Choose to live a wonderful life

Nourishment Is About More Than The Food You Eat

By //  by 

When I was earning a Masters in Spiritual Psychology (I called it a Masters degree in Loving), one of the key tenets was this: “how you are with yourself as you go through the issue IS the issue.”

This can be applied to anything, including how we literally feed ourselves. In other words: how you are – and who you are being – when you eat is as important as what you eat.
When clients want to work on releasing weight, I include some kind of mindfulness practice, which at its essence is about slowing down and being present with what is in front of you. Loving is listening, and true listening requires deep presence. So this is a practice of learning to love and accept the self and that includes our bodies. There are scientific reasons for this need to slow down. The hormone cortisol, which is released when we feel stress of any kind (even imagined), is linked to retention of excess weight, as it suppresses digestion and metabolism. With our stress-immersed
culture and lifestyles, there is an overproduction of cortisol on a constant basis for
most people, and it has a huge effect on our health and bodies.
There are different mindfulness practices to choose from but one of the easiest and
most simple is the practice of lighting a candle for a meal. While I worked as a house manager and self-care coach at a women’s recovery home, I would always light a
white candle at the table when sitting down for a meal. I didn’t explain it; I just did it. Meal after meal, I would first light a white candle. What did this do for the women
and for the environment? Well, for starters, it invokes beauty.

Beauty is nourishment for the soul. We are not just feeding our bodies, we are feeding our being.

And the body-soul needs nourishment on a continual basis. Lighting a candle also sets a context for the meal: this meal is sacred and we are taking time for it – which psycho-spiritually translates to “I am sacred and I am taking time for myself.” And voila, the stress response softens and the body can digest. Whether we say an opening prayer of gratitude or not (I encourage you to), the simple candle brings focus, beauty and reverence to the occasion of sitting together – or with oneself – while our deep soul knows how much
there is to be grateful for.

3 Easy Ways to Drink More Water (and Save the Planet!)

By //  by 

We all need to drink more water. It aids in digestion, clears our skin, and gives us energy. But what do you do if your tap water tastes bad, you’re worried about your building’s old pipes, and you want to avoid plastic bottles and cartridges? It’s a modern dilemma: Icky tap water and too much plastic.

But there is hope. Adding bamboo charcoal to tap water improves taste and reduces plastic use.

Here’s what you can do:

  1. Toss the plastic pitcher with plastic cartridges from your refrigerator into the trash. Having water sit in plastic is never appetizing.

Find a glass carafe at your local secondhand store or online and add a few pieces of bamboo charcoal. Within minutes, you will have tasty tap water in your home or office. Your water will be loaded with minerals like calcium and magnesium. Tasty water is much easier to drink.

  1. Ditch the plastic bottle. Why pay money for a single serving of water?

Add bamboo charcoal to a canteen or reusable glass bottle. You can have purified tap water wherever you go! If you have bamboo charcoal in your bottle, you can fill your vessel with tap water from public water sources (even bathroom faucets).

  1. Keep a carafe by your bed.

Purified water at your fingertips is a great way to start the day. Rather than rushing to the kitchen to make coffee, try drinking a delicious glass of water first thing in the morning. Coffee has it’s perks (no pun intended), but it actually dehydrates the body. Starting the day off with a fresh, filtered, and flavorful glass of water will revitalize your cells after a long night’s sleep.

5 Tips for Stress-Free Puppy Potty Training

By //  by 

I’m thrilled to hear that most animal shelters are empty now due to Covid19 and people wanting a companion during this time of quarantine. That truly warms my heart. However, it’s a sad fact that behavior problems are a leading reason people surrender their pets to animal shelters according to the ASPCA. To avoid that from happening after this pandemic is over each new puppy parent has some more “work at home” to do!

Dogs are relinquished to shelters on a daily basis for common behavior problems like going potty on your favorite rug. Teaching a puppy to do their business outside is just as important as teaching a child to use the toilet. There are no quick fixes unless you get lucky, which can happen, but is rare. I have five tips, and while not a comprehensive guide, they will give you the added edge to make sure your potty training experience is rewarding for you and your pooch!

1) Wake Up Early

Wake up in the early morning hours before your puppy wakes up and take your dog outside immediately. You want to beat them to the punch and start teaching them to practice going potty outside as soon as possible.

2) Puppy Pad Partners

If your puppy is going on Puppy Pads inside, bring a soiled Puppy Pad or a small soiled piece of rug outside. To potty train successfully, bring your puppy out to the yard where you want them to go and have the puppy go on the pad outside. Each day make the pad smaller by cutting it down or covering the edges with dirt, so that within a few days, the pee pad has disappeared.

3) Create a Sniff and Circle Area Outside

On your puppy potty breaks, try to get them to sniff and circle. Sometimes I take a tiny bit of dry kibble and crumble it up into little crumbs and sprinkle it in a circular pattern in the yard. That helps the dog to start sniffing and circling. Once they start to sniff and circle they are more likely to do their business. If they are not sniffing or relieving themselves after about five minutes or so, bring them back inside, still on the leash, and try again in a few minutes. Make sure they only get off leash fun in the house after they learn to potty outside.

4) Potty = Play

When your dog has a successful potty in a timely manner, rather than bringing him right in and ending his fun, reward him with a tasty dog bite, a walk, or a little play as a reward for doing their business. Once they have gone potty you can let them run around in the house. This reinforces the positive, reward-based training.

5) Use the Down/Stay

I  find that teaching a puppy or dog to do a down/stay really helps the process because most dogs won’t pee when they are laying down relaxing…it usually happens when they are off sniffing around somewhere and you’re not watching.

Remember, dogs want to go potty when they first wake up, after they play, drink water, when they are stimulated, when there are new people, new smells, and other doggies around. Keep this in mind as you try these training tricks and methods.

(http://www.aspca.org/search/node?search=behavior%20problems)