Self-care Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Seasonal Allergies Natural Tips Especially For Spring

Seasonal allergies is on the rise… and below is a checklist of home seasonal allergy natural health tips.

tree pollen cause spring seasonal allergies Have seasonal allergies got you? If so, you’re in good company and I have a list of natural above-the-neck soothing tips below.

False spring in global warming times like these seem to be against us, but we can use better, natural ways to combat our daily allergy feelings.

The tips I share and use started from feeling the seasonal allergy effects in 2015.

Before that, I never felt outdoor seasonal allergies living on the east coast. Now, they linger around year-round and I’ve learned to manage them.

Tree pollen (e.g maple, juniper, elm, oak, etc.) found in most U.S. areas is the main culprit for spring seasonal allergies start as early as February these days.

With wacky global climate changes and extreme fluctuating weather going from 70 degrees one-day to 40 degrees the next (and snow in some areas and summer temps in other regions), seasonal allergies are only growing. Adults who never had allergies before feel the effects today.

Your best bet is to prepare what you’ll do in advance, and spend more time indoors on severe days especially in the afternoon and evenings when pollen is higher in the spring.

Test different ways that work best for you and keep trying. Remember what you did that works so you can repeat.

low histamine seasonal allergies meals and foods. — Red bell pepper and squash are two ingredients low in histamine. Recipe for butternut squash spaghetti below 🍝. Pair with homemade pasta made from eggs and you have another low histamine meal.

You may have even thought about getting an allergy test as I did. So that’s what I did and here’s what I found…

I’m not allergic to anything or any tree pollens as the test showed.

I was actually kinda disappointed because that’s why I got the test in the first place.

But the test did end up giving me peace of mind. And an allergy test could for you too if you’re wondering whether allergy shots are a good idea.

I found that my common symptoms like stuffy nasal passage congestion and other irritations are just part of the climate allergy changes.

And for anyone, it’s a good idea to be aware and manage symptoms daily.

Because you don’t want them to escalate to chronic and recurring inflammations. Inflammation is the body’s way of naturally protecting and healing itself.

In my case, this started back in 2015. That’s also when I heard seasonal pollen-related allergies only last for 7 years, so that would make this year a bye-bye bang🤞

Allergies are your body’s annoying, but healthy response to your immune system working. 🌱

You can make the most of those heavy pollen days by feeling gratitude for the things you can do. Like with breathing exercises and that’s one of the better things when you’re stuffy: deep inhale and exhale breaths.

But still, changing your allergy perspective can test you. Because seasonal allergies are no fun and can affect the way you think, remember, and even see things on any given day.

So here are some practical tips to stay ahead and attack your symptoms:

These days, changing up your daily self-care routine helps.

Today you may be feeling exceptionally dry like you’ve never experienced before. And especially if you’re a natural Vata who usually has drier skin anyway.

I changed my moisturizing skin routine from once a day to a few times per day for heat rashes and shallow breathing from a stuffy nose. Yes, symptoms are related!

And sometimes the fix is simple like breathing, moisturizing, or drinking more water.

It gets easier once you recognize the patterns and you develop new self-care routines to stay ahead.

For head and nasal congestion, well… that’s another story.

Headaches, brain fog, and breathing more shallow awake or asleep are all common spring allergy symptoms.

You can feel like you’ve been hit by a windstorm on some days. And the wind is not a Vata’s friend. That’s like change on top of change.

Sneezing is actually a good way to rid of allergens in the body, but some days that doesn’t work. If that’s you, you can keep a black pepper tin nearby and peppermint essential oils are good to sniff and use in your steaming shower.

You can get through seasonal allergies naturally with occasional OTC allergy relief, e.g. if you’re gonna be outdoors. But you don’t want to rely on sinus decongestants or use them every day if you can avoid them.

There are homeopathy solutions that are popular in European countries and you can find in the vitamin stores in the States.

Also increase Vitamin C and bromelain. Pineapples are a good source.

Seasonal allergies are not affecting this unicorn in the pool — You have a choice to stay indoors for high allergy days which is really the most effective way to dodge seasonal allergies. Try to do your outdoor walks earlier in the day. I know that’s still a bummer. So another idea is you can jump or stay in the pool. You may be able to pull it off like this unicorn making the most of it! 🦄

And when you’re indoors, stay further away from the open window if you’re super sensitive or keep the blinds semi-shielding.

You can always break out your filtered mask that will shield some allergens if necessary.

10 Tips For Seasonal Allergies

✅ Back indoors, change your clothing and take a shower as soon as you can or remember to. The steam will help you feel better faster. A night shower will help especially if your seasonal allergies feel worse in the afternoon or evening.

Sometimes you get a delayed effect on symptoms, feeling the effects the next day.

✅ Weekly, use a neti-pot to clean out nasal passages. This helps you get some relief naturally and prevents nasty sinus infections and your taking unnecessary antibiotics. That’s probably the best tip I can give you! Water is your friend away from pollen.

✅ Also, use a natural saline nasal spray to clear your nose as needed e.g. 2-3x per day for relief. Look for grapefruit seed extract with microbial properties that help prevent bacterial, viral, and fungal infections.

A reminder (or new) tip: antibiotics can work on bacterial infections but not effectively on viral ones (like a cold) and they hurt your gut. The confusion comes into play when you don’t know if it’s a cold, flu, allergies, or Covid. Prevention and reserving antibiotics for when you actually need them is key.

✅ Use a free-standing daily air filter machine with a HEPA filter for pollen (not just dust). Pollen kicks up in the afternoon and evening so it’s good to have the machine cranked up while you’re sleeping.

Change your house air filters as needed and vacuum the filters regularly as they will work better dust-free.

✅Use a desk humidifier or have one set in each room. Moisture like this works especially well during spring allergy season.

Like plants, humidifiers require some daily cleaning maintenance care, but if you’re stuffy this is a must!

✅ Keep eucalyptus or mint oil essential oil drops close at hand. They work well in the steamy shower. You can put a few drops in a small vessel of water and sniff. Unlike a nasal spray, the oil drops don’t enter directly into your nose.

The scented drop fumes indirectly help clear nasal passages that affect head congestion. You can also keep eucalyptus leaves hanging in the shower that will help you awaken especially if you’re stuffy.

✅ For foods, add fresh horseradish or spicy wasabi that’s great for clearing nasal passages.

Disappointingly, local honey doesn’t work the way we’d hope.

Honey comes from flowers, and tree pollen comes from trees so there’s no cross-pollination… or an ex-pollinating effect that would be helpful for spring seasonal allergies.

But raw honey is a good natural sugar substitute and a natural humectant that when topically used on the skin help prevent dryness and other light skin inflammations or itches. Yes, it works!

It also has other “anti” properties that are good for you… antioxidant, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal. So it helps in other ways.

✅ Keep up your vitamins and minerals, especially Vit C, D-3, Calcium, Zinc, etc.

✅ Drink teas. You can try a good green matcha tea or black tea (Vata preference) early in the day and then switch to decaf/herbal teas in the afternoon. You can do decaf all day if you prefer.

✅ Keep eye drops close by for dry eyes. You can wear blue-light-blocking glasses, so you don’t have to strain on devices that worsen dry eyes (and they help you sleep better).

✅ Keep cough drops nearby, in case you get a dry or itch in your throat. And menthol cough drops help to open up passages. They’ve been hard to find these days I’ve found, but I think you can find ’em if you look hard enough. 😉

Elderberry and zinc help for immunity-boosting, and lemon and honey drops are good for dry throats.

Seasonal allergies don’t have to be the daily annoyance that runs your life. You can have a much smoother season if you stay informed. And know, you’re definitely not alone.

✅ And finally, bring in more healthy anti-histamine foods such as squashes and eggs. One dish you can incorporate is a butternut squash spaghetti recipe. And add a cooked egg ontop or eggs in your homemade pasta. 🍝

Butternut Squash Spaghetti

Course lunch

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 box spaghetti, whole wheat
1 butternut squash
basil leaves or pesto sauce (optional)

Instructions

Cook or bake your spaghetti.
Cook your butternut squash to soft.
Mix with your cooked sqaghetti.
Add a basil or pesto sauce to enhance (optional).

3 Ways For a Calm Happy Thanksgiving

In the past decade, I have spent 3 separate Thanksgiving holidays abroad or overseas that was everything but a calm Happy Thanksgiving. It was organized chaos in Mexico, Spain, and Morocco.

It’s all relative to each person’s life. For me, the trips were exciting and memorable times, and during more calm days when we traveled around freely. Some refer to as “the easier days.”

Those holidays, I was attending celebrational gatherings and occasions. But despite the freedom and travel adventure, I always felt something missing, being away.

…It’s the similar feeling that you get when you’ve arrived to your destination (place or accomplishments) and now you’re ready to go home or move on to what’s next…

Have you been there?

In those past Thanksgiving occasions, I knew that the something-missing was being in the country that I’m most grateful for, where I live and grew up celebrating Thanksgiving (along with all Americans) on the last Thursday in November. 🦃

Watching the Macy’s Day Parade is a calm Happy Thansgiving event I look forward to… and, hearing television football games played in the background, catching up with family and friends, getting the special dinner on the table in the afternoon, and forgetting calories to celebrate.

…And remembering that Thanksgiving starts and sets the countdown to Christmas.🎄

Holiday time is also a time when holiday stress can creep in finishing work projects for the year, gift giving decisions, and sometimes compromising decisions on food and travel, and making winter and holiday plans.

…So, especially if that’s you, I wanted to help you to find a calm Happy Thanksgiving to kick-off your BEST holiday season.

I joyfully love to keep my holiday season as calm and simple as possible. And baking at home is one of those ways. That’s how I roll (and some time before this year ends I’ll be baking my first swiss roll and you can be the judge of how it turns out… so stay tuned).

And our staying calm is how I believe we can win in our life’s marathon. You don’t have to look far to find ways to not find R&R in this life. It’s your perception (mindset shift) that can change everything for you. I know this, because it did for me.

You can stay cool as a cucumber even when your situations get complicated and sometimes out of our hands.

You’re your biggest influence if you allow yourself that empowered choice.

We can go after the things that make us happy or feel calm.

One example is the Black Friday and Cyber Monday frenzies (you don’t need a reminder as they’re everywhere). Those are part of our newer culture traditions, but not what make a calm Happy Thanksgiving.

I mentioned I was overseas on three Thanksgiving occasions. One occasion was spent in Seville, Spain.

That year, I noticed they had similar shopping celebrations inside a mall I went into. I realized day after Thanksgiving big shopping sales don’t just happen in America in a shouting from the rooftops or fun confetti gun sorta way 🎉.

My turkey (while not the traditional kind) that year came from an express Carrefour grocery supermarket, and while not stuffed (the turkey or myself 😊), I felt grateful that I was healthy and able to travel before I started a new work chapter in my life.

… I felt I knew what I more deeply wanted in this Life… meaningful things that brought more peace, joy, and love that were missing from the previous season.

…That can sound like a Hallmark card or movie-ish, but that’s what everyone wants no matter what socioeconomic status. That never changes. And even if it’s never declared.

Having nice stuff is great, but getting in a habit of buying can swallow us up if we take the eye off the real joy and riches in this world.

And then those fickle feelings, thoughts, and moods can creep into the day. And we can easily feel dissatisfied at some point when our elated feelings draw to an end and the novelty wears off (…that’s this life).

We can then feel something missing when what we really want is to feel whole (and not missing anything). We want to feel healthy and healed.

So, from that lens, looking for the calm (and not the highs that can lead us to the lows) keeps us joyful, content, and in full gratitude (for our life). And in control of our feelings and lives. Simple to say but not easy to do if the mind muscles haven’t been stretched or we get super busy or proud.

I remember in my past, I would get invited to foodie restaurants where the bill would be similar to say getting the indulgent luxury spa works package.

I never felt guilty, but I never felt any better than if I didn’t go, when I looked back. There was a misalignment.

Deeper inside, I remember feeling I would have preferred to just stay at home and eat a nice bowl of delicious healthy homemade soup instead of getting all dolled-up to go out and splurge on a decadent 4-course dinner.

I didn’t need to feed my ego and outer wants. And my body would’ve thanked me for it too!

calm Happy Thanksgiving homemade yam soup — In case you get tired of pumpkin everything, and over Thanksgiving… here’s a delicious, calming Vata yam soup you can try! 😋

…It took me feeling that I wasn’t missing anything to get to that revelation. Does that make sense?

And maybe since I had worked in and out and behind-the-hotel catering and restaurant hospitality-scenes, my lens was altered and the happy going-out eating Disney-effect just wasn’t the same.

…but I really do think it was more just being misaligned with my purpose. At that time, I was still trying to figure out what category that could be as I used limited gifts and talents (and more management and planning skills) in corporate work.

Today, I know what keeps life calm and joyful (especially as we enter holiday weeks where it’s easy to get off healthy and happy balance)… and, that’s taking care of and growing yourself (mind-body-spirit).

We all have a chance to forge a new path or start a new pivot for the first or nth time in this or the next season. I know what that is like as much as anyone (and probably even more). It can be a little uncomfortable in uncertainty, but with taking risks come rewards.

You could be in a slow season or a fast-paced one that’s passing you. Neither I found were sustainable. They were for a season.

And whatever the case is for you today, it’s better to take charge of your destiny.

…Because you’ve probably noticed in your life, as soon as you get used to a way, then a new one is presented especially these days in our warp speed up and slow down world… and sometime it’s hurry up and wait (that will help you in your adaptability and flexibility… good skills to have!).

If you want to find your next calling or your purpose, one thing you can do is maintain better consistent sleep which I think is one of the telltale signs of your optimal mental health (and of course physical health).

If you have a new purpose to wake up for or purposefully trying to search for one, your mental health improves and that helps your sleep. And getting moving with physical exercise can be one of those easier ways to get this sleep party started (if that needs restoration).

As for finding your life’s purpose, if that’s the crossroad where you are, thinking outside of what’s around you and finding inspiration from those outside your circles (different from you) and the sources you usually would look at, can definitely spark new life and life-giving journeys…

For many seasons, looking back, I found I was thinking way too small at times (not dreaming big) and usually those were clouded thoughts. There wasn’t a sharp gut knowing that I had felt before in other seasons (from dreams or heart whispers). Like those feelings of when you know, you know, and when you don’t, you don’t.

When I got more air and space, I could believe for bigger things, and those ideas became my reality. Not usually right away, but sometimes they did “suddenly” in life’s mysterious and everything-happens-for-a-reason ways.

I consider myself a feet-firmly planted on the ground type of person… and maybe that’s how you operate.

On the ground, these days with all the resources we have available to us, we can go straight to the root, find resources, and decision maker sources, and bypass months of trying to find right answers, and get in the front door. The right ones open for you in your effort and staying calm.

And to help you stay calm, here are 3 simple ways to stay feeling balanced, joyful and in calm waiting (if you are waiting) over the Thanksgiving weekend and maybe (hopefully) beyond… Continue reading “3 Ways For a Calm Happy Thanksgiving”

10 Moisturize Tips for Eczema Skin and Self-Care

Moisturize if your skin is dry may be what’s needed for you in these climate changing times. And if you’re experiencing eczema skin or other dryness signs, you’ll want to drench yourself and let these tips soak in like I did when I first discovered an eczema flair-up due to global warming…

And if that’s you, you’ve come to the right place for moisturize tips…

With global warming and climate change (plus global cooling) on the reality fast rise, the outdoor dry air is becoming drier, and this plays extra havoc on our affected bodies and down to the hypodermis and skin cells level.

In awareness, you can proactively moisturize (more), make healthy changes (10 tips below to check off), and not be blind-sided by your body’s need to adjust naturally.

You may find yourself needing more products as I did… and I ended up in the hospital emergency room because of a dry foot. Can you imagine!?

Cerave became my favorite daily moisturizer needed for the outside and water for the inside. But I found I needed more than moisturizers, products with hyaluronic acid for skin care, and soothing parched skin that became eczema developments from heat rashes. It was like a sun burn.

Drinking more water and eating 90% water fruits like melons wasn’t enough, but it was a start.

And a watermelon sorbet helps as hydrating and cooling that can help restore your body temperature.

But if you feel like you’re drinking water like a camel and keep moisturizing like it’s already winter (and you’re still dry), there’s nothing wrong with you…

Climate change can affect sensitive skin with symptoms you may never have had before.

For me, I had good skin and there was no need to moisturize certain body parts regularly up until a few years ago.

One good daily check is your home thermostat.

Another is your body thermostat. This will feel different despite our 98°F/36°C human bodies. If you’re Pitta imbalanced, your natural heat will be increased and get really bad like it did for me one season where I needed body balance intervention.

One of the first places to transition is testing the shower water temperatures you’re using based on outdoor temperatures and your body (balanced or imbalanced). If it’s hot out or you feel hot, get used to the cooler water temperatures will do your body good.

You can start on cool and end on cool water temps if you’re high in Pitta or it’s summer.

Scalding hot will always be harsh on the skin even if you’re leaning into Vata and Kapha preferences that like the nourishing and comforting heat. And yes… feeling more anxiety or clingy in any way are related.

For Vata and Kaphas, you may already be on the cool side, so a little warmer to start and end is good. You can use Ayurvedic small changes to help change your previous habits.

That’s one way of how knowing what your Ayurvedic body imbalances are now can help, and you can restore them without intervention. Adjusting your shower temperatures is one small way.

So, one takeaway (or reminder) is don’t stick with the same shower temperature year-round. Adjust to your body balance temperatures.

Self-care and prioritizing our prized bodies above our stuff keep us running optimally through the seasons.

And just like you change out your clothes from summer to autumn and winter, you want to change your routines and habits for your changing body.

Our skin, as our largest organ, acts as a barrier to our internal body organs we can’t see. We often take for granted when all is running smoothly. Your skin is constantly changing, and renewing and a great place to start.

Retinol (that I learned as the stronger Retin-A from youth) can help that process along if it doesn’t irritate your skin.

10 Moisturize Self-Care Tips:

FOR SKIN AND SPECIFIC BODY PARTS

At the bare minimum, take care of the entry points on your body.

1) Eyes: Your eyes aren’t just the window to your soul, they are the gateway to how you see the world. And if you have dry eyes, that’s one fuzzy world!

Adding eye drops helps (and especially if you’re on your digital devices more than ever). Blue light blocking UVB glasses are necessary as you never know when you’ll be walking in the strong sun and don’t want to end up with cataracts or eye diseases that’s a reality for aging people. I learned that from my mom.

As a society, we can seem to care more about what fashionable pair of specs we’re wearing and forget about our precious eyes.

Needing to moisturize our eyes when we wake up lets us know we’ve slept that swimming fish don’t need (not even the smart Dr. Seuss Goldfish ones 😉). That could be a habit stack for us along with nasal saline drops (another main entrance into the body). The Neti pot is a nasal cleansing habit I do weekly and when kept up with is effective to prevent nasty sinus infections.

2) Lips: Daily real self-care things can seem small (and sometimes inconvenient or annoying) but you’re naturally given your refined parts like tender soft lips so you can chew with your mouth closed (unlike an ape that happily spits out food in its company).

At home, I like to bring in outdoor local wonderment by using organic honey, a household-must in more ways than one.

One way you may not have thought about is using honey to moisturize dry lips. It’s better than Vaseline because it’s edible. Glossy raw honey works better than a honey lip balm, especially if you’re about to eat or drink.

…Plus you get a ‘lil sweet taste in that’s always a plus for a sweet tooth 😉

Honey lips stay supple because the natural humectant locks in the moisture. And even helps for little salty cuts on the sides of your lips in between the top and bottom lip, if that happens to you like it does for me.

Honey is also antibacterial. The B.C. Egyptians are credited for discovering honey as a secret medicinal ingredient. They lived like the Kardashians and Queen bees.

Honey back then meant luxury. I wonder if the Queen Bee would’ve adapted to today’s changing climate.

We still know that nature provides the best sources and resources where natural solutions can be the best answers to our problems.

…And this is why our natural bodies intuitively know what we need (and that I’m super passionate about in Ayurveda). Our bodies are connection points to our mind and spirit that make us above other mammals.

For honey, depending on your need, you can find a local raw honey source in your area or you use a good standby like Manuka honey (native to Australia/New Zealand) that has become the gold standard and is pricier.

If you buy processed honey fillers, those aren’t the same. The sugar honey bear shows his age as he crystallizes. and is not one you want to add to your medicinal cabinet, as cute and wallet-friendly as a honey celebrity that he is. 🍯

3) Whole-body moisturize (before and) after showering for prevention.

If your skin feels raisin dry, steaming in the warm shower helps. If right after exiting the shower, you moisturize right away, you can seal in the moisture on certain dry parts with a product like Vaseline lotion that has petrolatum (it’s like adding a protective wax or protective coat). The rose pink Vaseline is good for heated Pitta moments.

And then add your favorite lotion if you’re still feeling dry skin. That’s a good habit to get into.

We all have different skin so I mention a few good ingredients here that you can see what works for you…

In the evening, you can mix it up with shea butter, coconut or avocado oil, or Ceramide 3 lotions. You may even want to moisturize mid-day if you are super dry. I use different unscented or fragrance-free moisturizers that don’t have harmful phthalates. Those are the ingredients that are bad like BPA plastics where you don’t see immediate effects to health.

I also keep natural, great citrusy scented hand creams close by. Mixing it up (biodiversity) helps your body to adapt better to changing body and climate situations in the your environment.

When in doubt or confused of what to select… don’t let all the hoopla of different ingredients overwhelm you, but focus on 3 main things… moisturize, moisturize, and moisturize!

But if more severe and you need to soothe itchy skin inflammations, look for ingredients like aloe, colloidal oatmeal, vitamins C and E, and healthy oils (coconut, carrot seed, olive oils… if you can eat it, then you know it’s skin-safe and good food moisturizing ideas). Don’t forget honey… it’s sticky good!

For dryness around your scalp, try an oil like coconut oil and moisturizers. Try to leave in after your shower (or let soak in before you shower). We’re so quick to get cleaned off from the greasiness, but that’s sheer bathing luxury for your skin.

4) Salve and sesame oil: for dryness on and around nails and cuticles. You want to let your nails breathe (if you usually have them polished or wear artificial nails). Cooler weather is a good time to let your nails go au naturel for in between breathing days.

That also gives you a break from year-round time consuming and costly nail maintenance… that can be a huge breath of fresh air!

moisturize — This is a moist salve (good for dry cuticles) and dry lips, essential oil spray for pillow or yoga mats, and moist lip balm almost as good as honey… PLUS a nice quote!

5) Shea Butter: For rough sandpaper hands or feet, an emollient-softening lotion with shea butter can feel rich and good.

Hands and feet tend to be the first places that can get very dry so take extra mani-pedi self-care measures.

Keep lotion by your computer, desk, and body so you can use throughout the day as needed or when you remember.

If you have dry skin, you can never moisturize enough!

The worst that will happen if you over-moisturize is you get butter fingers and something slips from your hand, but you’ll never get called into the Principal’s office for moisturizing too much!

I have what I cal Vata lotion in every room… basically that’s a variety of lotion potions to choose from for dry emergencies and convenience.

6) Aloe: Is another great skin quencher and is not fussy or sticky. It’s clear color (not the Kermit frog green color you may have seen with dyes that sells better).

Pure aloe is water to your skin. I never used to use aloe regularly. I only used it to quickly heal skin burns from the kitchen. But now it’s a great non-greasy moistener for in-between moisturizing with lotions. It’s like a sip of water to your skin, that is better than nothing when your skin is parched… it’s like drinking water on your skin, and it can tie-you over until you get a full moisturizer on.

FOOD AND DRINKS

7) Water and Coconut water: Is super hydrating from the natural Super Fruit. VitaCoco water is hydrolyzing, and can help if you’re not sugar-sensitive.

If you are, there’s nothing purer than plain water.

Natural water like Voss and Fiji water are treats but skipping the cases of grocery plastic bottle filtered waters (stripped of minerals) are good ideas.

A replaceable Brita pitcher and filter or home water filter system from your fridge can work better for most daily water and is a better reusable water system.

8) Substituting ingredients: Preventing inflammation caused by dryness helps to maintain a healthy balance in your body.

You can subtly do this with small replacements like fruit sugar over refined sugar, and a healthy fats list like EVOO, avocado, or coconut oil over poly fats (e.g. margarine, butter, vegetable oil, hydrogenated oils… and the stuff I grew up consuming… you too?).

9) Seasonal foods: Lean into what’s seasonally “in” by shopping at the local farmers markets or in the abundant bins in grocery stores. You can often tell when there’s an abundance because the organic choice is also abundant.

You can see a variety of abundance from a distance in its bright colors and up close with unique PLU small stickers.

When I did party planning in Mediterranean cuisine restaurants, the menus were always seasonal, based on the available foods priced reasonably. So you wouldn’t see watermelon-inspired recipes in the winter and pumpkin or pomegranate dishes in the spring.

10) Spices: are a great way to balance food seasonality and keep your food and dishes interesting year-round with reliable seasonings.

Isn’t spice the variety of life!? …in my world, anyway, it is (and hopefully in yours!). Oregano was one of my first favorites which goes well with red sauces and Italian dishes.

Then as spices evolved in the Western world, turmeric became a star. Plus, it’s anti-inflammatory and good to eat for dry, irritated skin (could be Vata and Pitta imbalance at the same time in changing weather).

Don’t let the turmeric drying and astringent texture to your tongue fool you into believing it’s drying you out. It’s body healing (and where you can get a glimpse of balancing wholeness through food).

Until next time, take good self care! …And if you want to learn how to restore annoying imbalances (dry-related or something else), you can take my body balance quiz.

Or if you’re wanting a moist and healthy divine treat, you’ll love this easy and healthy chocolate banana cake bread recipe. 🍫🍌🍞

Happy Gratitude in Paris

Happy gratitude is easy to find when your senses are heightened like in a city like Paris that has beauty, scents, and sights.

happy gratitude in front of Louvre Museum.

That’s one souvenir that is priceless. Even more valuable than the Mona Lisa.

It’s also a good time to reflect in happy gratitude for the life you’ve already had.

For me, I’m thankful for the travel I did pre-2020 that are joyfully stamped in my memories.

For self-care, I find solo travel to be one of the best ways to be reflective and grateful. You can find a new place to explore without compromise, and to find yourself and happy self in the process.

In May 2012, I did just that. I explored and got lost around Paris, France for a week. I could breathe in a different culture, and see a glimpse of how big this world is and how small a piece we are.

What you take with you on travel and in your life is your mind, body, and spirit. And that’s the part that gets impacted the most in travel.

For me (and maybe you), international travel is exciting with new sights, sounds, tastes, culture, people, and history.

And a city like Paris is nothing short of joyful sensory overload… But there are more similarities to American cities than dissimilarities.

The language is the biggest difference that jumps out the most.

The highlights are walking down boulevards, visiting museums, purchasing a Parisian beret and scarf, experiencing scents and tastes from all the beautiful boulangerie breads and pastries, and then finally making it one day to the iconic Eiffel Tower (as a dramatic climax).

When I had first arrived, I was sleep-deprived from the 6-hour time difference. But — the first day is magical as my eyes pop out of my head in wonderment. The happy center of my mind is hungry for more. And is reinforced with the scent of fresh quiche everywhere.

Walking up a classic cobblestone pedestrian street like Rue du Mouffetard was a great way to start.

The joy effect does wear off after a few days, and it took a few cappuccinos and seeing many sights.

These are a few gratitude notes I took away:

Balance.

Paris is a city of balance. You can sit in a café and “be,” and no one will rush you. You can watch the world walk by.

And you feel like you’re on top of the world like in balanced yoga poses.

You can stroll and sit along the Seine River, or relax in the garden parks (Jardin des Tuilleries).

Staying in the Latin Quarter area, I got away from the hustle and bustle tourist district and shopping-feel that the central Opera neighborhood has.

Beauty.

When you see peaceful Monet’s water lilies mural paintings at Musee de L’Orangerie, you get a new sense of appreciation… and then you just wanna lay on an outdoor chaise lounge so you can be mindful of your beautiful surroundings.

Beauty you can find in food elegance you can find in a bistro where everyday is brunch fare.

Life.

You can get your fill of vitality in the churches, as you visit the grand Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur.

You can hear church bells and see street performers playing accordions in between sites.

You also hear fluent French spoken with beautifully connected sounds. I appreciated my ability to speak broken French as my high school French teacher came to my conscious mind.

City of Lights.

In May, you realize that the Paris sun sets around 10 pm and that the global earth operates in different time zones.

With more daylight, you have a chance to experience and aspire to do more each day.

You realize how the world runs in different time zones and the Universe looks different from another perspective, but the lit sun stays constant.

Contentment.

I felt grateful (and content) for the gift of life and the uncertainty to get better answers than the ones I currently know with my limited knowledge.

I was grateful for the freedom and ability to travel by myself to build self-confidence.

I was thankful for the healthy intentions I have and the growth I had made up to the point. Nothing learned goes wasted.

I was thankful for the people I had met and who are a happy part of my life even if it was only for a season. Life is about the experiences, relationships, and becoming better people.

Then when it was time to go back home, I was looking forward to going back to the life I had that allowed me to take a week off to explore.

I journaled my experience in a scrapbook I created with warm and appreciative memories. I can re-live the thoughts and feelings I had at the time, any time in my mind.

With memorable trips like the one I took a decade ago, I realize I’m physically living in a different place, and in a different place in life now (as we’re constantly growing).

Since my Paris trip, I’ve opened my mind and world to seeing 9 additional countries.

There’s plenty of room for happy memories that’s a gift.

The happy gratitude part I cherish the most in every one of my travel adventures. And when in my return, it’s my turn in the airport line to pass through the American Immigration desk, and the man in the kiosk smiles and says, “Welcome Home.”

I celebrate with my American flag smoothie that’s found nowhere but home.

Mental Health Awareness Month For Your Wellness

Trees in May bloom can be a mental health awareness month reminder.

Mental Health Awareness Month is in May. But every day is an opportunity for wellness and mental health awareness for everyday people.

Mental health disorders and anxiety run rampant for people in our lives. In keeping wellness up, we can only do our part and be supportive of others and ensuring our own mental health is in order.

Mental Health Awareness Month is one of the several recognized events throughout the year to keep a reminder going.

And we can all check in on how we’re doing these days.

And others have strayed away from natural growth and becoming better and healthier, into less productive habits that lead to their self-inflicted destructive behavior patterns.

In some cases, this has led to a growing anxiety medication epidemic crisis in America. Too many people are taking them willingly like popping candy without questioning their doctor’s recommendation, and for longer than prescribed.

In college when I didn’t know any better, I took OTC sleeping pills for a semester. When I got off of them, I felt like I was drowning.

That was the wake up call that was needed to get me up and out of looking for a med crutch, when there is a choice to self-medicate and seek inner peace.

We’re all here to evolve and get better, but that’s up to each of us.

And some of the best remedies any of us can apply in Mental Health Awareness Month is wellness practices.

This can be in yoga, meditation, nature walks, and all of the above. Wellness and self-care is the best mind-body answer.

You’re the only one who can choose and do your better life. So for Mental Health Awareness Month (with emphasis on awareness), these are some ideas that you can implement for your healthy wellness lifestyle changes:

Healthy Wellness Lifestyle Changes You Can Make (For Mental Health Awareness Month)

And in your practice, you can get to the root of discovering the healthy you!

Through mind-body connection, maintaining both mental and physical health plays a big role.

When you’re aware that the mind-body directly communicate with each other, you can make positive changes to your life.

Let’s look at mental health (mind) and physical health (body) that we can influence in our wellness.

For physical health changes:

Many recurring or chronic flare-ups don’t have to be a regular or seasonal occurrence when you know the source.

With many interruptive symptoms, you can avoid them with better lifestyle choices and making healthy changes like having less stress in your life or purging past memory baggage.

And removing post-trauma that can stay invisible to you today, and be a part of your everyday.

And general symptoms such as eczema, acne, acid reflux, other GI tract, IBS issues, or sinus infections are preventable.

If you make a simple lifestyle adjustment, you can live more enjoyably, and prevent bothersome symptoms that can otherwise leave you worried, stressed, or moody.

Let me show you how simple these lifestyle changes can be.

Eczema – too much sugar can trigger eczema and food allergies, so finding alternatives. When you don’t eat sugar over time, your cravings can disappear as your tastes change. So slowly removing refined sugar and eating plant-based including fruits is a solution.

Acid reflux – a diet such with highly acidic foods and beverages, and wrong combinations of food eaten together can exacerbate. Using ACV with “the mother” as a food as medicine ingredient in your daily or weekly plan could benefit you. And changing up your meals as most of us eat the same categories of food. Adding more alkaline foods can do you good. For example, if we eat cheese, we tend to eat more than we need. Or we lean into tomato sauces when we could alternate with a butternut squash or other healthy alternative.

Sinus infections – we can’t do anything about the air we breathe in around us, but we can use a neti pot to clean out our nasal passages regularly to prevent sinus infections.

The preventative neti pot me saved me, a person who had experienced back to back sinus infections from a work environment that had mold behind the modern-built walls.

And like a magic potion (there’s no magic!), the prevention prescription for these annoying symptoms can be natural. If we can prevent ailments and nip-them-in-the-bud before they grow, then we don’t have to take medicine that hurts our microbiome.

Some of these “grandmother” and “old world” ways that are Ayurvedic ways, come from generations before us where modern medicine didn’t exist and the people then were able to live longer than they would have because they found natural solutions, like these:

A low sugar and balanced diet, apple cider vinegar, and sinus cleansing (neti pot). Those are pretty easy healthy fixes compared to the physical symptoms.

These changes are all healthy and easy to implement with a desire to change small habits.

We can pick up habits easily and unaware we don’t notice what we’re consuming, doing, or not doing. Being sensitive to our body’s “calling out” through imbalanced body symptoms can wake up our awareness.

For happiness-sadness mood swings:

Taking supplements such as the correct amount of daily Vitamin D3 can change your daily happiness.

Had I known this back when I was a teenager and young adult, my SAD (seasonal affective disorder) mood that came up every February (when naturally Vitamin D sunlight was far less) could have been better or non-existent if I took the right amount of Vit D. Proper vitamin and mineral nutrients are essential where some are daily critical.

And getting enough tryptophan from foods helps with your serotonin “happy hormones” where 90% is produced in your gut.

In our wellness age, we’re learning that a healthy gut is a happy life.

And finally taking the right amount of magnesium that most people don’t usually get enough of absorbed into their system or in their diet, can be helpful to relax a stressed, anxious, or worried mind-body.

For mental health disorders:

Feeling anxious, severe Impostor Syndrome, or prolonged depression can often be naturally altered. For those who are born healthy, we learn behaviors that if kept unaware to us, can turn into mental health disorders that affect daily life.

Getting your heart rate up in exercise, taking a shower, or getting outside to take a walk and appreciating those moments where you can see nature can help you stop wanting what you can’t have right now.

Our brains can be our worst enemies or best friends. You choose. Exercise ignites happy chemicals in your brain.

Your ego may influence you to overindulge or overinflate (e.g. overinflated ego). Be aware. And walk away from those thoughts with a nature walk or doing yoga.

Challenge your thoughts. They don’t always help so tell the ones that are not helpful, to take a hike! And you take your healthy hike outdoors. 😊

Walking away is better as there’s nothing more dangerous than an ego that’s unleashing thoughts affecting your counterproductive behavior. Catch your ego in the act in observation. And do the opposite. Find the loving and productive thoughts.

And one thought change at a time, changes your mind’s perspectives where you develop your happy, loving, and healthy mind for life.

If you have a situation or trial, find a positive to be gained. There is one if you look hard enough. On the other side of the rainbow, you will gain patience, resilience, self-control, and other traits that you couldn’t have learned otherwise or through other people’s lessons.

If you feel stuck in your current situation, you can try to come up with one step you could take today to change or start exploring a new direction?

In the beginning, a baby step is all it takes. Getting to the shower or your yoga mat even when you don’t feel like it. Do it anyway. And afterwards, you’ll feel much better.

And then you will have trained your mind to “just do it anyway” because it works! And the brain loves when it works, because that’s a sign of accomplishment and success.

Peace and wellness be with you.

A healthy wild cod with Vitamin D with a “3 Sisters” plant-based accompaniment is a good source of Vitamin A, K, protein, and fiber. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and the fat-soluble vitamins will absorb better.

Butternut Squash Three Sisters Fish Tacos

Pairing a 3 Sisters dish with fish tacos is a healthy dish.

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

Butternut squash
Black beans, canned
Corn, canned
Fish
Basil
Olive oil

Instructions

Cook your butternut squash until soft, then cut in half.
Cook until you can scoop out the squash.
Add the corn and beans drained from cans.
Cook fish and make salsa verde (basil and olive oil) or pesto (basil, olive oil, pine nuts).