You cannot be your healthiest without having a healthy mind! It may be hard some days to stay positive, but its something you need to strive for every day. Because when you have a positive mindset, more positive outcomes will happen in your life. If you make it a habit, your positive thinking will be so strong that you can make something good out of a negative outcome! Its all about perspective in this life. There are things i do on a daily basis or occasionally that help my mental health. 1. Breathing I know it sounds really simple... But just quick and simple breathing exercises can help slow down your anxious thoughts. Closing your eyes and breath in and out slowly. Counting 1 to 3 as you breath in, and count back 3 to 1 as you breath out. I like to listen to ocean waves. I breath in as the wave is coming in and then breath out as you hear the wave crash on the shore. It is so soothing! 2. Journaling Writing down your thoughts and emotions can leave you feeling relieved. Getting those thoughts off your mind and onto paper makes you feel like you can organize your feelings somewhat. It can also allow you to revisit what you wrote and contemplate what you are going to do, or help, about how your feeling. 3.Excersize Physical activity is a very effective relief for anxiety or stress. Exerting energy helps slow down the mind. Its been proven scientifically that the more a person exercises, the happier they are. This can be 3-5 times a week doing any physical activity such as walking, running, yoga, body weight workouts, biking, hiking, etc. Anything that gets your heart rate up for an extensive amount of time is important for your overall health. And when you exercise, you in turn sleep better at night. And that brings me to my next topic... 4. Sleep Your mind needs rest just like the rest of your body does. Not getting enough sleep can be a host to a variety of health issues. Sleeping is the time for physical and mental restoration. How much sleep you get is vital to your energy, your mood, your memory etc. If you get more sleep at night you will be an overall happier person! 5. Meditation it takes some practice, but meditation is so amazing for you. Now a days, we get so wrapped up in life and our mind can become one big mess. Taking time to get comfortable, put on some relaxing music, maybe get outside to some fresh air, sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes. As you breath in imagine you are taking in positivity and as you breath out, you are releasing the negativity away from your body. There are also a lot of free guided meditations you can find on the internet and YouTube. Check one out below, it's one of my favorites. Please make sure you make it your best interest to take care of yourself and your health! Your body will thank you, and your life will improve because of it. Make sure you love yourself before anybody or anything! To be able to think is to be alive. Use your thoughts and your mind for the better. This life is too short to be worried or stressed. Strive to be the happiest you can be and embrace every emotion and thought as a positive one.
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I will never stop preaching to everyone that THEY NEED TO DO SOME YOGA. I do a daily practice, but even 2-3 times a week can be EXTREMELY beneficial for your muscles, bones, organs, breath, and focus. It is also great for calming and easing of the mind. I will have a series of posts on this blog going in depth into different areas of the body and which stretches and poses would be good for that particular area. In this post I will be talking about different hip opening stretches you can include in your stretch routine or yoga practice. Let me remind you-a yoga practice or sequence can be as short as 5 minutes or up to 1 hour long. I typically like to practice for about 30- 45 minutes each day. Of course there are days where I want to do less or maybe I want to do more. It is all about preference and practice with Yoga. Do not force anything! Again, if any of these stretches feel uncomfortable, make sure you are in the proper position, and if that doesn't help discontinue. It is not beneficial if it is painful. Everyone's body is different and we all have different strengths and weaknesses. So take it slow and breath deep into each stretch. The first hip opener pose I recommend is, 1. Kapotasana (Pigeon Pose) This pose has many benefits such as stretching out the hip flexors, hip rotator, gluteal, hamstrings, and piriformis muscles. It increased blood flow to the hip area and helps to alleviate lower back pain. 2. Ananda Balasana (Happy baby pose) Lie on the ground on your back, open your legs and grab your ankles, arches of your feet, or your big toes. Try to get your knees as close to the ground as you can. This is my personal favorite hip opening stretch. I can't get through my day without doing this stretch. This releases the lower back and the sacrum. It also opens the hips, inner thighs, and groin. This stretch is known to be amazing for the digestive system. There are easier variations if you cant grab your feet all of the way, grab your calf, or the back of your knee. With practice you will get where you need to be. 3. Baddha Konasana ( Butterfly pose) This pose is easy yet effective and very relaxing! Good for the hips, glutes, quads, and lower back. Stretch as far as you can until your elbows reach the floor. Breath into your quads and hips. These are 3 basic beginner hip opening stretches that you can do on the daily to help the condition of your hips! Stay tuned for more hip and other body stretches in future posts!
Yoga changed my life, let it change yours! ?There is a question that I get all of the time-"If you're vegan, where do you get all your protein?". And I honestly want to laugh and say... "I don't so I'm probably gonna die soon." ...Really? Let me tell you that ever since I have gone vegan I have never felt better about my body and my health. I have so much more energy, and I never really get sick from food anymore. Before changing over to the plant based diet that I follow, I constantly battled stomach aches, stomach cramps, acne, indigestion, etc. And when I switched to only plant based foods, those problems were pretty much completely gone. That's not to say my body is perfect all of the time, I still deal with random aches and pains but it is not near to what it used to be. My skin health has improved tremendously, considering my acne used to be kindof bad. But overall I couldn't be happier with my decision to go vegan. Those who think that eating vegan is gnawing on carrots and salads all day everyday are very misinformed! I still eat every thing that I crave and that I want. I still eat cake, ice cream, burgers, mac and cheese, lasagna, all the food favorites that you can think of!! Check out my recipes tab and you'll see all of the different recipes that are pretty easy, healthy, completely vegan and delicious! But the question still is.... where do I get all my protein? Well I definitely get plenty of it. There is a lot of different studies and articles out there with different information on how much protein our body really needs. Protein is essential to good health. But most experts say that the average body only needs 1.75-2.5 ounces of protein per day. And that is really easy to accomplish with plant based foods!! There is a wide variety of protein- filled vegan options. There are some foods you probably had no idea had tons of protein. We grew up being taught that the only thing we can get protein from is meat and dairy. Well I'm here to show you otherwise! Take a look at the table below... Something not mentioned in the list above is AVOCADO! As you can see there are more than enough ways to get your protein as a vegan. Don't listen to common propaganda and media and really take into consideration what is best for your health. Most importantly, LISTEN TO WHAT YOUR BODY IS TRYING TO TELL YOU. There is more and more research coming out about eating processed meats and dairy full of hormones and preservatives to get your protein is actually not good for your health. Eating meat and dairy used to be good when people all owned their own farmed and harvested their own meat an such, but factory farms and huge corporations ruined that! Do your research and you will be surprised with what you find out about the meat and dairy industry. Just watch this video and listen to a new perspective you probably have never come across... Watching this changed my life! Comment your opinions and views of a vegetarian or vegan diet!!
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