Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Turn Holiday Blues Lazy Ways Into Productivity

making waffle trees can bring holiday cheer instead of holiday blues — Bring some holiday cheer to holiday blues with an activity like making waffle trees 🧇

Holiday blues is common during the last two months of the year.

It’s the time of year where it’s easy to get lazy….

And, it’s a time where we can start to coast… crave more winter hibernation sleep and rest… and sometimes with a difficult year, get into our “let’s just get through the year” mantra.

It’s so easy to get caught up in holiday blues and sad emotions for what we don’t have and any losses we faced. Those situational feelings can turn into emotional unrest, where we end up blaming or hurting others or beating ourselves up.

And all this can be bittersweet because it’s also a seasonal time of renewal. And a time of holiday celebration. So we can oscillate between mixed emotions that we’re still processing…

BUT so, for your healthy breakthrough and escape from the stressors, do something productive instead.

Start with patting yourself on the back for something small and good you just did earlier today. Get that little stretch in to ease up the mood.

And if you just woke up… Congratulations, you are a new day wiser with possibilities.

While rest and relaxation is healthy to do and natural to catch up on, what if we did just a hair more with our lazy bones side where we want to lay around and do nothing or watch Neflix all day in our jammies (…we all have some Kapha in us afterall)?

What if instead to recharge the mind-body and get out of any funks, you re-channeled your energy into a NEW holiday purpose that becomes a new tradition?

That’s what creativity is. Creative energy comes from within. It’s tapping into the loving energy you have and not what you don’t have. Our ego love to focus on the negative. And the undesired behaviors show up as pity parties, Impostor Syndrome, or hurting others.

And if negative is how you deeply feel because your thoughts have been feeding you negatively, then that’s when it’s good to refocus on self-awareness in this moment. Get a handle on picking yourself back up. You can start with focusing on your inhale/exhale breath.

But another good way to get out of holiday blues is to bring back fond happy memories!…

Remember in your recent joy moments or past fun years when you came up with all kinds of resourceful activities? You baked cookies, danced around, and played games and outside in the snow. 🤸🏻

The younger-you was inventive with the resources you had. And that probably didn’t cost money or much as you used your creativity.

And today as an adult, you can remind yourself of those memories, and in that spirit do so much more with yourself because you’re not as limited.

At the least, you can make decisions you couldn’t as a kid.

And you’re years wiser than you once were. In wisdom, you want to grow. And that can mean being more than a life watcher. You can be an active participant in your activities.

You can participate in your interests in a meaningful way in your life. You can create more impact and find your purpose in this life that’s inside you.

So – what do you have interest in learning more about?

And if you can’t come up with anything if you’re feeling uninspired…

Do something outside to change up your surroundings.

Too cold outside? Perfect time to have a peppermint marshmallow fun hot cocoa beverage. Stick a peppermint stick in your drink and dress up the rim.

You could also sign up to be a holiday volunteer. Holidays have so many great once-a-year happenings that are healthy to do.

And if you’re wanderlust for snowy effects, watch a Christmas movie to get into the snow globe holiday cheer. And let that be a happy recent memory for you. ⛄️

Play Christmas songs or festive music. String up lights or some popcorn and cranberries (left over from Thanksgiving that’s a fun treat). All so you can get your holly-jolly on without a lot of effort.

And then after you get in your better joyful mood, you can start doing the activity that makes your heart sing. …Maybe it’s singing? …Maybe it’s working with your hands with something arts and crafts? 🎤🧶

Start a creative project and let that swallow up the anxious or lazy moods.

Just know that whatever you enjoy, not everyone else does. So that makes you a different snowflake. ❄️ You can show off your creativity and skills to your friends and fam and let them have some enjoyment of your talent.

Creativity could be what you’re missing in life… it’s a form of purpose. And it’s a gift that can get lost if you haven’t used it in a while. I know this too well because I didn’t know I had hidden talents until I started participating after holding onto lesser work-created moods.

And that can be just what you need…

Purpose and creativity brings passion (the opposite of boredom) to life!

When you start giving more of yourself in a way that makes you giddy, by default you’re fully feeling less moody blues. You have a purpose to get up beyond the daily hum-drum have-to-do’s.

And when your heart sings, you’re free from the rocky roller coaster wheel of emotions you once were feeling because then you substitute fleshly feelings for deeper content feelings.

Contentment is on another wave frequency than situational happiness. And if you’re not content watching or hanging out on the sidelines, at some point your ego will point out to you loudly that you’re not in your game. And most likely then you feel off in a funk mood or not aligned in what you’re doing and how you feel.

And that can often lead to unhealthy ways such as staying on the never-ending emotional roller coaster.

This is where excitement is high through the build up to the peak, and then it’s downhill toward rock bottom which is where boredom is. 🎢 You want to escape and dodge that way.

Because to pick up the lows, often costs something high… resulting in sadness, overeating, or our self-control when we’ve been trying to improve our discipline. And then that’s a point where our dangerous ego can attack us if we feel self-defeated taking two steps forward and one step back.

So my friendly advice and encouragement if you feel holiday blues this season is to get back to your healthy self first… maybe detox from what’s not aligned. And that will set you up for a much better end of year to springboard you into next year! 📈

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3 Thanksgiving Sayings To Adopt No Matter What Age

Thanksgiving sayings are appropriate for this time of year where the holiday can sneak up on us. And I have a cardamom Christmas tree cookie recipe below to get you ready. 🌲

…And then you’ll be prep ready for your Thanksgiving with a ‘lil family and social gathering prep.

Have you heard of the “Three Sisters” dish that’s popular in many cultures. This one is made in dip fashion with: acorn squash, corn, and white beans. Plus rice. This is a good hearty meal to appreciate harvest season and Thanksgiving. Keep the seeds of acorn squash that are loaded with anti-inflammatory goodness. Roast those up for an exceptionally healthy snack when you run out of salty ideas!

Thanksgiving sayings are appropriate for this time of year where the holiday can sneak up on us.

During the harvest season is a chance to be extra thankful, and especially on Thanksgiving. Maybe you’ve been planning a trip for months that you’re grateful for. And thankful or excited that travel or gas prices have come down for once. And you get to take time or a day off. Relative to our lives, there’s always something we can be grateful for.

And wherever you are on Thanksgiving, it’s a great time to take moments to reflect on what’s working (like a healthy body) and what you appreciate in your life. Plus, self-audit how far you’ve come since last year. Each Thanksgiving is a new season of growth.

And one way to grow is to change or tweak up your vocabulary. Often we pick up sayings in culture. Some that are trendy. Like the Gen Alpha kids of today use sayings like “sigma” as the leader of a pack. As the alpha, they may even have a lot of “rizz” or charisma.

Using sayings like these are TikTok culture-based that spreads like wildfire news, but one day those sayings will be replaced.

For those of us growing up in the Gen X generation, we also had come-and-go sayings. Some of them are old-fashioned, but timeless.

They are phrases that are appropriate for Thanksgiving occasions and in everyday life. They will take you far in life if you use them more often…

And when you practice these Thanksgiving sayings in your life, you’re developing valuable communication skills that are well-received across many generations. Especially if you want to be an Alpha. 🧡

The good Thanksgiving sayings have gotten lost over the recent years. This article is a good reminder for developing our healthy personal growth practices (and is timely heading toward a new year).

Good Thanksgiving Sayings

Say thank you. The greatest tip I got early on in one of my corporate work settings is, if you don’t know what to say just say “thank you.” This was in reference to sales work where my job was to talk. And sometimes too much. So using a simple phrase like “thank you” was a good piece of advice.

And that has stuck with me all these years. Because you can’t go wrong with those two words. You won’t regret those words as they are general, but for a specific situation.

And “thank you” can never be said enough. It is timelessly welcomed and always a kind gesture whether you’re passing food around the table or someone does something favorable that you’re involved with. And all the languages I know have an equivalent. It sets you apart as an adult.

Daily, it’s also good to have a thankful gratitude practice. Gratitude opens doors in the morning when looking out the window, in the shower to open yourself up to ideas, or in your yoga pose openers as a few examples.

In yoga, it’s easy to be thankful for what your body can do for you. We can easily take for granted our healthy bodies, but in yoga we’re prompted to think about our every body part including individual fingers and from head to toe.

Say “excuse me.” These days it’s not as usual for people under middle age to say “excuse me” unless they’re an old soul or have learned to say this growing up.

It’s part of the old fashioned etiquette we had when I was growing up that never grows old. When you say those two polite words, they open doors… literally, you walk past others and through open doors with kind gestures.

“Excuse me” is a way to acknowledge someone’s presence in close proximity. And it’s a good self-awareness opener to say when you have a question for a stranger.

It gets attention because it’s polite. Instead of nobody turning their head around, you get the receptive somebody to turn around.

That someone isn’t always in their headset world and recognizes “excuse me” as words in the same language. And they realize that their requested attention is not required.

People who kindly say “excuse me” rarely are annoyances to your day as self-aware.

And those who say “please” are trying to recognize they are making a request. So…

Please say “please.” This word works for all ages. You can use this word on adults… and older children where that reminds them that consideration is not dead in this world. And so, they learn to say please.

I learned this at work when I was still learning the ropes to working with others and delegating. I saw how a simple word like “please” when not overused went over well.

Instead of ordering requests that nobody wants to succumb to, it’s received as a request. And the gift is you get your request.

When you have those 3 Thanksgiving sayings down pat and use in your regular vocabulary, you’ll see your life change.

By demonstrating that you’re a respectful human, there’s a certain level of karma respect you’ll get back from the right people around you.

But the greatest change is that you’ll become calmer and have more peace. No one angry says those Thanksgiving sayings without a sarcastic tone. It takes self-control and when you’re calm, you develop more self-awareness.

And that’s something we have abundant room for in this world, and as you become your best self.

Happy Thanksgiving and abundant Harvest Season! 🦃

These healthy Pandan ricotta iced cookie trees are ever-green abundant as are the pinecones this evergreen time of year. 🌲

Print Recipe

Cardamom Tree Cookies - Healthy with Coconut Oil and Greek Yogurt

Cardamom cookie is a healthy cookie you can make with coconut oil.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 cup flour (coconut flour or almond flour and AP blend recommended for healthy)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup cardamom
1/2 cup coconut oil
cinnamon and orange zest (optional for sweetness)

Instructions

Mix ingredients together to prepare cookie dough.
Form a disc and wrap in plastic. Let rest in refrigerator.
Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick.
Cut out tree shape or desired cookie shape.
Bake on cookie sheet on 350°F for about 12 minutes.
Let cookies cool and stack on a plate with a pattern (turning cookies 90 degrees on each new stacked cookie).

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3 Transformative Work Life Blend Advice Tips

Work life blend includes self-care time taking walks. — Appreciating the changing seasons!

Work life balance can exist. Work life blend is the new norm that comforts because all the boxes aren’t checked with our limited 24 hours a day and we still keep our healthy ways in check.

This article is all about optimizing your busy seasons for your work life balance benefit.

There are definitely seasons when you’re soooo busy and don’t think as clearly as when you’re well rested. It’s hard to be in the moment when you’re on go-go-go mode. Each moment goes by fast and awareness is missed. Focus is instead on task at hand.

And that’s how my life was when I worked in hospitality event planning, and especially holiday seasons when I started work at 9 am and ended around midnight. Co-workers would ask me why I was sending emails at 4 am! And then to start the schedule all over again the next day.

…For a season that’s sustainable, but not year-round.

You probably can relate with some of your endless cycle roles whether it’s as a corporate worker, doing a side hustle, or running a household. That’s all work.

Working 15 hour days means 9 hours is left for sleep and meals. Self-care part of life can end up as a nice-to-have. So can sleep that should be a non-negotiable. But sometimes is a luxury too!

And having little work-life blend becomes depleted energy that affects balance in feeling-thinking moods.

That lifestyle is not sustainable for a healthy or happy lifestyle. And can lead to stress and burnout. But again, okay for living out a season or two as part of life.

…And so is taking an intentional break.

When you’re no longer in a busy season and have rested up, you can find that you have too much free time on your hands. You have more Life than work-life blend, but that life isn’t healthy sustainable either for long periods.

It’s not good to just pass time without purpose that is known to shorten life span.

Time is a balancing act. But it doesn’t need to be a juggle where balls fall and that feels defeating.

You can ease in gracefully and look forward to the changing seasons…

Like, a simple change in work status, family status, or kids growing up can instantly stir up the season in busy or slow down.

But most of us in prime years are in busy seasons or busy from choices we’ve made.

And in the busy work shuffle, juggling free time around family, friends, or fitness can get pushed out (instead of doing push ups). Something has to give in work-life blend (formerly work life balance).

So here are 3 pieces of advice I have for (transforming) better work-life blend.

1.One good way is to END THE BUSY jam-packed schedule.

Simply stop adding one more activity on the agenda. Pause the activity habit stacking. So often, we’ve finished one activity, and the next question is: what’s next?

That doesn’t have to be your automatic way and what may give you the idea that having work-life balance is non-existent… somehow this has become the modern way, giving life balance a bad wrap (because slow down is a dream way off in the distant future)! And thinking all we can do today is work-life blend when we’re missing what’s important to us: our priorities.

In America, we’re in an instant gratification culture, where we’ve also delayed our health and happiness to retirement. That’s a bit backwards. Especially if you ask cultures that have less or choose to live slower paced throughout their lives.

But you can choose what you want. You make your life what it is based on each choice.

Even in your busiest seasons, you can prioritize what you want to achieve, such as spending an hour a day in family activity, meeting for lunch with friends, and spending an hour doing home exercise saving travel time.

Take that same 3-4 hours that instead can easily be spent mindlessly watching television (where the average is 4 hours per day for Americans). That’s to make up for all the busy, depleted energy spent during the day.

Being a night couch potato is the relaxing fix to get some exhausted energy back from the busy cycle we’re on instead of pacing ourselves.

It’s not a healthy, sustainable way to live. And doesn’t guarantee that we’ll be happier today or tomorrow.

So, if you’re on a mission to find more time and balance, one way is taking inventory of the busy that’s not making you happy in your life, and then change up doing those activities that can be as simple as a grinding halt stop.

2. Instead of taking free time to grumble on why we’re not as happy as we can be, we just decide to change up our lives.

…If work is what’s taking up the bulk of your time, then figuring out how you can make a change within 3 months is going to be your best bet.

You don’t want one season to turn into the next.

If the load is too much, reach out for help. Find ways to free up your time so you’re not mired down with the busy and can carve out free time, and also free up headspace time so you can enjoy this moment and be in the moment.

Some ways: delegate at work, ask spouses and loved ones for help, and set expectations.

Often, we add burden on our lives when we could’ve more simply repositioned how we answered or responded differently, so the responsibility isn’t solely ours.

3. Knowing your priorities FIRST, gives you better outcomes. You don’t end up saying yes to everything. You have a direction.

Because every activity you say “yes” to creates your busy life and lack of work-life blend. And if you want time balance back, be mindful and keep track of how often you say “yes” and “no.” Many ideas sound good at the time said or you don’t want to disappoint others, but then you’re compromising and not living your best life you’re called to live.

**And your ways become your habits.**

Finally, if you want good change, be ready to let go.

When you stop clinging to ideas, control, and how things will turn out, something amazing and good things happens. You give yourself the chance to get free from negative emotions about specific situations. And when you let in good energy, that attracts abundance beyond what you or I could’ve come up with.

Have a healthy and balanced week! 🧡

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Mountain Pose Yoga Journey For Kapha Stimulation

Mountain pose yoga is a great way to get you into your daily groove in more ways than one.

Mountain steps are often uneven like these where you can practice your mountain pose yoga at the mountain top. — This is a 340 natural mountain step challenge 🎉

Mountain Pose for starters can be a morning pose to wake up your body. You can do wherever you have a floor or ground to stand on.

Standing tall with hands in the air helps additional blood circulation and Ayurvedic Kapha stimulation especially when you’re in a tired season (that can rob any imbalanced Kapha mind-body of excited feelings).

This article is about how to use Mountain Pose yoga this season, both in yoga and climbing your mountain top or hill.

Yoga Mountain Pose

To get the most out of your yoga Mountain Pose, swoop swan dive arms gracefully down like your arms are eagle spanning wings. And then forward fold your hands to your yoga mat or your ankles grounded on the floor. 🦅

And then weightlessly reverse swan dive your arms back up into the air. That’s a good way to be purposeful in your daily moves.

Mountain Pose yoga can be part of your Vinyasa flow.

It’s a way to finesse your ways as you grow, and is a good metaphor for personal growth moves with intentional motion today.

Repeat your Mountain Pose, but next time, coordinate your deep breaths, with inhales up and exhales down in going up and down your pose. This keeps you purposefully engaged from head to toe.

Remember this Mountain Pose and your breath practice when you’re outdoors on a walk, hike, or journey up a mountain.

This outdoor practice is a great way to get energy flowing when you’re lacking energy, need new calm headspace, or just a ‘lil motivational push. It’s great exercise for your entire body.

And when you challenge yourself to get up a mountain if you’re nearby to one, you’ll get all the mind-body benefits.

If you’re feeling tired, stop and take a sip of water to refuel. Look around at your surroundings in awareness and mindfulness. Maybe do your stretching Tree Pose.

“They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” – Isaiah 40:31

Mountain climbing is a great way to accompany a mini-sabbatical journey. What’s interesting about each hike, is that there are different trails to choose from.

And every day, each trail is slightly different because the nature elements change… everything from the trees, sky, and ground you walk and rely on with each step.

Changing foliage reminds us that this moment is just a blink.

When you come back around, leaves and twigs have fallen and flowers and fruit change up the scenery.

Selecting a path or trail that suits you is fun. Take the hike that inspires you or sounds inspiring. The first time will always be a surprise. 🎉

Usually people who’ve never been on a trail, listen to what others have told them who have walked the trail. Sometimes it’s better to listen to your heart and nature as guides instead of other’s opinions.

Because we all interpret differently…

One time, I kept hearing the message about how much more difficult a specific trail would be. That reminds me of younger years when we didn’t have info. at our fingertips.

And so I avoided that one as a first-timer, so I could build up.

And then when I actually did the hike, I found it was the easier one than the long winded one. The “strenuous” reputation trail had hundreds of steps at the end, and that’s what was meant by “harder.”

But, steps to me actually shortcut the climb process because it provides interest and variety that keeps present awareness. So fully engaged, that feels like the process is sped up.

Mindful about your uneven steps, you’re already at the top before you know it.

The alternative is to take a longer trail path without a steep incline and as many steps. And that’s where natural Kapha tendencies differ from Vatas.

Know Your Individual Strengths

There’s a general fork in the road in body types.

Kaphas naturally prefer the endurance exercise which means longer courses and duration over steps that is perceived as work.

Vatas prefer the shorter, variety trail with different interest points that doesn’t seem like work.

And Pittas just want the challenge, so either trail is fine as long as there’s a little sprinting up and down the hill that wouldn’t hurt either. 😉

Each of us have our body strengths.

Climbing trails is an individual journey.

And in each season, we’re holding onto an imbalance even if just a smidge that we can course correct on our individual journey.

The first steps are the ones that can be mentally the hardest to get going on. And a part of you might be wondering: is it too late to turn around?

But when you focus on the baby steps of each step, it’s easier. You remove the blocks. And actually that’s what little kids on the trails do on their steps. They enjoy the climbing challenge and play with the immovable Lego blocks.

We need more of that in our everyday, where we look forward to trying a healthy challenge as part of our play.

It’s great natural exercise in the process.

With every step and turn, you can find your balance and appreciate how your body assets work for you.

Having a nudge motivation like seeing the mountain top view helps us get to the goal. The cherry on the top of the mountain doesn’t disappoint. And that’s a general consensus for all…

The ending is predictable. But the getting-there journey is not. The middle changes as you get different perspectives. And the next time, you’ve grown some. So you see life from a different lens and that can help you maneuver this season.

Balancing Kapha On Your Trail

If you’re needing a little push out of a tired mind that can make a tired body, on your trail, look for pops of color like fiery red leaves in autumn. Or berries on trees.

Wear a pop of color on your arm or shoes… (if you’re drawn to the bright or neon colors, that could be why as your body is intuitive). Just a pop of color though because bees are attracted to bright clothing and mountain air. 🐝 We can share the calm space.

Find a pine cone or forest fresh scent. Some natural bug spray scents have lemongrass and rosemary that help to wake up the senses. They’ll keep the certain bugs away and keep you awake.

Take energy food and water. Great snacks are nuts and energy bites. So, ready to get your Mountain pose on? ⛰️

Print Recipe

Gluten-Free Carrot Bread Squares

Course Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1/2 cup gluten-free almond flour or coconut flour
1/2 cup oats
2 eggs
1 tbsp coconut oil
2 tsp honey
1/2 cup raisins and chopped walnuts (optional)
1 cup finely grated carrots
1/2 tsp of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg each (optional)
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Mix ingredients and bake on 350°F for about 40 minutes.

Homemade energy squares with: carrots, raisins, coconut, and apple cider vinegar.

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Child Pose Yoga DeStress

Child Pose yoga was something I wish I knew when I was first starting out in corporate work life for stress. I’m young at heart.

But this pose is also called Reclined Hero’s Pose… so your inner child can turn into your hero.

But before that, the adult challenges I started out with were NO fun…☹️

The day in hotel catering where I started was long and full of pressures, stress, and being in go-go-go mode.

The perk was good food and meeting nice people. 🥘 🤩

…But then there were tough office moments that invited in negative energy that would linger into the evening and then the next day where the same triggers started all over again. Maybe you can relate?

Weekends seem to fly by where I was never caught up with rest and completing errands.

There was always more to do, but then the rat race workweek started with Monday. And I couldn’t remember what I did over the weekend. It was like being in Plow Pose but not the yoga kind. I felt hit by a plow catching up with sleep.

The balance in social activities was long forgotten.

If you have a corporate work life, you know exactly what being in the rat race lifestyle means, that’s rarely 9-5.

And I felt no work-life balance in my first work gig in hotel catering that averaged twelve hours a day roundtrip plus some weekends. While I did have hotel management perks of staying overnight on request, but who wants to stay at there work when they can go home and feel like a human again? That’s how I felt. Even if you’re in a fun place, it’s never the same when you’re working and you take your job seriously.

Stress-free life is a foreign concept in those long hour environments where you’re always “on.” Today, we don’t have to be so much like a professional robot, we can leave that to the actual AI robots. 😊

Then, years later I had a WLB epiphany… oh, that’s what work-life balance looks like.

I had an actual 9-5 work life that gave me time balance. But as all things come to an end, moving on and years later, I found other 9-5 work that came with the tradeoff of toxic work environments.

In those roles, I would’ve easily traded fewer hours to work around positive work energy. I carried anxious energy that robbed me of life and enjoyment on my days off during those work seasons, kinda like first job. The Universe was definitely sending me clues. And decades in, I caught on to the recurring patterns like Groundhog Day.

Until once again, I got out of those sometime miserable work seasons… and then I could breathe in the moment and feel calm in mindfulness. I was not thinking of past situations or what could happen in the future. I was living free.

And through years of work trials and tribulations, that’s how I determined self-care, protecting your calm energy, and valuing yourself is most important. Life is too short to live unfulfilled in the process because you have future end goals in mind. There’s a balance because no one is guaranteed tomorrow or their certain plans that goals count on.

Plus, living with prolonged stress is outright damaging to optimal health and longevity.

Relaxing-calm energy is a prescription for mind-body health that we all need.

One way to get your calm energy back sooner rather than later is to reverse the negatives into positives…

And in any “bad” situation, realize in awareness that the situation you’re in today, will one day end.

…Either by you or circumstances beyond your control. So today, what you are gaining in resilience and lessons learned will pay dividends for your future endeavors. And today and in this moment, you can practice this relaxing perspective in Child Pose yoga and these ways:

1) Take deep breaths in and out in your Child Pose. You can do this in the morning and night to help calm. You don’t need to have any certain energy, just a pulse. And if you have pent-up energy, push it out into deep huff and puff breaths onto your yoga mat.

2) Then when you get more time, you can flow into a peaceful walk outside to appreciate calm spaces and surroundings. Like a child, wonder about the trees and all those similar curiosities you had in your earlier days. These days, it’s easy to stop and stare at nature off-balance compared to previous years, and that can stir up some fond nostalgia memories of the happy inner child that are peaceful and innocent.

3) Meditating on daily devotionals is great way to start your morning with positive affirmations and mantras, hopeful Psalm Scriptures, and check in and see what thoughts pop up.

4) Do a few minutes in a productive joyful activity that’s a daily outlet. Maybe you have a personal project you’re working on. When you’re fully immersed, that gets your calm mind-body back.

5) When you go back to your yoga mat, do an active Child’s Pose where your fingers are facing each other and touching, pointed straight ahead on the mat. And also move them with palms down on the floor to about the 2 pm hand dial position. Stay there for a few breaths.

Then move along to 3 pm for a few breaths. And turn your Child Pose into Hare Pose with a rounded back. Looking down and inward, you gain a few more breaths of calm and comfort. And maybe find out what your inner child is needing.

Focus on relaxing muscles and your breath to be in present moment where anxious energy doesn’t exist. That’s all in the past thoughts and uncertain future worry that causes us unnecessary negative sensations. Just focus on this moment.

6) Listen to relaxing music to help put you back into a calm mind-body balance mood. I like to have soft music like Ingrid Michaelson, Ed Sheeran, or Norah Jones upbeat moody tones in the background that won’t put me to sleep. Having seen them all in concert, I can put some surround sound and lights to memory too… and that pleases my inner child.

7) And turn your Child Pose to an upside down Child Pose where you hug your knees. Doesn’t that feel good? If you were like me you grew up in a family that didn’t know how to give hugs and kisses. This hugging Child Pose is a great way to validate your inner child that didn’t get hugs and outward expressions of love.

What pleases your inner child? 👶 Maybe a Plow Pose.

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