8 Ways To De-Stress Outdoors

Mother nature. Think of it as nature’s anti-anxiety, anti-depressant medication. When you live in an urban area or have an indoor desk job, you are very likely suffering from a lack of nature.

So imagine combining exercise with the powerful effects of getting back in touch with nature – that’s one potent anti-stress combo! Here are 8 fun and easy ways to de-stress outdoors!

 

  1. Go For A Walk

Exercise releases stress and gives you a boost by releasing mood-enhancing endorphins. Pair that with vitamin D from the sun, fresh air in your lungs, as well as greenery or the beautiful, calming ocean nearby and feel your stress slip away!

  1. Sit Outside And Listen To Music

Research has shown that your mood can be greatly affected by the music you listen to! Listening to loud, upbeat music cheers you up and distracts you from negative thoughts. Unwind with some of your favourite tunes whilst getting some vitamin D and fresh air outside for a gentle mood booster. 

  1. Take Your Dog To The Park

They really are your best friend! Affecting not only your mood, but also your blood pressure actually drops when you pet a dog. Give your puppy some love by taking them to the park or the beach. It will be therapeutic for the both of you! 

  1. Meditate On The Grass

It may seem daunting to do so, but research shows mindfulness is an ever increasingly important skill for our health, and that people who meditate (even for 5 minutes a day!) receive amazing benefits! Try downloading some free guided meditations or listen to some on YouTube to get you started.

  1. Read A Great Book Under A Tree

Prevent negative thoughts or obsessive thinking by providing a distraction. Even if you don’t like reading, you can listen to audiobooks to take your mind to a whole other world!

  1. Have A Meal Outside

Enjoy breakfast in your garden, on your balcony, or take your lunch outside if you’re at work. Stepping away from distractions and enjoying your food and your natural surroundings helps to calm the mind.

  1. Take A Hike! Literally.

Head to your local park or the nearest climbable mountain and enjoy the picturesque views whilst moving your body! You’ll get your adrenaline pumping, see some amazing sights, challenge yourself, and feel a great sense of accomplishment at the end! 

  1. Take Your Kids To The Park

But don’t just watch them, play with them! Rediscover those fun, carefree childhood vibes by swinging on the swings, chasing your kids around the sand, going down the slide and playing imaginary games! Not only is it amazing for your health, your kids will love it too!

Foods That Can Boost Your Mood

Group of happy friends with healthy food

If you’ve been feeling a bit blue and looking to regain that pep in your step, then it may be worthwhile paying a visit to your local grocery store. Foods rich in vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids not only work wonders to improve your physical well being, they also have the potential to increase happiness and lessen symptoms of depression and anxiety.

 

But How Is It That Foods Can Improve Our Moods?

The answer is by promoting a healthy brain and stimulating cognitive function.

 

Certain nutrients have a profound impact on maintaining normal brain function, keeping us happy and healthy. Thanks to science, researchers have actually been able to pinpoint nine nutrients that can boost our mood and combat depression: calcium, folate, chromium, iron, magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and zinc.

 

Eating foods high in these nutrients on a regular basis will not only promote feelings of happiness in the short-term, they can also enhance mood in the long term, providing a permanent pick-me-up. 

 

Sardines may not immediately strike you as a happy food, but these little guys are sky high in mood boosting omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamin B12, and loaded with minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc. They can also make your wallet happy because they’re an inexpensive meal to bring to the table. They have less mercury than tuna!

 

But What If You’re Not A Sardine Fan?

Swap out your oil for flaxseed, chia, or extra virgin olive oil, which are also high in Omega 3 and will give you similar benefits.

 

To boost your beauty naturally and improve your mood, serve up this dish immediately.

 

Smashed Sardines With Avocado On Your Favourite Bread

INGREDIENTS

Serves 1

  • 1/2 avocado, peeled and pitted
  • 1 tbsp freshly-squeezed lime juice
  • 1 tsp chopped red chilli (optional)
  • Pinch sea salt
  • Freshly cracked black pepper
  • 2 slices gluten-free bread
  • Small handful of rocket (arugula) leaves
  • 120 g tinned sardines, smashed
  • Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling

 

METHOD

Place the avocado, lime, chilli, salt and pepper in a bowl and mash together with a fork.
Toast one or two slices of your favourite toasted bread.

 

Spread the avocado mixture over the bread and top with rocket and smashed sardines.
Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve.

 

Enjoy!

Foods to eat for luscious hair

There are many factors that affect our hair including hormonal imbalances, thyroid imbalance, nutrient deficiencies and insufficient scalp circulation. The good news is that there are so many foods that offer vitamins and minerals that support healthy hair!

 
Here are the top 11 foods and natural remedies that can help boost healthy hair growth.

  1. Get Enough Essential Fatty Acids

Essential fatty acids are specific fats that are critical to the proper function of your body. Your body is not able to produce these fatty acids on its own, so it is necessary that you eat foods containing them.

Essential fatty acids from walnuts, flaxseeds, fish and avocado are great foods to eat for healthy hair.

  1. Ramp Up Collagen Production With Vitamin C

Collagen surrounds the hair strands but as we age collagen breaks down, causing hair to be more vulnerable to breaking.  The best way to boost collagen is by getting more vitamin C.

Foods high in vitamin C include citrus fruits, strawberries and red capsicum. 

  1. Boost Biotin

Biotin, a water-soluble vitamin of the B complex, encourages hair and scalp health. Dietary sources of biotin include nuts, brown rice and oats. 

  1. Eat Iron-Rich Foods 

Iron is also essential for hair growth and can be found in blackstrap molasses, green leafy vegetables, leeks, cashews, dried fruits, figs, and berriesTo help your body absorb iron, you’ll need enough vitamin C.

  1. Boost Scalp Circulation With Rosemary Essential Oil

Rosemary essential oil has been traditionally used to increase circulation to the scalp.  Add a few drops per dollop of shampoo or, better yet, add a few drops of rosemary or coconut oil and massage your scalp regularly.

Training your brain to experience more happy

This article was written by Stacey McBride-Wilson from The Healthy Happy Soul.

 

Training your brain to experience more happy

Happiness is without a doubt a choice. We don’t always get to choose the situations or circumstances we find ourselves in, but we do get to choose how we react.  Sure that choice is more challenging to make than others sometimes, but it’s always possible and it’s always a choice worth making. After all, the quality of our choices determines the quality of our journey.

 

I just LOVE this quote from Dr Frank Crane. He absolutely nails it for me in saying that People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be!‘ 

 

Perspective and attitude are powerful, almost like superpowers. They are truly the only things we have total control over in our life. How we perceive the experiences life throws our way ultimately determines how we receive them. Not only that, happiness is like a muscle; it gets stronger the more we use it. So the more we look for the good, the easier it becomes to experience happy and see the good going on around us.

But this isn’t just some fluffy airy-fairy feel good thought, this is actually a scientific process called neuroplasticity. Basically this is the latest cutting edge scientific findings that has proven we can retrain our brain from our instinctive reactions or choices (eg. yell when something upsets us, or eat an entire block of chocolate if it’s there) to more positive choices over time.

 

We have pathways in our brain and just like roads they get easier to travel the more we use them. Think about it as though your driving a regular route you take between two points for example from home to work. Often times you’re on autopilot. You make that journey without giving it too much thought. It’s instinctive.

But what if you discovered a new, easier, quicker, less congested way to get from point A to point B, you’d probably make an effort to learn the route and start taking that way instead right? Initially it’d take time to navigate and remember where to go, but over time if you continued to take that new route, it would become normal. You’d strengthen your knowledge of driving that path and it’d become so simple.

 

The same thing happens in our brains as we experience life. And just like you can make a choice to change the route you take from point A to point B, you can also make a choice to change how you respond to situations. The only difference when your brain is concerned is that you won’t get to the same destination. Instead, you get a whole new positive outcome, like more feelings of joy, contentment and peace.

So how do we practically transform our minds and choose happy? Remember it’s a process, not an event. As I shared earlier, happiness is like a muscle that gets stronger with use. The first step is to be aware of the principle of choosing happy, and then all you’ve got to do is work out your happy muscle each day. How? I’m so glad you asked….

 

  1. WAKE UP HAPPY – One of my favourite ways is to decide each and every morning that today is a good day and you’re going to be in a good mood. Seriously, try it for yourself! You can do this practically by setting yourself a reminder on your phone or alarm so it’s the first thing you see in the morning. After a while, it’ll just become second-nature. Your new happy normal.
  2. DRESS HAPPY – Life isn’t meant to be a funeral, it’s a celebration!! Party each day by dressing in some happy threads. Think bright. Think bold. Think clothes that make you happy to wear!
  3. MOVE HAPPY – Exercise releases endorphins; they’re the happy feel good hormone. Just get your amazing body moving in some way today!

 

It’s that simple! So what you waiting for? Get out there and get your happy on today!

How to break the quick-fix cycle

A person holding their arms out at sunset

This article was written by Stacey McBride-Wilson from The Healthy Happy Soul.

 

How to break the quick-fix cycle

You know the quick fix cycle I’m talking about. The cycle of feeling a little blergh about yourself and your health, so you launch into the best, newest, 30-day money back guarantee product/program/method with much gusto, hope and promises to yourself that this time will be different, only to find it all too hard to keep up after just a few weeks, so you throw in the towel which reinforces the feeling that you’re a failure, don’t have enough self-discipline, and why did I even try in the first place, only to recover and try it all again in a few months or so later when you feel a little blergh about yourself and your health so you launch into the best, newest…. Well, you get the idea…

 

This cycle and the quick fix mindset just breaks my heart. Why? Because I’ve seen people stuck in this cycle and short-change themselves time and time again by pursuing what they think they want NOW, at the cost of what they really want MOST.

 

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So often people chase what they think they want MOST, with a process that can only deliver for the NOW, by engaging in a soul-destroying cycle of calorie counting and flogging the body and feeling guilty for even thinking about chocolate. And I see people engage in that process again and again and again, year after year after year….

 

But it’s not meant to be like this! There is a way to break that cycle once and for all! It’s simple. If we want to enjoy true and long-lasting transformation for the body, then we first need a transformation for the mind. There’s a saying that goes something like this, ‘where the mind goes, the body follows.’

 

Making a change for your health is so much more than just needing to exercise more and eat better. If it was that easy we’d all be doing it! No it goes so much deeper than that.

 

  • It relates to WHY we want it and what’s stopping us.
  • It requires clearing out all our junky thinking.
  • It means repairing the disconnect in our thinking which subconsciously sabotages all our best efforts.

 

To experience long-lasting change, fitness freedom and an enjoyable journey we need to deal with the negative self-talk, poor self-worth, warped perceptions and unrealistic body images, once and for all. Think about how much rubbish thinking you’ve been exposed to over your lifetime; that’s a lot of junk to shut down and break through! (And sorry quick fix lovers – that’s going to take a little bit of time…)

 

It’s quite simple really, if we want a healthy body, we need to have a healthy mind. So what if your wellness journey wasn’t just about weight loss for the body, but you lost some of the heaviness in your mind as well? When you’re kicking goals on your Get Healthy Get Happy my question is this, do you want to be healthy, happy, fit and free, OR do you want to lose weight? Because these are two completely different things…

 

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If you’re ready to break the cycle of the quick fix and continue your health journey with consistency long after your Get Healthy Get Happy journey is done, here’s just a few ways to get you started:

  1. Get accountable! Share with your friend, spouse, or mentor that you’re committing to a wellness journey and ask them to keep you accountable by checking in from time to time.
  2. Expose yourself to health and fitness content with a journey based approach. The team at The Moderation Movement do this so well.
  3. Engage with someone like a life coach or wellness coach to help create some new, healthier mindsets when it comes to your health.

5 Simple Daily Activities To Improve Your Health

Group of friends running along the beach

Getting some sort of daily physical activity is one of the secrets to feeling and looking the best you possibly can. Walking is a simple and highly effective activity that can cause positive dramatic transformations in your health. Walking regularly not only reduces body fat and keeps your heart in healthy shape, but it also significantly reduces stress.

Simply taking a half hour walk after dinner every night can have profound effects on your health. It can increase circulation and cell oxygenation, aid in losing weight, and let any accumulated stress dissipate into nature.

Besides walking, here are five more subtle activities that can have amazing benefits if done daily:  

  1. Gardening – even for just 20 minutes a day can be beneficial. Gardening also helps you to sustain your own homegrown, all natural foods.
  2. Dancing to your favourite song while cleaning the house, washing dishes, or doing the laundry. It is a fun way to burn some extra calories and also work on your self-expression at the same time.
  3. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator is priceless. You will burn calories effortlessly while lessening the environmental impact of using the elevator.
  4. Riding a bicycle to run close errands instead of driving because it combines exercise with doing chores, while lessening my carbon footprint.
  5. Deliberately parking further away in a car park can be a lot harder than it seems. It can be so convenient to take the first empty spot. In doing this though, you are forced to walk further to get to the store, which will burn a few extra calories.

 

All of the above activities (with the exception of riding a bike) are pretty subtle. It is however, more sustainable to start with a little subtle movement every day than it is to go right into rigorous exercise. By listening to your body, you can eventually and gradually transition to more strenuous activities. Mixing exercise with your regular daily routine is not only easy to do, but it also makes it more fun. It gives you the opportunity to be creative and come up with your own simple workouts.

Get Healthy, Get Happy – 3 Simple Tips You Can Start Doing Today!

The body’s ability to naturally detoxify and heal itself is a phenomenal process. Why not give your body a gentle helping hand, to improve this amazing purifying process and help you get HEALTHY and get HAPPY!

Here are 3 really simple tips that you can try and incorporate into every day! 

 

  1. Drink More Water  

Too often we misinterpret thirst for hunger. Our signal for thirst may cause us to eat as we mistake it for hunger pains. Reach for water first and make sure you are well hydrated before eating any meal throughout the day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner included. 

Where possible make sure to drink your water at least 30 minutes before eating as this will allow time for the water to properly penetrate the cells of your body and hydrate your stomach lining in preparation for proper digestion. 

 

  1. Add A Green Juice To Your Day

Green juices are an amazing way to add life giving and detoxifying plant chlorophyll to your bloodstream. Juicing is the ultimate fast food, it is a 15 minute nutrient express to health”.  Either make your own juice using your favourite greens (try spinach, kale, cucumber, celery and green apple) or pop down to your local Raw Energy store!

 

  1. Breathe Deep Into Your Abdomen 

Deep breathing, where you fill your belly and expand your diaphragm downwards, is one of the most powerful exercises you can do to activate your lymph system, which helps to detoxify your body. Think of your lymph system as your own personal garbage removal system.

Practice 10 deep slow breaths counting 4 seconds in, 8 seconds hold and 8 seconds out. You can do this exercise watching the TV, walking the dog, during meditation or whilst practicing yoga.