A “sacred space” is simply a space you create that makes you feel connected, safe, and calm. It’s a spiritual space that holds items and tools for your soul to refresh and renew. Start by identifying your space…again, it doesn’t have to be huge. Clutter messes with you physically, mentally, and also spiritually. Make sure your space is clear and feels light. Decorate the space with calming, serene things that refresh you…maybe it’s an essential oil diffuser, a soft lamp or some candles. Make the space inviting so that you’ll want to spend time there each day. Then, bring in a few of your sacred tools – these are personal to each of us. Maybe you have totems or symbols of your belief system. Maybe you read scripture. Maybe you burn incense. Make sure you can easily access  whatever tools you might use when you visit your space so that you don’t disrupt your flow every time you need something.  

Exercising with a group class can be extremely beneficial to your wellness goals.

SCHEDULE: Classes are usually set at certain times of the day every week. When we are left to exercise on our own time, sometimes we make a ton of excuses why we can’t fit it in or we just never get around to it. With group exercise classes, you have to work around the schedule that is made by the gym or instructor.

EXPERTS: Group exercise classes are usually taught by trained professionals who have received education or some type of fitness certification. They are always learning new things to share with their classes. They can also help make sure that you are using proper form on exercises so that you reduce your risk of injury.

MOTIVATION: Most instructors provide ongoing verbal motivation throughout the class to keep yourThere are an estimated 328,915,700 people living in the United States. There is no way that we can know all of them, but we limit our social health & wellness opportunities by sticking TOO closely to our inner circle of family or friends. 

FRIENDSHIP: You make new friends and bond over healthy habits!

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE: Group exercise classes are nearly limitless – yoga, zumba, pilates, HIIT, Boot Camp, spinning – you name it! You can always find something to enjoy.

There are an estimated 328,915,700 people living in the United States. There is no way that we can know all of them, but we limit our social health & wellness opportunities by sticking TOO closely to our inner circle of family or friends. 

Naturally, communities create commonalities – geographic, employment, neighborhood – that lead to a familiarity between people who have not met. We may find that we have acquaintances in common, frequently attend similar gatherings or utilize the same local amenities or resources. 

You should aim to meet at least a handful of people every week, but our challenge for today is to meet one person and try to talk long enough to find out three things about them. You never know what role that person may play in your life from that moment on or how your paths may cross again. 

Organize a trivia night with friends, attend a local trivia night, download an app or tune in for tonight’s episode of Jeopardy! No matter what you choose, just be open to learning new things and having fun. You’ll be surprised how much you know! With each correct answer, you get a little bit of an emotional and intellectual rush – a type of neuro-reward signal or a dopamine burst. When we are challenged with a trivia question and happen to know the answer, it feels good! 

There are many ways we can get our “hands dirty” with this action step!  Here are just a few of the health and wellness benefits of gardening for the gardener:

• It relieves stress. Gardening can lower cortisol levels that cause stress and increase blood pressure. It also increases serotonin, which helps people feel happy.
• Friendly bacteria in the soil can boost immunity. It may particularly help against asthma.
• Planting provides great exercise. It is low-impact and can be comfortable work with the right padding or protective gear, but it takes energy, and the weather can make it more challenging.
• It involves hand-eye coordination and sensory intake. Both of these factors can positively affect cognition.
• For some, gardening is the best reason to head outside and enjoy the sunshine and the environment (just remember to use proper sun protection).

Gardening also benefits the environment in the following ways:

• It can help with pollution. Large-scale harvesting and transportation of fruits and vegetables typically contributes to pollution. It may seem like a small step, but gardening at one’s home or in the community influences the big picture by reducing the demand for mass-farming operations and in turn, the pollution resulting from them.
• It can reduce the size of landfills. This is possible when people compost garden waste rather than sending everything to the landfill when it’s gone bad.
• Plants in the garden take in CO2 and release oxygen. This helps improve air quality.
• It helps local insect and animal habitats. Many of them play an important role in our environment, like bees pollinating.
• Plants and mulch can hold soil in place and reduce erosion, and keep sediment out of waterways, drains, and roads.

A study out of Louisiana State University found that as stress hormones like cortisol increase, so do ghrelin levels (ghrelin is the hormone that stimulates appetite). This hunger drives us to eat more and sometimes even binge.

We’ve all experienced this before, turning to food to cope with stressful situations in our lives. Further weight gain just adds more stress, which can lead to more overeating, and so the unhealthy spiral goes.

Furthermore, research has shown that stress can lead to a preference for “comfort foods” (tasty, high-fat, high-carb, and thus high-calorie dishes), which only aggravates the overeating problem.

What are your go-to de-stressors? Are they healthy or hurtful to you in the long run? If you have unhealthy ways of managing your stress, it’s time to revisit your strategies and identify ones that help your overall health and wellness. Whatever healthy options you might find work for you, make sure that the tools you need to access them are ready to go at a moment’s notice. If yoga helps you calm down in a stressful situation, make sure you have a yoga mat handy. If taking a walk helps you blow off steam, keep your walking shoes in the car so you can be ready. Plan ahead so that you have what you need to combat your stress when and wherever it rears its ugly head!

Waiting one or two—or more—years to update your resume can be a large endeavor. The thought of such an effort can cause you to delay until you absolutely need a resume. Rather than wait that long, update your resume at least twice annually. Follow this checklist when performing your refresh:

• Have your career goals changed?
• Do you have a new position, new employer, new award or new degree to add?
• What are your top accomplishments since your last update? Can you add a measured result for the accomplishment?
• Is your resume style and format current?

It can be challenging to remember achievements from a few years ago. You probably know what you did in general terms, but the measured results may be tough to recall. Keep a folder where you can store e-mails, reports and performance evaluations that document your achievements and the statistics. It only takes a few seconds to tuck this data into a safe place for review at a later date. When it is time to update your resume, you will be glad you saved those documents.

WAY TO WELLNESS #63

Do you have a cool hobby that you commit regular time to? You may think you’re too busy for a leisure activity or that it’s indulgent to spend your time in a way that isn’t considered “productive”. However, having a hobby isn’t just for fun and enjoyment. There are many benefits to trying unique hobbies that can improve your life and career.

Good hobbies can help you:

• Relieve stress.
• Build your self-confidence.
• Become a more interesting person.
• Find a new passion.
• Hone your skills.
• Create new social connections.
• Bring in additional income.

WAY TO WELLNESS #62

Contrary to popular misconception, you don’t have to be “crazy,” desperate, or on the brink of a meltdown to go to therapy. At the same time, therapy isn’t usually necessary for every little struggle life throws your way, especially if you have a strong support system of friends and family. So how do you know when it’s time to see a therapist? Most people can benefit from therapy at some point in their lives. Sometimes the signs are obvious—but at other times, something may feel slightly off and you can’t figure out what it is. So you trudge on, trying to sustain your busy life until it sets in that life has become unmanageable. 

Here are a few signs that it might be time to consider getting help from someone outside of your current situation:

• Feeling sad, angry, or otherwise “not yourself”.
• Abusing drugs, alcohol, food or sex to cope.
• You’ve lost someone or something important to you.
• Something traumatic has happened.
• You can’t do the things you like to do.

WAY TO WELLNESS #61

Summer is here and that means it is the perfect time to look for opportunities to replace car travel with more “green” options like biking or walking whenever possible. If you live too far from places you need to go or have physical limitations, look for ways to be more green to our environment by car-pooling whenever possible or reducing the number of trips made by consolidating errands and strategizing the shortest, most efficient route. Tell us how you can be more green when it comes to your transportation in the comments and consider the following benefits that you might not have considered before: 

• It’s efficient: Get where you need to go while getting a boost of physical activity – it’s a 2 for 1 deal!
• It’s healthful: Walking and biking provide excellent cardiovascular exercise for health benefits including weight loss, muscle tone development, as well as lowering your blood pressure and stress levels and reducing your risk of heart attack, hypertension, osteoporosis, and type II diabetes.
• It’s economical: Consider the gas, tolls, parking, and upkeep on a car or the monthly bus or train pass you are currently paying versus the cost of walking or biking to work.
• It’s rewarding: Besides the psychological benefits of feeling better about yourself, walking or biking to also offers very clear mental benefits — from adrenaline and endorphins — that boost your mood and provide you with a sense of well-being. Because it’s often a solitary experience, walking or biking also provides opportunities for deep thoughts that tap into your creative side, leading to new ideas and ways to solve problems.