How to Live Healthier, Both Inside and Out

One of the current largest topics of discussion is that of healthy living and how to live healthier. Talk of organic lifestyles, holistic health choices and detoxifying our lives is everywhere. But, is there any truth to it all? Can you really live healthier simply by making the choice… and without spending a fortune? Friends, the answer is yes. In early May, I'll be taking part in an a reinvigorating, exciting and soul-filled series called “Detox Your Life and Step Into Your Purpose.” I’m a firm believer that everyone holds the power, and the choice, to make strides towards healthier living. Whether it’s the breakfast you eat before you start your day or the people you choose to surround yourself with – you truly do have control. In this series I shared my philosophies and advice, and that’s why I’d like to speak a bit more on the subject in this post.

At the core of it all, it comes down to making the conscious decision to live in the now and invite positivity, healthiness and love into your life. For many people, however, it can be difficult to find where to start. Don’t feel alone if you’re one of those people. I’m here to support you!

So, let’s discuss a few ways that you can start living a healthier life today.

1. Stop Worrying

At times it can feel like the world is crumbling around you. You might be in an argument with a friend or family member. Maybe your career isn’t where you’d hoped it would be by now or a new business venture is on rocky ground. Worry can be overwhelming and can, quite honestly, overtake your life. In order to make room for healthiness and positivity, you need to push worry out of the way.

Accepting the things that are beyond your control and allowing yourself to focus on only the things you can change is one way to do this. Regularly reminding yourself to stop and appreciate what you do have is another. Thirdly, take a moment to look around and ask yourself if your worst fears are really coming to life. Chances are that they’re not, and that you’re worried about things that will probably never happen. Let it go, friend!

2. Focus on the Now

As a people, we are so busy planning for the future and reflecting on the past that the “right now” passes us right by. You know how people often say “time flies!” or how you can hardly believe it’s already May when it feels like it was New Year’s just yesterday? This sort of loss of time can be blamed on not allowing yourself to live in the moment. You plan for the future so much that, when the future arrives, you can hardly believe it. Break away from all of that and allow your mind and body to celebrate the amazing things that are happening in your life this very moment. You are alive. You have many accomplishments. You are going to continue to achieve great things in both love and life.

3. Be Mindful of Your Food

One major culprit of sluggishness, tiredness and unexpected weight gain is “mindless eating.” This sort of eating happens when you’re watching TV or on the computer and what you’re eating becomes secondary to what you’re doing. Sometimes, you’re not even really hungry – you’re just bored. I encourage you to be more mindful of what you put into your body in the coming days and weeks. Your food is your fuel!

Try switching out Toaster Strudels for a green smoothie in the morning or packing a salad and snacks instead of zipping through the drive through over lunch hour. Nourishing your body with healthy, nutritious food will in turn nourish your mind.

4. Reward Your Body with Exercise

While exercise may be the last thing you equate with “reward,” your body craves being in motion. When you allow yourself to become sedentary for too long a time, your body doesn’t really know what to do with itself. You may gain wait, feel more tired more often or just simply feel “not like yourself.” Give your body what it wants and get it movin’.

If you haven’t tried yoga before, I would highly recommend checking out a yoga class. Start with something basic and for beginners so as to not overwhelm or hurt yourself, but pay close attention to the instructor and ask for assistance if ever you’re unsure of a pose or stretch. A gentle, calming exercise like yoga will do more for your body than you might expect. Some benefits include calming, improvement in posture, deeper sleeps and even increase in happiness.

5. Praise Yourself and Others

Lastly, try not to be so hard on yourself. Getting down on yourself about skipping the gym or enjoying a chocolate bar can be all it takes to send you back to the beginning. Becoming healthier, and making any life change really, happens in stages and steps. It’s not an overnight transformation and, chances are, you might have a slip up or two. But that’s okay. We’re all only human and I’ll be here for you when you need some encouragement. Give me a follow on Twitter or Instagram so we can stay in touch.

To your authenticity,

Love, Christine

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Do “Feel Good Foods” Really Work? (4 Examples)

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Do you ever notice how you don’t feel so hot after digging into a bag of potato chips or guzzling down your favourite soft drink? On the flip-side, do you ever notice a boost in energy after eating a fruity breakfast or munching on a kale salad? Whether your entirely conscious of how your food is affecting you or not, it truly is. Here are four examples of “feel good foods” to help boost your mood, improve your body and clear your mind .

Blueberries

Believe it or not, delicious little blueberries pack a powerful punch. Blueberries can help boost the immune system, their anti-oxidants help flush toxins from your body and they’re loaded with nutritional value including Vitamin K, Manganese, Vitamin C and Fiber.

Nuts and Seeds

Almonds, sesame seeds, peanuts and hazelnuts all have a pretty interesting quality. They contain tryptophan, an amino acid that helps your body produce melatonin. Since we need melatonin to regulate sleep, eating a handful of nuts or seeds an hour or so before bed can help you get your snooze on so you wake up wide-eyed and ready for anything the next morning.

Garlic

Have your mouthwash ready for this one! Garlic is sort of a cure-all when it comes to feel good foods. It has anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral qualities and used to be eaten regularly to help fight away cold viruses. It has a key ingredient called allicin, which has been associated with cancer-fighting action. It’s also been said to help lower high blood pressure.

Lettuce & Leafy Greens

You don’t have to be crazy for kale to reap the benefits of lettuce and leafy greens, though kale is packed with protein, fiber, vitamins A, C and K and lots of other healthy stuff. Other lettuce varieties, like endive, help to improve liver function and detoxify the body. Dark leafy greens contain iron, too, which is helpful for many women suffering from iron deficiencies.

To your authenticity,

Love, Christine

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How to Stay Calm and In Control in Any Situation

Everyone handles stress differently. It can be hard to learn how to stay calm. Some people can breeze through a last minute deadline without breaking a sweat. Others get anxious at the mere thought of having to drive to the airport for specific time. No matter what your reaction, understand that it’s entirely natural. Also understand that there are universal coping mechanisms that you can employ to help you stay calm and in control, because losing your cool is never fun. To help you stay calm, cool and collected I’m sharing my top five tips to keeping calm. So, keep calm and read on!

1. Remember to Breathe

When you receive a passive aggressive text message, vague email asking you to keep your manager in the board room, last minute notice that your in-laws are coming to town tonight or when you realize you hit “snooze” a few too many times and are bound to be late – take a second to breathe.

In fact, take sixty seconds to breathe.

Concentrating on your breathe and getting your heart rate back to normal will help you conquer whatever the situation may be with a cooler head and clearer mind. There’s nothing worse than a knee-jerk reaction in a stressful situation!

2. Tell Yourself It’s Temporary

It can be easy to let the situation swallow you whole and lead you down a path of panic. Remind yourself that what you’re feeling is just a temporary reaction to the situation now and that it will pass. Sometimes letting yourself see that there’s an end in sight will bring you back to the present and let you charge forward instead with your day.

3. Take a Walk

Putting your body in motion can be incredibly helpful in combatting a case of “losing my cool”. Take a five-minute walk to the nearest coffee shop (if you go inside, opt for a caffeine free option… you don’t need to hop yourself up further!) or even walk inside of your office building or home. Get yourself moving and you’ll feel the thoughts in your head start to shift just the same.

If you can, take this opportunity to hit the gym or get in a thirty-minute workout. The natural hormones your body produces during and after a workout are mega mood-boosters.

4. Phone a Friend… but Talk About Something Else

If you can, phone a friend or family member who isn’t involved in whatever the stressful situation may be. Let them know that you’re having a tough day and want to chat and get your mind off whatever’s bothering you. Whatever you do, make sure that you don’t spend the phone call dwelling on the issue – it’s only going to fester and make you feel worse.

5. Play Your Favourite Song

If you work at an office, it’s helpful to have a set of headphones handy for stressful days. Hearing your favourite music will help you keep on track and stay calm. Whether it’s just an average day or you’re working your butt off trying to wrap a project up by five o’clock – your favourite tunes will help you through it.

When do you feel yourself starting to lose your calm? How do you cope? I’d love to hear your take on things!

To your authenticity,

Love, Christine

Want to Become a Certified Dating Coach and Help Others Find Love?
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How you relate to fear shapes the quality of your life

Christine Hart and Mastin Kipp of The Daily Love

A few weeks ago I attended a workshop with one of my faves, Mastin Kipp of the Daily Love. He’s recently published a book called Growing into Grace and I’m looking forward to diving in this weekend.

When striving to follow your truth, inevitably fear comes up over and over. Am I doing the right thing? What if this doesn’t work? What if I make a fool of myself? Is this too risky? Mastin gave us a brilliant acronym associated with the word FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real.

We know that fear is our brain’s way of keeping us safe so of course, it makes sense that our brains have become masters of even creating evidence to back up their claims. It’s almost like our brain is a well-resourced lawyer ready for a strong debate at any given moment. ☺

So since we know that this is typical behavior of our brain, how can we adjust it? Mastin suggests that:

How you relate to fear shapes the quality of your life

He went on to explain that our relationship to each fear determines the type of fear it is.

Huh?

More specifically:

Excitement is fear with POSITIVE energy Anxiety is fear with NEGATIVE energy

This means that once we acknowledge what our fear is, we can choose if we are going to create excitement OR anxiety around it. I think this is pretty awesome and allows us to get back in the driver’s seat of our brains, rather than being a hopeful passenger.

For example: let’s say you are in a relationship right now with someone that you care deeply about but you’re almost positive they are not the one you are going to spend the rest of your life with. You may default to anxiety, negative based fear and not break up with the person because you fear being alone. The other choice would be to place excitement and positive energy around the fear and see it as the right decision to free yourself up for a more suited relationship. In both cases, you are fully acknowledging the fear but you are choosing what energy you are going to give it.

COACHING EXERCISE FOR YOU

Name two fears you have. They could be about work, relationships, fitness, life purpose, whatever you like. Be real with yourself and identify if positive or negative energy surrounds it. Now look to see if you can switch them to positive energy. Notice how this opens things up. You might be inspired to set some new goals once you see that FEAR as False Evidence Appearing Real.

Let me know what you discover by sharing in the comments below!

To your authenticity,

Love, Christine

Want to Become a Certified Dating Coach and Help Others Find Love?
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PS Make sure to follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration and more exciting photos from workshops and events! :)

5 Ways Your Body is Telling You It's Stressed

We all know that stress is bad for us, but we don’t always recognize when we’re feeling stressed. Our bodies are like relay towers. They’re constantly taking in information through the environment, the food we eat, and the chemicals and toxins we’re exposed to. Then our bodies translate that raw data and let us know what’s working, and what’s not working, by how we look and feel. Stress comes in many forms though, which adds to the difficulty in identifying when we’re experiencing it. Someone who is under a chronic amount of stress will exhibit more noticeable, outward signs of stress in their bodies, then someone who is experiencing stress as a result of a passing situation. The distinction being chronic versus acute stress is the latter is temporary but quite intense.

Often stress is an underlying chronic condition, contributing to a multitude of symptoms, which also has an acute element to it. For example, you may experience an underlying low level of stress in your life as a result of social anxiety. That low level stress can then be triggered by a social situation that happens each year at the same time. Every year you may find yourself preparing for the acute flare up in your anxiety that increases your stress, and takes a greater toll on you than the rest of the year.

So how do you know that you’re under stress? What can you look for to start preparing yourself before your stress becomes a chronic condition?

Here are 5 ways that your body is telling you it’s stressed.

1. Most people when they are stressed experience sleep disturbances. That doesn’t mean that it you have no trouble sleeping that you’re not also under stress, it just means that’s a good place to start looking for signs that you are. Every body responds to stress differently, some require more sleep and some less. When you’re restless and anxious you tend to have more trouble sleeping. Start to notice if there has been any change in your sleep patterns, either sleeping more or less, having trouble falling asleep, or waking up in the middle of the night unable to get back to sleep.

2. Notice what your eating habits are. Many people overeat when stressed as a way to disconnect and shut off the stress, or numb out. Others will stop eating as away to gain some sense of control over feeling not in control of the situation causing the stress, and the impact it’s having on them. Either one is possible; the key is to notice what is different than usual for you. Much like changes in your sleep patterns, you’re looking for what’s new or out of the ordinary for you. Your body may also crave different foods as a result of stress.

3. Regardless if you’re eating more or not, stress produces cortisol in the body which tends to make you put on weight around the belly. So even though you might have a loss of appetite as result of stress, you may also be carrying extra weight around the middle.

4. Cortisol also affects your immune system, big time! So when you’re stressed, you’re more likely to get sick. You’re body will have less resistance to fight off infections and will take longer to get over a cold when you are sick. Cuts and bruises will heal more slowly and will also be more susceptible to infections.

5. Stress can also present itself in the body as dull and lifeless skin, hair and eyes. Your usual shine or brightness can be become faded, much like your spirit feels. The body is expressing outwardly what is going on inside.

Commit to paying attention to the language of your body. It’s always speaking to you.

To your authenticity,

Love, Christine

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