This does not have to mean joining a gym and losing some weight (although those are great goals).  New Year’s resolutions are about making change, and change can be extremely difficult for many people.

Tips For Making Change Stick:

• Define your goal clearly. Set a realistic goal and time line to complete it. If you shoot for the stars at the start, you risk giving up early.
• Spend time contemplating why you have chosen this goal.  If it’s too hard and not really that important to you, odds are you’ll give up.
• Figure out how to be accountable. Enlist a friend or family member to keep you honest as you take the steps towards your goal.
• Reward yourself along your journey. Remember that change is hard and every step towards your goal is a victory worth celebrating.

Young Living products to keep you grounded, motivated, and on-track:

Ningxia Red

Ningxia Red is a unique blend of superfoods that provide an unrivaled antioxidant source. Ningxia Red contains wolfberries as well as several other known antioxidant superfoods combined with carefully selected essential oils to add flavor and energy to this special drink. Wolfberries have an ORAC score (developed by Tuft University researchers to determine a food’s ability to absorb oxygen radicals) that far surpasses other known antioxidant foods such as pomegranates and blueberries. Start each day with a 1 ounce shot of this antioxidant powerhouse. Regardless of your plans for the day, you will be starting out with a natural source of energy and nutrition on your side. 

Lemon Essential Oil

1-2 drops of lemon essential oil in your water each day will detoxify your body naturally. The natural citrus taste may also help you to switch out some less healthy drinks and increase your water intake on a daily basis. Citrus scents such as lemon have been shown to boost your mood and uplift your spirit.

Peppermint Essential Oil

Peppermint is a powerful essential oil to have on hand. It can be used to help with upset stomach and indigestion as well as relieve headaches. Peppermint has an energizing aroma and can increase energy and exercise performance.

Rosemary Essential Oil

Rosemary has stimulatory effects on the brain and autonomic nervous system.  Studies on schoolchildren have proven rosemary essential oil’s ability to improve cognitive and memory function.  Use rosemary essential oil to keep you focused and mentally sharp.

Young Living has all of these therapeutic grade oils and much more! If you would like to learn more about these items, or how other Young living products can benefit you, give me a shout! I would love to help you learn more!

Ready to get started on your oil journey? Click Here to get started!

Already a member? Are you interested in learning how a Young Living business can bless your life as it has mine? I would love to share my Young Living story with you! Reach out today!

The post Natural Products for a New Year! appeared first on The Happy Pharmacist.

Some may say that camping is not the pastime for them but with all the camping options available today, I think everyone can love camping!

Types of Camping

Tent Camping

For the true die-hard outdoor enthusiast, there is no better way to spend time in nature than with nothing but a simple tent and a campfire.  This is a rustic way to camp for sure, but everyone should try it at least once, even for just one night.  Don’t forget a camping mat or blow up mattress to ensure a comfy nights rest. Most importantly, bring the hotdogs, s’mores, camping chairs and spend some quality time around a campfire with family and friends.

RV camping

Camping with an RV can seem pretty luxurious compared to sleeping in a tent.  They typically have real beds, air conditioning and a bathroom – hello shower!  Camping with an RV can allow most folks to enjoy a more lengthy camping vacation because the comfort level is much nicer than a tent while still keeping you right in nature.  The campfires are just as toasty and the friends are just as fun.

Cabin Camping

Cabins can be very rustic or well appointed.  A nice cabin can be the perfect choice for many people.  You can spend quality time in nature but still have most of the comforts of home.  Cabins can be rented in most state and federal parks or in some private campgrounds.

So What is so Great About Camping?

First of all everyone needs to spend time with nature.  It’s so therapeutic, I think doctors should write prescriptions telling people to spend time outside.  We all live on this amazing planet, but we are so busy with work, kids, and all of our responsibilities that it becomes so easy to overlook the earth’s beauty. Studies show that even simply looking at pictures of nature can reduce hypertension, anxiety, muscle tension and more.  In addition, it can improve mood, focus, and an overall feeling of wellbeing.

If looking at a picture can do all of those things, it stands to reason that immersing yourself in nature, with its sounds and smells, can only increase those responses.  A simply hike through the woods can overwhelm our brains with the beauty and newness.  Spend some time fishing or kayaking and the mere activity will help your brain relax and be more able to focus.

If you are feeling depressed, anxious or simply frustrated with the boredom of daily life, try a camping weekend.  Get back to basics and enjoy our earth and all it has to offer.  

The post Camping For Wellness! appeared first on The Happy Pharmacist.

Men are becoming more connected with their health but they still traditionally feel significant pressures and stress.  They share financial and career stress with women but they tend to handle that stress differently.  Men don’t want to let anyone down or show vulnerability as that historically indicated a lack of masculinity.  Carrying those pressures and stress quietly can cause a feeling of “the weight of the world” on a man’s shoulders.

Harboring negative stress can lead to countless health issues such as:

• Hypertension
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Migraine Headaches
• Cancer and more

It can also cause a man to utilize unhealthy habits such as excessive drinking and/or smoking to try to cope with the stress.

Men deserve to live happy healthy lives. So, how can men address their stress and what steps will help to alleviate it?

Communicate

• Sharing with a trusted person about how you are feeling doesn’t make you weak, it makes you smart. Talking through issues helps to put them in perspective and may bring solutions to light.

Take Time For Fun

• Whether hanging out with friends or taking a solo hike, schedule time for fun activities.  It is never a waste of time to allow yourself to relax and recharge.  You will end up being more productive and happy in the long run

Sleep

• Achieving enough quality sleep each and every night will not only make you feel great, but you will lower your risk of several chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes.  Develop a healthy sleep hygiene routine and stick with it. If necessary, there are sleep aids that can help with this process such as melatonin and essential oils that are known to aid in sleep quality.

Exercise

• Everyone knows that regular exercise is needed for better health. However, it does seem like making excuses to not exercise can be easier than getting to the gym. Take some time and really challenge yourself to determine what your specific barriers are to finding time to exercise.  Odds are that they can all be broken down if you really want to start an exercise routine. You do not need to spend hours at a gym to see improvement.  Break up your exercise into smaller increments of time if that gets it done.  Or, choose activities that seem more fun than exercise.  Every little bit counts so don’t assume if you can’t be all in there is no point to start.
• Change the way you see exercise.  Think of exercise as something as vital as food.  How many day in a row so you want to go without eating?  Exercise should be the same.

Speaking of Food

• How much time do you spend thinking about the food you are going to eat?  Is it more or less than the time you spend say choosing an outfit for the day?  It should be more – a lot more.  Of course, food should taste great but remember its true purpose is to fuel our bodies.  Consider a beautiful, exotic racecar. It will need premium gas or maybe even special racing fuel to perform at its peak.  In fact, a lesser quality fuel may actually damage the engine.  Fast food and highly processed food is the cheap gas.  Not only will it not allow you to feel and perform your best, it may very well over time contribute to many chronic health issues.  Treat your body like the perfect machine that it is and choose high quality, nutritious foods. 

Men Deserve to be Pampered Too

• Get a great haircut.  Looking your best helps you feel your best
• Get a massage.  Massage can help with stress and tension and so much more.
• Choose high quality, toxin free self-care products.  Your skin is your largest organ so treat it appropriately.  Also, using products that you love can turn daily mundane tasks like shaving into an enjoyable part of your routine. 

These steps are so important for men for so many reasons like:

• You’re a dad
• You’re a husband
• You’re a friend
• You’re a brother
• You’re a son
• You’re a grandfather

Men should love themselves as much as they are loved!

The post Men and Stress appeared first on The Happy Pharmacist.

Fitness does not mean running a marathon or being a power lifter.  It means finding a way to move more and treat your body to the love it needs and deserves. 

Start at whatever level feels doable.  No amount of activity is too little.  Everything counts!  Take a walk through the park, go bowling, try a yoga class – you cannot go wrong if you just get moving! 

Take this opportunity to prioritize your health-you won’t regret it!

The post May 4th is National Fitness Day! appeared first on The Happy Pharmacist.

Let’s start with the idea of control.  Having control in life can at times feel elusive.  Jobs, kids and bills can seem to always come first and you end up being a victim to their demands. There are a host of mental health and physical problems that can be a direct or indirect result of feeling or actually having lack of control. 

When I was in college, I fell into a trap of anxiety and compulsive behaviors.  In the throes of these thought processes I believed that I was performing at an elevated standard while in actuality I was crippling my productivity by focusing on the anxiety.  After an intervention from my very best friend (and now my husband) I was able to redirect my thoughts to a more positive place which led to a 4.0 GPA and graduating with honors.  Allowing anxiety to control my thoughts and actions would never had let me achieve that success.

Next, we can think about peace.  I love to just say the word – peace.  The very sound of it generates a calm, reassuring feeling to me.  To me, peace is having a sense of stillness and comfort.  Whether this means quiet or beauty or simply a happy family, peace is a personal feeling unique to each person. 

Living a life where we feel in control of our destiny and enjoy peace in our minds and hearts seems like a dream – pretty much perfect right?  I believe that this is obtainable for everyone but it doesn’t just happen and and it doesn’t come without intentional effort. 

Mindfulness has gotten a bunch of attention lately.  Seems like I hear it on the news, talk shows and from friends.  So, what is mindfulness and how do you do it?  Mindfulness can happen all throughout your day and life.  I will use the example of mindful eating.  This means that instead of just shoving a sandwich in your mouth while driving to your next appointment, you carefully consider the sandwich – its texture, its taste – with each bite.  Notice carefully how the sandwich begins to fill your stomach.  Think about how the sandwich will provide you with the fuel to continue with your day. Make the sandwich an experience for which you are grateful.

Mindfulness slows you down which can be scary.  With all of the pressures to be productive, speeding up sounds like a better choice.  However, when we can focus on the act of say eating lunch, we learn to focus on the afternoon tasks with more clarity and productivity.  We will spend less time distracted and feeling harried.

Meditation is a practice that can set anyone on a path to peace.  But, like all good things it does not always come easy or naturally.  Meditation is about setting aside a period of time -10 minutes or so works – to allow yourself to be quiet and still and reflect on your thoughts and feelings.  Sounds pretty easy but at least in my experience I can find myself wondering if I put the clothes in the dryer or making a mental grocery list pretty quickly.  The world is a busy, fast-paced place with never ending distractions.  It takes mindful practice to work through a meditation journey.

Learning to meditate can seem daunting.  There are many guided meditation programs available now that will help get you started on a path towards regular meditation.  Don’t be afraid to explore places like youtube.com or join a meditation class.  Adding regular meditation into your life will open your mind and emotions to heal and grow as a person.

Essential Oils to Aid In Meditation

Sacred Frankincense

This essential oil is my personal favorite rock star oil!  It does it all! Boswellia sacra† (Sacred frankincense) oil is the type of frankincense oil that is perfect to enhance a meditation experience and/or elevate a spiritual journey.   

How To Use:

• Diffuse sacred frankincense in a diffuse during meditation to deepen your emotion and awareness.
• Add a few drops of sacred frankincense to a carrier oil and place in a roller ball.  Aplly topically during times of reflection.

Sandalwood

This essential oil has been used for centuries to improve a meditation experience.  It is believed that diffusing Sandalwood essential oil can deepen awareness of emotion and heighten sensuality.  It has seemingly magical powers and is believed to increase the power of your wishes.  Sounds like a great choice to me!

How to Use:

• Add a few drops of Sandalwood essential oil to a diffuser while meditating or reflecting to expand the understanding of your emotions and thoughts.

Rose Essential Oil

Rose essential oil is my go-to when I need to settle an anxious mind or build up feelings of self-confidence.  It has amazing abilities to hush the thoughts of self doubt and provide feelings of self worth and confidence.

How to Use:

• Diffuse a few drops in a diffuser during times of mediation or just during days when you need a mental boost.  Works great when mixed with lavender to enhance to beautiful scent and calm the mind.
• Make a roller ball with 5 drops of rose oil and mixed with a carrier oil.  Take this roller ball along to apply to the skin for a quick fix when anxieties or self-doubt arise.

The post Meditation appeared first on The Happy Pharmacist.

Many factors will contribute to why we choose to either maintain the status quo with our weight or make changes to improve our bodies.  Perhaps a life event like a wedding or a big vacation are coming up.  It is not unusual to use these events as motivation to make some significant – even drastic lifestyle changes to improve our appearance.  Likewise, a sense of stagnation in our lives can lead us to feel unmotivated to make any changes. i.e. It is winter – who cares if I eat this pizza?  I’ll wear a bigger sweater.

We have all been on both ends of this spectrum. However, making a mental change in the way we see our bodies can be a great first step in how we approach strategies towards healthy weight management.

No one body is perfect – but your body is perfect for you.  I has everything you need to live a full life.  Your job is to be proud of the body you have and to treat it as the special gift that it is.

When you start to see your body as a gift, you will begin to want to feed it proper nutrition.  Obviously, this is not going to be an overnight event.  We all struggle with making great food choices, but small changes in mindset will lead to amazing results over time.  Start thinking about if the small amount of time that you enjoy the taste of the food in your mouth is worth the calories.  Contemplate if you are choosing the food out of real hunger or boredom.  Determine if the food is going to power you through your day or leaving you feeling sluggish.  See food differently.  It doesn’t need to comfort you – it needs to fuel you.

Making good eating choices isn’t just hard, it can be downright tricky.  For example, everyone thinks of smoothies as healthy, right?  However, a commercially made smoothie can be hiding hundreds of sneaky calories in the form of added sugars.  You can think you are doing everything right and unexpected calories are sabotaging your goals.  Spend some time researching your food and the calories it contains so you can stay in control and on track.

No one is perfect – body or mind.  Starting an extreme diet and/or exercise plan to change your body rarely lasts for the long term.  Your time is better spent thinking about what changes you can realistically make now with the goal of broader changes in the future as you adapt to the new habits.  Everything counts!  From eliminating one soda a day to taking the steps at work, these small changes do add up. 

“Love your body and your body will love you back”.  I love this thought because it is so true on so many levels.  Don’t be afraid to smile at yourself in the mirror.  You’re great!  Be proud of the steps you take everyday to better yourself!  It’s hard work and you should be proud of it!

The post Weight Management appeared first on The Happy Pharmacist.