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I rarely get facials. Twice per month I do an elaborate skin-care ritual at home with masks and goops to promote healthy, clear skin; and to be honest, I’d rather have a massage if I’m going to spend that kind of money. However I’ve been having trouble finding the right products for my skin in the hot, humid climate where I now live. So I decided to seek some professional advice.

I’m pleased to have been educated about some things I’d been doing wrong and about the line of Dr. Hauschka products I ordered afterwards. Pricey, yes, but pure ingredients backed by scientific research, and most definitely a step up from most of the so-called natural brands found at a health food store. (Just because the word “organic” is printed on the label, or even in the brand name, doesn’t actually seem to mean much when you read carefully.) Over the past week of my new regime, I have noticed an improvement.

However the greatest benefit I received from this experience was an awareness of how little I practice self-care while performing skin-care. During the facial, I noticed how gentle and soothing her touch was. Nothing like when I’m cleansing, toning, and moisturizing! I realized that I’m rough and rushed and not at all kind to my face. It’s something I just power through to get it over with so I can move on the next thing I need to accomplish.

As much as I’m enjoying the new products, the epiphany I had about the approach to using them was even more fantastic! I’m not talking about spending a lot of time either; merely two minutes twice per day. That’s the same amount of time I spend brushing my teeth! No big deal, really, but the change in attitude is huge. Including skin-care as an act of self-care, something I do to nourish and be kind to myself, seems pretty simply but is actually a radical shift in my consciousness. I can only imagine that the effects will ripple out into other areas of my life as well.

Radical Self-Care, Enjoy a Facial!

I rarely get facials. Twice per month I do an elaborate skin-care ritual at home with…
I’m feeling pretty stiff after a full day of giving massages. Yoga definitely helps, as does being aware of body mechanics while I’m working. Yet there is much room for improvement! I’m remember doing a cleanse earlier this year based on Dr. Alejandro Junger’s book, Clean. I’m easing my way into a purer diet based on his suggestions because of the spectacular relief I experienced. It was like traveling back to a time before I knew muscle tension and joint achiness!

I’ve done lots of detoxes over the past two decades. What stands out for me about this one was that I gave up all caffeine for three weeks. Usually I continue to consume green tea for the antioxidants and other health benefits while cleansing. I had a huge epiphany that even the small amount of caffeine in green tea contributed to feelings of anxiety, sensations of stiffness, and disrupted my sleep somewhat. As impressed as I was, somehow I fell back into my ritual of having two or three cups of black or green tea each morning. The symptoms returned so gradually that I just didn’t notice the impact of this discretion.

If your interested in the science behind cleansing, I do recommend his book. I’m not sure if it’s the caffeine itself, or perhaps an acidic internal environment that leads to inflammation. Having had the experience of it’s absence, I don’t really care about the cause! I’m just eager to return to that freedom of sleeping deeply and jumping out of bed at 6am, well-rested and free of all aches and pains. So I’m saying goodbye to an old friend. This morning I will savor my last cup of black tea with honey and coconut creamer. This afternoon I will linger over my last cup of green tea with a few drops of stevia. Tomorrow I will switch to rooibos “lattes” and licorice tea. Coz nothing tastes as good as pain-free feels!

Radical Self-Care, So-long Caffeine!

I’m feeling pretty stiff after a full day of giving massages. Yoga definitely helps, as does…
So often I am caught up in my to-do list and daily practices that I forget to celebrate the small milestones and victories. Recognizing our successes and acknowledging where hard work has created something new encourages us to keep moving forward. Making celebration a part of my life energizes my routine and sparks new ideas. Noticing what is working well helps me refine my course of action and to pursue more of the same.

Two days ago I greeted my first client in my new office space. It was the first day I was officially in residence, so it felt really good to be present with purpose and to support someone who was in need of pain relief. The ego, which is never satisfied and always seeks to criticize, thinks that I should wait to celebrate when I have a full schedule of clients who return regularly and maybe even a waiting list. While I will indeed celebrate that day if and when it arrives, I shall joyfully commemorate this week’s success in the meantime.

My celebration was a simple and brief affair. It was, after all, a long workday before another of the same. I took ten minutes out of my schedule to sit quietly and savor the feeling of having achieved a small step on the road to launching a new business. Bathing in the sensation of accomplishment and soaking up the vibration of success was much more rewarding than any champagne I could have sipped. I took an mental snap-shot of that feeling so I can pull it up when I need motivation. All I need do is remember that wonderful sensation and the desire for more of that will inspire me to persevere.

Radical Self-Care; Celebrate!

So often I am caught up in my to-do list and daily practices that I forget…
When I pay attention, I am able to receive clues intuitively about how to best take good care of myself. I’ve been writing a lot lately about making plans and following through to achieve maximum results. While that is entirely true, occasionally I get an “override” message that has a new, updated plan encoded within.

For example, Tuesday night I came home from a meeting so amped up that I spent an hour and a half writing after my normal bedtime. Last night I was planning to go to a fun social event but was instead guided to go home early and rest. Right now I’m typing these words with my thumbs on my phone as I wait for the train because I used my planned blog writing time at home to respond to a very meaningful email.

As important as it is to have a map of where I’m going and the commitment to move forward, it’s likewise necessary to be real and acknowledge when it’s time for a new plan. I often use an analogy borrowed from Abraham Hicks about floating downstream with the current rather than paddling furiously upstream. Everything I want is downstream!

So when I get a nudge to correct my course, I willingly drop my paddle and my plan and tune in. After all the goal of this project isn’t to cross tasks off of a spreadsheet and earn a gold star. It’s to give myself (body, mind, heart, and soul) the support I need to feel good and do my best work. That’s not always going to happen by following a neat and tidy plan.

Radical Self-Care, Tuning In

When I pay attention, I am able to receive clues intuitively about how to best take…
This week I’m lucky enough to have four social engagements on my calendar. For an introvert who recharges best at home, this is highly unusual. Maybe the full moon energy is pulling me out into the world this week more than normal. Whatever the reason, I’m enjoying meeting friends one-on-one for meals as well as looking forward to a social gathering tonight.

Research shows that people who have healthy relationships are not only happier, but live longer than people who feel lonely. As much as I cherish my solitude, I really value my friendships and the heart-felt conversations, laughter, and feelings of belonging and connection that they engender. I’m blessed to have wonderful, supportive, kind, and fun people in my life who are available for merry making and meaningful conversations.

While the self-care practices I’ve been exploring so far have been mostly solo activities that I have crafted into daily routines, buddy time is often sporadic and rarely fits into an open time slot. If I waited for my schedule to present two or three hour gaps that lined up with other people’s gaps, I’d be rather lonely. So instead I make a consistent effort to create those gaps and work my other responsibilities around them. If I’m too busy to meet in person, I often schedule a check-in phone call. Seriously, I make the plan with a friend and book it in my calendar. It’s too important to me to leave to chance.

Once again I am finding that planning and follow through are just as important as the act itself. My work schedule often interferes with socializing during evening and weekend hours. This means I need to make extra effort and consciously seek out interactions. Four events each week is not sustainable during this time while I’m launching a business, but two is manageable. The venue and activity aren’t at all important; it’s the making time to spend together that is. The resulting joy is well worth the effort.

Radical Self-Care, Connecting

This week I’m lucky enough to have four social engagements on my calendar. For an introvert…
Being super-busy means I need to be super efficient when it comes to exercise. Being human means I need to enjoy the activity that I’m doing otherwise I won’t continue. Being in the midst of a hot, humid, seemingly endless summer, I need to be somewhere cool. All of this adds up to my favorite indoor exercise: rebounding.

Rebounding is jumping on a mini trampoline. It’s very low impact but can be high intensity. It’s convenient as I don’t need to go anywhere, and fun as I’ve learned to dance/bounce. (If you need some fresh new music, I can recommend creating a Pandora station from Booty Swing, an electro swing song- it will keep you bouncing!) I put the rebounder in front of the air conditioner, turn the music up, and have a great time for 20 or 30 minutes. Often I’ll go straight to my yoga mat to take advantage of muscles which have already been warmed up.

In addition to the obvious health benefits of a cardio workout and endorphin release, rebounding is said to be great for the lymphatic system. Dr. Christiane Northrup includes rebounding in an article called How to Increase Your Lymph Flow and Why. She’s a guru in the field of holistic health and a brilliant advocate of healthy lifestyle choices.

The rewards for me are phenomenal- joy, ease, convenience, vibrant health and energy without any negative consequences, and affordability. Pretty amazing for an activity that can be done solo from the comfort of home while enjoying funky tunes and air conditioning! If you think exercise requires suffering and pain, I invite you to reconsider that belief. Just as with any form of movement, if you have a medical condition, please do consult your doctor. If you’ve been cleared for moderate exercise, bouncing really could change your attitude about fitness.

Radical Self-Care, Rebounding

Being super-busy means I need to be super efficient when it comes to exercise. Being human…
Launching a new business while working two part time jobs feels a lot like rafting down the rapids without a paddle. The current takes me along for the ride and I do my best to hold on. I just keep doing the task that shows up in front of me and steadily moving forward. There’s really no point in struggling or trying to push the river, as that is just exhausting and rather pointless. I’m reminded of my hero, Louise Hay, saying that she started her now-international publishing company simply by opening the mail and answering the phones. Meaning: do the work at hand.

Well, it just so happens that there’s loads of work at hand! My to-do list keeps growing and yet there are still the same number of hours in each day. Inspiration comes and goes, sometimes at inconvenient times, and interrupts my plans. Yet I’m committed to taking good care of myself; physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so that I may remain healthy and happy and have a full life. It has become apparent that protecting my downtime a necessary step in this discovery process.

I’ve been failing at guarding my personal time. It’s somewhat scarce these days and all the more precious for that. Carving out time for self-care practices each morning and evening has become second nature to me: I have blocked out an entire morning each week for pajama time , I make an effort to connect with my friends, and I’m clear about which hours are reserved for work. The spaces that remain I consider to be recreational: reading a novel, watching Netflix, listening to music, going for a walk, or puttering around my home are some examples of how I fill my personal time.

The challenge lies in that it’s easy to be distracted by another task on my to-do list. One more email, another revision to my website, updating my calendar, folding the laundry are all important items that can interrupt me and before I know it, the small window of opportunity to play has slipped away. I now recognize the importance of having unstructured downtime in my self-care regime, and the need to create boundaries to protect it. So I’m silencing my phone and resisting the urge to check messages or the weather or my schedule or… whatever when I’m reading or watching a show. I’m learning how to overlook my unmade bed and piles of unopened mail. I’m allowing emails to accumulate until it’s time to clock into business mode.

Basically I’m choosing to focus on the activity that I’m doing in each moment and get every morsel of pleasure that I can out of my brief and priceless downtime. I’m generating awareness that while my work is indeed very important, it is not the only, or even the most important thing. I’m creating a rich and full life for myself that includes balance between work and play and that means unplugging every day, if only for 20 minutes, to enjoy myself and be free. Downtime. It makes uptime more productive!

Radical Self-Care, Downtime

Launching a new business while working two part time jobs feels a lot like rafting down the…
First of all, I’m psyched to celebrate the completion of my first week of radical self-care. I gave my maximum amount of massages over the past four days and rather than feeling depleted and sore, I am rather energized. That’s great news because today is my only day off and I’d be bummed if I was couch-ridden or immobilized. Clearly my increased emphasis on taking good care of myself (body, mind, heart, and soul) is paying off!

Today’s realization is that it’s important for me to have one morning each week without any plans. Even better if I could get a whole day, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. So I’m claiming one morning AND one evening. I call this pajama time. Not having to focus on leaving the house at a specific time creates a sense of leisure that I find to be incredibly restorative.

Pajama time may or may not coincide with a day off. This week is does not, and that’s what sparked the awareness that I need to carve out another morning and reserve it to stay at home. Today is my day off, meaning I will not see any clients or do marketing or accounting or website updates. However, I am planning to go to a yoga class and get a facial afterwards. Which means a 6:00 am wakeup, body brushing , meditation, spiritual practice , breakfast and plenty of time to get to class at a leisurely pace. It is most definitely not a less is more, or a pajama day.

So I actually just blocked off time in my schedule tomorrow morning to remain at home. It is a work day, but the work I need to do is computer tasks, and it can be done easily from the comfort of my room, with messy hair, while wearing my favorite Oscar the Grouch T-shirt. I’m not joking; I take this so seriously that I entered “pajama time” into my iPhone as a repeating event for Wednesdays. I might move it around from week to week, but having a digital record of this commitment will help me to reschedule it if something comes up.

Making time to rest in this fast-paced world requires some ingenuity and a great deal of devotion. How do you reserve space for restoration in your busy schedule?

Radical Self-Care, Pajama Day

First of all, I’m psyched to celebrate the completion of my first week of radical self-care. I…
I’m in the midst of a busy stretch at work and feeling incredibly grateful for my commitment to maximum self-care. Tremendous benefits, including increased awareness and steady energy, are emerging consistently. I’m making lots of small decisions throughout the day based on what would be kindest for my self in that moment. This is a huge shift for someone who tends to follow a routine and stick with what she “thinks” “should” be the best option. Tuning in moment by moment allows me to be more authentic in my exploration.

Today my attention is drawn to the rewards of body brushing. If you’re not familiar with this technique, Google provides articles and videos galore to guide you. Basically you stroke a brush with soft, natural bristles over the surface of the body to exfoliate skin and stimulate lymph flow. I’ve done it for at least a decade now and really appreciate the softness of my skin as well as the fact that I rarely get sick. Healthy skin and lymph flow are two key components to promote a strong immune system, so this practice has double benefits.

I had a steady habit of dry brushing before I get into the shower each evening. However, since it’s been so hot and sticky icky here in Philadelphia this summer, I’ve been skipping it. Today I realized it’s time to upgrade this habit so that it works for me, rather than avoiding it through the summer. This morning I decided to brush first thing. Even before I meditated! I might fine-tune the timing, but it felt wonderful to get back into the swing of this healthy habit by releasing my attachment to the “when” aspect of dry brushing.

I’m learning that alongside commitment, flexibility is a major component of self-care. If the routine is too rigid, it will break rather than bend when there is a challenge. If there’s no commitment, it remains a lofty ideal, but never happens. Finding balance seems to be the key, in the arena of self-care as well as in life in general. Since my intention is not perfection but kindness and optimal wellbeing, it makes a lot of sense to allow the freedom to mix things up. Otherwise I’m just checking things off a to-do list, and really there’s not much joy in that.

Radical Self-Care, Dry Brushing

I’m in the midst of a busy stretch at work and feeling incredibly grateful for my commitment…