Health & Wellness Tips
Hey you!
Here, at Beauty in the Balance, this is the place where we will be pouring out tips, tools, and accumulated information and education about everything Health and Wellness.
I've been an avid seeker of knowledge in all things that were focused on "feeling good" in our mind and body since I was very young. In my bedroom on Roscoe Ave in Chicago, I would pull out my hardcover Jane Fonda workout book, (yes, the OG of workout books), and perform the exercises outlined within. Even at this young age I knew that it was important to feel strong and healthy.
This led to collecting articles and books about good nutrition, the value of supplements and all sorts of self-help books. I started collecting data and educating myself about various theories and modalities of healing. When I say that this has been a lifelong journey, I mean it! I knew early on that we have the power within to help and heal ourselves.
The day came when I realized that I would have to raise my 3 daughters by myself and so it was necessary to put all of that on the proverbial backburner. I turned to a career in nursing to be able to support my girls but always tried to implement pearls of wisdom focused on our innate ability to heal ourselves to my patients. AND I kept feeding the dream of one day having a career focused on a more western/holistic view of health and wellness.
By my early 20's ,I could be called a "gym rat", taking on many running races and any classes or current trends in an effort to become stronger and to feel good in my body. Eventually I traveled a few times to Kripalu ( the country's most famous Yoga and Ayurveda center) to immerse myself in the teachings of Ayurveda. Next, I obtained my Yoga Teacher Certification and just last weekend trained to become a Pilates Instructor. I'm currently obtaining a Health and Wellness Coaching certificate from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Whew, that's a lot of info!
My goal here is to share with you that I am INVESTED in sharing all that I have learned with you to deepen your understanding of mind-body-spirit health. Throughout the next several months I'll be diving into various topics of this nature to build a firm foundation of understanding of what it means to become more "whole".
Today, I will just mention the 6 pillars of health. Depending on your source, there are 5-11 pillars that are recommended to optimize our life experience. My preference is to lean toward what Cameron Diaz discusses in her "Longevity" book...6 pillars (Nutrition, Hydration, Movement, Sleep, Relationships/Connection and Stress Management).
If we want to move about our lives with ease and positivity, we need to look at all of these areas of our lives. Thanks to media and a multitude of current historic events as well as the availability of information through technology, I bet that we all know a bit about each of these pillars.
We know that it is just as important to have healthy sleep habits as it is to move our bodies or connect with a source that's higher than ourselves. It's just as valuable to nurture our bodies with whole, unprocessed foods as it is to have loving relationships. And as our bodies are comprised of 60% water (brains are 75% water content), hydration is essential to our well-being.
Taking care of ourselves can seem overwhelming, but not impossible. In the next 6 weeks, we will take one pillar at a time and discuss the value of each. We will provide an understanding and some suggestions. In this way, we can be on this journey of optimizing our life experience.
