Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

Decluttering and adopting a minimalist lifestyle is a great way to bring calm into your life. However, deciding to become more minimalist is a lot easier than actually doing it! It’s not as easy as simply decluttering - minimalism is a lifestyle change that can affect all aspects of your life. Here’s our top tips to start on the minimalism trend. Have fun with exploring these. Remember, there is no correct way to be a minimalist. It will look different for everyone, so be open in finding the lifestyle adjustments that work best for you. Get clear on why you want to be a minimalist Make a list of all the reasons why you want to become minimalist.

Glass half empty or half full. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Life is what you make it. A silver lining, a blessing in disguise. Seeing the positive in life has been a constant struggle for me. I was that melancholic child, that broody teenager, and that unpredictable young adult. With an artistic temperament, even as an adult I’ve appreciated the existential tenderness of darkness and despair. And it’s true that there’s much darkness in our experience on earth. A lot of shitty things happen to a lot of people. We can’t change this fact. But we can change the meaning about what happens to us and others. This is called Reframing. Reframing is about changing the meaning of an event or experience, essentially putting a new frame around it. Reframing causes a perspective shift, and the practice can lead to greater empowerment over a situation that once felt disempowering.

Many people aren’t aware that sweating is actually good for you. Working up a sweat can release built up tension, refresh your skin, boost your endorphins, and release toxins from the body! There’s also other more unknown benefits such as health benefits and decreased recovery times. We’ve put together some of the scientific benefits of sweating to encourage you to build up a sweat this week! What is Sweat? The human body contains around 4 million sweat glands! These excrete a mix of water, salt, proteins, amino acids - aka sweat. The composition of this can change based on a number of things, such as hormones, bacteria and viruses in the body. Sweat can tell us a lot about our health, and how our sweat glands function. We sweat mainly to regulate temperature, to cool the body in heat and in stressful situations. This can be triggered by anxiety, elevated body temperature and working out. Sweat also detoxes the body. The Benefits of Sweating

I recently bought myself a new computer and became so caught up in the frustration of trying to transfer information from the old to the new that I almost found myself in tears. I am mostly a calm and balanced person, who does lots of yoga and uses breathe to get through life’s tougher times and yet when a little piece of technology doesn’t play according to plan, all that practice seemed to go out the window. Feelings of frustration and lack of control ruled as I did what the manual said to do, waited hours, and the desired effect never came. What did come, was clenched fists, shoulders around my ears, a sore jaw from clenching, back stiffness from sitting too long and a very agitated mind and mood. I felt jumpy as I lost connection with my breathe. I then got annoyed when I tried to breathe perspective back in and moments later lost the awareness. Does this sound familiar to any of you, when technology seems not to work how we want it to? I was so far from the grateful girl I try to be. Hours spent scratching my head from my computer malfunctioning, certainly was not going along with the idealistic plan that I had created of my perceived future. Rather than being present, letting go of the ideals and attachments and accepting the truth of the situation, I was going into a tailspin of frustration. Then, I started to see things began to work technologically, and I started to have lightbulb moments about what computers can teach us as humans.

What is the solstice? If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, the solstice is the first day of Summer, the longest day of the year, and the days will begin to get shorter for the next 6 months until the winter solstice. If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, the solstice is the first day of Winter, the shortest day of the year and the days will slowly start to get longer. When is the solstice? The solstice occurs on Friday, June 21st. Why does it symbolize? Beyond just daylight hours, the solstice is a powerful time for reflection, intention setting, and feeling your place in the natural world as the seasons change.

Having a peaceful mind despite a sometimes chaotic environment while driving is a hard job. But, with the right guidelines, you can gain composure more than you can ever realize. Read on how yoga can help you to stay calm and focused on the road. Getting stuck in traffic is one of the most displeasing situations to find yourself in, especially, if you’re late. In such an occasion, at the slightest provocation, you can easily insult your fellow drivers, or even raise your middle finger at them, or at the least, feel stressed, stuck and frustrated. Yoga can help alleviate such stressful moments and work to get back into a place of love and compassion, to replace any negative feelings the arise because of traffic and road rage. Driving with a calm mind is not always an easy task. Yoga is recommended as a remedy for stress. With practice, you can be in a position to be elevated, and the stress caused by traffic experience can be transformed into joyous and healthy driving experience. While being in a state of joy and love while driving, might sound impossible, it is possile however, and feels better than feeling mad or stressed in your car. Here are 6 ways that help stay calm and focused on the road.

When you’re looking to build muscles, strength training is the first thing on the list. When you’re looking for a six pack or bigger arms, you’ll go straight to the weights. But even if you’re not looking to bulk up, strength training can still massively benefit your health. Many people avoid strength training because they don’t want the bodybuilder look. However, if the only exercise you do is aerobic, you might be missing out on huge health improvements. 1. Reduces belly fat In 2014, a study published found that strength training was far more effective at reducing and preventing abdominal fat than aerobic exercise. Strength training not only burns your calories, but it also increases the amount of lean muscles, which then stimulates your metabolism.

People have been drinking infusions of tea for many years, starting in China and India. Today, tea is devoured more generally than some other beverage on the world aside from water. Billions of people drink tea and an extensive number of studies show tea have numerous medical advantages. Green tea is one of the most advantageous drinks you can consume. It's without sugar, doesn't have any calories, and is loaded with antioxidants prevention agents that give plentiful health benefits. Examine the infographic underneath to recognize why you should start drinking this remarkable green tea right now.

Feeling empowered and positive doesn’t come easy to everyone. It’s especially hard if we’ve had a challenging day, full of stressful moments like running late, being stuck in traffic, making small mistakes at work. It’s easy to let moments and days like this get you down, however, you can become more positive and practice by making small changes in your day. These small changes can help you gain from negative experiences, and become more empowered by them. Here’s 9 quick tips to help you on your way to feeling empowered, even on the most stressful day: 1. Don’t do anything

We all want to feel good in a swimsuit on the beach, right? Have you ever wondered when or if that will ever happen? Is it simply losing weight? Gaining muscle? Is there a certain body type that defines sexy health? Could you simply choose to change your mentality and feel sexy the way you are now, without changing anything? I have asked myself these questions too. My weight has fluctuated a lot in my life, and for most of it I have felt extremely self conscious in a swimsuit. You know when I finally started feeling comfortable in a bikini? When I truly started loving myself.

Having a baby is one of the most incredible things you can do. Unfortunately, babies demand a lot of time and energy and it can be tough to find time for yourself as a new mom. It’s important for all moms to know how to rest and relax though. With that in mind, here are some great relaxation and meditation tips for new moms. 1.Create a Sacred Space at Home One of the first things that new moms want to do is create designated space in the house where they are able to retreat and enjoy some quality quiet time if they need it.

Flexibility is the capability of your body to achieve its full range of motion. It’s needed in most day-to-day activities, even the simplest ones such as bending and walking. If you’re flexible, your muscles remain mobile. We take flexibility for granted when we’re we’re younger, but as we age, our muscles will naturally lose strength, and we might notice ourselves become less supple and more stiff. This can affect our range of movement, especially around the joints. This can have the effect of stiffness in the muscles and joints. This loss of tissue elasticity causes our bodies to tighten and we lose that flexibility. The key reason that we lose flexibility, and we become more at risk of aches and pains is from not being active. This can lead to more permanent issues such as bad posture and lack of muscle function. Keeping flexible is important to avoid this and to keep us in good health and fitness.

Ever since I was a little girl, I felt other people’s emotions strongly. I remember being so confused when family conflicts arose because I could so clearly see each person’s side and how valid it was. I was confused why everyone couldn’t understand that everyone’s intentions were good and loving and then we could just all move on with our lives in harmony! As I grew older, I remember feeling like I would literally step into someone else’s shoes, and feel the world as if from their perspective. From this place, I could really understand where they were coming from, even if their decisions from the outside might seem strange. I remember wanting to help every single person in my life through all of their tough times, and beyond that, I sort of felt that it was my duty. I couldn’t just turn my back on someone who was suffering...especially someone that I loved.

With our modern busy lives, it’s easy to let even the simplest self-care go out the window. It can be tough to find the time to look after ourselves when we’re juggling lots of different priorities. This can leave our own needs at the bottom of the list, and we all know it's hard to get around to those items last on the to-do list. And we’re talking about the regular, day to day self-care, not the lavish ‘treat-yourself’ social outings, appointments and pamper days that come to mind when you think self-care. If you don’t take the time to look after yourself, you can start to feel very stressed and unfulfilled as well as overwhelmed. But to improve ourselves we must take care of our minds and bodies. Here’s our tips to create a self-care routine, and ways you can stick to it! 1. Do self-care that works for you

Many things change as you grow old, your sexuality being one of them. The sexual drive you had in your 20s is not the same as when you have in your 30s, 40s, and 50s. In your 30s and 40s, you are usually busy with raising the kids and working to secure your financial future that you hardly have any time to concentrate on your sex life. You might not prioritize your sex life at these stages and might not notice the changes until it hits you in the face. In your 50s and beyond, with your kids most likely being out of the house, you can now focus on yourself, and that's when most women recognize the changes in their sex drive. Causes of low sex drive and how to enhance your sexuality There are lots of reasons why your sex desire declines as you age including fluctuations in your hormone levels, illnesses, job stress, and relationship issues.

We all know that a good posture gives us a taller and more elegant look, but standing straight can also do wonders for your health. Did you know your posture affects your digestion, breathing and how well we move? That’s not to mention the ways it can boost your confidence. However many of us lack a good posture. It can be easy to slip into bad posture habits, through weakness, pain, and routine. There’s many ways you can be adding to bad posture without knowing it. Here’s some of the common causes of bad posture, as well as some tips to counter them. 1. Slouching While you may be comfortable slouching in a chair, over time this can strain your muscles and lead to bad posture. This can also increase tension and cause pain. Try to get in the habit of not slouching and sitting up correctly. Sitting on the edge of your chair will help to fix this, as it will cause your core muscles to activate, keeping you straight. While this might be uncomfy at first, this is because your muscles need to be conditioned to support you. Exercises like planks and bridges that strengthen your core and your glutes will help you to stop slouching.

should / verb 1.used to indicate obligation, duty, or correctness, typically when criticizing someone’s actions. ”he should have been careful” It’s just an idea, right? A concept? A word in the dictionary? I’m not sure what sparked my interest in how “should” or “shouldn’t” plays a role in my life, but it crosses my mind daily now.

If you look at the lifestyles of highly successful people, you’ll realise that they’re not that way by accident, or by luck. They’ve learnt to make all those successful, proactive and useful behaviours a habit. Whether it’s waking up early to have more hours in the day, getting a work out in each day, taking the time to focus on self improvement, reading more, drinking less… the list can go on, but the one thing all these healthy habits have in common, is that it takes time for them to become a daily aspect in your life. If you’re thinking of making a small change to take on a healthy habit, or you’re thinking of something a little more life changing, hard work, effort and dedication are the things you need to achieve your goal. But just how long does it take to form a new habit - or stop a bad one? A quick internet search, will tell you it takes 21 days to form a habit. This is a popular myth that still rings in people’s brains today.

Some people feel as if there is nothing that can be done when faced with certain difficulties. However, there are those of us that only search for solutions when the going gets tough, and, eventually emerge as winners to whatever obstacles life puts on their path. Modern life pushes us to fulfill different challenges. Things like creating a successful career, having a happy marriage, maintaining solid friendships, good health, and a positive outlook are things most of us would like to achieve and experience. Oftentimes however, we give priority to certain parts of life at the expense of others. The goal then, is finding balance and live in an energy of joy, regardless of the circumstances. The ones who are brave and persistent enough, can cope with the sometimes rapid rhythm of life, and compose a happy melody through which they dance throughout their lives.

Both the Spring and Autumn equinox signify great change. Our clocks change, the weather changes, and we’re getting prepared for summer or winter. While the equinox signifies the start of hot weather, or cold winters, don’t forget to take in the beauty of the season, rather than looking further ahead. There’s plenty of beautiful sights to take in around spring and autumn, especially in nature. We’ve put together a list of the best places to take in the seasonal changes this year, wherever you are in the world. Tokyo, Japan

After a night of improper sleep, how do you feel in the morning? Groggy, tired, irritated and dazed? Well this comes as a no surprise since sleep is essential to recharge the mind and body after a hard day’s work. And when there is improper sleep, the mind and body both feel down and less eager to go about with the activities of the day. Ayurveda, the ancient medicinal practice that originated in India classifies sleep disorder based on the dosha types – Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Each of the doshas has a significant impact on the sleep preferences and patterns of an individual. Similar to most of the things associated with Ayurveda, the present balance and body constitution of an individual influences sleep imbalances. In order to treat the issue of sleep imbalance effectively, it is important to know the present state of balance and the body constitution.

What are the chakras? According to yoga, our inner bodies are full of subtle energy. This energy moves along a central channel called the sushumna nadi, These centers are thought to be doorways into the depths of awareness – awareness that is within the body, outside the body and also that can expand in such depth that we come to realize the innate vastness of our true nature. When the chakras are aligned, we are centered, balanced and healthy. When they’re out of alignment, illness is more apt to manifest in the body and mind. This is why it’s necessary to understand what each chakra represents, so that we can do proper chanting, pranayama and asana to support the balanced nature of each one. Here is a thorough overview of each of the 7 chakras, and how they relate to your well-being, as well as information so you can keep them each in balance. Root Chakra Also known as the muladhara chakra, is connected to our sense of foundation and being deeply rooted or grounded.

Feeling low in confidence is a feeling many of us have experienced before. During work, amongst peers, maybe even with a loved one - there are many situations that can challenge our confidence and leave us feeling doubtful. But no one is naturally self-confident. Self confidence is a skill that builds up over time, and is something that you can use against the daily grind. To get you started in building up your self confidence, here’s our top quick tips for an instant boost of confidence - perfect for that next big presentation at work, mustering up the courage to ask your crush out, or just to feel more powerful in your day to day life. 1. Prune yourself If you look your best, you’re likely to feel your best too. It’s incredible how a shower, a haircut or a shave can make you feel absolutely amazing, and do wonders for your self-image. This will boost your self confidence by miles, and can be achieved by just waking up a little earlier to give your image a little more TLC than usual.

Being loved up and part of a couple is a great thing, especially when you start to share parts of your life together. However, after a few years - you might find yourself grabbing the remote and binge-watching Netflix instead of getting out and doing new and exciting activities as a couple. It’s important to give the time to come up with fun and exciting date ideas, and do things together to strengthen your bond and keep your romance exciting. Here’s our top 8 ideas of activities to do as a couple, to deepen your bond, instill healthy habits together, and keep things fresh! Yoga We may be biased, but we think yoga is a great activity to share with your loved one to deepen your bond.

With today’s technology and modern life, there are more distractions than ever getting in the way of having a productive work day. From the moment you sit down at your desk, there can be 101 things that steer your attention away from your to-do list. If you’re finding that you tasks just aren’t getting done, here’s some tips to make your day more productive. 1. Start the morning right for you A healthy breakfast, an early workout, time spent getting yourself looking professional… Sometimes there’s just not enough time before sitting down at your desk at 9am to get absolutely everything done - especially if you want your eight hours of sleep too! Starting your day on a high note can set the tone for the rest of the day, so think about what your priority is.