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Creating a Life Practice

So we’ve talked about the holistic benefits of yoga, mental health and physical health; now it’s time to work on taking all aspects of your health and using some good habits to create a lifelong holistic health practice. Like I mentioned in It’s a Balancing Act, a high level of physical wellness can be achieved by figuring how to balance your diet and exercise. Today I want to take the time to explain how you can combine your spiritual, mental, and physical health into a great life practice that will, hopefully, leave you feeling your best.

Let’s start by talking a little bit more about the spiritual side of your health. Now, when I say spiritual I am not referring to religion, rather I am referring to your soul/spirit. Basically it is part of what goes into what is currently being called ‘self-care’. Self-care is time that you set aside just for yourself, ideally it is doing something that you truly enjoy, and that something should bring joy to your soul. It can be hard to find time every day for self-care, however there are simple things you can do that will allow you to have 15 minutes of self-care every day. Personally, I try to take self-care time every morning after I wake up and every night before I go to bed. It might mean that my day starts 15-30 minutes earlier but it’s totally worth it. Here is a sample self-care checklist that is roughly based off of the one that I follow. 

In my self-care checklist I tried to make sure to cover all aspects of my health, physical, mental and spiritual so that I can start and end my days, essentially at peace. It can be really difficult to maintain a self-care/holistic life practice, so here are my tips for keeping in check with yourself and living a life of wellness.

1.       Make your own self-care list: it doesn’t have to be lengthy, just write down some ideas for things you’d like to do to start/end your day.

2.       Leave your list out in a noticeable place so that you can easily be reminded to take that time for yourself.

3.       Set some self-care goals: write out goals for how much time you’d like to take for yourself every day; and write out goals for each aspect of your health: mental, physical, and spiritual.

4.       Set aside one day a week just for you, and if you can’t do a whole day, then an afternoon or an evening where you only do things you want to do because they bring you joy.

5.       Make yourself a home-cooked meal, even though it can be tempting to just order out on a day you’re taking for yourself, since this might be more of a “lazy day”.

6.       Take the time to find one hobby that really brings you joy, so that every time you do that, it brightens your day. This is especially great for the morning because you start off your day doing something you love. (For me that’s making some art whether it be a sketch or more work on a piece I already started). 

These are just a handful of my tips for creating your own holistic health practice. I hope you find that they work for you and that you achieve total peace. And if you don’t right away, that’s okay because like anything, creating a life-practice takes time. So with that go out and get started on your own path to holistic wellness.

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It’s a Balancing Act

My latest post focused on mental health, so today I wanted to talk about the better known physical health. There’s a lot that goes into being physically well, and a large part of it is knowing what is a good balance for you between nutrition and exercise. A lot of people hear physical health and instantly think of phy. ed which leads them to associate physical health with exercising a lot. The reality of physical health is that it takes more than exercise to get you in peak condition, and a majority of your physical health comes from your diet and nutrition. So let’s take a look at what it means to live a life of physical wellness.

We might as well get the obvious part out of the way, and talk about exercising. There are tons of recommendations out there that suggest that you should do cardio this many days a week and switch it off with weight training and blah blah blah. The thing about exercising is that you can only set a regimen once you figure out what works well for you and your body. Because while exercising is great for your health, you can overdo it, which can lead to things like injury. I learned this the hard way. Running is a great form of exercise, but what many runners don’t realize is how easily the can overdo it. I found this out when I got a stress fracture in my shin this past winter. After that I learned what my limits are and now instead of running almost every day I run every other day and alternate that with weight lifting. So, just like how you need to balance your nutrition and exercise, you also need to balance the types of exercise you do.

So, let’s talk nutrition. Much like your exercise regimen, there needs to be some degree of give and take where you eat a balanced diet, rather than just one or two of the same foods all the time. There are many diets that you can follow, but in general what you eat should consist of a balanced amount of proteins, carbohydrates, and a smaller portion of fats. Something else that will impact your choice of diet/nutrition are any health/fitness goals you may have. Like I said, there are many facets to your physical fitness and health that go past the exercises you choose to do. For example, when training for longer runs/races I like to eat a diet that is high in protein with a slightly lower amount of carbs; and minimal fats. Along with that I drink a lot of water and avoid anything that would cause me to be dehydrated. This diet gives me a lot of energy that helps me sustain my pace when I am running. If I were more interested in building muscle I would eat a diet that is much higher in proteins, in comparison to carbs and fats. There’s a ton of information out there to help you find a diet that works for your health goals, and one source you can use is choosemyplate.gov.

Physical health. Just like your mental health it is a crucial part of living a life that is healthy and good for you. I hope you are able to figure out a balancing act that works for you, because that is when you will start to feel your healthiest and happiest.

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A prayer. http://ift.tt/2qLZk3H

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The Elephant in the Room: A Discussion on Mental Health

**This post discusses some detailed accounts of anxiety and panic disorders and may be a trigger for those who experience them**

Throughout history there have been certain topics that always seem to get pushed under the rug, and when they do come out from hiding, they get swept under again or to some degree are attacked for their taboo status. ­One topic that this has happened to quite frequently is mental health and illness. For some reason, it makes people extremely uncomfortable. Perhaps that is due to the age-old taboo that mental illness is something to be feared, and going along with that then mental health should not be discussed. However mental health is an immensely important aspect of your overall health, and while it has been discussed more publicly in recent years, it still creates feelings of discomfort for many people.

https://umc-gbcs.org/issues/mental-health 

Throughout my years in school, we would touch on mental health for a few days each year, treating it as a “special” topic. This continued on through high school, where mental health continued to take a backseat to physical health in our education, and as a result in our lives. I, personally, did not start to take any interest in my own mental wellbeing, and others’, until I got to college. Here mental health was less of a taboo subject, there was a far more open conversation, and aside from being a step of progress in that people were talking openly about mental health and illness, it was a step of progress for me as I didn’t even realize that I was struggling with own affliction of anxiety.

Starting in high school I developed a minor anxiety disorder. At the time, I did not recognize it as anxiety, especially growing up in an environment that treated mental illness as a myth. It was not until college when I was meeting other people who openly and brazenly told me about their anxiety that I was able to identify it. Anxiety is hard, because it’s more than just getting nervous, and there are so many kinds; for me it’s social anxiety. You may be wondering, what this looks or feels like and for everyone it’s different but here are some of the sensations I experience. It’s having the feeling that you’re about to throw up at the thought of having to socialize in a group of people you don’t know. It’s having your heart rate quicken inexplicably when placed into a new environment; it’s getting so shaky you don’t know how on earth you’ll be able to keep a steady hand.

For me these are more mild symptoms. The thing about mental illness, and anxiety in particular, is that sometimes you leave these sensations and bottle them up, afraid to talk about what you’re going through, as that is part of your anxiety. So, they manifest into the most awful things, panic attacks. Panic attacks essentially leave you feeling like you are about die. Your body goes into fight or flight mode, but, for me at least, you can’t fight or flee, so you are left sitting there paralyzed with fear that the worst is about to happen.

You might be wondering why I decided to spell out my own symptoms for you, well here’s the answer: this is what anxiety looks like. Mental health is not something to be played around with and illness is definitely not something that will just go away when you tell someone to stop worrying all the time or when you tell someone to just think happy thoughts. Mental health and illness require care and affection, much like physical health does. This post is meant to bring out those feeling of discomfort that are often felt at the mention of mental health and illness. As college students, taking good care of ourselves includes our mental wellness; in fact without mental wellness it becomes difficult to maintain physical wellness. If you are ever feeling like you may be suffering from mental illness, don’t be afraid to reach out to people. These can be your friends, family, or professionals, or even me. I am learning to live with my anxiety, and while it took some time, I am better able to live my life now that I’ve started talking to others about it. Your mental health is important, don’t let others marginalize it and keep the conversation going.

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Let’s Talk About Yoga

Being healthy is an important part of being successful in college. However, most people don’t realize this extends beyond exercising and eating well. Health goes beyond the physical. Taking good care of yourself entails being aware of what’s good for you mentally, physically, and if it’s something you believe in, spiritually as well.  To me one of the best ways to practice and maintain total wellness is through yoga. Yoga allows you to grow mentally, physically, and spiritually. With all of the different kinds of yoga it’s not hard to find one you like, that can also help you to achieve any health or wellness goals you may have.

Getting started with yoga is super easy, especially with the technology we have available to us. It doesn’t matter what your experience level is because there are so many classes and instruction videos available to you that starting from scratch is easy, but learning more and improving is easy too. Yoga can seem pretty intimidating, like something that is only for the super flexible. But here’s the thing, yoga is for everyone! As you continue to grow in your yoga practice you will become more flexible if you aren’t, you will gain strength, you will learn many elements of control and patience, your breathing will become more rhythmic. The list of benefits goes on and on for ages the more you practice yoga and live your life with yoga as a part of it.

As a college student, I often find myself being stressed out from one thing or another, and usually it’s because everything seems to build up and get busy all at the same time.  One of my favorite ways to relax and gain a little perspective on my life and what is causing my stress is yoga. While yoga can be seen as a physical activity, there are a lot of mental health benefits as well. Just put on some calming music, roll out your mat, and do even five minutes of yoga to feel more relaxed. There are so many poses out there that are great for beginners, and once you figure out some that you really enjoy, you can work on turning them into a sequence. I have a variety of different sequences that I like to do, and each with different poses depending on what my end goal with that yoga session is.  One of my favorite sequence of poses that helps me relax, and that are rather easy to do, are:

Yoga is so beneficial for all aspects of your health. It can really make a difference when life is starting to feel like too much, and helps you relax physically and mentally, and can even help spiritually. If you’re still thinking that yoga may not be for you, why not give some of those beginner poses a try? You might surprise yourself with what you can do and I hope that will inspire you to start having a lifelong practice.

picture links: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Downward-Facing-Dog.JPG; https://vimeopro.com/blackswanyoga/lilyana/video/30834653; http://brighton90210.com/cat-pose-bidalasana/; http://www.lovemyyoga.com/camel-pose.html