5 Ways to Boost Your Mood

1. Create more YOU time, do things you love rather than things you "have to"

2. Practice a Digital Detox, stay away from your phone, computer, tv, gaming system for an entire day or two. Only allowing yourself 30 minutes each day to check your email or phone to make sure there are no emergencies 

3. Spend time with the people you love and that love you back. Allow work, and your to-do list to float out of your mind when spending quality time with your loved ones

4. Get enough sleep, and eat well

5. Organize the space you're in, having a clear space can help you have a clear mind 

Why I choose doTERRA

My passion in life is to love and be wild in love. I found doTERRA when I went to an emotional healing through essential oils class. By the end of the class, certain emotional evoking oils were passed around due to their their tendency to often provoke reactions in us. The oil that an individual responses to most is the oil that is said we need the most. I respond most to was patchouli, the oils that is to evoke self love and linked to personal body image. When i found out that link, my ground was a little shaken since it was so directly related to what I struggle with. I decided to immediately meet up with the women that taught the class, and buy a bottle of patchouli. 

In that moment and ones to follow I gained a new sense of wonder with my body and what I put into it and on it. I started listening to what my body was asking for and allowed my self to respect what I was hearing. As a psychotherapist that is something that I have always done, and now I have a renewed sense of encouragement to my do the same for myself daily. 

This thought processed than brought me to other considerations for how I was looking at my life, I was believing that I needed to listen to the constraints that other people were putting on me. Like I said in the beginning my passion is to love, in order to do that I needed to stop listening to the nay sayers and start telling myself yes, you can grow, you can heal, you can make a difference.

Yoga can Heal

Yoga helped me learn to love my body for the first time. After years of struggling with loving my body I finally tried yoga, and did it even when it was uncomfortable. I had always hated on yoga, for reason such as "its not a real workout", "its too slow pace", "only yuppies or hippies practice yoga", and finally "I don't burn enough calories during yoga, its a waste of time". 

For many years I was an avid runner, or perhaps an addicted runner that wouldn't let up. I started running in high school as a means to fit in and loose weight. Running in fact help me accomplish both goals, so my logic was that if I run more, run before practice, stay late at practice, run everyday, and so on that my goals would be exponentially achieved. And that worked, for awhile, and even when it didn't I kept trying to make it work, because after all it worked before. In this way, I was just like an addict, chasing that first "high" that I had gained from running.

There is a lot of "story" in between this point in time and to where I began to love yoga, so for time sake I'll fast forward the time line to then. 

So I start practicing yoga because my therapist at the time stated that it would be a great practice in mindfulness. With time, yoga taught me to create space for me to feel my feelings, to treat my body as a vessel of love rather than an enemy to despise. I went to classes that focused on the breath work and had no mention of "six-pack abs". I felt the connection and safety I needed to in that time—I was vulnerable, but supported and I loved it. I learned about the Sutras and Tapas and felt a spiritual connection that I have cut myself away from during the obsession with food and my body shape. 

Healthy mind and exercise collided for me when I began yoga and I am so grateful for my practice. So much in fact that I became a yoga teacher myself to help give back the connect and safety I felt to others. 

Disordered vs Disciplined

There is a thin line between what makes up disordered eating from "disciplined eating" or diet as commonly called. Diet culture is everywhere, and it often comes disguised as a "healthy food plan".

Dieting is a preoccupation of food and/or exercise, and is seen as "normal" in our culture, seemingly an innocent attempt at eating healthy. Yet it can lead to disordered eating especially when those "dieting" get positive feedback from others. The more positive feedback one gets, the more likely they are to continue in similar behaviors. 

Anxiety often builds over eating, and/or shame develops as a result of eating. This is the danger of dieting, foods get labeled as "good/bad" healthy/unhealthy", broken down into calories, fats, carbohydrates, sodium and so on. While being educated about the food we put in our bodies, placing judgements on them is the slippery-slope. 

When people begin thinking about food and/or exercises often, it allows them to distract themselves from other emotional concerns in their life. In other words having this preoccupation about food/body shape/exercise allows an individual to avoid and numb other problems. This is reason for concern because the long they utilize eating/not-eating as a coping skill to distract/avoid the worse their health becomes and most likely their problems begin to snowball as well.

If you think you or a loved one is on this path, please don't hesitate to contact me or another professional about these concerns.