Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

We’ve all heard the phrase - in order to love others, you first of all need to love yourself. And, it’s actually true. It’s so important to show unconditional love to yourself, without that you can’t allow others to truly love you back. The problem - these days our lifestyles are so focused on achievement and comparing ourselves to others and a motivation to push ourselves constantly to do more. The result of this is that we’re so critical of ourselves these days, and we focus on the things we’ve done wrong or haven’t done rather than our successes and achievements.

When you think of people who are high-achievers, who are always able to eat healthy, excel at work or school, workout and do everything on time might have some superhuman powers. But while it’s easy to brush this away as something achievable, it is actually all down to habit. And habits can be begun to build in just seven days. People with good habits rarely resist the need to procrastinate, or eat unhealthy food, or skip their exercise. That is mostly because when autopilot takes over, we eliminate any temptation. When we establish good habits, less willpower is required to make the right choices. Sounds great? Well, building good habits takes effort. However, there are a few science and research-backed ways that help you set up good habits. If you try one of these every day, you should be able to start to build a habit.

The latest guidelines by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services say that physically able adults should aim for 150 minutes of exercise every week - a combination of both cardio and strength training spread throughout the week. This could translate into 30-minute workouts 5 days a week, but there are other ways to get your exercise that don’t take up quite as much time every day. Research has shown that actually taking shorter periods of activity can be spread out throughout your day to meet the recommended total. Actually, sometimes quicker workouts can be better for you than one longer workout.

Humans are designed to be connected with nature. And even in our modern world we are still synced to the natural world. If you’re feeling burnt out, tired, or unhappy, reconnecting with nature can help to bring you a sense of calm and refresh yourself. There are a few things that we can do to feel connected with nature, and pause, refresh and notice the world around us. Bring the Outdoors Inside

If you want to lift heavy things physically, you need to increase your physical strength. Strong, big muscles go a long way in helping you to be able to carry more. Well, the same can be said for your mental muscles. If you struggle with tackling big challenges and overcoming more obstacles, you need to increase your mental strength. Just like going to the gym to work out your body - your mind needs a good workout too. Here are some exercises to help you to develop your mental strength and help you achieve anything. Reframe Negative Thoughts

If you’re looking to lose weight, making a few small changes can actually be easier than one or two big changes, and it’s more likely that you’ll be able to stick with it. Making healthy changes can be hard, and it can be made harder if you set unrealistic goals. Small changes means you're more likely to stick to your plan, so here’s our tips to help you throughout the day. Switch to low-fat or non-dairy milk Using a lower-fat milk or milk alternative is a really easy change that you will hardly notice. If you eat cereal or drink a lot of milky hot drinks, you can save many calories in a week, just by switching from whole milk to skim milk for example.

Massage with hot stones is an ancient technique that can fill you with the pure energy of nature. The technique of massage with natural stones is based on the natural reaction of the body to cold and heat. However, the stones themselves play an extremely important role in this mystery. Some say stoned are the oldest inhabitants of our world, absorbing the energy of the cosmos and stars, earth, and water for thousands of years. In the process of stone therapy, minerals transfer the accumulated energy to the human body, healing ailments and soothing the soul. What kind of stones are used for massage?

Lots of guys drive or sit at desks with their wallet or cell phone in their back pocket, but they can’t figure out why they moan and groan in pain when they stand up to leave the car or chair. Here’s the physics: One butt cheek sitting higher than the other can trigger chronic pain in your back, hips and shoulders, and set off foot cramps.

People are endlessly seeking happiness and motivation in their lives, trying all sorts of tricks to achieve them. While there’s no single secret to happiness and motivation, there are some academic insights you can implement into your own life to bring about a greater abundance of the two. This article dives into the concepts of hedonia, eudaimonia, engagement, and their impacts on your happiness and motivation. Psychological and social research has led to the development of these concepts that have their roots in ancient philosophy but still bear fruit in the present day. The Meaning of Hedonia

Posture is something that most people can stand to improve a little. Our heads, necks, backs, and shoulders get put under pressure every day, and it’s easy to not realize how tight they can become. The easiest way to improve posture and ease tension in the upper body is to make little changes throughout your day, and not even all of them need to be done at once. Here are a few things that could be damaging your posture and upper body, and a few ways to combat it. Slouching on your commute

Stories pass wisdom. Many religions base longevity and education on storytelling, as storytelling explains the unexplainable. We all have our own stories about our own journeys, and they are ongoing in nature. No finite end or distinctive start. Life goes on and so the story within us deepens, is added to and takes twists and turns. The style changes as romance, humor and thrill are added or removed. What is your story? What is the story of your friends, lover, family and peers?

When you're coming up against an obstacle, meditation can help you overcome anything. When you visualize yourself conquering a difficult task or hardship, you're able to access breakthroughs in your mind and in your life. This meditation offering for today is one of harnessing your inner warrior. We all have deeply-rooted courage and perseverance in us. It may not feel like it at this moment; if you are currently battling a personal storm. But, this meditation on confidence will offer up an opening for you to eventually recognize the warrior within. The mantra offered in this meditation is one to provide comfort, clarity, and confidence. These elements aid us in the journey of believing in our own self-worth and revealing hidden confidence that may be shadowed by trauma or distraction. This is not an easy road to travel. Some days will feel better than others.

Breathing is a powerful tool. From relieving stress to improving lung health, breathing can have many positive health and emotional benefits for those who devote time to focusing on it and making it part of their daily practice. Getting into the habit of mindful breathing can be positive for anyone. As more people take on remote work or deal with the strain the pandemic has put on the workday, breathing can help negate feelings of burnout, stress, and anxiety that may arise while working. So next time you start to feel anxious or stressed during the workday, put on comfortable clothes and focus on your breathing to help expel some of that negative energy from your body.

The New Year is a great time to set intentions for the year ahead, and set intentions for success. Intentions are a great way to tackle areas of your life that you would like to improve. It’s important to spend some time thinking and setting intentions with purpose, as this helps in ensuring that they’re successful. Here are our top 10 tips to set intentions that will actually stick: Think about what isn’t working

Alleviates Stress and Anxiety: Stress, pressure, fatigue, poor diet, alcohol, and drugs damage neural connections between the brain’s prefrontal cortex and the rest of the brain. When you are fatigued or under intense mental or physical stress, the brain bypasses its rational frontal executive circuits. This respectively causes you to respond to daily tasks impulsively with shortsighted decisions. Emotions, such as fear and anger, are heightened and take over.

Depression can be a detrimental part of one’s life. In fact, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 3.8% of the world's population suffers from depression at some point. But how bad is depression? And how can someone overcome bouts of depression? This brief overview will explore depression whether you get seasonally depressed in the winter, or at other times in the year. There are a handful of ways that you can effectively reduce its hold on you. Just keep in mind, to do what works best for you.

The holiday season is a busy time for everyone. There always seems to be so much rushing, stressing, planning, and preparation to do, which may lead to feelings of being overwhelmed, tired, and stressed. That’s why it’s so important to stay stress-free over the holidays, otherwise, you run the risk of feeling worn out and tired. We’ve got 10 tips for everyone to try and keep calm and as stress-free as possible over this festive season. Let go of high expectations

Avoiding stress in the 21st century is quite the challenge. We’re still going through a global pandemic and even without that, there can enough things in our lives that cause us to be stressed — personal relationships, work issues, finances, etc. Life can feel like a rollercoaster of things that affect our balance, which leads to us having less energy and being less happy than we can be. Just like avoiding stress completely, having control over the outer world and its chaos is impossible, yet we can do things to make sure our mental health will not suffer from the challenges of our daily lives. There are regular habits that we can take to protect ourselves from stress. What Is Stress?

What is it to feel relaxed? How can you get there? Focus on the solution (calmness), more than the problem (anxiety). While it is easy to focus on our shortcomings, like anxiety, depression, and things that feel real and impossible to overcome, the truth is we will never overcome them by focusing on them.

You might think that big, sweeping lifestyle changes are the only way to improve your health drastically. Think of all those huge promises we make ourselves, especially at the start of the year- quitting smoking, losing weight, working out every day. While bigger health goals are important, some of the biggest changes come from the small steps we can take to improve our health. There are numerous smaller steps you'll take that will help progress your general wellbeing and quality of life - and they’re all things that are easily incorporated into your day-to-day life, so you can keep them up in the long term. Some will only take a few minutes each day but have a huge impact on your health. 1. Destress

Statistically, women live longer than men. And I have a theory as to why this is true. Around the world, women do the yeoman's share of the cooking. And around the world, women do that cooking together. If you've ever had the good fortune of working in a kitchen with kindred folks, you know what a curative experience it can be. And if it was a volunteer group effort, I tell you, this joy is like no other. Here's the research explaining why.

I've had days where the thoughts coming in and out of my mind were all fear-based, all about future worries, and how and when things will work out. I do not like waking up like this, I guess no one does, to be honest. Having your morning starting like this has a huge effect on your whole day, on your mental health, on your self–esteem, on your productivity, and on everything basically. Things can get worse and worse if you are not conscious or aware of what your mind is actually doing to you. Because this is what spiraling negative thinking is, simply your mind’s game. Your mind is constantly creating thoughts. Some of them are better ones that you like hearing, feeling, and thinking and there are some of them that you are less likely to feel so nice about. That is why your mind can be your biggest friend and your worst enemy. This is also why being mindful and having the right mindset is so important. Because when you are awakened, when you notice immediately what is happening in your head, you have the power and the ability to transform these unwanted, fear-based, negative, untrue thoughts into ones that are going to help you to change your day around and that are going to have a positive influence on your mental health and mindset.

On the last Sunday of a recent year, I scrounged up all my old magazines, scissors, and a glue stick and headed over to my friend Reece’s healing center for a women’s life mapping workshop. For many past New Years, I had collaged together visions of my next year’s intentions and goals and was excited to do so again this year. However, when I arrived at the gathering I was told that we would be not be planning for the future with our collage but rather reflecting on the past year. Although this was disappointing – it’s much more exhilarating to dream and plan than to reflect and process – I faced the collage challenge head-on. In the end, my map of the prior year included, amongst many beautiful and fun memories, some difficult images of heartbreak, financial stress, health problems, and dreams dashed.

A healthy body image and self-love are much more important than a number on a scale. While there is excess societal pressure to look a certain way, there are benefits to being a healthy weight. Being obese and overweight can contribute to various other health problems. Fortunately, there are things you can do every day to both stay in shape, or get back into shape. While exercise and a healthy diet are essential, simple things you can do in your home life can support you too in your weight loss journey. Here are 7 simple things you can do at home to help lose and keep off extra weight: 1. Eat Only to the point of need

All of us, even the most motivated of people, can feel unmotivated from time to time. All the amount of planning and thinking about doing things can’t help if you’re feeling in a slump and finding it difficult to make positive changes in your life. However, there’s a few small ways you can help yourself find motivation and get started with positive changes. Stick to One Goal