Post Natal Fitness for Mother and Baby

Exercise tips to shed post-pregnancy pounds. 

Having a baby and raising your family changes your life and certainly your body. But does that mean forever? Most women gain around 30 pounds during pregnancy and shed about 20 pounds within the first month after delivery. The last infamous and dreaded 10 pounds can be difficult to get off. While exercise can help you return to your pre-pregnancy weight, as well as help you manage the stress and strain of having a new baby in your life, you may wonder how you are going get back into shape and fit exercise into your new life with a baby.

• First, be patient and gentle with yourself.  Start slowly.
• Second, get creative.  If you start thinking of exercise as an active lifestyle for you and your baby, you'll be able to do more than you think. 
• Third, get involved and get support.  Look for mother and baby exercise groups in your area

Some Common Sense Tips for the first 6 weeks:

• Breathe slowly and deeply when you exercise, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth - this will help you to relax
• Tighten your abdominal and buttocks muscles to help protect your lower back
• Listen to your body and stop if you have increased vaginal bleeding, feel pain or get shortness of breath
• Exercise in 10-minute intervals throughout the day
• Exercise with your baby and enjoy!

Our baby will be four months old this week, so I found this post right on target and worth sharing with you. Please click here to read the entire post written by Deb Paige for blog.gaiam.com.

Bring Autumn Inside

Here are a few easy ways to welcome the fall season in your home:

• Exchange crisp cotton bedding for cozy flannels with lots of warm layers.
• Replace summer fruit with pumpkins and gourds as natural decoration.
• Introduce darker, earthy tones in towels, pillows, and even rugs.
• Give everything a good cleaning, and re-evaluate your possessions.  Just as nature releases her bounty, it feels good to let go of outdated items (and behaviors).

To read the entire post, written by Cheryl Terrace for blog.gaiam.com, click here.

Image Source: wili_hybrid via flickr.com

I'm Back

It's hard to believe that it's been six months since I took a break from This Holistic Life.  I miss being here.  I took some much needed time off to begin a few new projects, map out the future of This Holistic Life, and spend time with my family.  We have a new precious baby boy and life is grand.

I thank you for your patience and welcome you to stay tuned to the upcoming events.  It's great to be back!

Spring Cleaning!

Hey there Everyone!  We will be taking the month of April off from blogging on This Holistic Life.  It's time to do some spring cleaning and life organizing.  It's all a part of remaining balanced and refreshed.  Thanks for your loyalty over this past year.  It's been amazing growing, learning, and sharing with you.  We challenge you to do some spring cleaning in your own life.  Look around at your environment as well as inside of yourself, then decide what needs a makeover and take action.  We'll see you soon!

-This Holistic Life

Lavender Spritz

Makes a great air freshener as well and is a wonderful alternative to the toxic-laden commercial air fresheners that permeate the market and our lives. I use the lavender spritz on carpets, curtains, upholstered furniture, the car’s interior, my closet, and even the litter box, to instantly perk up and revive tired and stuffy feeling spaces. The uses of the spritz, like lavender oil itself, really are endless.

Add water to a spray bottle and add lavender (ratio of about 10 drops to a cup).

Depending on your mood and the season, you can make also make a spritz with rosemary, lemon, bergamot, sandalwood, ylang ylang, jasmine, cinnamon, clove, frankincense, myrrh, or just about any essential oil you find pleasing. If someone in the house is coming down with a cold, try adding eucalyptus, peppermint, thyme, or tea tree oil to help ease congestion and open up the nasal passages.

Now simply sit (or lay) back and get ready to breathe in the goodness!

This post was written by Holly K. for HealingLifestyles.com.

24-hr Silent Retreat

Step 1: Choose your day

Plan ahead and choose a day that you don’t have to be at the office, or available ‘on call.’ A weekend or regular day off works best.

Step 2: Let others know

Post it on your Facebook page, record a special voicemail message, and setup a vacation email response letting friends, family and colleagues know that you’re unavailable to talk during this time. Make arrangements with your household, particularly your partner and children, so that everyone understands and respects your choice.

Step 3: Set up guidelines for the day

We suggest forgoing media - email, television, texting, etc. for the entire period of your silent retreat. Will you write notes? How will you deal with emergencies? Are gestures or sign language okay? Make a list of your own guidelines for the day and share it with your family so everyone is on board.

Step 4: Consider how you’ll spend the time

Mindful activities like yoga, meditation and journaling are natural choices during a day of silence. Spending time outdoors, or doing a beloved creative activity are also excellent ideas. Will you venture out in public? Or try to stay in solitude? Thinking and planning ahead will make the experience go more smoothly.

Step 5: Reflect

What did you learn about yourself while in silence? What was challenging? What surprised you? Spend the last hour of your day contemplating the experience.



This post was taken from HealingLifestyles.com.

5 Steps to Happiness

Be grateful

Insofar as our actions and state of mind help shape our own reality, make the choice to identify and celebrate the love and blessings in your life, whether that’s your health, your home, or your neighbor’s child who smiles at you every time you meet.

Consider your surroundings

Sometimes, our lives seem so hectic and out of control that choosing to be happy is an overwhelming prospect. It’s liberating to know and accept that your response to any life challenge is yours, completely, to choose. This includes distancing, or removing yourself completely, from negative people. And while we’re mentioning movement, remember all those studies that have shown the positive effects of exercise on improving mood. Instead of sitting at home worrying or feeling sorry for yourself, take yourself outside for a long walk.

Keep it simple

Happiness isn’t really such a complicated thing. When savored, simple moments—a bowl of hot soup on a cold winter day, listening to music that lifts your spirits on the way to work, a perfect cup of tea before bed—can help shape your outlook. Wealth can purchase a lot of stuff, but happiness really isn’t one of them. 

Put things in perspective

Find a spot where you can look up at the sky. Picture the beautiful blue Earth, suspended in the universe, spinning slowly around the Sun, surrounded by billions of stars and other planets. Suddenly, the argument you had with your sister, or the mean clerk at the market, lose momentum and importance, and are scaled back to what they really are: small blips in the day that have no lasting importance, isolated moments in a world so vast and astounding, that they’re easy to let go of. Which brings us, once again, to consciously making the choice to be happy. It’s up to you. 

Step outside your own drama

Doing something for someone else can be an instant mood-improver. Help a neighbor shovel snow from their driveway, or offer to shop for someone who has a hard time getting around. There are countless opportunities to help others in every community, and the effort doesn’t have to be monumental in its proportions. Simple acts of kindness are often the most rewarding.

This post was written by Debra Bokur.  To read the entire post, click here: HealingLifestyles.com.

6 Easy Ways to Work Healthier

Reduce stress, tension and toxins at work

Most of us spend a third of our lives at work! Make it a place that’s good for you. From improving your ergonomics to reducing eye strain and releasing stress fast, these six tips and solutions can make your corner of the office a healthier place to be.


1. Sit up straight
... on the Balance Ball®, designed by a chiropractor to coax your spine into perfect alignment. Also encourages “active sitting,” meaning you’ll tone core muscles and burn more calories just sitting there! Talk about multi-tasking!


2. See the light 
... and reduce eye strain with proper lighting.  Try an energy saving bulb and a light that swivels to put light right where you need it.


3. Clear the air
... and outsmart allergies, asthma, colds and flu.  Try an air purifier to remove the pollution particles that are most harmful to your health such as bacteria, dust, dander, pollen, smoke, mold and fungus spores.


4. Hydrate often
Adorn your desk with a gleaming, planet-smart style statement and you’ll never go back to plastic. A Stainless Steel Water Bottle lasts nearly forever and won’t absorb tastes or odors. 


5. Unkink your neck and back
... in a flash with stretches and breathing exercises you can do right at your desk.


6. Remain calm
... even when things get crazy.  Try some breathing and focusing exercises to help you reboot quickly.


The original post was written by Arielle Ford.  To read the complete post, click here: blog.gaiam.com.  

Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself

Every day, as you see the same people (your boss, for example, and your spouse and kids), do the same things (drive to work, perform your daily tasks, and do the same workout), go to the same places (your favorite coffee shop, the grocery store you usually frequent, and your place of employment), and look at the same objects (your car, your house, your toothbrush ... even your own body), your familiar memories related to your known world “re-mind” you to reproduce the same experiences.

We could say that the environment is actually controlling your mind. Since the neuroscientific definition of mind is the brain in action, you repeatedly reproduce the same level of mind by “re-minding” yourself who you think you are in reference to the outer world. Your identity becomes defined by everything outside of you, because you identify with all of the elements that make up your external world. Thus, you’re observing your reality with a mind that is equal to it, so you collapse the infinite waves of probabilities of the quantum field into events that reflect the mind you use to experience your life. You create more of the same.

You may not think that your environment and your thoughts are that rigidly similar and your reality so easily reproduced. But when you consider that your brain is a complete record of your past, and your mind is the product of your consciousness, in one sense you might always be thinking in the past. By responding with the same brain hardware that matches what you remember, you’re creating a level of mind that is identical to the past, because your brain is automatically firing existing circuits to reflect everything you already know, have experienced, and thus can predict. According to quantum law (which, by the way, is still working for you), your past is now becoming your future.

Reason this: When you think from your past memories, you can only create past experiences. As all of the “knowns” in your life cause your brain to think and feel in familiar ways, thus creating knowable outcomes, you continually reaffirm your life as you know it. And since your brain is equal to your environment, then each morning, your senses plug you into the same reality and initiate the same stream of consciousness.

All of the sensory input that your brain processes from the external world (that is, seeing, smelling, hearing, feeling, and tasting) turns your brain on to think equal to everything familiar in your reality. You open your eyes and you know the person lying next to you is your spouse because of your past experiences together. You hear barking outside your door, and you know it’s your dog wanting to go out. There’s a pain in your back, and you remember it’s the same pain you felt yesterday. You associate your outer, familiar world with who you think you are, by remembering yourself in this dimension, this particular time and space.

To read the entire article and to learn how to Break the Habit of Being Yourself, go to blog.gaiam.com.


This post was written by Dr. Joe Dispenza for blog.gaiam.com.

Cleaning as Meditation: How to Transform Your Chores

Rules for Mindful Housekeeping

Elisha Goldstein, coauthor of "A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook," tells us how to make peace with cleaning.

1. Imagine you're doing this chore for the first time. In your mind, it's just a sinkful of dirty dishes. Look for the bubbles instead.

2. Use your five senses, focusing on one at a time. Appreciate the warmth of the water, the scent of the lemon cleanser.

3. Consider it a neural workout. Incorporating mindfulness-based techniques into everyday life can make you calmer and your brain more adaptive.

4. Don't think of housework as punishment. Goldstein says, "You're cultivating kindness toward yourself."




These are additional excerpts to ponder from this article.  Click here to read the entire article: WholeLiving.com. 


What if I Could Slow Down?

I'm thinking of that Zen proverb: "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." The idea is that we should find meaning in ordinary tasks, because true clarity is fleeting enough -- and when it's over, somebody still has to clean the crisper.

Cleaning Out Your Soul

"When your physical surroundings are cluttered, your emotional and spiritual self is cluttered. If your space is clean, then your mind is open and you can let God in."

Work as Prayer

For the Benedictines, work and prayer are one and the same. "I think one of the reasons the order is still here after 1,500 years is that no one is excused from kitchen duty," Norris says. "They try to honor work as part of just being human." She tells me about one young novice she met who made a meditative practice out of running the commercial cleaner, again and again, in circles over the hallway's hardwood floors.

On a More Earthly Plane...

Floor cleaning is the therapy of choice for Alexis Stewart, Martha's daughter and cohost of "Whatever" on Martha Stewart Living Radio. "You don't have to do it," she says. "But the result is fun. I never liked cleaning out the chicken coop when I was a kid, but I sure liked the result." (I bet her crisper is spotless.)

This is the kind of old-fashioned pragmatism that women adopted in the days when we were better at wringing meaning out of chores. Take"The American Woman's Home,"written in 1869 by Harriet Beecher Stowe and her sister Catharine E. Beecher. It's a complete compendium of how a woman should manage her household's physical and spiritual ecosystem, from prayers to healthy beverages, dusting to moral foundations. There are three chapters on how to ventilate the house: Homemaking is not about managing the moisture emitted by your furnace; it's about putting the very air in your family's lungs.

The Magic Soap

"When we expect things to be more than they are, or when we value them as less than they are, that keeps us at arm's length from our own life," Miller says. "We think we're supposed to follow our bliss, but when we're really present in every moment, even when we're vacuuming, we can begin to chip away at the feeling of inadequacy. And little by little, our lives are transformed." 

Miller thinks the way we work can tell us something about who we are -- the way we tenderly fold our children's clean pajamas or rage over our husband's towels in dank trails on the floor -- and so it is a spiritual practice of sorts. Plus, "the rituals of daily work just enfold your day in dignity. They make life tasty." Uh-huh........

"Well, here's the magic soap," she says. "Your own attention is what spiritualizes things. Attention to the meal you cook, the clothes you wash. Attention is love. And that's transformative."

My Life as a Bathroom Sink

Kathleen Norris was right about life as repetition. Am I the only person who keeps having the same disagreements, the same gripes, the same bad habits? I was in that slough of despond where it wasn't the bathroom sink but my life that was covered in toothpaste sludge and someone else's beard hair. I set out to clean the thing with attention and enfold my day in dignity.

At first all I noticed was the usual simmering irritation. Then I saw the thin layer of funk on my drain (not much dignity there). But as I worked the cloth around the spigots -- focusing on the doing, not the getting done -- it started to feel pleasantly personal, like giving someone a bath. Not the newborn Buddha, but some cranky elderly relative. Because the sink had been entrusted to me, and because it deserved to be clean, and because I was the one to do it. I scrubbed at that film of filth on the drain, which I'd never noticed all the times I'd spit into it, and there actually was a shiny circle underneath.

Making Things New

The cleaning seemed different when I wasn't doing it for the guy with the clipboard anymore. That guy had been me anyway. In some way, I was starting over again. What was that quote from the Bible that my mother kept on our spotless refrigerator? Behold, I make all things new.

I'll never love it, but I can say this: Cleaning changes things. So much in life is uncertain -- you take vitamins and get sick, love people who disappoint you, pour your heart into a job and lose it at the end of the fiscal year. But if you take a rag to a piece of soap scum, it will go away. From that point of view -- the pure continuum of cause and effect -- cleaning stops seeming futile. It starts to look like the only thing worth doing.

Less Is More

While there’s a lot of talk these days about decreasing our environmental footprint, it might be time to recalibrate our lives in general. There’s a lot to suggest that for a bigger and more fulfilling life, what we really need to do is live smaller. 

Material World

For most of us, having lots of stuff—whether or not we need it—feels familiar and comfortable, and is even an active social objective. As members of a generally affluent Western culture, we tend to collect belongings, even hording them, as tangible evidence of our success or social standing. Perhaps what we’re really doing, at least some of the time, is filling up spaces in our lives that might otherwise be uncomfortably bare, whether in career satisfaction, spirituality, connection to the natural world, or our personal relationships.

Long before the entire nation became concerned about failures within our economic and eco systems, a movement called Simple Living took hold. Launched decades ago by author, educator, and lecturer Duane Elgin, the tenets of simple living include a strong focus on an authentic way of life that honors and values deep, personal relationships between other people and the natural world, rather than on glitter and material trappings.

A highly respected leader in the area of consciousness research and ecology, Elgin is the author of a several books including Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future (2000), Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (HarperCollins, 2009, now in its 3rd edition), and, with Joseph Campbell, Awakening Earth: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness (William Morrow, 1993). Elgin’s work urges us to examine our own lives, and to devote our energy to what’s truly important.

“Happiness is largely a networked social phenomenon once a sustaining level of material well-being is reached,” explains Elgin. “Worrying less about the material appearances and more about the soulful connections with others, we could put our life-energy into creating the most robust, healthy, and rewarding relationships that we can. The more we learn about the ‘science of happiness,’ the more we see that focusing on material acquisition and status is not serving us well and that it would be enormously helpful to redefine progress.”

Dealing with economic crisis, both on a national and personal scale, requires not only spending adjustments, but an adjustment in outlook and expectations as well. Mel Schwartz, L.C.S.W, is a psychotherapist, professional speaker and educator, and the founder of the Emergent Thinking® process, an approach to personal evolution. He is the author of The Art of Intimacy, The Pleasure of Passion (Quantum Press, 1999), and is currently at work on a new book, titled A Shift of Mind: Rethinking the Way We Live.

“Our worldview is ridden with material consumption as a false pathway toward happiness,” says Schwartz. “We need only look at the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and general malaise to understand that it’s not working. I fervently believe that all crisis presents opportunity. The opportunity in this economic crisis is to reconsider where we look for meaning and purpose, to free ourselves from the mindless pursuit of bigger and more, and open to the contemplation of a more authentic way of being. A recession is an opportunity to come out of the habitual groove of consuming, and still ourselves in a more mindful way.”

Creating Community

Somewhere along the way, we’ve become not only a culture of consumers, but also a society that has almost completely lost touch with the source of our goods. We buy a wool blanket at a chain department store, but have no concept—or real interest—where the wool came from, who cared for the animals, or how those animals were cared for. This disconnect can be a dangerous thing, separating us from the natural rhythms of the planet and our place in the ecosystem. Getting in touch with these aspects of consumerism encourages us to embrace the concept of living our lives on a smaller scale, and helps us to understand that lives all around the planet are inextricably connected.

If you live in a city environment—or in a very small town—you may already appreciate the value and satisfaction of doing business with familiar shopkeepers. Chances are you know one another by name, or even share a common history based within the neighborhoods that surround you. For much of the country, though, it’s necessary to drive to a retail center to shop for groceries and purchase goods, or to get to school, work, or other obligations. So, while the old model of shops centered around a village green, within easy access of residents, is a rarity these days, you can still take steps to build a sense of community with those with whom you do business and encounter socially.

Schwartz’s Emergent Thinking® approach, founded on the discoveries of various emerging sciences, is an approach to life that mirrors the messages of an inseparable, flowing and participatory universe. “From this perspective,” he adds, “our lives unfold in meaning and with purpose, and we are no longer manipulated to consume, but free to create and experience life from wholeness.”

Redefine Shopping

Green and eco are popular buzzwords today, and an increasing number of people are expressing a deep and personal interest in contributing in the healing of the planet. With limited disposable income as a factor, it’s the perfect time to get very choosy about where you spend your money. If you live in a place where meandering to the local shops isn’t an option, and the nearest retail choice is a mall complex with chain mega stores selling mass-produced products, you can still make wise choices that connect you—often quite affordably—to sustainably produced goods.

“Now may not be the time to get that fancy new hybrid, but there are still plenty of things you can do to live more sustainably—which has never been easier,” offers Mark Spellun, publisher of the former print version of Plenty Magazine, which helped guide consumers to ecologically viable and sustainably produced goods, services, and lifestyles. “Even if you shop mostly at the big box stores like Walmart and Target,” says Spellun, “there are more and more sustainable options. The trick is that you have to look for them. They aren’t all in one section. Ask the store staff where [to find] the new organic clothing lines, or what locally grown produce they can suggest.”

How can getting in touch with these aspects of consumerism encourage us to embrace the concept of living our lives on a smaller scale? According to Elgin, we can accomplish this by coming to what he defines as “an ecology of mind.”

“This type of ecology,” he explains, “literally sees through the prism of wholeness as opposed to the fragmented parts of Newton’s worldview. When we learn to see in wholeness, it becomes quite natural to see the origins and flow of process, not simply the end product. The rupturing of wholeness removes us from nature, and has us only as manipulators of nature as we utilize it to our own ends. Shifting how we think and see, resisting the tendency to fragment, can restore our ability to see ourselves as an inseparable co-participant in and with nature. When we accomplish this, larger is no longer better, and more is no longer preferable.”

Downscaling our lives might even be the catalyst for finally achieving that elusive state of balance we all long for, where we can realign our goals and energies to properly reflect both our physical beings, and our true, spiritual selves.

Practical Tactics

There are a number of effective strategies for living smaller that we can take immediately in our own homes and lives. “There’s a simple idea to keep in mind: Think less,” advises Mark Spellun, former publisher of Plenty Magazine (now a website). “What if you turned down the thermostat a degree or two, or took shorter showers? Eating less meat can lower your carbon and your water footprint. Try to save leftovers, and either eat them later or compost what you can. Even if you can’t use the compost yourself, a local farmer’s market will probably happily take it from you.”

Live smaller and bigger at the same time by trying some of these other approaches: Read all the latest bestsellers. Remember the library? If you love to read, but hesitate to indulge in new books because of the cost, treat yourself to a library card. And don’t forget great neighborhood used bookstores, where you can stock your own private library for a fraction of the cost of new books.

Go on vacation. The world is a wide and wild place, filled with fascinating cultures and landscapes—making it easy to forget that old jewel about happiness being in our own backyards. If your budget doesn’t currently include India, why not stay in the comfort of your own home, and make day trips to all of the nearby places you haven’t ever had the time to explore? Map out routes for area botanical gardens, museums, parks, and galleries, and enjoy becoming familiar with them.

Have a gourmet meal. One you cook yourself, that is. Dust off all those cookbooks you’ve collected, and spend some quality time in your own kitchen experimenting with your favorite comfort foods. Invite neighbors or friends to share the results with you, and you’ll begin to redefine your home as a true sanctuary filled with joyful companionship.

Free fitness membership. Getting and staying fit doesn’t require a membership to a fancy gym. You can walk, hike, and skate for free by stepping outside your front door. Prefer a kickboxing class or tai chi session? Buy a DVD, trade one you don’t use for one you find more interesting, or borrow one from the library. The bonus? No crowded shower room.

Trade it. Need a dogsitter or cat watcher while you’re away on business, but worry about the expense? Make friends with a dog-owning neighbor, and arrange to trade pet-sitting services with him or her when it’s their turn to travel. You can do the same thing with babysitting, snow shoveling, gardening, and any number of things.



This post was written by Debra Bokur for HealingLifestyles.com.

Let It Snow

We received our first snow of any significance last night.  So my family and I ventured outside for a little eco-therapy.  What a great time!  It was our son's first time playing in the snow and I even made a snow angel.  No matter what the weather's like outside today, take some time to enjoy nature and your surroundings.

Vegetable Lasagna

Here's another meal that I made up!  Vegetable Lasagna made with Spinach, Artichoke, Mushrooms, Onions, Eggplant, Marinara Sauce, Italian Seasonings, Mozzarella & Parmesan Cheese & Lasagna Noodles of course.  So simple to make.  Just layer the veggies until your hearts content (or until you run out of room in your dish!)  Put it in the oven- 350 degrees for about 30 minutes (depends on how many layers you have.)  Let sit for about 10 minutes once out of the oven to let all the ingredients blend together.  Then eat up!  Enjoy!

5 Meditations for a New Year

1. Think about what you're thinking about.  

Take 3 deep breaths and give your full attention to your thoughts.

2. Recharge each day.  

Ideas: Take a brisk walk, read a chapter in a new novel, add your favorite fragrance to your bath.

3. Pick 3 new practices to try.  

Ideas: Try a new food, listen to a new genre of music, try a new yoga pose.

4. Pamper yourself. 

Everyday is a special occasion. Make yourself a priority and do something you enjoy.

5. Find Balance. 

Eliminate your clutter. Ideas: Clean 1 drawer in your home, unsubscribe from unnecessary emails, evaluate your relationships and choose the ones that empower, uplift and support you. 

10 Thoughts on Whole Living New Year Edition

1 NOURISH YOUR MIND AS CAREFULLY 

AS YOU NOURISH YOUR BODY.

2 BRISK, CRISP, INVIGORATING-REMEMBER

ALL THE POSITIVE SIDES OF WINTER.

3 FINDING BALANCE IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP REQUIRES ALL YOUR SENSES. 

4 If you feel the need to be critical,

BE SURE THE URGE IS COMING FROM A PLACE OF KINDNESS.

5 WHEN YOU BREAK A SMALL BAD HABIT,

YOU TEACH YOURSELF

THAT YOU CAN CHANGE ANYTHING.

6 PROSPERITY BEGINS WITH THE ASSUMPTION

THAT THERE;S MORE THAN ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE.

7 Willpower is sometimes a biological issue,

not a moral one. Don't judge yourself harshly.

8 THE BEST WORK ENVIRONMENTS FOSTER PERSONAL

CONNECTION AS WELL AS PRODUCTIVITY.

9 SPEAK YOUR MIND. Unmet needs create resentment when they go unexpressed.

10 THE NEW YEAR ISN'T A DO-OVER; 

it's an opportunity to take your next big step.

This post, written by Terri Trespicio, was taken from Whole Living Magazine, January/February 2012.

How to Conquer Clutter Around the House

3 tips to reduce household messes

Our lives can be busy and chaotic and, often times, our house or apartment is the casualty of this fast-paced lifestyle. Things pile up, and messes are created. Your desk is a disaster, and your bedroom looks like a fashion war zone, not to mention that the garage is so full that you need to park your car on the street. You want to have the perfect Martha Stewart home, but keeping out the clutter is difficult. In order to help you help yourself manage your cluttered home, here are some tips from Good Housekeeping writer M.P. Dunleavey on how to conquer the clutter around the house.

Step 1: Don’t try to conquer the clutter alone

Many people get overwhelmed with the amount of work that needs to be done, and this can be especially true when it comes to removing clutter. You don't have to do it alone. Recruit a friend or your family to help you. Everyone who lives in the home should be a part of the organizational process. If you do it alone, all the systems will be made with your brain and your logic, which means that others may have trouble following them. If you recruit friends and family to assist you, they can then help maintain the new systems and lighten your workload.

Step 2: Keep, store and toss

Go through everything. Even if you think it’s all stuff you need to keep, you might find that you don’t need to keep it in such an accessible place. Sometimes the attic or the basement would be a more suitable storage place. As you are sorting, make three piles: a keep pile, a store pile, and a toss pile. Remember, though, toss doesn’t have to mean throw away. You can always have a garage sale and sell things you don’t need anymore or donate them to a local charity. By purging yourself of things you don’t use, you'll have a leg up on clutter, create more space and feel better. If you don’t need an item on a daily basis, put it in storage. Holiday decorations are only used once a year, so they should go deep into storage: on the top shelf of a closet, in the back corner of the attic or far under the bed.

Step 3: Create a place for everything

Give everything a home. Don’t just stick things in places to get them out of the way. Designate a spot for each item so that a week or a month down the road you will know both where to find it and where to put it back. To organize the clothes in your closet, make a system of grouping, either by color or style, and then stick to it. Having a system will help you later know where clothes are, where to put them back and help keep the scene of that fashion war zone out of your bedroom. When dealing with children's toys, be sure their most favorite toys are easily accessible so they have no trouble getting them out or putting them away.

Getting organized may seem an intimidating task, but the benefits of conquering clutter far outweigh the work it may take to get it done. Coming home to a well-organized and clutter-free house will bring you a sense of relaxation you'd never get when returning to a cluttered home.

This post was written by E.C. LaMeaux for blog.gaiam.com.

Add a Dose of Creativity to Your Day

1. Take a ten minute blog break during the workday. Gathering inspiration is the first part of the creative process, and one easy way to do this today is to visit creative blogs and creative websites. You can do this just about anywhere or at any time. If you eat lunch at your desk, take a few minutes to browse blogs then. Use your smart phone to check in on a few favorites while you’re waiting for a meeting. 

2. Schedule small blocks of creative time into your calendar. You may not be able to put aside large blocks of time for creating, but you can probably block out small chunks of time to work on projects. I often sew a garment over the course of a week or two by putting aside enough time each evening to sew just one or two seams after my daughter is in bed for the night. It’s not the fastest process, but it allows me to feel a sense of accomplishment when I can see something gradually coming together.

3. Connect with other creative people. It’s important to be part of a creative community. This gives you the opportunity to bounce ideas off other people and to inspire each other. Find a creative group in your community or on the internet and become an active participant. This doesn’t necessarily require a big time commitment, and the rewards can pay off in new friendships and a renewed sense of creativity.

4. Don’t be afraid to try it. We all tend to self-edit way more than we should. Don’t talk yourself out of starting a new project because you’re afraid you won’t be able to pull it off. And don’t feel down on yourself if your finished creation doesn’t live up to your expectations. It’s about enjoying the process and improving your skills over the long run. This piece by Ira Glass summarizes it perfectly.

5. With a little planning and discipline, you’ll be able to find time to be creative each and every day, even if you have a full schedule.

This post was written by Liesl Gibson for HealingLifestyles.com.

The Huntington Hotel & Nob Hill Spa

The San Francisco Nob Hill Spa offers tranquility, pampering, and relaxation.  With a Eucalyptus steam room,  fireplace lounge, and  infinity relaxation pool, you're able to indulge and unwind in this therapeutic environment.  Find comfort in Nob Hill Spa's rejuvenating treatments, spa cuisine, and hotel luxury for an unforgettable experience.

For more information or to book your visit now, click here: Nob Hill Spa.

Antioxidant Smoothie

Don't have a juicer? No problem! You can still make this healthy fruit smoothie with this simple blender-friendly recipe.

2 cups mixed frozen berries (9 ounces) 
1 cup unsweetened pomegranate juice 

Combine berries, juice, and 1 cup water in a blender; blend until smooth. 

Serves 2. Per serving: 130 calories; 0 g saturated fat; 1 g unsaturated fat; 0 mg cholesterol; 34 g carbs; 19 mg sodium; 1.5 g protein; 4 g fiber.




This recipe was taken from WholeLiving.com.

Essential Oil Infused Bath

Both aromatic and therapeutic, Epsom or sea bath salts infused with essential oils are a great way to transform your normal bathing experience into a healing one by combating stress, anxiety, insomnia, muscle aches, joint pain, and skin conditions. Epsom salt, a mineral containing magnesium sulfate, is a wonderful healing salt that relaxes, relieves aches and pains, and removes toxins from the body. Sea salt is chock full of minerals and nutrients that are beneficial for both skin and body and has been known for centuries for its ability to fight such conditions as arthritis, poor circulation, and muscle soreness. Sea salt also has powerful detoxifying properties.

Adding fragrant essential oils to the salts such as lavender, eucalyptus, tea tree oil, peppermint oil, or vanilla, promotes well-being and also helps calm, balance, sooth, cleanse, and refresh the senses, depending on which oil you choose.

There are several infused bath salts available commercially. Dr. Teal’s Epsom Salt Soaking Solutions, for example, is available infused with lavender (promotes sleep), eucalyptus (promotes relaxation), chamomile (promotes calmness), and amber vanilla (promotes sensuality). You can prepare your own truly organic infused bath salt mixture, however, based on your particular needs and tastes.

This post was taken from HealingLifestyles.com.