Today is my birthday, here are some ways in which I am going to invest in me this year; rather than indulge in unnecessary gifts, these life-transforming tips will hopefully open up a new year-long path to happiness!
Developing good habits requires persistence. As John Maxwell so wisely said: “You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.”
Good Habits to Adopt for 2020
Take a course
I absolutely want to increase my capabilities when it comes to natural therapy, I am so interested in healing naturally and want to understand a specific field more thoroughly. Perhaps even to the level of practicing a therapy myself one day, but for now to have better insight and knowledge of a topic I am invested in would be an amazing gift to myself. I just need to make the decision as to which one. The School of Natural Health Sciences have plenty of amazing courses on offer so I am overwhelmed with choice, but currently feel as though I am leaning towards Aromatherapy or Indian Head Massage, or both!
Continue with daily meditation
Meditation has been an amazing help to me in my daily life. I found a way to ground myself and encourage mantras that I need to establish within my actions and emotions to help live a more peaceful, kind existence. When I fail to meditate for a period of time I feel the difference, as I notice myself finding less patience and calm ways to deal with situations that I would normally have taken time to contemplate and rationalise. My goal now is to ensure that meditation becomes one of my good habits and I take that time out each day, whether it is half a hour or ten minutes, to encourage the peaceful me, the one who can breathe and step back before reacting, the one who can think and refer to those moments before becoming defensive or upset or find a moment impossible rather than challenging.
Improve my plant-based diet
Already being ‘vegetari-ins’ (a term coined by my family as we are only true vegetarians when we are at home, or ‘in’), my aim this year is to extend this to being almost vegan everywhere. Aside from my daughter (9 years old) who turned vegetarian over a year ago, for her own reasons, and has stuck with it 100% since, the rest of the family will waiver and eat meat if it is offered at a family meal or if having trouble choosing a veggie option at a restaurant. At home I prepare plant-based meals which incorporate greens, whole grains, protein, fibre, and plenty of vitamins and minerals. I love the challenge of seeing how many different plants I can apply to the meal, and learning new tricks in the kitchen to keep the diet varied. From now on I would like us all to become full vegetarians, and eventually shift towards vegan.
Use only natural cosmetics
Cosmetics are not such a big thing for me so it won’t be the biggest difficulty to shift over to all natural products. I don’t want to be part of the mass production line any more when it comes to what I put on the outside of my body. Who knows what half the ingredients listed on the back of a shampoo or skin cream bottle even are, let alone how they are made? So I am heading for the essential oils aisle (online from an accredited vendor), vegan shampoo, body wash and creams, plus all natural make up products.
Make my own toothpaste
This used to be one of my good habits, so in keeping with the above promise I am going to go back to making my own toothpaste. I don’t know why I stopped but sometimes convenience gets in the way of a good intention. We used to make it at home with baking soda, coconut oil and some 100% essential mint oil for flavour and freshness. The baking soda lifts stains, the coconut oil removes bacteria and all together leave you with cleaner whiter teeth than your average flouride-infused paste from the store.
Go back to oil pulling
Another one of my good habits that I dropped! While we were travelling through India I learned a lot about Ayurveda, and one treatment I took on was that of oil pulling. Namely swishing and pulling coconut oil through my teeth each morning for twenty minutes. Sounds gruelling and actually quite horrible but once it becomes part of the daily routine it becomes part of life. And not speaking for twenty minutes with three young children was often quite challenging and entertaining! My teeth and gums were far healthier, my teeth seemed a few shades whiter and also shinier than usual. It has to be done daily and for twenty minutes at least with two tablespoons of oil to work effectively. Oil pulling greatly reduces the bacteria in the mouth and can relieve gum disease, gingivitis and other oral issues.
Invest in new pillows and bed linen
Sleep is imperative to our health and overall wellbeing. One way in which we can help to improve how many hours of good slumber we achieve is to make the space where we sleep the most comfortable we can. I personally have a thing with pillows, if they’re not right then I seep terribly and even get head and neck aches. So this birthday a treat to myself is going to be a lovely new set of 100% cotton bed linen in a soothing colour as well as two perfect pillows. Eight and a half hours uninterrupted, here I come!
Distance learning diploma courses in Holistic Therapies
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