Tag Archives: rest

Aug11

Treat Yourself With Some Self Care

Posted on by
Standard
Treat Yourself With Some Self Care

Hello! When we think of the phrase “treat yourself”, Parks & Recreation usually comes to mind when Donna and Tom splurge at the mall. A great shopping trip is definitely a treat yourself occasion but so is a day of self care! Self care is all about taking the time out of your day to do things that make you feel good. Let’s explore some ideas for when you’re feeling like you could use a pick me up:

Pampering, Please:

My favorite form of self care is definitely some pampering! Whether it’s a face mask or bath bomb from Lush, getting my nails or hair done, or simply using a nice lotion – I love it all. Being pampered whether it’s at the salon or at home is so soothing and it’s always nice to feel like a million bucks!

You could even host your own personal “spa day” so your friends can get in on the self care too. Everyone could bring their favorite products, drink tea and spill the tea as you catch up, and enjoy each other’s company. How fun would that be?

Treatments:

I am a firm believer that if there is something that makes you feel self conscious, it is worth going to a professional for. Whether you want your teeth whitened, Botox, lip filler, or anything else – go for it. There is nothing wrong with any of this and if it makes you feel good about yourself, then that’s all that matters.

Of course, treatments are not always cosmetic. If you are experiencing aches and pains, you could try PEMF treatment for health maintenance and pain relief. Or, you could book a monthly massage to help work the kinks out. This is also an excellent practice in self care to help you feel your best inside and out.

Veg Out:

Sometimes the best form of self care is sitting on your favorite armchair or couch and vegging out. You could spend the afternoon with a good book or binge watching that show that you have been dying to watch. Taking the time to just sit, relax, and be can do wonders for your mental health. Vegging out gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself in a different world and you will return to reality feeling refreshed.

Work Out:

Whether you are hitting the gym or just taking a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood, it will feel good to get your body moving. I love to take my mom and dad’s dog for runs and when I’m done, I feel happy that I gave both of us a work out – even when my legs feel like Jello! After your exercise, you could treat yourself to a yummy smoothie or a delicious dinner to refuel your body.

Everyone could use some self care in this crazy world and these are just a few ideas to help perk you up whenever you need!

Advertisement
Feb3

5 Ways To Improve Your Health

Posted on by
Standard
5 Ways To Improve Your Health

It’s no secret that we’re living longer, but what is not so widely known is that many of us are living longer with a slightly worse quality of life. This is partly due to the increased amount of chronic diseases and illnesses in our society. Improving your health all starts with taking better care of yourself. Here are five ways that you can start improving your health today, whether you want to lose weight, get more sleep, or just feel better overall:

Improve Your Diet:

Diet is a huge factor in your health and what you eat has a lot to do with how healthy you are. Take control of your diet and choose more nutritious foods. Start by cutting out processed food and replacing it with fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s easier than you think to start eating better, so don’t be afraid to make small changes to your diet that could have a significant impact on your health.

Get Enough Sleep:

In today’s society, we often value productivity over health. But getting a good night’s rest can have a considerable impact on your overall well being. You’ll find that you will be more productive, your brain will function better, and you’ll suffer from less stress and anxiety. Take the time to get some sleep – it will benefit you in all areas of life.

Exercise Regularly:

Exercise is a great way to maintain health and well being. Besides the obvious benefits of exercise, such as increased energy and reduced risk of disease, exercise helps improve mood and reduce stress. It also improves your memory and ability to focus. Additionally, it can help you sleep better by decreasing the time it takes for you to enter REM sleep.

Manage Your Illnesses/ Injuries:

Managing illnesses and injuries will improve your quality of life by giving you a greater chance at living longer with fewer chronic diseases and illnesses. It will also help you recover faster. For example, if you have an injury that needs to be taken care of before it gets too bad, it will take less time for you to recover and return to normal activities than if left untreated. If you believe your injury was due to the actions of someone else, you should consider seeing a personal injury lawyer to receive compensation and extra financial help for the time when you need to rest and get better.

Improve Your Mental Health:

Mental health is just as important as physical health, and there are many ways you can start taking care of yourself mentally. You could start by focusing on your overall happiness rather than specific goals. Let go of the stressors in your life and give yourself time to enjoy what you are doing without anxiety or other negative feelings getting in the way. If you’re feeling a little down, try going for a walk, spending time with friends or family, or just reading a book to relax.

Small steps to improving your health that you take today can help improve your tomorrow as a better you!

Featured Image By: Nathan Cowley from Pexels

Feb3

Establishing An Effective Bedtime Routine For Kids

Posted on by
Standard
Establishing An Effective Bedtime Routine For Kids

Kids can be enormous bundles of energy. But like all people, they still need to recharge their batteries. The appropriate hours of sleep for a child depends on their age, with younger children needing more sleep to help their bodies grow. For example, kids between the age of 3 to 6 years old need between 10 to even 12 hours of sleep. Not all this sleep is done at night, with parents heavily encouraged to put them down for afternoon nap times.

However, for the main event at night, it can be difficult to get your kids to settle down, especially if they are excited. One of the best ways to get your kids to sleep better and quickly is through an efficient bedtime routine. If you are struggling to get your kids enough hours of sleep, try these tips for an effective bedtime routine:

Limit the Sugar:

Unless you want to start rooting around your medicine cabinet for expired melatonin, you do not want to feed your children anything overly sugary after dinner. Not only can they become hyperactive from too many sweets, but the resulting sugar crash can also make their night’s sleep uncomfortable. This means you need to regulate the kind of dinner you give your children.

First, avoid sodas and sugary drinks and instead serve fruit juices or even just plain water if possible. If your kids still want to eat dessert, you may opt to give them only a small amount of something. Or you can choose to give them fresh fruit.

Bath time:

After they’ve eaten, it is now time for them to have a bath. Research has shown that taking a bath about 90 minutes before going to bed can be helpful in cooling down the body and getting you into a more restful state.

Remember to use bathing products that are appropriate for their age. For example, some facial foam brands are formulated to clean skin that experiences heavy exposure. Although this is great for adults who routinely spend time outdoors, it can be strong for children. Make sure to temper their bathwater as well, making it warmer if it’s chilly or a little cooler if the summer air is too hot.

Some Screens:

Your kids may want to use the internet or some form of digital device to watch their favorite cartoons or play some games. After dinner, it may help them wind down to have about a half hour to an hour of screen time. This can mean playing with a smartphone or some time in front of the television screen. Just make sure to supervise the content that they are viewing.

Read to Them:

Reading to children at bedtime has been a custom with children for centuries and it is a great way to bond with them. You can also expect them to develop vivid imaginations and enjoy reading, a useful hobby to instill early on. Let your kids select their own reading material from a selection of books and be sure to ask them frequently if they have any questions.

Kids take time to comprehend what’s happening and you may need to read something slowly or repeatedly. Picture books will be a sure hit with kids since they allow children to visualize what they’re reading with you.

Careful with the Light:

A final consideration that many parents have to face is whether to use a nightlight. These devices are used to comfort children with illumination when they are still afraid of the dark. However, some parents may feel that a nightlight only keeps kids awake due to the illumination. You can avoid this by buying a nightlight with adjustable brightness and placing them close to the floor rather than high up, where the glare can wake your kids. Finally, you may wish to employ some strategies to slowly wean your kids away from using them.

A successful bedtime routine can help your kids settle down at night and get the rest they need. Fine tune these tips to accommodate your their needs and you can look forward to restful evenings and healthy children.

Jan14

Managing Working Remotely When You’re Feeling Ill

Posted on by
Standard
Managing Working Remotely When You’re Feeling Ill

If one ‘good’ thing has come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that people have been staying at home when they feel ill, rather than dragging their sick selves into the office. However, with working from home becoming more and more prevalent, and looking like it is going to be sticking around for the foreseeable future, more and more people will be logging in and working from home while feeling less than perfect. Of course, in an ideal world, we would all stay in bed and rest, but we are realistic enough to know that this is not always possible, particularly if you work for yourself.

In this blog post, we will look at how to manage your work when you are feeling ill:

Dress comfortably:

One of the benefits of working from home is that, unless you are forced to participate in a video call, you can get away with wearing whatever you want. Usually, to be productive and get in the right mindset for a working day, we would advise you to get up and get dressed into something work appropriate. However, if you are ill, take advantage. If a hoodie and sweats are comfortable and keep you at the right temperature, then wear them. If you want to stay in your PJs, stay in them. If you do have to attend a video call, throw a smart jumper or shirt on for the call – no one will notice if you are wearing your cat print PJ bottoms!

Eat well and stay hydrated:

While it can be tempting to load up on carbs or just eat junk food when you are unwell, it is even more important than ever to eat well, if you can manage it. Eat plenty of fruits and veggies for that vitamin C boost and do not forget the good old chicken soup – always a winner when you are sick! Have a look here to find out how to make chicken broth. Try to avoid drinking too much coffee, and stick to water to keep you hydrated and fresh fruit juice for extra vitamins.

Try to rearrange or delegate as much as possible:

Make every effort to postpone any meetings that you know you will not be able to attend over the next few days. Make sure that everyone is aware of the changes and reschedule things accordingly. You can also ask if someone can record the online meeting or take notes so that you can review them afterwards.

Look at breaking up your workday:

Breaking down your job into smaller, manageable components will help you as you begin to recover.  When you are sick, you will not be able to complete things as quickly as normal, so this is a great method to avoid a productivity slump. If you are supposed to work for eight hours, see if you can do four hours and then have a nap before completing the second half of the work. The last thing you need to do is overdo it and end up back where you started, or worse.

Prioritize important tasks:

A sick worker’s output is only about 60% of what it would be under normal circumstances. As a result, you will need to plan out exactly what tasks you will be able to complete while sick. Prioritize the things that must be performed during your sick day by examining your deadlines and schedule.

Be reasonable with your expectations:

Acknowledge that you will not be able to work as hard as usual when you are sick. Do not push yourself too hard and do not let yourself get exhausted. If you go overboard, you could put off your recovery or make yourself sicker. If you need to get things done, do so, but do not forget to take a break.

Reward yourself for small achievements:

Each day, give yourself a reward for accomplishing your goals. Sick days are the perfect time to indulge in some of your favorite comfort foods, hot beverages, naps, or your favorite movie. You should be proud of yourself for managing to get so much done despite your illness.

The important thing to remember is that if you feel too ill to work, you need to stop and rest. While it may be inconvenient, it will be even more so if you run yourself into the ground. Stop, rest, and you will recover and be back before you know it!

Featured Image By: Unsplash

Nov9

Making Time For Me Time

Posted on by
Standard
Making Time For Me Time

Hello! I am self employed and have been running two businesses for over half a decade now. Of course, I love my jobs so much but anyone who is their own boss can tell you that it can be highly stressful – especially because if you don’t work, you don’t get paid. Two businesses means a demanding schedule with weeks feeling too long and the weekends, sadly, not being long enough!

I never really realize how much I push myself for my jobs until something as small as the common cold knocks me completely on my ass. On Halloween day, I woke up with an unbearable cold and it was a struggle to get out of bed. Thankfully, a scary movie day was on the agenda so not much movement was required but I had to call off of work on Monday, which is something that I rarely do.

For most people, a cold is something that they can usually still function through but for me, it was the polar opposite. This was pretty alarming to me and I knew that it was related to just how hard that I have been working for what feels like forever. Whenever I fall sick, I always tell myself that I am going to be more lenient with giving myself a day off if I need it. While it never happens, I actually mean it this time lol.

I will be taking time off for Thanksgiving and Christmas and in the new year, I am making it a resolution to give myself permission to give myself a break. This completely goes against my work ethic but I have now realized how important it is to give myself a mental and physical break from my work. I wish that meant lavish vacations to Paris but, in reality, it will be taking an afternoon off to get my nails done or spending a day playing Animal Crossing when I feel myself getting run down.

This, of course, won’t be a monthly thing but pushing through exhaustion isn’t healthy and I know that the next time I fall ill for days on end, I will be wishing that I gave myself a break. Chill evenings with TV and a face mask is great but it just isn’t enough after an uber busy work week and jam packed weekend.

My normal self care involves pampering of some kind but I have come to realize that it is so much more than that. I now know that a more effective form of self care for me would be being less hard on myself and allowing for a day of rest as needed. It will be difficult because it goes against everything that my brain is wired to think. However, I can’t have another half decade of success in my businesses without it!

What is your method of self care? How do you make time for you with a demanding schedule? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Oct25

How Not Sleeping Enough Affects Your Health

Posted on by
Standard
How Not Sleeping Enough Affects Your Health

Not sleeping enough over any prolonged period of time will negatively affect both your mental and physical health. If you are regularly getting less than at least seven hours a night, you will fall into the category of not sleeping enough. Perhaps you already have started to notice some symptoms of lack of sleep. Or maybe, you are unaware of the consequences. Either way, if you, do not sleep enough, you should make a valiant effort to get more of it, and here are a few reasons why:

Your Immune System:

When you are asleep, your body gets to work on fixing and repairing any damage that has occurred during the day. Beauty sleep is called beauty sleep for a reason! The body is able to help strengthen the immune system and regenerate cells which are vital to helping you fight off infections. Over time, if you do not sleep enough, you will find that you fall victim to more colds, flues, and potentially worse infections.

Your Memory:

While you sleep, the brain changes short-term memories into long-term memories. You may find that not sleeping enough goes hand in hand with a bad memory.

Your Central Nervous System:

Not sleeping an adequate amount can disrupt the body’s ability to send, receive, and process information. Sleep deprivation will exhaust the brain just as much as the rest of you. It will affect your concentration levels and you might find it difficult to learn something new. It can affect your coordination, meaning that you are more prone to accidents. This can have drastically tragic consequences on things like driving, for instance. Your mental and emotional state will be in constant flux. You will have more mood swings and become far less patient. It will also affect your decision-making ability. If you have a chronic lack of sleep, you may even start seeing hallucinations or trigger things such as mania and paranoia.

Depression:

Lack of sleep can lead to depression. Having our mood affected in such a way can have very serious consequences. It may even lead some people to consider suicide or begin drinking or taking drugs. The irony is these habits negatively affect sleep even more. If this resonates with you, then maybe going to rehab centers may help you see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Your Heart Health:

The health of your heart is affected by your blood pressure. When you sleep, the body regulates blood pressure and helps to prevents heart disease. That means that by not sleeping enough, you may end up with heart complications.

Obesity:

Unfortunately, not sleeping enough may well be a contributing factor to obesity. Some people who do not sleep enough will find that due to their lack of energy, they eat more sugary or fatty foods to compensate. It is a false economy and does not work. Also, being overweight may cause you to wake up hungry in the middle of the night, resulting in more snacking.

A good night’s sleep, clearly, does a lot more than make you feel well rested every morning. Catch some Zs and let your body work behind the scenes to help keep you healthy.

Featured Image By: Pixabay

Sep22

Must Have Products For Ultimate Relaxation

Posted on by
Standard
Must Have Products For Ultimate Relaxation

With the pandemic still going strong and cold weather on the horizon, there is no better time to turn your home into a relaxation station to keep yourself safe and warm. Today, we are going to look at a few key elements to provide for the ultimate R&R experience from the comfort of your house or apartment. Let’s get to it:

Sound Machines:

Sound machines are an ideal option if you have trouble sleeping or concentrating when working from home. These handy little machines can give you a range of different sounds from white noise to crashing waves and rain falling. Not to mention that they are great for soothing infants! Sound machines can be a perfect replacement for keeping the TV on before bed if you need some noise to fall asleep as it will eliminate the harsh lighting, which is doing you no favors as you try to nod off.

Speaking Of Sleep:

Speaking of sleep, when was the last time that you got a new mattress? Your mattress should be replaced, roughly, every seven years and a brand new one will do wonders for relaxation. Do your research and find a quality mattress for sale so you can sleep peacefully every night. A new mattress combined with a sound machine will surely help you feel more well rested when the alarm goes off in the morning.

Soothing Hobbies:

There are plenty of hobbies that are, easily, more relaxing than others and include everything from knitting and reading to adult coloring books. Engaging in a hobby that promotes mindfulness is a great way to step away from the stress of your day to day life. Spending some quiet time with yourself lost in a good book or creating something beautiful is one of the best ways to spend a snowy day in.

Soft Lighting:

Harsh, bright lighting is never conducive to helping you relax. Of course, brighter lighting in appropriate areas like your kitchen and office are a necessity. However, you can opt for softer, dim lighting in the living room and bedroom to increase your relaxation even more. Dim lights enhanced by twinkling fairy lights or a Himalayan salt lamp will create a lovely ambiance and can allow your body to get in a more zen state come evening time.

Ready, set, relax with the products above to turn your snow days in into much needed R&R time for you!

Aug13

Chilling Out

Posted on by
Standard
Chilling Out

Hello! These past few weekends for Johnny and I have been nice and relaxing which is a welcome change of pace after several super busy weekends in a row. I definitely know that I was feeling the effects of being on the move nonstop because I felt so exhausted throughout my work week. My job is quite mentally demanding so this on top of tired made me feel drained.

While I love going out and about with Johnny, a lot of my favorite things can be done just Chilling Out in our apartment. Like the following:

Pampering Party:

Pampering myself after a long day at work always makes me feel better. This means bubble baths, face masks, getting my nails done, and painting my toe nails. Johnny also loves to have his nails painted so I’ll usually do his fingers and toes too while the nail polish is out. Nothing pleases me more than an evening at the nail salon or testing out a new skin care product and it is a great midweek refresher until the weekend rolls around. A Pampering Party is my favorite form of self care and it gives me something to look forward to for once I get home.

Fun & Games:

Super intense video games are not relaxing to me in the slightest even though I love them. However, Pokemon Snap and Animal Crossing never fail to put me in the chill zone. Both games for the Nintendo Switch are insanely cute, laid back, and fairly mindless. They are also games that Johnny and I enjoy a lot so we play them often when we need some time to unwind. Our new hobby has been listening to The Last Podcast On The Left together and we will normally play Pokemon Snap or Animal Crossing while we have an episode on.

Soak Up The Sun:

I have been making great use of the pool at my apartment community this summer and it feels nice to be in the water and catch some rays in the evening. It is also the best time to go since it is not as crowded which makes it even more relaxing! Our apartment gets incredibly hot in the summer so I love having a pool two minutes away to cool off in. It’s hard to get in a chill set of mind when you’re sweating profusely lol!

Book Club:

Despite pretty much only reading horror and thriller novels, reading always helps me to relax and I try to finish a book at least every three weeks. Right now, I have been working on Candide by Voltaire which I have really been enjoying. Next on deck is a suspense novel by Megan Miranda called Such A Quiet Place. Nothing is better than settling in with a good book and I get transported to the chill zone as soon as I read one page.

It’s important to know what helps you to relax when you are feeling tired or stressed and the above are all surefire ways to unwind for me. Talk about an instant chill pill!

How do you like to relax? What makes you feel stressed? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Nov26

How To Enjoy A Calm Winter

Posted on by
Standard
How To Enjoy A Calm Winter

Winter is well and truly on its way. In fact, it’s pretty much here. And with what’s going on in the world right now, you may find that you really don’t want to be spending too much time on anything that’s strenuous or that takes your energy away. And if that’s the case, you will be reaping as many of the benefits that a winter hibernation can offer you. At this time of the year, we don’t always want to spend too much outside or on hard activities. Instead, we want to be able to slow down and make sure that we can get through to spring feeling fantastic. To help you to do that, you may find that the ideas below will inspire you:

Switch off more:

To start with, one of the best things that you can do here is to make sure that you’re letting yourself switch off as much as possible. If you’re always on the go or your mind is always racing, your time won’t be calm. So try to switch off from work or the online world for a little bit if you can.

Distance yourself:

From here, you might want to try and think about keeping your distance from negativity. This may seem like a strange thing to add in as a winter practice, however, it can be really beneficial for your mind. If you know that you have a lot of toxic people in your life as you’re choosing to enjoy a few calming months, it’s good to try and keep them at arm’s length. That way, you know that your tranquillity won’t be threatened.

winter3

Unsplash Image

Make room for calming practices:

The next thing that you might want to do is make sure that you are welcoming more calming practices into your life. You may find that you are able to feel a lot calmer throughout the colder months when you actively look to make this happen. Maybe you want to read instead of watch TV? Turn to something like Bloom Farms CBD instead of alcohol? Or quiet games nights with family rather than something rowdier? It all helps.

Treat yourself better:

Even if you think you already do this, you may not be treating yourself as well as you’d think. Are you resting? Are you looking after your body? Are you prioritizing your needs? If not, then you’re going to want to make sure that you change this. You’ll find it helps you to be a lot calmer and feel much better about yourself.

Enjoy the downtime:

Finally, you may find that it’s actually really nice for you to just enjoy more of the downtime. Winter isn’t always as fun, busy, and outgoing as summer – and it needn’t be. With winter comes the cold and dark and it’s not always the time of year that you want to be active. So just let yourself enjoy the calm and the slower pace. Do less. Relax. Be slow. Lap up all of the things you can do in hibernation before a glorious springtime comes back once again.

Ready, set, relax with the tips above and have a calm and safe winter!

Featured Image By: Unsplash

Aug14

5 Self Care Tips To Remember

Posted on by
Standard
5 Self Care Tips To Remember

There is nothing more important than looking after yourself, and we’re constantly being told that self care is the way to do it. Spend some time doing yoga and putting cucumber on your eyes, and you’ll be cured of all of your ills, right? Well, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but looking after yourself is still an imperative part of your health and happiness, and it gives you the boost that you need to carry on during rough patches.

But what simple self care tips can you carry with you, in order to make sure that you know how and when to take some time out? We’ve put together five here, for those seeking inner peace and well being.

Drink more water:

Okay, you heard it here first. Well, you probably didn’t. Drink. More. Water. Those three little words are what everybody needs to hear. Not only will it keep you hydrated (obviously) but it will also clear up your skin, clear out the junk from your body, and give you the energy that you need to be as great as you can be. Oh, and it’s practically the easiest thing in the world. Carry a water bottle with you at all times; you won’t regret it.

self

Pexels Image

Just relax:

A lot of us don’t relax, because we don’t even know how to. Relaxing isn’t scrolling through your phone for hours or sitting there worrying about what you should be doing instead of relaxing. It’s really making an effort to chill out and to clear your mind of everything in order to do so. Work on letting things go, so that you can get to a place of total tranquility every once in a while.

Sleep well:

One of the main things that you need to do if you want to look after yourself is to sleep well. Sleeping gives your body a chance to restore itself and it’s good for the ol’ mind, too. Check out an air conditioning store nearby so that you can get the perfect sleep temperature nailed and try to maintain some kind of routine when it comes to the time that you go to bed and the time that you wake up.

Make time for your passions:

Your passions are what make life worth living and they’re not only great because you find them enjoyable. Escaping into the things that you love is perfect for self care, as it allows you to really be yourself and let go of all of the issues that are whizzing around your mind. Whether you love art, music, or reading, make sure that you’ve got time to pursue it. You’ll feel on top of the world when you do!

Be kind to yourself:

Many people beat themselves up all of the time, for various reasons. Maybe you’re not where you want to be with your career, you think that you’re not thin enough, or you believe that you’ve done something wrong that is going to follow you forever. However, you need to be kind to yourself. You’ll make mistakes, but you’re on the right path. You still deserve to be happy, so don’t forget this.

Enjoy improving your self care rituals; you deserve it!