Just Be 10 Little Things to Bring Your Life Joy!

As we are wrapping up the last part of our 30-Day Joylife Training Journey, I wanted to give you a few little things to just be, to bring your life joy!

• Be Rested: You need to get at least 7 - 9 hours of sleep per night, but if that's difficult, try a nap! When done appropriately, naps can be effective in making you feel refreshed and rested.  Here's an article that gives the benefits of napping as well as tips on napping, even recommending caffeine before napping here!

• Be Social: Have a social group or network you can rely on for support and for interaction!
• With your friends: Organize a book club group, join an adult sports league through your local parks & recreation department, or just get together with friends to play board games Saturday evening.  At work, my husband plays basketball every Friday with co-workers during lunchtime. My friends and I have a book club, 'Ladies Who Read', which really becomes an eating & talking club at times!  Here's a link on how to start a women's book group.
• With your family:  Family reunions and family vacations are a wonderful way to reconnect with family members! Last Thanksgiving, we went on a cruise for my parent's 50th wedding anniversary, as well as for my in-law's 50th two years ago.  Even a weekend barbeque or weekly Sunday night dinners can be enjoyable with your family.
• With your significant other: Something my husband & I are going to start is RVing with our new Airstream!  My mother-in-law said that you have to pretty much be social, since RVers are a culture in of themselves!  More to come on our Airstream adventures :D

Author Jamie Ford and I, author of 'Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet' and 'Songs of Willow Frost' !!! He remembered the 'Ladies Who Read', mentioning us in his blog here, stating we "were especially enthusiastic!" We all had a joyful time during this event!

• Be Mindful: Put away electronic devices and be present! This is quit difficult for some (myself included!), but being mindful of life as you're living it at the moment is important to you and to those around you! Here are some tricks & tips to try to be more attentive & intentional in what you do---
• Mindfulness is coming back to the present moment, stilling the mind & body
• Stop and step out of the thinking process
• Intentionally decide where you're going to focus your attention on
• Just breathe and calm your mind & body
• Focus on & experience where you are at, who you are with, what you are doing, and why---Be Present
• Meditation helps you learn mindfulness to increase awareness & clarity
• See link here for How to Meditate for Beginners

• Be Smooth(ies): Real food smoothies can be fast, easy, and healthy! Here are a couple of my favorites.  For each recipe, just blend the following ingredients in a high-speed blender (I LOVE my Vitamix!)---
• Blueberry-Pineapple Surprise Smoothie: 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1 cup frozen pineapple, 1 handful of leafy greens, 1 - 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons chia seeds, Purified water or Coconut water, optional, depending on consistency desired.
• Green Veggie-Fruit Smoothie: 1/2 peeled banana, 1 peeled orange, 1/2 cup sliced fresh or frozen pineapple, 1 handful of leafy greens, 1 tablespoon Agave or Honey, optional to taste, 6 - 10 ice cubes.

My Blueberry-Pineapple Surprise Smoothie...so thick that I needed a spoon to eat it...so good!

• Be Fun: Forget about exercising and just move around a lot! Find activities that you enjoy, and just get out there and have fun! I enjoy hiking and walking, and will find out if I enjoy SUP and kayaking, which I'm sure I will!  Other play activities include sports like tennis, racquetball, golf, skiing, or games like dodge ball, kick ball, or tether ball.  Or just going on a bike ride, because really, who can't ride a bike?  Here's a link for biking & walking/hiking trails. 

• Be Fresh: One way to rid of toxins from your body is through oil-pulling! It's easy and safe. I've found that I don't have pre-menstral acne anymore and my breath is so much better!  Here's how to do it---Oil-pulling is best done in the morning before you eat and brush your teeth.  Place about a tablespoon of oil in your mouth (I use organic, extra-virgin, cold-pressed coconut oil). Swish the oil around in your mouth for 15 - 20 minutes, being careful not to swallow any, since toxins are being pulled into the oil.  Spit the oil out into a plastic bag because the oil will solidify and clog your plumbing.  Rinse your mouth at least twice with filtered water, then brush and floss your teeth.  Do this everyday, and you'll reap the benefits of ridding your mouth (even the body) of toxins, as discussed in this link.

• Be Real: Shop for Real food at a local Farmer's Market, and you will more likely prepare your own, authentic meals!  Recipe ideas for your seasonal finds can be found in this cookbook here. Here are some of my favorite seasonal fruits & vegetables---
• Winter:  Carrots, Clementines, Grapefruit, Kale, Kiwis, Meyer Lemons, Shallots
• Spring:  Apricots, Asparagus, Carrots, Greens, Lettuce, Mint, Peas, Strawberries, Navel Oranges
• Summer:  Avocados, Blackberries, Cherries, Chickpeas, Bell Peppers, Cilantro, Eggplant, Mangos, Melons
• Fall:  Apples, Artichokes, Arugula, Beets, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Grapes, Sweet Potato

• Be Relaxed: Not everyone can get away for a weekly, or even monthly massage, so do the next best thing...a daily self-massage!  Here's how---Start with your right hand gently squeezing the back of your neck, moving down your left shoulder, along your outer upper arm, down your forearm on the pinky side. Interlace your fingers while gently bending your fingers and rotating your wrists.  Move your right hand again while gently squeezing along the thumb side of your forearm towards your inner upper arm, then gently rub the left side of your chest, then the left side of your stomach. Repeat with your left hand, gently squeezing the right side of your upper body. Next, use both hands to squeeze each thigh from top down, along your knees, shins, ankles, and feet. If you can, interlace your fingers with toes and gently bend toes while rotating ankles, if not, just do this part at home. Move your hands again while gently squeezing the soles and heels of your feet up behind your ankles, calves, back of knees & thighs, moving to squeeze the buttocks. Continue squeezing up your lower back and flanks, as far up your mid-back as you can go.  You can end your self-massage with a gentle temple and scalp massage!  The benefits of self-massage are endless, as seen in this article here.  NOTE:  The massage I describe is a 'dry massage' that can be done anywhere, verses the massage in the previous article, which uses oil.  Therefore this type of self-massage is best done where you have immediate access to a bath or shower.

• Be Creative: Don't loose yourself in daily pressures and deadlines! Take up hobbies that you love again or find new ways to get those creative juices flowing! Hobbies I'm taking up again are writing and piano. Hobbies I'm going to try out are art and gardening!  Here's a great site I found called 'Find Me a Hobby' here.

• Be Grateful: Basically, appreciate others and what you have. Make a list of "5 Things you are Grateful for" at least once a week, like I did in a previous blog, as noted here.  You'll realize how good your life truly is and all you really have, if you focus on the positive instead of the negative. 

Now that's not hard, is it? Another way to bring about a joy-filled life is to simply act like your dog, because if we were more like our dogs, we would---

• Always run to greet loved ones when they came home.
• Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
• Allow the experience of fresh air & the wind in our face to be pure ecstasy.
• Take naps.
• Stretch before rising.
• Run, romp, and play daily.
• Thrive on attention & let people touch us.
• Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
• On warm days, stop to lie on our back on the grass.
• On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
• When we're happy, dance around & wag our entire body.
• Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
• Be loyal.
• Never pretend to be something we're not.
• Dig for what lies buried, until we find what we want.
• Be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle someone gently, when they are having a bad day.
• ENJOY EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY!

Live simply.  Love generously.  Care deeply.  Speak kindly.

Paraphrased from Upgrade Reality

In conclusion, be these ten little things, and be more like your dog!  I promise you'll find more happiness & joy in life! Tell me how you plan to execute these 10 little things, and as always, find what gives you joy in your life!

                                                                 <3 Cheryl Joy

Just Be Awesome: Who Am I & Why Am I Here?

It seems that most people can struggle with these two questions: Who am I & Why am I here.? Starting as teenagers, we are finding out who we are separate from our parents and family. We go into college and/or into the work force with the hopes that we know who we are. We know enough to choose a major, then a job, and ideally a career we'll continue on for the rest of our lives. Then when we get "there", we ask ourselves, "Why am I here? This isn't me!". Even if we have a good life, and we're overall content and happy with our job and home life, we may still ask some form of these questions, having guilt for having these feelings.

This can lead to frustration, resentment, and confusion for us because we can't "figure it out", wondering why we feel this way. Those who are depressed or disheartened may struggle even further. An article I read in the Elephant Journal illustrates what we may be missing stating, "Where we have stopped dancing, singing, being enchanted by stories, or finding comfort in silence is where we have experienced the loss of soul".

This is where we need to be awesome again! Life runs at such as a fast pace. We're always on the go, thinking of our next task, worrying about our next deadline, stressed about our to do list. We have lost what gives us joy, what gives us purpose...we've "lost our soul". We have forgotten what's important in who we are and what we do because of all the chaos and noise around us and in our heads. Our energy is zapped and we're drained of our vitality and zone out during our downtime because we're on fast forward most of the time. Our bodies are spent and are minds are frazzled.

What got me here and why I started doing this is because I had reached the point where I was tired of faking it; pretending I had it all together when I was really exhausted! I started to ask myself these questions wondering, "Is this really it? Is this as good as it gets?". I'd feel bad for having these thoughts because I am truly blessed---I have a wonderful life with amazing family and friends. I attend church fairly regularly and believe that God has my back.

So why was I still in a funk? As people we tend to over-think things instead of just quieting our minds & looking inward into what gives us joy. Therefore, we miss out on what gives us the peace we need in order to feel genuine and truly content without any conditions. Maybe the question we need to ask ourselves now is, "What kind of life do I want to lead?" In her best-selling book, Thrive: The Third Metric, Arianna Huffington states that we need to redefine our definition of success to mean more than money and power. The third metric of success is to thrive and learn to optimize the quality of our lives.

I believe that most of us are sleep-deprived and even the most religious of us can't hear God's voice because of our fatigue and busy minds. Thrive: The Third Metric, quotes a sleep study out of Standford that found that athletes who got more sleep enhanced their performance levels. The athletes also stated that their moods were lifted and they had less fatigue, suggesting they were sleep-deprived, operating on a sub-optimal level. The researcher concluded that, "They'd accumulated sleep-debt...it's not that they couldn't function, they were doing fine, but they might not have been at their full potential". 

Lack of sleep. This is what prevents us from being our optimal awesome selves! We need to stop our stubbornness, get our priorities straight, and get some quality sleep in order to clear our minds. Then we need to learn how to enjoy life again, finding what truly brings us joy!

When I look at my dog Kona, I see a being with unconditional love and patience. A creature who is just happy to see you when you get home, jumping & wagging his tail, and just so excited when you play with him and take him on a walk. Kona knows who he is (a dog), and why he is here (to bring a smile to those around him). Simple, basic, that's all. There's nothing contrived or fake about his intentions, nothing forced, just pure joy when he's with the people he loves, doing the things he loves. And that's why God made a dog... To remind us to just be...
And God made a dog (Video)

If you want to find your awesome optimal self, join me on a 30-Day Joylife Training Journey here. I hope you think about and consider getting more sleep, even if you don't think you need it. Tell me your thoughts and as always, find what gives you joy in your life.

  <3 Cheryl Joy

Just Be...3As for your Optimal Life

Below are the 3 basic things I've discovered anyone can start their health journey with, no matter their time or budget, their health status or fitness level. No complicated meal planning, no special workout equipment, no endless reading about which is the best lifestyle program... I promise that if you do the 3As, your overall health and energy will increase tremendously and you may even want to delve into more! 

Even if you only stick to these basics, you will have done your body and mind good for the rest of your life; living with optimal health & energy, bringing your life joy that can be easily maintained! I'll be your guide on this journey to your optimal health & energy. Do your part and follow along here...you won't be sorry!

1. Be Authentic:  First of all, I use the word "Nutrition" instead of the D-word "Diet", because I don't believe in or do diets! The goal here is to take in the most nutritious, natural, and best quality food & water available to you. I have divided this category into 2 sections.  
  

a) Real Food-
    I'm talking about real natural food, not processed or manufactured food, even those packages claiming to be healthy. Get some real high-quality, non-boxed foods into your regular meal routine, minimizing the unnatural junk food in your life. The confusion on what nutritional/diet advice to follow can be daunting. Right now, don't worry about if you should be Paleo, Vegan, Vegetarian, or Pescatarian. If it is a real, whole, natural food that was grown or raised outside of a factory, you've prepared it yourself, and you eat it in reasonable portions, then you're probably good. Stop counting calories and follow these simple regular-size plate rules, 1) make at least half your plate colorful and/or leafy vegetables-50-75%, 2) place a palm-sized portion (4-8 ounces) of a healthy protein on your plate-25-30%, 3) put a quarter plate of whole grains on your plate-0-10% (non-gluten or no grains for those with GI intolerance or autoimmune issues....more on that in later posts for those interested in taking it a step further), and 4) place a serving of fruit (max 2-3 servings/day) on your plate-10-20%. For snacks, a handful of nuts, apple slices or celery with almond butter, or even 1/2 - 1 oz. of dark chocolate works great! Also, fat is not a four-letter word, as long as it's a healthy fat, like coconut oil or avocados, not margarine or processed cheese. So don't be scared to reasonably include fat into each meal! Even though this is a Paleo link, which I admit I'm partial to, it still illustrates and describes the ideal authentic food plate, even recommending quinoa or wild rice for accepted grains with a serving of fruit.

b) Pure Water-

    Another tip in the authentic nutrition department is to just drink water. You'll save an awful lot of cash if your main drink is pure water. Plus your body is comprised of approximately 60% water, loosing more as we age, so you're really giving back to yourself when you drink water! Don't like the taste of plain water? Well infuse it with citrus fruits, cucumbers, or berries, just like recipes suggested on this fruit infused water blog. And please don't get the bottled vitamin waters...they aren't necessarily better than sodas. A rule of thumb is to drink at least half your weight in ounces per day. For example, if you weigh 160 lbs, shoot for 80 ounces per day. Add 8 ounces for every 15-30 minutes of exercise, and add another 8 ounces for every 25 lbs of weight loss desired. 

    

2. Be Active: Another dreaded word in the road to health is "Exercise". I've been in that mode of stressful exercise with the whole training schedules for marathons, workouts at the gym, and exercise videos & DVDs. Instead of the chronic cardio & over-training, what I want you to do is to be active in whatever you are doing. Natural walking is the best! Take your 15-minute morning and afternoon breaks at work and instead of smoking (and even if you don't smoke) take a walk at your natural pace for those15 minutes. At home after dinner, take another 15 minute walk with the dog, with a spouse, or by yourself. If you keep this easy active routine up, before you know it, you'll be picking up your natural walking pace! In addition to walking, center your daily routines around activity, such as doing calf raises while brushing your teeth. On weekends, focus on active play, such as hiking, or any of your favorite sports and/or activities. Mark Sisson gives a great overview and videos of essential movements and the importance of play on his site in this link. Basically get as much spontaneous activity into your day, stay active, and have fun being active! Once you feel you can fit in more activity, consider adding yoga, pilates, and/or tai chi, and 12-minute HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training), which we'll discuss in future posts, so don't stress if you're not ready!

3. Be Awesome: There is so much advice on improving one's lifestyle quality, from brain fitness to relationship strengthening to mental well-being. With all the reading and research I've done on the subject, I found there is one single thing that you can do to improve all these facets of your life, and that is to get good, quality sleep! Most people really need at least 7-9 hours per night, whether they want to hear that or not, in order to function at full optimal capacity. If you have trouble with getting this amount, start pushing your bedtime back 1/2 hour each week until you build up to the suggested optimal time that works for you. For those of you who have trouble falling or staying asleep, sleep hygiene is important. This includes having a regular bedtime routine, such as a warm bath, turning off electronic devices, blackening the room using blackout shades as needed. If you are willing to try this, Sleep Well is a good app I use on my iPhone, that can get you into a routine of restful sleep. Relax and Sleep Well  has an app for both iPhone and Android Phones. If you are one that doesn't want to hear a soothing voice, try soothing background sounds you can create from TaoMix, which can lull you to dreamland on either device. All these are free apps you can upgrade, if desired. Use your ear buds if you don't want to disturb your partner. In order to improve quality of life, most everyone can benefit from more improved sleep. That's the secret for being your optimal, awesome self in everything you do. Once you are ready for more lifestyle improvements, consider adding meditation and journaling, which we'll get into during later posts.

Don't get discouraged! I'm still learning every day, and each day it becomes a little more ingrained into my being. It's not to say that I don't have my hard days and occasional struggles; it just means that I can see all aspects of my health and energy improve. So when those difficult times come my way, seeing and feeling myself moving towards my optimal self helps me to get up, brush myself off, and get back on track, remembering to: Just Be...Authentic, Active, & Awesome!

Join me June 1st for the 30-DJT (30-Day Joylife Training Journey) here, and tell your friends to come along also! Comment, message, or email me if you have any questions, if you just need support and encouragement, or if you want to just say hey! Tell me your thoughts and as always, find what gives you joy in your life.

                                                               <3 Cheryl Joy