Category: Environmental Wellness

3 helpful tips for self-care during the holiday season

Hopefully, for you the holidays are a time filled with love, laughter, family and more love. And while the season comes with hot cocoa, gifts, and promises of hope, there can also be a sense of the extra hustle and bustle leading to a sense of feeling overwhelmed. Additions to the day-to-day schedule, extra shopping runs to the local market, fretting over gift giving and a packed social schedule aid in the complexity of getting through the season.

During this timeframe, showing yourself extra self care is mandatory.

4-step framework to set an intentional day while keeping wellness at the center of the morning

So what’s so important about mornings?

For me, it’s the time when I get to be selfish. It’s the time before meetings, calls and daily tasks steal my attention and time. It’s the time when I feel the most rested and have the power to think deeply.

Perhaps what I love most is the natural world unfolding around me as the sun comes up. Even if it’s raining, the light of the sun through the clouds wakes up the wildlife and world around me. The stillness of the morning starts to unfold, giving way to a beautiful dawn.

Being Present in the Moment – 1 exercise to help transition from the digital world to a physical world 

For most of my career, I have worked on a computer, taking calls, building decks, and making transactions via a computer. There are times where I’ll be working on something and I’m so focused on it, that I do not have any idea of what’s going on in the physical world around me. 

This can present simple challenges like forgetting to take the garbage out, to starting to physically walk to the kitchen but my mind is still in the meeting happening via Teams and not remembering why I was heading to the kitchen. 

To help bring me back to where my physical self is, I’ve tried a few different things.

Burn Out – An escape to Hawaii and a pragmatic approach to recovery

While ‘burn out’ is a ‘real thing’, the remedy for when you find yourself burnt out isn’t a quick fix! Everything that I read would take time – make sure you’re getting enough sleep, make sure you’re eating healthy meals, limit caffeine and alcohol, exercise frequently. While all of those things help, it wasn’t the answer I was looking for. 

The Art of Slowing Down – An Intentional Approach to Feeling More Fulfilled

Have you ever experienced a bird flying overhead and you can hear the air move around its wings? In that moment, the only thing that exists is you and the bird. For me, I watch in awe as the bird passes overhead with minimal effort, gliding along to reach its destination. Those are the types of moments that I began craving more. Moments that left me intrigued, fulfilled and fully consumed.