asthma is needed, since unfortunately, steroid medications used to control attacks suppress the immune system.  This means that asthmatics are more likely to come down with colds and other infections, which then aggravates their asthma.  So they’re stuck in a cycle of sickness with medications that are actually making them sicker.  In integrative approach to care is needed so one doesn’t have to be as dependent on steroids and can get ahead of their illness to improve health.

I’ve already written about how Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can be one of the best integrative approaches for treating asthma.  TCM is great for kids too!  Asthma sufferers have reported that TCM treatments result in:

• Symptom relief – deeper breathing, less wheezing, greater physical endurance
• A decrease in asthma attacks
• Less dependence on medications

I highly recommend working with a TCM practitioner who can give you personalized treatments and advice.  They will still ask that you do your part to treat yourself at home.  This acupressure protocol can be one of your best tools!

Before you learn these 10 acupressure points for asthma, you may also want to grab my acupressure guide for stress.  You can download it here for FREE.

In the stress relieving acupressure guide I share 6 other acupressure points that can help you relieve tension and help you sleep at night, which everyone needs!

Acupressure Points for Asthma

I am not a medical doctor and this is not medical advice. It is advice meant to empower you to care for yourself and your family at home just like our ancestors used to. It will also build your confidence to talk with your medical provider about weaning off medications when you become healthier with acupressure and natural medicine.

You don’t need anything special for acupressure – just clean hands. If you’d like, you can enhance the effects of acupressure by using therapeutic grade essential oils topically on the points as you press. For asthma, I suggest using Frankincense (boosts cellular health), doTERRA Breathe blend (opens & relaxes airways), and/or Lavender (anti-inflammatory).

Press each point for 30-90 seconds, depending on the age of the person you’re working on (hold longer, the older the patient). You can also round rub each point, instead of holding your fingers still. See the video above for the best demonstration.

Lung 1 & 2

Kidney 23 & 25

Ren 17

Urinary Bladder 13 (Lung point)

Urinary Bladder 23 (Kidney point)

Stomach 40

Kidney 3

Lung 9

I’m eager to hear how you did with acupressure! It may take some time to notice a difference, and you shouldn’t expect your asthma to completely disappear. First, you’ll notice you’re getting sick less. Then you’ll have less asthma attacks, wheezing, and chest tightness. Again, this is a long-term solution – wellness is something we need to be working on everyday!