Healthy Ideas to Help You Thrive

There are so many ways we can lead a fulfilling life. 

In my Thriving Now blog series, discover valuable tips and strategies to empower you to live your best life. From fostering resilience to nurturing well-being and meaningful connections, these insights can be a trusty compass to navigate the intricacies of your daily experience with grace and ease.

You can walk this path to authentically thrive in every aspect of your life and Live Big!

Healthy ideas for thriving now.

Make walking conversation dates

Invite a friend to walk with you virtually! Make a date to get outside and walk, and share a conversation with a friend — who will walk where she/he is. You might make this a weekly time to connect, as you both get exercise and fresh air (whether you live in the same town or many miles apart).

Try these acupressure techniques to reduce stress

Acupuncturist Loocie Brown, in Lexington MA, is sharing great tips for things we can do on our own to cope with stress and the impacts it has on our bodies. She recently sent these suggestions for taming cortisol:

1. Massage your ears top to bottom until they feel warm. This not only calms the nervous system but lowers your blood pressure when stressed.

2. After washing your hands, you can massage the spot between your eyebrows. This is often referred to as the "third eye." It is exceptional for calming the mind.

3. Massage the bottom of your foot at “Kidney 1”. This point is located on the top third of the foot. It is in the middle and to the inner side of the ball of the big toe. You should feel an indentation here. KIdney 1 is very helpful for taking worry and fear out of your head and sending that energy to the ground where you can then squish it like a bug. I call this the anti-cootie point for all you boomers.

Free Franklin Method yoga classes

This resource was contributed by a great woman who joined our call on May 2. She highly recommends a special series of 30-minute Zoom classes, 3 times per week that are offered by Intelligent Body Movement Studio. The Franklin Method is designed to reduce anxiety and increase wellbeing, and the classes are offered at no cost.

Journaling Ideas to Help You Thrive

There are so many ways we can lead a fulfilling life. 

In my Thriving Now blog series, discover valuable tips and strategies to empower you to live your best life. From fostering resilience to nurturing well-being and meaningful connections, these insights can be a trusty compass to navigate the intricacies of your daily experience with grace and ease.

You can walk this path to authentically thrive in every aspect of your life and Live Big!

Journaling ideas for thriving now.

Use writing prompts

If you find that writing in a journal is a good way for you to process emotion, relax, or unburden yourself and move into an open frame of mind to allow new ideas to show up, you may still feel stuck about getting started from time to time. A great way to move into writing is to begin with a writing prompt.

Where can you get some? You might pull an inspirational card from a deck like Feel the Love (noted above), or another deck like the Soul Coaching Cards, that I use with my clients and everyone loves. The message on the card you pull is always a great starting point.

Or, write your own writing prompts. Try things like these:
If I change my perspective now…
When I envision myself in my most special place…
If my favorite literary/movie character called now, I’d love to talk about…
If anything were possible…
The gift in this moment is…

You can always create a way to jump into writing. Play with it and see what happens!

Feel the Love card deck

Choosing a card from a deck with inspiring messages is a great way to start your day, to find a writing prompt, or to get a supportive message when your spirits are in need of a boost. My colleague, Susie Murdoh, has a great one, called Feel the Love. In addition to being filled with wonderful and encouraging ideas, it is beautiful — a great combination.

Use my book, Live Big:A Manifesto for a Creative Life.

I have been hearing from people far and wide that Live Big is helping them now in deeply meaningful ways. These chapters in particular have been mentioned by many: Embrace Change, Live without Fear, Listen to Your Intuition, Live in the Present, Carry On, Create!, as well as others. All have exercises and practices you can use now to help when you are feeling stressed or shaky. And, the book includes advice about starting a meditation practice, as well as gifts of guided meditations that you can download.

Mindfulness Techniques to Help You Thrive

There are so many ways we can lead a fulfilling life. 

In my Thriving Now blog series, discover valuable tips and strategies to empower you to live your best life. From fostering resilience to nurturing well-being and meaningful connections, these insights can be a trusty compass to navigate the intricacies of your daily experience with grace and ease.

You can walk this path to authentically thrive in every aspect of your life and Live Big!

Mindfulness techniques for thriving now.

Go on a News Diet!

If you limit your exposure to news (on TV, radio, social media or newspapers) to no more than two short check-ins per day, you will feel much better. The media’s job is to provide wall-to-wall coverage. We can be up to date with everything we need to know — and distance ourselves from the intensity of the incessant coverage — by limiting our exposure to a bare minimum.

Ask yourself this simple question:

“Where are the gifts?” Whenever you consider this question you can find answers. See how many ways you answer it as you continue to ask it day by day.

Practice Gratitude

No matter what is happening, there are always things for which to be grateful.

Create a daily practice of thinking about, and writing down, 3 or more things for which you are grateful. They can be tiny things and still significant. There is affirming scientific evidence of the power of a gratitude practice to positively impact both physical and mental health. (You can find details about that in my book, in the chapter about gratitude.)

You might start or end your day with a focus on gratitude, or keep a journal handy to note things as you think of them. And, for each entry, take a moment to savor what you noted. Breath in the gratitude as you think about why it’s meaningful to you. And the cherry on top? Finish each entry with a small smile.

Daily Practices to Help You Thrive

There are so many ways we can lead a fulfilling life.

In my Thriving Now blog series, discover valuable tips and strategies to empower you to live your best life. From fostering resilience to nurturing well-being and meaningful connections, these insights can be a trusty compass to navigate the intricacies of your daily experience with grace and ease.

You can walk this path to authentically thrive in every aspect of your life and Live Big!

Daily practices for thriving now.

4-Part Daily Practice

This wonderful process was shared with me by my colleague, Whitney Bishop. Whitney starts her day this way, but you can use some or all of it any time you wish. (And, the amount of time you spend is up to you — expand or adjust as you wish.)

Preparation: Choose a quiet space where you will not be interrupted. You may want to light a candle. First, place your hands on your heart and get quiet. Then begin.

Part 1 — Read something inspiring, or listen to a recording of inspiring word, for 5–10 minutes.
Part 2 — Meditate for 5–10 minutes. You may want to put some soothing music on, or you may prefer to sit in silence.
Part 3 — Write. Start and do not lift the pen off the paper for 5 or 10 minutes. Anything is fine — just start and keep writing.
Part 4 — Put on music and move, or dance. The physical movement integrates the practice.

My addition: End with gratitude. Slowly write or think about a few things for which you are grateful, and — here’s the special part — pause for a deep breath after each statement of gratitude, so that you feel it in your heart.

Finally, set an intention for yourself for the day, and gently move into the rest of your day.

Daily Energy Routine

My colleague, Rachel Rice, filmed this excellent 6-minute Eden Energy daily practice. It is easy to do along with her, and it’s wonderful for grounding, centering, getting out of overwhelm, unscrambling your brain, increasing coordination, improving vitality, increasing health and well-being, improving thinking, and staying energetically protected. I have loved it.

Start your day with intention

As you begin your day, do a short scan of your body and heart to assess how you are feeling. Would it help to create to process or download some heavy emotion? If so, choose a way to do that that works best for you (it could be a plan to dance, do some writing, pull out watercolors, etc.)

Then set an intention for your day. What do you want to make your focus? How will you balance time for work or projects with time to nurture yourself?

Decide where you want to put your attention today. You may want to see what happens when you add a step, envisioning how you want to feel at the end of the day.

What we focus on expands. Being intentional about how you spend your days can help you to have a better day, each day.

Creative Ideas to Help You Thrive

There are so many ways we can lead a fulfilling life. 

In my Thriving Now blog series, discover valuable tips and strategies to empower you to live your best life. From fostering resilience to nurturing well-being and meaningful connections, these insights can be a trusty compass to navigate the intricacies of your daily experience with grace and ease.

You can walk this path to authentically thrive in every aspect of your life and Live Big!

Creative ideas for thriving now.

Create to Cope

Whenever you feel overwhelmed, sad, angry, frustrated, or any other difficult emotion, you have the opportunity to use it as fuel for something creative. Why is that a good idea? Because when you “exercise” the emotion through creativity, it has a place to go. You get to use it, move it, and ease it out of your system. And, sometimes you can actually transform it.

For example, you might like doing something with your hands, like a craft project or needlework. You can get absorbed in the activity, choosing colors and materials. When you get into flow as you create, the emotion can ease off.You might want to vigorously chop vegetables and then create an interesting dish. Or you might dance to music with the volume turned up high. You might want to dig in the garden. You might want to draw or paint a hideous picture to wring out the emotion. You might pour your emotion into writing a poem.Experiment and see how this works best for you. You will discover the ways of creating that satisfy you most when you are dealing with challenging emotions, in varying situations.Will it clear the troubling emotion forever? No. But you can experience real relief, and as you continue to create the emotion will have less hold on you.

Enjoy an adult coloring book.

There are lovely adult coloring books that you can order online and many artists are generously making their work available for download for free. Here’s a page with nice options, and if you do a google search you will find many others. If you do not have a set of colored pencils order a set of 24 and you’ll be all set.

Coloring is a delightful way to create, as you choose colors and watch the page come to life. You may find this calming, and a way to move into a meditative state, as well as a way to feel inspired.

Tapping Techniques to Help You Thrive

There are so many ways we can lead a fulfilling life. 

In my Thriving Now blog series, discover valuable tips and strategies to empower you to live your best life. From fostering resilience to nurturing well-being and meaningful connections, these insights can be a trusty compass to navigate the intricacies of your daily experience with grace and ease.

You can walk this path to authentically thrive in every aspect of your life and Live Big!

Tapping techniques for thriving now.

Butterfly Tapping

This is another soothing way to calm yourself, any time you feel anxious or upset. This simple and pleasant technique signals energy meridiens that calm you. Here’s how to do it:

Put your right hand on your heart (as though you were going to pledge allegiance) and then place your left hand crossed over your right, on your upper chest. The tops of your fingers will sit a bit below your clavicle bones. Next, keeping your hands in place, lift the fingers of one hand and tap them gently back to your chest. Next do the same with the other hand. Simply repeat this rhythm, one hand and then the other, and tap as long as you wish.

EFT Tapping

My colleague, Paige Hamilton, has guided me through EFT tapping, and I have experienced the way this practice can relieve stress, calm the body, and help you to get past limiting beliefs. She offers a guide, the 15-minute Mindset Makeover, to help you learn about this process and get started. You can request it here. And, in this video she explains the way it works. In her second video she demonstrates how to do the tapping. Her third video goes further, with things to keep in mind. After that, you will want to follow some guided tapping approaches, to get comfortable with how to do this for yourself. Paige is offering zoom calls on the first and third Wednesdays of the month, to guide you. You can reach out to her and ask that she include you on her announcements.

Nick Ortner, The Tapping Solution, has many “tapping meditations” you can listen to, and has an app (that I have not used, so I cannot recommend it). This meditation was offered at the start of the pandemic, and he has created versions for kids dealing with stress, and many others. And in this new interview Nick did with Marie Forleo, he demonstrates the tapping technique, provides lots of info to help you understand the power of tapping and how it works, and also guides you through a helpful tapping sequence.

I have also found a good EFT guided meditation for better sleep. Check it out if you are having trouble getting to sleep or sleeping soundly. (You will want to review the basics of the tapping points from Paige Hamilton or Nick Ortner before following this meditation.)

Breathing Techniques to Help You Thrive

There are so many ways we can lead a fulfilling life.

In my Thriving Now blog series, discover valuable tips and strategies to empower you to live your best life. From fostering resilience to nurturing well-being and meaningful connections, these insights can be a trusty compass to navigate the intricacies of your daily experience with grace and ease.

You can walk this path to authentically thrive in every aspect of your life and Live Big!

Try these breathing techniques to thrive now

When you pause and breathe, you give yourself a gift.

4x4 Box Breathing

This is a wonderful way to get grounded and to quiet your nervous system. You may want to do a few rounds of these to ease into meditation, or to simply pause when you feel stressed, impatient, or flustered. Here’s how to do it:

• Inhale to the count of 4

• Hold for 4 counts

• Exhale to the count of 4

• Hold for 4 counts

• Repeat
  

Deep Breathing

Most people take short, shallow breaths into their chest. It can make you feel anxious and zap your energy. With this technique, you'll learn how to take bigger breaths, all the way into your belly.

• Get comfortable. You can lie on your back in bed or on the floor with a pillow under your head and knees. Or you can sit in a chair with your shoulders, head, and neck supported against the back of the chair.

• Breathe in through your nose. Let your belly fill with air.

• Breathe out through your nose.

• Place one hand on your belly. Place the other hand on your chest.

• As you breathe in, feel your belly rise. As you breathe out, feel your belly lower. The hand on your belly should move more than the one that's on your chest.

• Take three more full, deep breaths. Breathe fully into your belly as it rises and falls with your breath.

4-7-8 Relaxing Breathing 

Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Your eyes can be slightly opened or fully closed. Press the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth and open your mouth slightly. Exhale until all the air is released from your lungs.

• Close your mouth and inhale through your nose for 4 – 8 counts (you can work up to 8 counts as your lung capacity increases).

• Hold your breath for 7 counts.

• Exhale very slowly for 8 counts.

• Repeat steps 1-3 four times.