Tag Archive for "Mental health" | The Organic Beauty

15 Ways To Find Happiness, Health and Abundance

By: Natasha Uspensky, CHHC Wednesday, March 27, 2013 Exercise, Healthy Baby, Healthy Home, Holistic Health, Lifestyle, Nutrition, Organic Beauty, Wellness abundance, boost self confidence, forgiveness, gratitude, happiness Permalink 0

By: Stephanie Heino

Are you facing difficulty with knowing what to do in order to embrace and love yourself? It’s a hard one, we know. Many people feel like they don’t know where to start when feeling the need to love themselves first, prior to developing any meaningful relationships with others. We all spend so much time looking for the best romantic partner, so we should all be experts, right? What we soon realize is that our external search was meant to fill the void or emptiness we have inside, that often is created during childhood when there is a lack of love, or traumatic experiences. Finding a good relationship with ourselves can seem like an even harder task! But if not done properly, we will all finding ourselves failing miserably in relationships because of insufficient or little self-love. Do you recognize yourself in this? Self-esteem and self-love are issues that are often related, so if you suffer from low self-esteem, it is possible that the root cause is a case of insufficient self-love.

Sometimes, loving yourself feels unnatural because your mind has been trained to have sabotaging thoughts about yourself for the longest time. However, nothing is going to change if you do not make a conscious decision. When you don’t love yourself, you are basically telling the universe (and those around you) that you are unworthy or undeserving of love and positive outcomes in life. Learning to love yourself starts with making a very basic conscious decision: an intention to be happy and lead a fulfilled life. You can do it! When you make a decision to love yourself, you are really saying that you want to live your life to its fullest. You can accept that you are responsible for the all the outcomes in your life and can work towards letting yourself shine, living a fulfilling and loving life.

“Love yourself first and everything falls into line.”-Lucille Ball

So if you’ve decided on loving yourself but are confused on how to love yourself here are 15 ways which can be helpful:

1. Fall in love with yourself. Think about what makes you You, be happy and proud of it, and nurture yourself in every way. Love yourself for all the good things that you see, accept your flaws and the fact that you are imperfect and unique. This does not mean that you do not learn to change from your shortcomings, but instead, you are being gentle and kind to yourself despite all your “flaws”. Look in the mirror and fall in love with the reflection that is You.

“To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.” -Oscar Wilde

2. Eliminate Self Criticism. Do you often beat yourself up over the tiniest thing? Is there a little voice inside your head that often tells you that you are no good because you are stupid or make mistakes? If you find that you often judge yourself, make an effort to stop the self criticism by going inside! Going to see a therapist or counselor might be very effective too!

3. Be Kind And Positive. When you start to think kindly and positively about yourself, the love you have for yourself just grows and keeps reflecting on the outside world. Make it a habit to praise yourself everyday, while in the front of the mirror. You will naturally undertake more empowering actions that support your development.

4. Acknowledge Your Effort. It is not always about winning or coming in first in everything that you do. Many times, it is the effort that counts! Acknowledge that you have done your best, even if you have failed to produce tangible results.

5. Let Go Of Worry. Loving yourself requires you to let go of your worry. It is horrible to live a life filled with constant worrying. I can attest to that! Worry does not help in any way. It cannot, on its own, make things happen. Only wise actions can! So instead of worrying, spend time thinking about what you can do to help in the situation. If the situation is beyond your control, then make a clear mental request or set an intention about what you want. Next, surrender your outcome.

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” — Epictetus

6. Trust Yourself. Have confidence in your abilities. Know that you have the ability to make important changes for yourself, as long as you put your heart to it. You can also support yourself by clearly visualizing desired outcomes.

7. Forgive Yourself. If you have made mistakes in the past that caused you to feel less worthy, then you need to forgive yourself. All of us make mistakes; so there really is no need to beat yourself up over them. Also, if you have been carrying around some emotional baggage because of a childhood trauma or a specific occurrence in your life, learn to forgive yourself.

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” — Lewis B. Smedes

8. Be Truthful To Yourself. Loving yourself requires you to be truthful about your own feelings. If you are happy, acknowledge the joy. If you are sad, acknowledge the sorrow. When you are truthful about your feelings, you do not try to lie to yourself or seek to bury your negative emotions. Instead, acknowledging what you feel provides a good guide to what your thoughts are. And as we all know, thoughts can be changed, so healing and growth can take place.

9. Make Positive Affirmations Everyday. Retrain your mind to think differently with positive affirmations. One good affirmation that I repeat every morning is “I love and accept myself completely and unconditionally.” Keep reading your affirmations out loud several times a day. It will help you, I promise!

10. Express Gratitude. Express gratitude for the person that you are. For instance, cultivate an appreciation for your strengths and gifts. Also, feel a sense of gratitude that you are alive and well, and fully capable of making a difference in your life.

11. Boost Your Self Confidence. Make a deliberate attempt to look for opportunities that can help improve your confidence. For instance, if you are particularly good at doing something, set aside more time to indulge and improve your skills on it. Knowing that you have particular gifts can boost your self-esteem.

12. Relax. Give yourself space to take breaks every now and then. If you spend all your time working, without paying attention to your health, you’re showing yourself that you do not love You enough to take care of your own body. Fill your time with silence, soothing music and visions of beauty to soothe your soul and you will become more peaceful, connected, kind, loving and compassionate as a result of this.

13. Enjoy Life. Life is meant to be an enjoyable, so have fun people! Don’t take life or yourself too seriously. If you can think of life in that way you will automatically relax and quit worrying over things that do not matter.

14. Take Care Of Your Body. It is important that you strengthen yourself with proper nutrition and regular exercise. Your body is a temple and you should treat it with respect, love and care. It has been found that lack of self-love is often the root causes of conditions like eating disorders, obesity or even some terminal diseases.

15. Learn To See Beauty Around You. When you learn to see beauty in everything, you will also see beauty in yourself. So take some time to stop and smell the flowers. Try to notice things you haven’t noticed before, and feel it. How about the amazing yellow color on that flower in your garden, or the whisper of the gentle wind, or the endless hues of an evening sky. Watch the sunset tonight and pay attention to the beauty of it!

Choose to be happy, and make it happen!

9 Natural (and fun!) Ways to Relieve Anxiety

By: Natasha Uspensky, CHHC Wednesday, March 13, 2013 Diet and Foods, Exercise, Holistic Health, Lifestyle, Organic Beauty, Wellness alternative remedies, anti-anxiety, Anxiety, health, Holistic Health Permalink 0

By: Natasha Uspensky, CHHC

Your job, your health, your relationships, money, the future, the end of the world… Sometimes it seems like life is filled with an endless stream of things to feel anxious about. If left unchecked, anxiety can run rampant, taking over your thought processes and making everything feel like a major catastrophe. This is no way to live! Life is just too short to spend so much of it worrying. Plus, not to worry you even more, but the long term effects of anxiety can wreak havoc on your body, your immunity, your digestive system, and even your skin! So it’s time to take control, and stop letting anxiety rule you. The best part is, the natural ways to relieve your anxiety that I detail below are FUN… which, in and of itself is a wonderful balm against anxiety! Now before you read this list and start thinking of a million reasons why these remedies won’t help, or don’t apply to you (“I mean, how can having more sex help me feel less anxious about money??”), just take a breath and give them a try. When you are in a happier and more balanced state, you are much more able to calmly take on life’s challenges without letting the anxiety take over!

The Business of Body Enhancement

Let Deepak and Oprah Teach You to Meditate!

By: Natasha Uspensky, CHHC Monday, February 25, 2013 Holistic Health, Lifestyle, Wellness Deepak Chopra, health, Holistic Health, longevity, Mantra Permalink 0

Meditation is one of the most powerful techniques you can employ to decrease stress and pain, manage anxiety and depression, increase longevity and optimum health. Not only does it lower blood pressure and clear your head, but it can help with weight loss and motivation to exercise!

But starting to meditate can be really hard. I’ve been working on it for years, and even I have trouble just sitting, focusing on my breath. Luckily, there’s an easier way. Guided meditations start you off with some thoughts, insights, or a mantra, and then lead you into a short solo meditation that is much more manageable and user-friendly for novices. And who better to lead you down this healthy and enlightened path than everyone’s favorite gurus, Oprah and Deepak Chopra!

The 21 Day Meditation Challenge is an easy, effective, and really powerful way to start a regular meditation practice, and best of all, it’s free! You just sign up online, and starting March 11th you’ll receive an email every morning with a short guided meditation to start your day with. The theme for this particular challenge is Perfect Health, with inspirations, visualizations, and mantras geared toward helping you reach that perfect place of balance, well-being, and happiness that does indeed lead to optimum health. Plus, the daily practice helps you build the habit of meditating, so you can continue your practice after the program is over.

The digital program includes:

Daily welcome from Oprah Winfrey
Daily guided meditations by Deepak Chopra
Inspirational messages, images, and centering thoughts
Sanskrit mantras and their meanings
Daily reflection questions with a private, online journal to save responses and additional notes
Mindful Moments – daily takeaways showing you how to incorporate daily lessons into your life right now

Now you have no more excuses about not being able to meditate or not having the time! This easy to follow, 21 day challenge helps you to develop your practice with help from the experts.

Click here to sign up!

One Minute Meditation for Those Who Think They Can’t!

By: Natasha Uspensky, CHHC Tuesday, January 8, 2013 Holistic Health, Lifestyle, Wellness bellows breath, health, healthy living, Holistic Health, meditation Permalink 0

Is not having enough time your big excuse for why you can’t meditate? How about not being able to quiet your mind? Well guess what? Meditation problem: solved! You can get so many of the benefits of a regular meditation practice from just 1 minute a day of breathing. Just breathing! I think a big part of the anxiety people have around meditation is that it is this big hard thing that takes years to master. When you stop thinking about it as Meditation with a capital M, and start thinking of it just as sitting quietly and breathing with intention, so much of that anxiety and aversion goes away! Below, you’ll find a sequence of two types of breathing that you can do in conjunction with one another for just one minute… Or extend the meditation for as long as you want. Harnessing the powerful Bhastrika breath described below is all you need to bring your attention back to your breath when your mind starts to wander. And it’s really as simple as that!

Sit comfortably, upright in your chair, with your hands in your lap.

Start by breathing for about 30 seconds using a Bhastrika or bellows breath: Breathe deep through your nose, in and out, using all five lobes of your lungs like a big bellows. Use your lungs in and out as much as you can, only in and only out through your nose. You do that for about 30 seconds. Our upper lungs have stress receptors that get activated when our breath is shallow, which is how most of us breath throughout the day. When we use our lower lungs, like in bhastrika, we activate calm receptors that soothe our nervous system.

Next, breathe for the next 30 seconds doing an Ujjayi breath: This is kind of the classic yoga breath where you actually do a snoring or ocean sound through your nose. Constrict your stomach muscles and force that snoring sound out through your nose. You do that for about 30 seconds. You can repeat this one-minute sequence as many times as you like. Do bellows breath as deep in and as deep out as you can for 30 seconds and follow this with 30 seconds of silence breathing through an ujjayi or ocean breath.

Extended Meditation: If you would like to meditate longer, you can start by doing Bhastrika breath for 30 seconds.Then use Ujjayi breath and sit quietly until you start thinking again. When you feel thoughts resurfacing do Bhastrika for 10-20 seconds to quiet your mind. Sit quietly again using Ujjayi breath until thoughts arise and follow once again with Bhastrika for 10-20 seconds. Follow this cycle until you feel you are done meditating.

via Meditation: One Minute to a Quiet Mind.

Make November Your Self-Care Month!

By: Natasha Uspensky, CHHC Monday, November 12, 2012 Lifestyle, Wellness health, Lifestyle, lifestyle choices, Mental health, presence of mind Permalink 0

After all the stress of the last few weeks, a lot of my friends and clients have been playing catch up, trying to get life back to normal. In all the hullaballoo of to-do’s and appointments, the first thing to go is almost always self-care. We invariably spend more time on work and the house and running around from thing to thing than on the one factor that will consistently give us the energy, calm, and presence of mind to get it all done! And then of course we wonder why the weight keeps packing on, or why we’re bloated and frazzled and craving all kinds of god awful, crappy foods. This cycle of craziness needs to stop!

This month, I challenge you to make self-care your NUMBER ONE PRIORITY in life. I know, I know, I can hear you already thinking of all your “but’s” — the bills! the kids! your work! Consider this, a frazzled, tired, stressed out you makes a much worse parent, provider, and employee than a happy, balanced you! You OWE it to your family, your friends, your partner and your co-workers to be better, and the only way to accomplish this is to take care of number one.

Below, I’ve compiled some great resources around the blog for you to start sleeping better (and by better, I mean a full 8-9 hours every single night!!), minimizing stress, and simplifying your life. The less clutter you have in your brain and your environment, the better!

I’ll let you in on a little secret… Self-care is not a luxury only afforded to New Jersey housewives, trust fund kids, and actors. It is a fundamental need that all of us have, as vital to our health and longevity as water, and air. No, you won’t immediately drop dead if you haven’t had some down time, a good night’s sleep, and a yoga class, but the effects of consistently skimping on the lifestyle choices that help you feel calm, relaxed and taken care of add up! Stress and consistent lack of sleep have been identified as among the top contributing factors to higher risk of cancer, inflammatory disorders, hormonal imbalance (including infertility!), premature aging, and a slew of other unpleasant things. So if being happier and more balanced isn’t enough motivation for you, hopefully that will be.

So let this month be THE month. The month you get your act together and start taking care of that phenomenal and complicated machine that is your body. Below, post your favorite ways to take care of yourself, and publicly state your goals and intentions for increasing these activities in your life, even if it means cutting out something that isn’t serving you. And as always, please be in touch if I can support you in any way!

Check out:

How to Sleep Better, Naturally!

8 Ways to De-Stress and Simplify Your Life

Less Stress and More Energy Through Breath!

8 Ways to Simplify and De-Stress Your Life

By: Natasha Uspensky, CHHC Monday, November 12, 2012 Holistic Health, Lifestyle, Wellness de-stress, environment, happiness, health, healthy living Permalink 0

By: Natasha Uspensky, CHHC

It is virtually impossible to prioritize your health, wellbeing, and happiness when your days are filled to the brim with excessive clutter, both physical and emotional. Taking some steps to simplify your life will do wonders for your state of mind, productivity, and balance, and will allow you to better fill your plate (so to speak) with things that make you happy, healthy, and taken care of!

1. Say NO! The biggest mistake overworked, overburdened people make is saying yes to too many things. Social engagements, play dates, work assignments, favors, the list goes on and on. We’re all afraid that if we admit that our plate might be a little full, it makes us some sort of colossal failure. Well, newsflash! Taking on too much means the things you are doing aren’t getting your full attention, which significantly lowers the quality of your engagement — with your friends, your family, your work, everything! So stop being afraid to say no. Pick what really matters to say yes to, and get a raincheck on the rest!

2. Make your bed. Guess what? Momma was right on that one (I know, it kills to admit it!)… The simple step of making yourbed every morning starts your day off with a little more order, a little less clutter, and a little more mental space for productivity. Our physical environment is a reflection of our mental and emotional environment, a phenomenon that goes both ways. Having just a little more neatness in your physical space will contribute to more calm and balance everywhere else… And it literally takes but a minute!

3. Reclaim your inbox. Yes, I know it is super duper important that you not miss out on any of the eight billion flash sale sites that you’re signed up for, and that getting newsletters from every single store, travel site, or gallery you’ve ever visited is absolutely crucial to your feeling in-the-know in life, but all that is really just contributing to your feeling of overwhelm and stress. When you open your inbox every morning to a barrage of (let’s be honest) totally unnecessary crap that you need to sort through to get to the one email from your friend about her upcoming birthday party, your day is simply not getting off to a great start. Not only is this is an enormous waste of your precious time, but it also gives you the illusion that you are a lot more stressed/busy/overworked/overwhelmed than you really are! They’re just emails! They’re not even important! So go through your inbox and unsubscribe to absolutely everything but the most important, life-affirming, happiness-making content (like my newsletter! Which you can sign up for right over there —–>), or make good use of the Hotmail or Yahoo account from the 8th grade, and change all of your commercial correspondence to be delivered there. That way, you can check it once a week, or whenever you really feel like a Gilt sale will boost your spirits, and pretend that whole mess doesn’t even exist the rest of the time.

4. Quit multi-tasking! Ok, I could hear the collective gasp from everyone reading this. “But Natasha! I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life cultivating the skill of reading emails, listening to music, talking to my mother, eating lunch, and finishing my quarterly report all at once! It’s a defining aspect of my amazing character!” Yes, I say to you… But how well has that worked out for you so far? Do you feel like your work, your relationships, and your self-care are all getting the attention they deserve? Or is everything perpetually getting about 30% of your headspace? I’ve gotta say, multi-tasking is probably the most harmful and counterproductive trend of the last two decades, and it’s time we put it to rest. Truly successful, productive, balanced people do NOT multi-task! They dedicate themselves fully to one task at a time, whether than be work, talking to a friend, eating a meal, or watching The Big Bang Theory. This allows you to not only get more done (like, really done, not half-assed done), but it also allows to you enjoy what you are doing so much more. Work on chunking your time into specific task-oriented blocks. Carve out time for answering emails, calling your mom, eating lunch, relaxing, reading, and exercise and don’t let any of those activities overlap! I promise you, after a week or two of living this way, your cortisol levels will go down, and your seratonin levels will go up. Hell, you may even lose a pound or two, or get a promotion! Everything that you do will be done infinitely better, and more importantly, you’ll feel better doing it!

5. Write down the five things in the world that are most important to you. This simple step will allow you to refocus your time and energy on what really matters, and let what really isn’t worth your time fall by the wayside. Keep your list somewhere handy and read it at least once a day. Have you done something to benefit, support, or move towards a goal related to the things on your list that day? If not, schedule it in. It is way too easy to waste our lives focusing on the minutia of the day-to-day, while ignoring what matters most. But luckily, it is totally up to you whether or not you live this way! Take control of your life today.

6. Pencil yourself in. When you’re looking ahead at your calendar, make sure you have some you-time scheduled in every single day. This might mean a 1 hour yoga class, or a 10 minute walk in the sun, and anything in between. Whatever it is, make it something you enjoy that leaves you feeling more revitalized and happy. Every day. When you start making yourself a priority, even on such a small scale, it becomes a whole hell of a lot easier to stay in control on your time and your emotions!

7. Delegate. This one can be the hardest to do, but yields the highest pay off. Allow me to let you in on a little secret… You can’t do it all. This isn’t a criticism, it is simply a fact. You cannot stay on top of every single little detail in your life and the lives of your family members and expect to stay sane. It’s just not possible! So start delegating. Pick 3-5 of your least favorite tasks that you consistently need to accomplish and delegate them to someone else. Hate cleaning your house? Get a housecleaner! Even once every other week, for $75-$100, having someone get your home into sparkling clean condition is SO completely worth it! Can’t stand administrative tasks? Get an assistant, or better yet, hire an intern! There are so many smart young things out there just dying to get experience doing exactly what you do for very little money, and sometimes just the cost of lunch! Ask your spouse to wash the dishes or take care of laundry, ask your mom to take the kids to their dentist appointments. It’s so easy to forget that the people in your life love you and want to help you stay sane and happy! Whatever it is, figure out who can help you get it done.

8. Make smarter to-do lists. Once a week, write down everything you need to get done that week (of course, after having SAID NO, DELEGATED, and WRITTEN DOWN WHAT’S IMPORTANT). Assign yourself 3-5 specific tasks for each day of the week, no more. If you can’t fit all your weekly to-do’s into 3-5 tasks per day, you need to go back and read the list above again. Say no, delegate, write down what’s really important, and cross some stuff off that weekly list. 3-5 tasks per day is really all you can commit yourself to accomplishing well, while still leaving yourself plenty of time for penciling yourself in and taking care of what’s really important. I promise, this will change your life!