With one of my intentions being writing more, and being more expressive with art, I figured I would write a blog post about setting intentions. During the holidays its easy to get side tracked, stressed out, over eat, practice yoga less, workout less, etc. But know that its not just you, its everyone, myself included. It seems to be a time of relaxation, and a time to be still before the New Year approaches.
Instead of creating negating expectations or limitations to what type of intentions you can put out there for yourself, try to come back to the basics. Simplistic goals are the way to go. Just like a yoga practice. If a completely new yoga student sets out a goal to have a perfect forearm stand in less than a week, we can all say thats a farfetched goal and might not be too realistic. It will only set up that yogi for failure and they will ultimately feel like they didnt succeed. None of that! Lets go back to basics. Essentials. Life survival. Rule #1 should and always should be "happiness". Easier said than done. But this can be our first intention.
inner contentment / happiness
This concept has not always been easy for me, and it still is difficult the majority of the time. Yoga has helped me tremendously to stay in the present moment and instead of getting ahead of myself which creates lots of unnecessary anxiety, it forces me to stay living day to day. Once the shift in our thoughts changes to simple day to day goals, there is an imaginary weight lifted off the shoulders. If some days are harder than others to simply "be happy", then we must dig deep into our mental garden and do some renovating.
back to basics
what type of things can we actually change that will dramatically alter our natural sense of happiness?
we are what we eat : now I'm not ever going to tell my readers to become vegetarian, or vegan or paleo or any of these "fad" ish lifestyles. I just want to explain how important it is to stay aware of the things we put into our bodies. I haven't always been super healthy, and I have only been vegan for a handful of years. Before that, I was a heavy drinker, and did my fair share of party drugs throughout college. The harsh effects of this lifestyle were never ending. It was hard to wake up for early classes, exams were awful, I had anxiety, and depression. I was also heavier and always sluggish. Headaches would occur often, and don't even get me started on the stomach and gastro issues I had dealt with every day. I wasn't giving myself proper nutrition , even though I was heavier and looked like I was normally healthy, I was not. And it trickled into my mental health as well. It was hard to hold a steady waitressing job because of my lifestyle and the way I treated my body. Long story short, by the time I moved to Los Angeles and made some serious changes to the way I took care of my physical and emotional self, I felt the positive changes INSTANTLY.
self body tests :
Its all about doing little tests and recognizing what types of foods work with you and what types of foods work against you. for example, I used to eat lots of cheese, and it wasn't until I decided to just TRY being Vegan for 2 weeks prior to a music festival to see if I could lose some of my belly bloat. Well, it worked, and after those 2 weeks, I felt so amazing and light and barely had cramping, gas, and my severely messed up digestive system started to regulate itself. I ran with this and I continued to stay vegan. It was hard at first, but after 21 days, my body physically didn't crave milk , yogurt, or cheese anymore.
Example #2 : I started cutting out Starbucks. This was challenging, but I also had the motive to stop spending so much money at Starbucks. I was getting up to 3 coffee drinks a day while deep in my bartending life and I was putting excess sweeteners in the coffees. The blue ones, the pink ones, the yellow ones, it didn't matter. I just ALWAYS craved sweet drinks and I thought I would be cursed forever for having these cravings. Once I decreased my sweetener intake drastically, after a couple weeks I found myself feeling so revived and rejuvenated. I didn't need to have sweeteners even in my bland tasting teas I made at home and i stopped craving coffee all together. Little did I know, my body was detoxing all of the deadly chemicals that they put in these sweeteners and each time I used the sauna, or did hot yoga I began to del increasingly GOOD! I used to buy a box of sweetener a week, and now I only use stevia or coconut sugar if I absolutely need to. I have more energy, I am not as sluggish and its a real physical and chemical imbalance I had going on.
MODERATION Just like the Yin Yang sign, there is always good in the bad, and bad in the good. Finding the balance between the positive and negative is always a bit of a battle but don't let numbers and ratios consume you. WE are HUMAN. No one eats perfectly clean 100% of the time. give yourself a break every once in a while and enjoy your favorite frozen yogurt, try a different type of dessert, make a vegan or "healthy" sweet or savory dish at home. If you need inspiration, Pinterest is the best! You can find tons of vegan recipes, Paleo, Gluten Free, or just super bomb things you must try! Every day is a new day. Stay positive. Making small changes one bit at a time will eventually turn into a complete lifestyle that is much healthier. You are already on your way to inner happiness!
So maybe start with little steps. One thing at a time. and eventually you will mold a template of what a perfect way to eat for your own body is. We are all so different. Take into consideration that making changes does take time, so be gentle with your body and yourself. remember, no high expectations. Don't build a wall, just work from the ground up.
Incorporate more fruits in your diet. Make yummy smoothies with peanut butter and cacao in them. Drink lemon water to help your body detox and revive the digestive tract. Once you have done several of these little personal body tests, decide what is best for you to keep as a lifestyle to feel HAPPY!
hope this helped.
more to come
xoxo
Gab
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