After connecting with an old friend of 20 years and knowing her life’s story, she asked me to try out some of my new Ayurvedic learning out on her. Here’s her situation:
She has had a major life change. She works 40+ hours & commutes. She is returning to work after staying home with her children. Her diet is consistent with meals but includes eating on the run and scrambling to make dinners. She feels tired and overcompensates with multiple espresso coffees throughout the day.
I feel tired learning about this. She’s overstimulated and unable to take real time for herself. How can she enhance her life and wellness today?
Is what you are doing not working?
There are so many opportunities to feel better in the next hour of your life! You can do this and also maximize your “productive” work time. It all begins with a good routine and a proper wellness set up. This will make sense to those who are ready to really shake things up and try something different.
- Hydrate your body. The American lifestyle and diet is such that most folks have an acidic digestive tract. This affects how you take in nourishment. Cool down the acids in your body by drinking water with lime, lemon, cucumber, and mint. The infusions will nourish your digestive tract and allow the food that you take in to absorb better.
- Develop a routine. Dedicate time to yourself and treat yourself well. Embody wellness. Sit down three times a day and have a meal, snack or tea. If you don’t feel like eating, sit still for 10 minutes and hydrate. This will help your body better perform. It also allows something to be digested to feed nourishment to your muscles and organs.
Get yourself to bed before 10PM. Get up early and have a warm breakfast. Sometimes folks feed themselves in a way that I wouldn’t feed my pets. Dote on yourself and give yourself some time to rest. This is a basic need we have and we don’t slow down enough to enjoy a proper rested morning.
3. Maintain your skin. Find your personal favorite skin care routine and be religious about washing up every evening. Oil your entire body every day. Sesame oil is warming and coconut oil is cooling. Once daily, oil your entire body and learn what is happening with your skin.
Lotion is ok — it’s the same process and offers full skin stimulation. However, the oils in the lotion are what can soak in and stimulate the cells at the surface of the skin, which draws blood to the surface of your skin.
Maintaining your body with skin care and oiling enhances blood circulation all over your body, which helps your organs function properly. Don’t like the texture of oil? Then try dry-brushing your entire body. Or spend a little extra time and do both. Stimulating this important organ, the skin, facilitates all other organ wellness.
4. Exercise every day. Go for a walk. Do some yoga. Go run. Stretch. Do sit ups. Lift those dumbbells. Do a pull up. Jump rope. Climb a wall. Try Pilates. Play sports with a kid. Do something physical. Have some passionate sex.
Exercise every day, because every day you are alive. Three times a week, is that all that you are alive? No.
Feel your blood flow and focus on yourself a bit. The better your posture, your breathing, your “core”, the better you feel. The better you can rest properly, which recharges your beautiful brain. Your beautiful brain is what helps you run your life, so if it is working better, then you will be able to see why exercise is so important to it.
5. Eat fresh food. Leftovers can make you sick. Only eat leftovers the following day, IF the food is properly cooled down and refrigerated. Foul bacteria grows in decaying food. When it was cooked fresh for you to eat, it still had some nutritive vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, and more. When it is reheated, any bacteria which is present in cooled cooked food can remain and be poor nutrition for your body.
Make less and eat fresh foods like salads and healthful sandwiches or other hot freshly-prepared foods. Eat less. Eat until you are almost full and don’t require extra work on your body for digestion. Allow your body to digest food properly and think about the content of your meals and sweets.
Fried foods and meats are oily and not always easy to digest. This can create extra acid build up in your stomach and cause poor digestion and nutrition absorption.
Find a way to incorporate some of this into your weekly routine. Check in with yourself. Do you feel better? Can you do a little more? Then do it. Create a wellness lifestyle simply by treating yourself better. It doesn’t require more money. You don’t need to call anyone. You are actually the one who has to do this.
