“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Dreams, Hope and the promise of the future are very important keys to a healthy and happy life.
One of my favorite sayings is “Where there is breath, there is Hope.” I wrote a blog post over at my main blog today all about Hope. Here is the link if you would like to enJOY that post Blog Post on HOPE
Maggie Holbik.com is a Certified Life Coach, Certified Infinite Possibilities Trainer & Coach, and Nutritionist who believes in the beauty of life and is always grateful to once again seen the sunrise with the promise of a new day delivered. 🙂
Stress is a hot topic and for good reason. Stress is behind everything we face in life whether it’s mental, physical or emotional. Learning to manage our stress is one of the best things we can do.
If we look at this infographic we can see some of the ways that stress can impact our health. Everything from teeth grinding to digestive issues. Stress wreaks havoc on our bodies, our minds, and our emotions
Stress is something that we should create a game plan for dealing with so we don’t resort to coping mechanisms like drugs, alcohol abuse, and overeating. By having an active strategy in place, we are better able to handle stress when it appears.
There are many ways to actively work at coping with stress and here are a few popular ones:
Exercise
Exercise is one of the best ways to help with stress. And the good news is that any form of exercise helps, even plain old walking. Exercise helps to raise the feel good neurotransmitters called endorphins. Quite simply any form of exercise helps to calm the mind and alleviate stress.
Meditation
Meditation is a great way to calm the mind, decompress the nervous system, and to alleviate stress. And meditation does not have to be complicated. There are many great apps out there now like “Calm”, “Insight Timer” and even YouTube has thousands of meditations you can access. I find a good pair of headphones and a meditation even if it is only for 5 minutes can be hugely helpful.
Our brains like to run in patterns and when we are stressed we can run negative thought patterns. Doing things like meditating can help to disrupt these thought patterns at the same time as lowering the stress hormone cortisol. Pubmed Study Stress
Many people find that walking is meditative so it’s a win/win as it is exercise and also a calming technique.
Nutrition
When the body has the proper vitamins, minerals, amino acids and enzymes in order to function properly, it can have a HUGE benefit on both preventing and alleviating stress! One simple nutrient deficiency can impact the body in a big way. Common nutrient deficiencies associated with stress and anxiety are B Vitamins, Vitamin D, Magnesium, Iron and Selenium … to name a few. Any nutrient deficiency can cause stress on the body.
I have written prior blog posts on stress and you may find this link helpful as it contains more ideas for coping with stress and links to stress hacks:
Here is a freebie list of affirmations that can help to shift your life away from anxiety and into a place of personal empowerment which helps to alleviate stress and anxiety as well. This is also a great guide on how to start using affirmations Free Resource for Affirmations
If you find your thoughts run on a negative track, you may find this helpful and it’s kind of a fun way to look at it A Recipe for Thoughts
And here is one of my very favorites on working with your thoughts so that they better serve you From Worry to Peace
I hope you have found this information useful and I highly recommend having your ‘stress strategy’ in place so you can feel more empowered when it comes to dealing with stress.
MaggieHolbik.com is a Board Certified Nutritionist, Certified Life Coach, & Certified Infinite Possibilities Trainer & Coach who believes one of the best ways to cope with stress is to strive for JOY! Maggie loves to impact the world through Joyous sharings and interaction.
Affirmations are powerful, yet many people do not take advantage of using them.
I have prepared an easy guide for you to use and it includes 33 of some of my favorite affirmations. 33 because 3’s are my favorite number if you did not know this yet.
Anyway, here you go. You can download your free guide here. My gift to YOU!
Maggie Holbik.com is a Board Certified Nutrition, Certified Life Coach, Certified Infinite Possibilities Trainer & Coach, Advanced Psych-K Facilitator, and Reconnective Healing Practitioner who enJOYs life and helping others.
We all know cancer is an epidemic and is running rampant in our world. I bet we have all been touched by cancer in some way. Whether ourselves personally, our loved ones, friends, or even our connections through social media and the world at large. It used to be a scary “C” word that was rarer to hear about, but now it is very common.
We are living in a toxic world with many variables and at times it can feel overwhelming when it comes to cancer prevention and the overall betterment of our health in general, but the good news is that there are things that we can do! Here are a few ideas that are easy to incorporate into our lives. And these are things we can do whether we have cancer or we are looking to prevent cancer.
Reduce our exposure to toxic products. We live in a world full of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, toxic air fresheners, toxic cleaners, colognes, fragrances, heavy metals, toxic food, and more. The more we can sub out these types of products and threats and eliminate using them or being exposed to them the better.
2. Stay Hydrated One of the biggest health challenges is that most people are very dehydrated, all the way from young children to the elderly and in between. This is a very serious health challenge. Dehydration means that we are not moving out the toxins as easily and that we are getting thick blood. We do NOT want thick blood. No, No, No! I have written about thick blood in a prior blog post that you can read here:Â
There are so many reasons to increase our fruit and veggies intake and hydration is one of them. Fruits especially help to both hydrate and nourish the cells and organs as well as providing the natural sugars our livers and brains need to function. Think of your liver in particular. The fruits help it to function better and to be able to filter out toxins and get them out of the body. And don’t forget about the amazing micro-nutrients fruits and veggies provide like vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, enzymes and more!
If you are interested in more details on the best foods and why for cancer prevention, here is a link to a detailed article by Marni Clark. Marni is a breast cancer expert and coach, and I enjoy her work immensely. Here is the link:
I really believe that there are 3 cornerstones to good health
. Eating functional and whole foods
. Exercise and
. Lowering Stress
Lowering stress means lowering the stress on the body as in toxic exposure, overwork, tiredness, abuse, as well as all of the mental stress we often refer to. Stress is much more complicated than we think of usually. When you think of stress, think of it like a rope. When too much stress is put on a rope, or the rope becomes frail and weak, it breaks!!! That is about as simple as it gets, so do whatever you can do reduce stress. I have written blogs posts on dealing with stress. You can find them here:
Try and find ways to incorporate more peace of mind in your life. This may involve things like forgiving yourself and others, letting go of the little things, releasing judgments, taking walks in nature and just anything that allows you to ‘feel’ better from moment to moment. If you need to get some help, never be afraid of stepping up to the plate when it comes to getting counseling, therapy, life coaching, or something of that nature. There are people who are there just for that purpose… to help. A great resource that I have come across is called “Life Coach Library” and it is a service online where clients and coaches can find a match for each other. Here is the link for that service if you are interested.
We all know that exercise and movement are hugely important to our health but when it comes to prevention of illnesses like cancer, exercise really helps to move the lymphatic system, which helps the body to clean up intercellular waste and remove toxins. This is very, very important, especially for prevention and in the case of a cancer patient having lymph nodes removed. It is then even more important to assist the body in moving the lymphatic fluid to encourage drainage of the intercellular waste.
At our wellness centre “Superior Shores Wellness” in Thunder Bay we offer a service to help with lymphatic drainage and movement. It is especially beneficial for those who don’t get a lot of movement for whatever reason or for those who have had lymph nodes removed as in the case of breast cancer. The service we provide is ‘Whole Body Vibration’ where the client stands on a base plate and using the vibration technology to vibrate the entire body. Wherever you live, if you can take advantage of a service like this, I highly recommend it.
Just walking also helps to move the lymphatics and helps to calm the mind as well as a host of other health benefits. A walk every day can have huge benefits!!!!
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I hope you find these ideas helpful. As I write about often, when it comes to health, try not to think in terms of deprivation ie. what you can’t have or do, but turn it around to simply “What can I add in more of today that is good for my health?”. Just try to keep adding in more and more until eventually the scales themselves shift and you have naturally shifted to more good things. Keep it simple. Simple works.
Maggie Holbik.com is a Board Certified Nutritionist, Natural Nutrition Clinical Practitioner, Registered Nutritional Therapist, Certified Life Coach, Certified Infinite Possibilities Trainer & Coach, and member in good standing of the Canadian Natural Nutrition Practitioners (CANNP). Maggie loves to help people to improve their wellness of body, mind and spirit. Simple strategies can have huge impacts. Contact Maggie below to inquire about any of her services or with any questions you may have or to sign up to her email list for her monthly newsletter. Also feel free to en-JOY Maggie’s other blogs.
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. Albert einstein A picture in your mind is worth its weight in gold. When my daughter was little she naturally new the power of imagination and using her mind. She used to call it “minding”. She would say “I will just mind it Mom”, […]
Affirmations are powerful, yet many people do not take advantage of using them.
MaggiesVitamins 