Happy And Healthy Lifestyle

I think I know you pretty well. I know I don’t know you , know you, but I’m guessing since you’re here, you’re a lot like me. You want to be your best self. You want to make the most of your life. You want to be the best you can be, physically and mentally, for the people around you. And you quite possibly will take a little time today to think about what you should embrace or release in the year ahead to boost your happiness and make a positive impact on the world. Maybe you’ll make a list of things you’d like to do or achieve (buy my first house is high on my list). Maybe you’ll jot down some habits to adopt and let go (I’m planning to start trampoline rebounding and trying to stop scrolling while with my kids.) Perhaps you’ll also set some goals with the people you love in mind (my big one is to control less and trust more). Whatever your individual resolutions, and even if you don’t set any at all, your next year will largely depend on your mental state from day to day. We can...

“It’s not stress that kills us, it’s our reaction to it.” ~Hans Selye I was driving home from work, minding my own business, when a car cut in front of me. Pretty common in Sydney traffic, right? Normally, I would just brush it off. But not today. For some reason I couldn’t explain, that simple event set me off. I got so irritated that I pressed both my hands on the horn and started shouting at the other driver—who just gave me the finger and continued on his merry way. That’s when I lost it. How dare he do something like this? I was determined to get even. To teach him a lesson. I was so immersed in rage that I almost caused an accident just to prove a point. Not my proudest moment, I know. Have you ever been through something like this? Something trivial suddenly escalating to a new level of crazy? Well, the other day I witnessed my neighbor screaming from his balcony at a dude passing by, just because he had gangster rap blasting out of a speaker. Okay, I can understand th...

**Though this is a sponsored post, you can trust I only recommend products and services I personally love! If you’re like most people, you’re probably starting to consider the goals and dreams you’d like to pursue in the New Year. Maybe you’re visualizing the person you want to be, reflecting on what you hope to accomplish, and strategizing about everything you need to do (and stop doing) to finally feel happy with your life. Most of us spend our lives chasing happiness, checking accomplishments and milestones off a life to-do list, as if each pen stroke brings us one step closer to bliss. Except that’s not how it works. And that’s why most of us never find that elusive happiness we’re all seeking: We focus on all the things we think we need to acquire or achieve instead of looking within and figuring out what’s really holding us back. The unresolved traumas, the core wounds, the limiting beliefs—all the mental and emotional hurdles that keep us down and stuck. It’s easier to foc...

“Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.” ~Coco Chanel I believed I was ugly and blamed it on my dark skin. I hated my skin color. Looking back, I realized it’s because I didn’t fit in with the white kids, nor did I fit in with the black kids. I am mixed race. I have a black father and a white mother. Until I started school, I never considered myself different. My family and I were close, and I felt love and acceptance. When I started second grade, I developed a crush on a boy, who never noticed me and fawned over the pretty blonde girl in class. She was beautiful, with springy blonde curls and a soft, feminine voice. She wore colorful dresses that enhanced her beauty. I felt drab and plain next to her. Thus, began my dislike of my dark, frizzy afro. As I grew older, the name calling occurred. I was called zebra, Oreo, and n*gger. I spent a lot of my youth in tears. I wish I could say that it got easier as I grew older. I grew envious of the blonde girls, who caught t...

“Smile at your patterns.” ~Tsoknyi Rinpoche Partway through Eckhart Tolle’s Conscious Manifestation course, I furiously jotted down his teachings about challenges and obstacles to remind myself that they’re not only a normal part of the human experience but necessary for spiritual growth. “Yes!!!!” I wrote in agreement. When faced with difficulty, the human tendency is to react, resist, and resent, and when we do this, we add suffering to an already difficult situation. This tendency is reflexive within me, and my mindfulness practice has enabled me to either observe the cascading habit pattern as it unfolds, which disentangles me from its snare, or, to gently accept what is happening and proceed with calm action and a quiet mind. When we can practice acceptance and equanimity, when we can say, “Okay, this is my present moment experience, and I can allow it because it’s already here,” we soften and open in the most tender way. And with this opening, we can receive a bounty of lesso...

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” ~Audre Lorde When you hear the word “productive,” you likely think of something positive: busting through that work assignment, making your house sparkly clean, or crushing your hobby. Productivity is what we all aim for, right? On workdays and even on our days off, we seek to make something happen. Grinding and hustling are seen as admirable, and something to work toward, always. If we fall short, we beat ourselves up, and sometimes even drag ourselves off the couch to force ourselves into productivity. We feel if we don’t complete all of the tasks, we’ve failed. We set crazy high expectations for ourselves then hate ourselves when we don’t meet them. What would happen if we scaled back, even just a little? What if we included rest in our practice? It seems we’d fall apart, we’d become piles of mush, not contributing to society or our own lives. This is bullsh*t. Toxic ...

“Losing my mother at such an early age is the scar of my soul. But I feel like it ultimately made me into the person I am today. I understand the journey of life. I had to go through what I did to be here.” ~Mariska Hargitay At 6:07 pm on July 18, 2020, I was sitting on the couch with my boyfriend. It was a Saturday night, and I had canceled plans with my friends because I had a migraine. I had eaten dinner already, and I was in my pajamas, watching TV. My phone rang—my dad. “I’ll call him back later,” I said, flipping the phone over on the couch and returning my attention to the television. Three minutes later, I received a text from my dad to my sister and me. “Girls, I do not want to alarm you, but I am at the emergency room in Asheville. Your mother and I were riding our bikes, and she was hit by a car. An ambulance came very quickly, and they have her right now. I am doing some paperwork at the front desk, so I don’t know her condition. I will keep you posted. Love.” I read i...