A Luvi Beauty Guide to Helping You Achieve Balance
Feeling burned out? Neglected? Over-extended? Welcome to the club. With work, school, and taking care of loved ones, we often forget to take care of ourselves. This isn’t a trivial matter. High levels of stress and anxiety can lead to everything from headaches, to obesity, to heart disease, to accelerated aging.
Something has got to change. You have to take care of yourself first. This doesn’t mean ignoring your family and friends. Spending more time with family and friends is also key to balance. But as the flight attendants say...
“If you are traveling with children, or are seated next to someone who needs assistance, place the mask on yourself first, then offer assistance.”
It’s time to focus on health, body, mind, and soul. This self-care guide aims to help you discover easy ways to minimize stress and achieve balance and well-being.
Luvi Beauty’s Guide to Well-Being
1. Make it Official
Schedule “Me, Myself, and I” time in your calendar. We schedule everything we feel is important and not to be forgotten. Doctor’s appointments, parent-teacher conferences, team assignments, and work meetings. This is no different. Make the commitment to yourself. Try to block one to two hours per week where you can focus on you. And if you can’t do it weekly, try bi-weekly, or monthly. Just make it official. Also, be sure that your family is aware of and respects this time.
2. Wear Comfortable Clothes
Try a kaftan, a soft robe, or loungewear. During the week, we’re power dressing, wearing shapewear, high heels, etc. Yes, we look good and feel confident. But it’s okay to occasionally unwind and loosen the constraints.
3. Enjoy a Spot of Tea
Chamomile is a common go-to for relaxation. I also enjoy Peppermint tea for this occasion. The naturally occurring menthol in peppermint is a known muscle relaxant. But you can decide your favorite. There are quite a few relaxing tea remedies including Lavender, Lemon Balm, Valerian, Passion Flower, and Ginseng.
4.
Reach for Dark Chocolate
According to researchers, consuming healthy servings of dark chocolate reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol as well as the “flight-or-flight” hormones known as catecholamines in highly stressed people.
5. Channel your Inner Artist
Get started with an adult coloring book. In a 2005 research study, it was found that anxiety levels dropped when subjects colored mandalas, which are round frames with geometric patterns inside. Coloring allows us to switch off our brains from other thoughts and focus only on the moment, helping to alleviate free-floating anxiety.
6. Make Exercise a Priority
For some, the anticipation of working out may seem to cause stress. But, try to find easy ways to get exercise into your schedule. You could start with a walk before work or a brief walk after lunch.
According to the Mayo Clinic, virtually any form of exercise, from aerobics to yoga, can act as a stress reliever. Physical activity helps bump up the production of your brain's feel-good neurotransmitters, called endorphins. Regular exercise can increase self-confidence, it can relax you, and it can lower the symptoms associated with mild depression and anxiety. Exercise can also improve your sleep, which is often disrupted by stress, depression and anxiety.
To help you get going, try a protein shake like Dope Naturally Beet Bliss Powder. With a pure and unique blend of four superfoods, it helps push you through tough workouts and elevates your well-being.
7. Take a Meditation Moment
Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years. Yet, it’s becoming more mainstream as a way to relax and reduce stress. According to the Mayo Clinic, meditation can give you a sense of calm, peace, and balance that can be beneficial to your emotional well-being and your overall health. If you don’t know where to start, there are free apps at your fingertips. Consider the popular Mindfulness app. It features a 5-day guided introduction to mindfulness. And you can start with just 3 minutes per day.
8. Draw a Warm Bath
For centuries many cultures – Roman, Greek, Middle Eastern, Japanese – used purifying baths to cleanse both body and spirit. Today’s medicine agrees. Hot baths initially raise the heart rate and body temperature. To dispel the heat, you perspire—which lets your body rid itself of toxins. Then your blood vessels dilate and increase circulation, removing lactic acid from muscles, lowering blood pressure, and easing pain. Ahhhh! Sounds nice.
Soak with OY-L Bath Salts. Free of toxins and chemicals, the botanicals used in these bath salts provide a serene aromatic experience so that both body and mind can enjoy the benefits of this indulgent moment. As you soak, give yourself a mini-facial. Try the Biainili Basil Leafs Purifying Mask. With purple Armenian basil water and a balanced mix of 12 essential oils, it is soothing, calming, and hydrating.
9. Set the Mood with Music
But try music without lyrics. For years, scientists have documented that listening to music activates our entire brains, creating the potential for us to use music to improve the way we think, behave, and feel. When your goal is to relax, go for music without lyrics. This allows your mind to wander without consciously focusing on the music. It’s more challenging when lyrics are involved.
There you have it. 9 easy ways to focus on self-love and self-care today. Let’s get started.
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