The Embrace Blog

Getting back to routine can be challenging, but it's essential for productivity and overall well-being.  It's a huge part of self-care as you schedule it into your life. 

With the planet heating up, so are we!  Many places are hitting temperatures and breaking records.  The sad part is, this is our new norm, so we need to learn to cope accordingly.  This is a very important part of our self-care.

• Stay Hydrated - drink plenty of water and or eat hydrating food like watermelon, cucumber, and citrus fruits.  In fact add a slice or two of cucumber to your water.  It then becomes what some call "living water" and helps you better absorb the water your drinking leading to better hydration. 
• Become a Shade Seeker when outdoors, and avoid the sun during the hottest part of the day, typically between 10am and 4pm.  When walking I stick to the shady side of the street.
• Perform outdoor activities in the morning before it heats up.  We make sure we get Penelope our dog out and back typically before 10am.  After that it's just to dangerous.
• Air Conditioning - stay indoors in air-conditioned places as much as...

Feeling stressed and can't seem to find a remedy?

As I have been creating content for the self-care membership, it reminded me of the importance of "mind care" for our mental health.  You see in the membership I focus on all parts of us, meaning, the Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual. If we can maintain those four areas, we have a better chance at achieving balance in our life as we care for ourselves beyond the physical. 

But first what do I mean by "mind care" and "mental health"?

When I was a kid (with transparency I'm mid-50's now) the term "mental health" was not used in my circle anyway, it was "mental illness" which through my limited paradigm back then, meant something was seriously wrong.  I really did not know anyone who experienced it, so had no idea of what it meant.  In fact the term scared me, as I figured it meant someone would be locked up or put onto some serious medication.  Aaaahhh ignorance...

Let's zoom ahead to present day where the term "mental health" is used frequently, and the definition seems to b...

The Art of Giving and Receiving 

You know I used to think it was kind of a funny expression "The Art...", why on earth would anyone call it an art?  Don't you just give and receive?  Well let me share an epiphany with you that I recently had and why I now believe it is an art. 

Growing up I was raised in a family where we followed my Mom's wishes of the Jehovah Witness, and did not participate in any holidays, Christmas, Birthdays, Easter, Halloween... all of them except for two occasions, a Wedding or Anniversary, then it was ok to give or receive gifts.  Other than that there was no gift giving going on.  So if you never married, you were SOL (sooo outta luck)!  My gift giving and receiving "skills" were zero to none.

Now I'm not telling you this from a place of a victimhood as an adult, as it was what it was, however as a child I would say I felt like a victim because why was it every other kid got gifts, but I was not allowed to receive gifts?  Imagine what that does to a kids s...

Due to the frigid temperatures we are having I thought why not feed the soul with a yummy and nutritious treat.

As some of you know we follow Anthony William, the Medical Medium, not because he's a medium, but because what he says makes sense. We have tried out many of his suggestions, including celery juice every morning, cutting out "troublemaker" foods etc. like caffeine, and just approaching our 8th, 9 day liver cleanse mid-November. 

We do it because of the wonderful results we get, and both Darren and I are healthier now than before we followed him, that's almost 3 years ago now.  In fact I have reduced my BP meds from 3 pills, down to .5 of one pill!  Now those are true results based on lifestyle changes, namely what we eat, and through cleansing our bodies.

The great news is that we have tried many of his recipes and found great substitutes for things like dairy (yeah I hear you, I never thought we would give that up, but here we are and I know I am not stuffed up all the ti...

Addiction, a big word with a big meaning.